Erich Fromm: Beyond the Chains of Illusion

Even when reflecting on how the ideas that came to occupy the most important place in one's life first captured one's interest, it is difficult to find a simple answer. Perhaps I was innately drawn to certain kinds of problems, or perhaps I was influenced by teachers, the ideologies of the times, or personal experiences. No one knows which factors determined the course of one's life. In fact, if one were to try to accurately determine the weight of all these factors, I believe it would be difficult to find the answer even if one were to write a detailed autobiography outlining one's career. However, the intention of this book is not merely a personal history, but, so to speak, an ideological autobiography. Therefore, I intend to first look back on my youth and address two or three experiences that became the cause of my later interest in the theories of Freud and Marx, as well as the relationship between the two. The question of why people behave in such diverse ways came to dominate my thoughts. This was because, having been born an only son to an impatient and difficult-tempered father and a mother who was often melancholic, I became interested in the causes hidden deep within the human mind's reactions—causes that even I could not understand. In any case, I remember a certain event vividly. This is exactly what caused my mental life to develop dramatically and led to my interest in Freud becoming serious ten years later.

Korean title: 환상의 사슬 너머

Korean author: 에리히 프롬

Korean publisher: 집문당

ISBN-13: 9788930318792