Book Announcement by Roger Frie (Canada)

Frie, R. (2024). Edge of catastrophe: Erich Fromm, fascism and the Holocaust. Oxford University Press.

Is it possible to be both a social critic and a practicing psychoanalyst? In view of the social and political crises we face, this is surely one of our profession’s most pressing challenges. In his new book, Edge of Catastrophe: Erich Fromm, Fascism and the Holocaust (Oxford University Press), Roger Frie discusses the life and work of Erich Fromm, one of the twentieth century’s best known public intellectuals and least understood psychoanalysts.

Fromm escaped Nazi Germany and was one of very few psychoanalysts to speak publicly about the dangers of fascism. Shortly before the United States declared war on Nazi Germany, he published Escape from Freedom, which sought to explain why so many Germans enthusiastically supported Hitler. What has remained virtually unknown is that when Fromm was openly arguing against fascism, he was simultaneously engaged in a campaign to save family members and colleagues who remained behind in Nazi Germany.

Edge of Catastrophe introduces Fromm’s unpublished Holocaust correspondence and shows how the traumas and tragedies in Fromm’s family shaped his public stance against racism and destructiveness. In an era when psychoanalysts sought to keep the individual psyche strictly separate from social and political concerns, Fromm was ostracized for his progressive stance. Given the growth of fascism today, what can we learn from Fromm’s sense of urgency? How might Fromm’s ethical stance apply to our current situation and to our work as practitioners?

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/edge-of-catastrophe-9780197748770?cc=ca&lang=en&

Roger Frie, Ph.D., Psy.D., R.Psych. is currently Professor of Education at Simon Fraser University and Affiliate Professor of Psychiatry at University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and Faculty and Supervisor at the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis and Psychology in New York. He is a practicing psychologist and psychoanalyst as well as a trained historian and social philosopher. He has published widely on the themes of historical trauma, memory and responsibility.

Roger Frie, Ph.D., Psy.D., R.Psych.
Vancouver, Canada
Email Roger Frie
www.rogerfrie.ca