To the Editor:
Edgar Z. Friedenberg, in an incredibly muddv article [“Neo-Freudianism and Erich Fromm,” Oct. ’62] . . . states: “Since the world is even now rational enough that people have a great deal of anything which is difficult to get and hold on to usually must want it badly . . . then the power elites of most societies are quite probably even sicker than the people they dominate; since power over others and enormous wealth are not greatly coveted by healthy people”. . . .
This is a most interesting and important statement if it is true. But what are the premises?
One of them seems to be the following: if someone pursues a goal which is very difficult to obtain and sustain, then that person must desire the goal very much. This premise, though it has the virtue of being true, has the vice of being a tautology. The second premise is: if a person is not mentally ill, then he will not desire wealth and political authority. This statement is either true by definition (a healthy person being defined as one who does not desire wealth and authority) or an empirical hypothesis which seems obviously false or a disguised value judgment (“People who pursue wealth and authority are bad”). . . . As a value judgment it contradicts one of Mr. Friedenberg’s other points. For he complains that we do seem to be shiftier than people used to be; less able or less inclined to assume responsibility”. But isn’t the pursuit of responsibility one form of the pursuit of power and authority? To accept responsibility for something means first to do that thing, second to acknowledge that one has the right and authority to do it, and third to acknowledge the justice of being penalized if one does it badly.
The whole article is a symptom of what happens when one tries to analyze political problems in terms of psychoanalysis. One tends to make extravagant claims about “sick” societies or “sick” classes, claims which are presented with scientific authority but which are really value judgments reflecting, in a disguised manner, one’s political preferences. . . .
Charles Landesman
Lawrence, Kansas
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