Erich Fromm, Fascism, and the Holocaust: Psychoanalysis in German-Jewish History

Part 1 of LBI's Forum on Psychoanalysis and Society

On November 5, Roger Frie will kick off the series with a presentation of his book Erich Fromm, Fascism, and the Holocaust. Fromm is known for his bold stance against fascism and racism in his psychoanalytic practice and publications–Frie’s recent book uses previously unpublished correspondence to outline how Fromm’s personal family experience with the Holocaust shaped his views and work on trauma, social responsibility, and justice. Frie will engage in conversation with Michael Thompson, a professor of political theory and political philosophy.

About the Series:

This fall, the Leo Baeck Institute presents the Forum on Psychoanalysis and Society, a series of three conversations exploring the German-Jewish legacy of psychoanalysis and its echoes in both academia and popular psychology today. Our speakers will present their recent projects, all of which tell stories of German-speaking Jewish individuals who, in reacting and reflecting on their own changing social and political worlds, made an immeasurable impact on the study of psychoanalysis. As these authors engage in conversation with interlocutors, they will reflect on the ways these groundbreaking psychoanalytic strides in German-Jewish history fit in with drastic social changes throughout 20th century Europe.

About the Speakers:

Roger Frie is University Professor of Psychoanalysis in the Faculty of Philosophy and Education at the University of Vienna, Austria. He is also Professor Emeritus at Simon Fraser University and Affiliate Professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. He is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst as well as a historian and social philosopher. Author most recently of Edge of Catastrophe: Erich Fromm, Fascism and the Holocaust (Oxford 2024) and Not in My Family: German Memory and Responsibility after the Holocaust (Oxford 2017). His newest book, out next year, is Wounds of Silence: Legacies of Genocide and Racial Violence (also with Oxford). His most recent edited book is Culture, Politics and Race in the Making of Interpersonal Psychoanalysis (Routledge, 2022). www.rogerfrie.ca

Michael J. Thompson is Prof. of Political Theory at William Paterson University and is a psychoanalyst in private practice in Manhattan. HIs recent books include: Descent of the Dialectic: Phronetic Criticism in an Age of Nihilism (Routledge, 2025) as well as Twilight of the Self: The Decline of the Individual in Late Capitalism (Stanford University Press, 2022).