Erich Fromm: Having Mode

Image via WikipediaFromm argues that the having mode, or

the attitude centered on property and profit, necessarily produces the desire—indeed the need—for power … In the having mode, one’s happiness lies inone’s superiority over others, in one’s power, and in the last analysis, in one’s capacity to conquer, rob, kill. In the being mode it lies in loving, sharing, giving (86-87).

In this context it is important to note that when he talks about having as a mode of existence and experience, Fromm is talking about what he calls characterological having and not what he calls existential having.

Humans, as material beings, need to have certain things in an existential sense: like food, shelter and clothing.

But this is not the same thing as having to have in the sense of a character structure—the need to live through property relations and acquisition. Rather, what has happened in the ‘developed’ west is that we have created a world of practices and institutions whereby existential having in now predicated on characterological having, to the point where it is hard to see the distinction, and hard to contemplate the former without the latter. Yet they are conceptually and ontologically distinct. The relationship between them is contingent. In the ‘developed’ world, however, we have learned to live the relationship as though it were necessary.