Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem which he has to solve." So wrote Erich Fromm, a German social psychologist and psychoanalyst who was associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory.
And he continued, "Man, lacking the instinctual equipment of the animal, is not as well equipped for flight or for attack as animals are. He does not 'know' infallibly, as the salmon knows where to return to the river in order to spawn its young and as many birds know where to go south in the winter and where to return in the summer. His decisions are not made for him by instinct. He has to make them. He is faced with alternatives and there is a risk of failure in every decision he makes. The price that man pays for consciousness is insecurity. He can stand his insecurity by being aware and accepting the human condition, and by the hope that he will not fail even though he has no guarantee for success. He has no certainty; the only certain prediction he can make is: 'I shall die.'"
"Man is born as a freak of nature, being within nature and yet transcending it. He has to find principles of action and decision making which replace the principles of instinct. He has to have a frame of orientation that permits him to organize a consistent picture of the world as a condition for consistent actions. He has to fight not only against the dangers of dying, starving, and being hurt, but also against another danger that is specifically human: that of becoming insane. In other words, he has to protect himself not only against the danger of losing his life but also against the danger of losing his mind. The human being, born under the conditions described here, would indeed go mad if he did not find a frame of reference which permitted him to feel at home in the world in some form and to escape the experience of utter helplessness, disorientation, and uprootedness. There are many ways in which man can find a solution to the task of staying alive and of remaining sane. Some are better than others and some are worse. By 'better' is meant a way conducive to greater strength, clarity, joy, independence; and by 'worse' the very opposite. But more important than finding the better solution is finding some solution that is viable."
Sitting here at "Riverbend" and reading Erich Fromm helps me to escape the madness that seems to engulf the world as it tries to deal with this pandemic. It's taken almost twenty-seven years, but it now seems that "Riverbend" has finally come into its own.
