
Sandra Buechler, PhD
What Would Erich Do?: Applying Fromm’s Approach to Treatment
May 1-2, 2027
1132 S. Wabash Ave., Suite 502, Chicago
& ZOOM
Sandra Buechler, Ph.D. Training and Supervising Analyst at the William Alanson White Institute; author of Clinical Values: Emotions that Guide Psychoanalytic Treatment, (Analytic Press, 2004), Making a Difference in Patients’ Lives, (Routledge, 2008), Still Practicing: The Heartaches and Joys of a Clinical Career, (Routledge, 2012), Understanding and Treating Patients in Clinical Psychoanalysis: Lessons from Literature, (Routledge, 2015) Psychoanalytic Reflections: Training and Practice, (IPBooks, 2017) Psychoanalytic Approaches to Problems in Living, (Routledge, 2019), Poetic Dialogues (IPBooks, 2021) Erich Fromm: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge, 2025), and Languages of the Heart: Personal Essays on Poetry and Clinical Practice (Routledge, in preparation).
Seminar Title: What Would Erich Do?: Applying Fromm’s Approach to Treatment
Seminar Description: In this seminar I will use clinical material to illustrate the application of Fromm’s writing to treatment. Although Erich Fromm wrote little about therapeutic technique, his legacy includes concepts that can guide and inspire clinicians. I will suggest some applications of Fromm’s ideas to the therapist’s focus when deciding what form of treatment would be viable, initiating and conducting the work, and terminating the therapeutic process. Fromm’s theoretical concepts, such as biophilia, existential needs, self-realization, authoritarian, marketing, and ego orientation, and center-to-center relating can guide the clinical encounter. I will invite participants to share clinical material so we can explore it from a Frommian perspective.
Reading List:
Buechler, S, (2004).Clinical Values: Emotions that Guide Psychoanalytic Treatment.The Analytic Press.
Buechler, S. (2024).Erich Fromm: A Contemporary Introduction. Routledge.
Buechler, S. (2024). Discussion ofErich Fromm: A Contemporary Introduction.
Lecture at the William Alanson White Institute, September 17, 2024.