1. Background Information
1) Erich Fromm (1900-1980), German-American sociologist, psychoanalyst and author, was born in Frankfurt, Germany, and got his Ph.D. at the Univ. of Heidelberg, 1922. As a psychoanalyst, he applied psychoanalysis to social, political, religious, moral activities. He was particularly interested in the study of individual and society. He paid much attention to self human realization.
Erich Fromm’ viewpoint: He took views of Freud and he attempted a synthesis (combination) and reformulation (systematical expression) of Freud and Marx.
He held that man is a product of his culture in which he is bred. Social character is not determined by instinct (biological drive) but rather shaped by cultural training. “个体的人格是文化的产物，而不是生物学的产物。”
He also maintained that in modern, industrial societies, men have become alienated from themselves. These feelings of isolation resulted in an unconscious desire for unity with others.
Erich Fromm’ Works: Escape from Freedom; The Sane Society; The Art of Loving; Psychoanalysis and Religion; May Man Prevail; The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness; The Revolution of Hope; Beyond the Chains of Illusions
Peter Ferdinand Drucker, American writer, teacher and management consultant, was born Nov. 19, 1909, the son of a civil servant in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His father, Adolph, was head of the export department in Austria’s government, an important post.
Coming from a society of strict class distinctions, Drucker was ever mindful of the social ladders in various countries. In the home of a senior civil servant such as his father, Drucker would remark with irony later in life, “We never had businessmen to the house.”
Drucker studied at universities in Hamburg and Frankfurt, Germany, receiving a PhD in international law in 1931. But he never used the title “doctor,” preferring often to characterize himself as a newspaperman, which he was in the early 1930s in Frankfurt.
2) Peter F. Drucker, considered by many the “father of modern management” for his innovative approaches to leadership in the workplace, died at 11th November, 2005, a few days to his 96-year-old birthday.
Drucker says, “The manager is the life-giving element in every business. Without his leadership the resources of production remain resources and never become production.” (Drucker, 1954). In 1942, he published The Future of Industrial Man (Forbes). In the book, he focused on how the social tasks of community and family were shunned from organizations and business enterprises.
The reaction to the book was so profound that in the fall of 1943, General Motors invited Drucker to visit their corporate office and compose an in-depth study of their top management. After viewing GM, Drucker went on to write “Concepts of the Corporation” (Drucker, 1954). He coined the term “intellectual integrity” which means, “Having the ability to see the world as it is, not as you want it to be” (Forbes). In many ways, Drucker can be viewed as a social ecologist.
3) Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915)
Taylor’s ideas, clearly enunciated in his writings, were widely misinterpreted. Employers used time and motion studies simply to extract more work from employees at less pay. Unions condemned speedups and the lack of voice in their work that “Taylorism” gave them. Quality and productivity declined when his principles were simplistically instituted.
Modern management theorists, such as Edward Deming, often credit Taylor, however, with generating the principles upon which they act. Others, such as Juran, though, continue to denigrate his work. Modern theorists generally place more emphasis on worker input and teamwork than was usual in much of Taylor’s time. A careful reading of Taylor’s work will reveal that he placed the worker's interest as high as the employer's in his studies, and recognized the importance of the suggestion box, for example, in a machine shop.
2. Text Analysis
This passage is an excerpt from Eric Fromm’s The Sane Society (1955). In this book, Fromm is mainly concerned with the effect of a sociological environment on Americans which exalts (praise) success through competition and human alienation that accompanies technological development which isolates the workman from the finished product.
3. Structure of the Text
The text is divided into four parts:
Part1 (paragraph1 to 2): Positive values of work;
Part 2 (paragraph 3 to 7): Change in the meaning of work;
Part 3 (paragraph 8 to 9): The cause of alienation;
Part 4 (paragraph 10 to 13): Result of alienation
4. Key Words and Expressions
social, being, that is, out of oneself, original unity, ulterior, craftsmanship; prosecution, Protestant countries, newly won freedom, inner-worldly asceticism, middle class, alienated, physical, enterprise, agent, stultify, devoid of, puts a premium on, slowdown, capital, psychology of the worker, friction, human engineering, human value, pay off, cold dollars and cents, put … into practice, unconscious, gadget, receptivity, fraudulency
5. Analysis of Rhetorical Devices
Simile; Metaphor; pun; irony
6. Writing Techniques
1) long involved sentences;
2) passive voice;
3) abstract nouns;
