Why are human beings capable of extraordinary cruelty, and is violence an unavoidable part of our nature?

In this substantial 1973 study, psychoanalyst and social philosopher Erich Fromm challenges the assumption that aggression is simply an inherited biological instinct. Drawing on psychoanalysis, anthropology, history, animal behaviour and neuroscience, he distinguishes between defensive aggression, which serves survival, and malignant aggression, which emerges from particular psychological and social conditions.

Fromm examines sadism, necrophilia, boredom, alienation and the desire for domination, alongside extended psychological studies of historical figures including Adolf Hitler. His argument moves beyond the familiar opposition between nature and nurture, asking how societies cultivate destructive tendencies and why certain forms of social organisation encourage cruelty rather than cooperation. Particularly interesting is his treatment of boredom and compensatory consumption, where apparently ordinary habits become symptoms of a deeper estrangement from life. An ambitious work that brings psychoanalytic theory into conversation with questions of political violence, social character and human freedom.

Edition/Condition: Penguin Books, 1984 reprint of the 1982 Pelican edition. Originally published by Jonathan Cape in 1974. Vintage paperback with visible cover wear, rubbing and some edge wear. Pages show age-related toning.