In 1942 the psychologist Eric Fromm put forward in the 'Fear Of Freedom' the proposition that modern man has lost all sense of individuality and as a result has conformed with all other citizens into what Fromm termed the 'automaton'. Even though this idea was presented well over 50 years ago it is still a social phenomenon of great significance. Conforming with this social mechanism is the solution that the majority of citizens choose in modern society.

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To put the concept of the 'automaton' briefly, it is when the individual ceases to be themself; they adopt entirely the kind of personality offered to them by cultural patterns; and therefore become exactly as all others are and as they are expected to be. The discrepancy between "I" and society disappears and with it the conscious fear of aloneness and powerlessness...The person who gives up his individual self and becomes an automaton, identical with millions of other automatons around them, need not feel alone and isolated anymore. But the price that is payed is the loss of individuality.

The assumption that the "normal" way of dealing with life is to become an automaton contradicts one of the most widespread ideas concerns citizens in our culture. The commonly held assumption of modern society is that most of us are individuals who are free to think, feel and act as we please, and each person sincerely believes that their thoughts, feelings and wishes are their own. Yet although their are true individuals among us, this belief is an illusion in most cases, since the majority of us have lost nearly all sense of original thinking, and we simply reiterate what we are told or coerced to think from authoritative sources and society around. This kind of unoriginal thinking is termed psuedo-thinking [ see Pseudo-Thinking ] and is a dangerous concept for that matter, as it blocks the removal of those conditions that are responsible for this state of affairs.

This loss of individuality & originality and its substitution by a pseudo-personality leaves the individual in an intense state of insecurity, and becomes obsessed by doubt since, being essentially a reflex of other peoples expectations, the individual loses all sense of identity. In order to overcome the panic resulting from such a loss of identity, they individual is compelled to conform, inorder to seek identity and security amongst others.

What becomes true for the lack of "originality" in thinking also holds true for the act of wanting...All our energy is spent for the purpose of getting what we want, and most people never question the premise of this activity; that they know their true wants. They do not stop to think whether the aims in life they are pursuing are something they 'themselves' want. In school they 'want' to have good marks, as adults they want to become 'successful'; to earn a lot of money, to have more status, to buy a better car, to go places, and so on. Yet when they stop to think in the midst of all this frantic activity, this question may come to their minds; "If I do get this new job, if I do get this better car, If I can take this holiday–what then? What is the use of it all? Is it really 'I' who wants all this? Or is it just what I am supposed to think I want? Am I not running after some goal which is supposed to make me happy and yet eludes me as soon as I have reached it? These questions, for when they arise, are frightening, for they question the very basis on which our whole life is based- our knowledge of what 'we' want.

People tend therefore to get rid of these disturbing thoughts as soon as possible. They feel that they have been bothered by these questions because they were tired or depressed– and they then go on to pursue once again the pseudo-wants which they believe to be their own.

Yet all this bespeaks a dim realization of the truth–the truth that modern citizens live under the illusion that they knows what they want, while they actually want what they are supposed to want. In order to accept this it is necessary to realize that to know what one really wants is not comparatively easy, as most people think, but one of the most difficult problems that any human has to solve. It is a task we frantically try to avoid by accepting ready-made goals as though they were our own. Modern citizens are ready to take great risks when they try to achieve aims which are supposed to be "theirs" but they are deeply afraid of taking the risks and responsibility of giving themself their "own" aims.

The loss of originality and individuality means that citizens come to think, feel and act as they are supposed to think, feel and act. This loss of identity than makes it still more imperative to conform because by conforming with the expectations of others, by not being different, the doubts about one's own identity are silenced and a certain security is found within the herd. However the price payed is high. Giving up individuality and originality results in the thwarting of life. Psychologically the automaton, while being alive on the outside, is dead emotionally and mentally. While they go through the motions of living, their life runs through their hands like sand. Behind a front of satisfaction modern citizens are deeply unhappy; as a matter of fact they are on the verge of desperation. They desperately cling to the notion of individuality, and yet only the last vestiges of individuality are left. Modern citizens are starved of life. But since being an automaton they cannot experience life in any sense of original spontaneous activity, they take as surrogate any kind of excitement and thrill; the thrill of drinking, of sports, of vicariously living the excitements of fictitious persons on the TV screen.

What then is the meaning of freedom for modern citizens? They have become relatively free from the external bonds that would prevent them from doing and thinking what they see fit. They would be free to act according to their own free will, if they knew what they wanted, thought and felt. But they do not know. This is precisely the point. Modern citizens do not know what "they" want - they only want what they are "supposed" to want. They conform to anonymous authorities and adopt a way of thinking which is not really theirs. The more they do this, the more powerless they become, the more they are forced to conform.

Adapted from ideas presented by Eric Fromm in 'Fear of Freedom', Routledge, 2002 (1942), pp158-221.