This book is a counterpart to the classic The Art of Loving. Whereas the main topic there was man's capacity to love, the main topic here is his capacity to destroy, his narcissism, and his incestuous fixations. Whereas the topic of non-love fills most of these pages, the problem of love is taken up in a new and broader sense, namely, the love of life. The love of life, independence, and the overcoming of narcissism form "a syndrome of growth" against "a syndrome of decay" formed by love of death and malignant narcissism.

Throughout his scientific work, Erich Fromm pursued the twin goal of uncovering the social unconscious of the individual as well as the social unconscious of society. As Fromm observes: "The problem within psychology and sociology is the dialectic intertwining of natural and historical factors. Freud has wrongly based based psychology totally on natural factors" This book consists of four dynamic sections: (1) Man's Impulse Structure and Its Relation to Culture, (2) Psychic Needs and Society, (3) The 1959 lecture "Dealing with the Unconscious," and (4) The 1975 lecture "The Relevance of Psychoanalysis in the Future."

What is society's effect on the individual? This book is a compelling appeal to the humanization of an evermore technological society. Social theorist Erich Fromm gives a classic description of the madness of modern culture, so applicable to the 21st century. He writes: A specter is stalking in our midst whom only a few can see with clarity. It is not the old ghosts of communism and fascism. It is a new specter: a completely mechanized society, devoted to maximal material output and consumption directed by computers. Humankind itself is being transformed into a part of the total machine: well-fed and entertained, yet passive and un-alive, with little feeling.