Erich Fromm: Being Mode

Image by cruzarte via FlickrIn the being mode we are (our identity) what we express and enact in our relationships with others and the world. We do not have an ego and an identity based upon it. Rather, we be moment by moment in the ways we affirm our specifically human structure, which comprises ‘activity, critical thinking [and] faith in life’ (85). In the being mode individuals are indeed identifiable and identified. But identity simply is not for them an issue like it is in the having mode, where identity s constructed as a possession we are encouraged to invest in and draw upon.
Beings who are continually actively engaged in affirming their capacities have no need to possess and identity, not least because they are not in competition with others for scarce resources (prestige, status, power, possessions) out of which to carve identity or in pursuit of which to draw on identity. They can just get on with living, as do others around them. In this way they are able to cooperate, share, enter egalitarian relationships, help, encourage, and support others because being is not a zero sum game.