Frommian Biophilic Ethics in Tolstoy’s The death of Ivan Ilyich

Abstract

Ilene Philipson, the Californian born sociologist and licensed psychologist, asserts that Erich Fromm is the second widely read psychoanalyst in the world standing after Freud. Fromm discusses “necrophilia”, love of death, and “biophilia”, love of life. He also studies “being mode” and “having mode”, one’s general orientation toward being a better person or toward having more, respectively. This paper is the case study of Tolstoy’s novella The death of Ivan Ilyich (1886/2009) in light of Fromm’s insights as reflected in his later works. There are two opposing views arguing if Ivan Ilyich, the protagonist, eventually changes for better or worse. Invoking Fromm’s theories, we argue that Ivan Ilyich undergoes positive changes toward the end of his life which are actualized through the protagonist’s departure from necrophilia and conversion to biophilia. In this sense, it is also argued that Ivan casts “having mode” to embrace that of “being”.

Keywords

• tolstoy
• erich fromm
• necrophilia
• having mode
• being mode
• biophilic ethics