The 5 Personality Types According To Erich Fromm

The 5 personality types according to Erich Fromm are based on the principle of productivity. According to the famous psychoanalyst, only one of these five typologies is able to invest in its own freedom, to gain its own emotional and personal independence. The rest, on the other hand, would represent an existential philosophy of a more interested, materialistic and unproductive type.

There are many theories about personality. In fact, even at this point, it is possible that more than one person may feel some contradiction between them. We have Jung’s personality theory, Carl Rogers, Cattell, Eysenk or Costa and McCrae’s “Big Five” personality theory…. Does this mean that today behavioral science has not yet agreed to define the character and characteristics of human personality?

Each current, each school of psychology and each author sets out a particular definition of the personality on the basis of its own theoretical models. Thus, the typology developed by Erich Fromm at the time started from an interesting approach based on a humanist philosophy which, whether we believe it or not, makes it really useful today.

If there was one thing this social psychologist and author of The Art of Loving or The Fear of Freedom believed in , it was the firm obligation of human beings to achieve true autonomy, to ” invest in your independence while respecting that of others. Achieving this goal means productivity, Erich Fromm says.

Personality types according to Erich Fromm

The theory of personality of Erich Fromm, a neofreudian psychoanalyst, is based on two primary needs: the need for freedom, as we know, and the need for belonging. So, when we read his work, there is one fact that usually catches our attention: Fromm had a somewhat negative view of the human being, he considered him to be too passive and motivated only by his need for consumption.

For this reason, much of his work encourages us to foster our personal development, to put aside our dependence on external factors, material goods or the need for triumph and recognition in order to invest in qualities. such as love, respect, creativity or humility.

In this way, and despite the fact that human character and personality are deeply rooted and difficult to change, it would suffice if we were a little more aware of our tendencies and attitudes to commit to change. Now let’s see what these five personality types are according to Erich Fromm.

1. Perceptual personality

The receptive type is characterized by the constant need for approval and recognition from others. However, what is most striking about this personality profile is that the support they receive is usually not repaid, there is no investment in each other or mutual attention.

They are also often characterized by low social skills, difficulty in making decisions and a clear underestimation of their own human potential.

2. The personality of the exploiter

Among the 5 personality types, according to Erich Fromm, it is arguably one of the most common according to the author himself. He refers to that type of profile that builds connections and relationships with others out of sheer interest, for his own benefit and even, as Fromm said at the time, “out of business interest”.

The exploitative type is willing to lie and manipulate to get what he needs, and he does so by focusing his interest on people with low self-esteem to exploit them.

3. The personality of the accumulator

The accumulation or hoarding profile refers to people who have only one goal, one need: to cherish material goods, to own more and more things, more and more objects …

So, the more things you accomplish, the more confident you seem to feel, the more empowered you become and the more you think you can achieve personal satisfaction. However, it should be noted that this unhealthy attachment to the material is never satiated, because something is always missing, happiness is never complete or worse, something new always comes out in the market that it needs. accumulator, which he must obtain.

4. The mercantile personality

Among the personality types, according to Erich Fromm, this is the most abundant in our job market for obvious reasons: they are people who build relationships with others in order to gain economic advantage. These are links based on a clear financial or business goal.

However, what at first glance may seem normal or expected to us is in reality what most harms the inviolable principle of human freedom defended by Fromm. These mercantile ties seek to establish differences in social status, where some achieve prestige and power, while others are subordinate to the former.

5. The productive personality

So far we have seen those personality types which are defined as “unproductive” by Fromm, that is to say profiles who do not invest in their own freedom and personal autonomy and even less in that of people. others. However, far from being lost, far from being left with this somewhat pessimistic view of the human being, we can say that there is this fifth profile where our hope and personal purpose are placed at the center.

• The productive type is a person who channels all his efforts and interest in committing to the human being. Basically, they are people who are able to build loving, fulfilling and meaningful relationships with their peers.
• In addition, they take a very healthy approach to dealing with negative emotions and the pressures or attempts to control that others may exert on them.

To conclude, this approach proposed by Erich Fromm invites us to reflect once again on this idea that we have seen so much in the field of personal development, namely: only those who invest in their psychological value, in their self-esteem, in their independence and who are able to promote this same thing in others, can lay the foundations for a more humane society.

As we can see, this approach to personality according to Erich Fromm has a clear social component that can be a valid source of motivation, why not, to generate as much as possible changes that stimulate our growth. Let’s put them into practice.

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