Call for Abstracts: “Pathology of Normality”

Young scientists will be part of the annual conference May 22-24, 2026 in Bad Alexandersbad

“The most normal are the sickest. And the sick are the healthiest. […] The person who is ill shows that certain human things are not yet so suppressed in him that they cannot come into conflict with the patterns of culture […] […] But very many people, that is: the normal ones, are so adapted, they have abandoned everything that is their own, they are so alienated, have become such instruments, have become so robotic that they no longer feel any conflict at all.” (Erich Fromm in an interview for Südwestfunk, broadcast in March 1977)

As early as 1953, the social psychologist Erich Fromm (1900-1980) gave four lectures in New York that dealt with an explosive question: What if what we consider socially normal is actually sick? In the context of his theory of social character and Marx’s ideas of alienation, Fromm developed the position that capitalist lifestyles train us to lose the ability to think, fantasize and feel for ourselves. Due to the dominance of this defect in the population, we ourselves do not notice the pathological distance to humanity – or do we?

Fromm recognized mental health as characterized by “the ability to love and to create something, by the detachment from incestuous ties to clan and soil, by an experience of identity that is based on the experience of oneself as the subject and the author of one’s own powers, by the comprehension of reality within and outside of ourselves, that is, by the development of objectivity and reason” (1955a: Wege aus einer kranken Gesellschaft, GA IV, p. 52). The upcoming annual conference of the International Erich-Fromm-Society(May 22-24, 2026, Protestant Education and Conference Center Bad Alexandersbad) contrasts this humanistic understanding of health with the recent significant increase in the number of mental diagnoses and self-diagnoses. In this context, the event will also explore the significance of the currently very open approach to mental illness on social media platforms, as well as the consequences of normalized group narcissism and ways out of today’s alienation from healthy human self-awareness.

Students, doctoral candidates, postdocs and other interested persons up to the age of 35 are cordially invited to submit abstracts of a maximum of 300 words for a 20-minute presentation on the topic. This can, for example, make references to personal fields of research, current news or everyday observations, but should in any case deal with the conference topic and Erich Fromm’s ideas. A total of three contributions will be selected for presentation at the conference with the option of subsequent publication in the Fromm Forum . In addition, accommodation and catering costs will be covered so that the speakers can participate in all the content and discussions during the conference weekend.

Please send the abstracts by November 30, 2025 at the latest as a PDF document by e-mail to info@fromm-gesellschaft.de (queries to the same address). The Board of the IEFG cordially invites all interested parties to the conference, is looking forward to the proposals and wishes you much pleasure in productive thinking.