• Acknowledgements


• Introduction


• Chapter 1: The Holocaust Correspondence


• Chapter 2: How Is This Possible?


• Chapter 3: Yearning to Submit


• Chapter 4: Confronting Genocide


• Chapter 5: Cultivating Love and Hope


• References


• Endnotes

Roger Frieis Professor of Education at Simon Fraser University and Affiliate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and Psychoanalytic Faculty and Supervisor at the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and Psychology in New York. He is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst, as well as historian and social philosopher. Frie is the author and editor of many works including the award-winning bookNot in My Family: German Memory and Responsibility After the Holocaust(Oxford) andHistory Flows Through Us: Germany, the Holocaust and the Importance of Empathy.

In Edge of Catastrophe, Roger Frie introduces readers for the first time to the unpublished Holocaust letters in the family of the public intellectual and psychoanalyst Erich Fromm. The letters provide new insights into Fromm's life and work, particularly in relation to his lifelong concerns with fascism, racism, and human destructiveness. The image of Fromm that emerges enriches our understanding of what it means to be both a social critic and practicing psychologist. In light of the racial hatred, antisemitism, and political crises we see today, this book demonstrates that a politics of engagement and a psychology of well-being go hand in hand.