The Art of Being

by Erich Fromm

Freud’s discovery of the phenomenon of transference had much wider implications than he himself, within the frame of reference of the thinking of his time, could see. In discovering transference he discovered a special case of one of the most powerful strivings in man, that of idolatry (alienation). It is striving that is rooted in the ambiguity of man’s existence and that has the aim of finding an answer to the uncertainty of life by transforming a person, an institution, an idea into an absolute, i.e., into an idol by the submission to which the illusion of certainty is created. It is hardly possible to overestimate the psychological and social significance of idolatry in the course of history, that great illusion which hobbles activity and independence.