27 Apr 2026 4 min read

The 'problem' of Freedom

The problem of freedom beckons, asking whether we wish to escape.

Eighty-five years ago, a social psychologist refocused a research project on "modern man" and individual freedom, turning toward the problem of freedom itself for humans. The Frankfurt school thinker was Erich Fromm and in 1941 he noticed that people–or peoples–seemed frightened of freedom. In Escape from Freedom, Fromm addressed a world we look back upon and shudder and felt the need for a deep dive into our choice "between (the) flight to authoritarianism and (the) achievement of democracy." Fromm expresses the theme of his book as follows: "that man, (it's 1941 and academics are still addressing all human beings as "man") the more he gains freedom in the sense of emerging from the original oneness with man and nature and the more he becomes an 'individual,' has no choice but to unite himself with the world in the spontaneity of love and productive work or else to seek a kind of security by such ties with the world as destroy his freedom and the integrity of his individual self" (23).

I found this book at a professor's yard sale in the 1990s. The opening chapter asks if freedom is a psychological problem and the notes I wrote at the end sum it up. Freedom without socially and morally meaningful work leaves the individual insecure, fearful, and feeling insignificant; this places the person in danger of sabotaging freedom in order to feel safe. Fromm looks closely at our "mechanisms of escape" and at the psychology of Nazism. The book is a treasure.

I found the book again today. It had been a victim of my serial relocations and storage units, and it returned to me after I carried it in a box through two double doors, up a flight of stairs, and into my living room. I intend to read it once more and present Fromm's ideas as I notice them resonating with the world of 2026. The first time I read Escape from Freedom I was a scrappy news writer with a degree in philosophy, taking graduate classes in history. I recognized then that Fromm's work spoke beyond psychology or social science or his own historical context: "Context" being the rise of Nazism in Germany. Today I am a doctor of philosophy in the field of practical theology, and qualified to deliver a connected conversation between Fromm's 1941 and the strangely familiar America of 2026. Here's a sample from Fromm's critique of Martin Luther's theology and its built-in freedom-escapism:

"Thus, while Luther freed people from the authority of the Church, he made them submit to a much more tyrannical authority, that of a God who insisted on complete submission of man and annihilation of the individual self as the essential condition to his salvation. Luther's 'faith' was the conviction of being loved upon the condition of surrender, a solution which has much in common with the principle of complete submission of the individual to the state and the 'leader.'

"Luther's awe of authority and his love for it appears also in his political convictions. Although he fought against the authority of the Church, although he was filled with indignation against the new moneyed class–part of which was the upper strata of the clerical hierarchy–and although he supported the revolutionary tendencies of the peasants up to a certain point, yet he postulated submission to worldly authorities, the princes, in the most drastic fashion" (82).

Fromm quotes Luther here, from a work titled, "Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants." Luther asserts, "Even if those in authority are evil or without faith, nevertheless the authority and its power is good and from God. ... Therefore, where there is power and where it flourishes, there it is and there it remains because God has ordained it. ... God would prefer to suffer the government to exist no matter how evil, rather than allow the rabble to riot, no matter how justified they are in doing so. ... A prince should remain a prince no matter how tyrannical he may be. He beheads necessarily only a few since he must have subjects in order to be a ruler" (82).

One scarcely needs to comment. Read the above quote again if you need to. The dots easily connect themselves for any human not living in a remote cave. You may need details if you dwell in a place on our planet not experiencing wars or rumors of wars, famine or pestilence, or some version of a tyrant-prince. If you are such a person in the remote cave or otherwise sheltered from the news storm: Don't go on the internet. For everyone else, it's time we dipped our brains into the ideas of a prior generation who lived through historic similarities.

I began this publication, Roundtrip, with a story. My own story, a kid climbing a tree, the child of a preacher dad in missionary training, a rescue by a teenager trained in CPR for mission work, and a brother who ran for help. A strange start to a life of storied lore that today–half a century after the fall from the tree–dropped a box with an old book written during World War II.

In between my fall from the tree and today's Fromm find was the fall into academic study of theology as it is lived, in a world grappling with Fromm's problem, times 10. I was born for this.

Follow Roundtrip as I read Escape from Freedom–again–and unpack Fromm's ideas from his point of view just after Hitler's invasion of Poland. "When Fascism came into power, most people were unprepared, both theoretically and practically," Fromm writes. "They were unable to believe that man could exhibit such propensities for evil, such lust for power, such disregard for the rights of the weak, or such yearning for submission. Only a few had been aware of the rumbling of the volcano preceding the outbreak" (8).

Fromm opens the book with wisdom from the Talmudic Chapters of the Fathers. "If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
If I am for myself only, what am I?
If not now–when?"

The problem of freedom beckons, asking whether we wish to escape.

The Luther quote, written in 1525, is used by Fromm from The Works of Martin Luther, published by Holman in Philadelphia in 1931.

Quotes from Fromm's Escape from Freedom published in 1941, are from the 23rd printing of it by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, printed in 1963. Page numbers after those quotes refer to their appearance in this printing.