Erich Fromm's Disobedience As A Psychological And Moral Problem

Are you a good citizen or a revolutionary? The importance of disobedience may surprise you! Erich Fromm was one of the most influential writers in the 20th century. He was also a psychoanalyst, philosopher, historian, and sociologist. Fromm has contributed to numerous collections and journals as well as writing the essay “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem”. This essay discusses the importance of disobedience as well as describing different variants of obedience that can often lead to destruction. Fromm explains the importance of disobedience and how it leads to freedom. Fromm distinguished two forms of obedience: Heteronomous and Autonomous. Heteronomous being “obedience to a person, institution, or power,” and Autonomous

Fromm discusses heteronomous obedience as obeying one's power. When society follows leaders such as bosses, teachers, and doctors, this is known as heteronomous obedience. Fromm furthermore discusses the idea of autonomous obedience. When one uses their own judgment for authority it is known as autonomous. Society will often challenge others such as teachers and other authority figures because of their own beliefs. When tapping into obedience, people utilize their conscience. Fromm thoroughly explains these two different types of conscience. “One is the "authoritarian conscience" which is the internalized voice of an authority whom we are eager to please and afraid of dis-pleasing.” (Fromm 685) and “Humanistic conscience is based on the fact that as human beings we have an intuitive knowledge of what is human and

In the essay “Shooting an Elephant'', George Orwell documents his experiences as a young policeman in Burma. George Orwell is an English novelist, essaysist, journalist, and critic. His work focuses on his opposition to totalitarianism and the importance of treating others fairly. Orwell expresses his internal opposition in his essay when he says, “aces all happy and excited over this bit of fun, all certain that the elephant was going to be shot. They were watching me as they would watch a conjurer about to perform a trick” (Orwell par. 120). As Orwell is debating on whether to shoot the elephant or not, he has the fear on his back of what his peers will think of him. At this moment he is letting his authoritarian conscience take over him. Although he does not want to shoot the elephant, he feels the pressure of pleasing the crowd. This leads to Orwell questioning how he should respond to the situation. Orwell proves Fromm's idea of authoritarian conscience as he debates whether or not to kill the elephant merely based on what others may think of him. As many others, Orwell feels comfort in pleasing others. Due to the fear of pleasing the crowd, Orwell shoots down the elephant disregarding his conscience inside of him telling him not to do so. Orwell expresses his own personal beliefs in his head while debating whether or not to kill the elephant. Orwells states, “ I was only an absurd