Montage7: Hey Alias,
I’m also a student and have been taking a psychology course dealing with personality theories. Having read a bit about Erich Fromm, I thought of one of his concepts. According to Fromm, the central problem that humans must deal with is freedom. His theory is highly existential. I remember a good metaphor where if you decided to stand at the edge of a cliff, then you would have to deal with the fact that there is niether an external force making you jump off the cliff, nor one that would save you if you fell. In this moment, you realize that you have the power to freely choose. You exist separate from the world, or more specifically from nature, and are self-aware. And this realization creates a basic anxiety.
Anyway, Fromm suggested that one of the defense mechanisms to escape freedom was authoritarianism. The authoritarian escape mechanism would mean that you give up your free will to another person, group, etc, or you would seek to control others. In either case, you are bound to another person, or entity in a symbiosis of sorts. In this way, you give up some of your individuality in attempt to escape the problem of freedom. So, if we take a dictator, for example, he or she would have to deal with providing for a nation. In turn, the nation would expect to be free from making certain choices. There are other escape mechanisms and this does not account for all of Fromm’s ideas, but I hope it helps.
Fascinating stuff..affirms my belief war stems from fear of life/death.
Off topic but its psych..hard to resist. :)
