Reading & the Good Life
Join the conversation; every Friday at Noon EST (Register here), Perennial Meditations readers are welcome to gather for casual conversations on the art of living. This Friday, we begin exploring selected passages from The Art of Loving by the psychoanalyst and social philosopher Erich Fromm (1900-1980).
Reading & the Good Life is a space for connection, contemplation, and conversations on the art of living.
This Week’s Selected Passages:
Is love an art? Then it requires knowledge and effort. Or is love a pleasant sensation, which to experience is a matter of chance, something one “falls into” if one is lucky? This little book is based on the former premise, while undoubtedly the majority of people today believe in the latter. […]
— Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving
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The process of learning an art can be divided conveniently into two parts: one, the mastery of the theory; the other, the mastery of the practice. If I want to learn the art of medicine, I must first know the facts about the human body, and about various diseases. When I have all this theoretical knowledge, I am by no means competent in the art of medicine. I shall become a master in this art only after a great deal of practice, […]
— Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving
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And, maybe, here lies the answer to the question of why people in our culture try so rarely to learn this art, in spite of their obvious failures: in spite of the deep-seated craving for love, almost everything else is considered to be more important than love: success, prestige, money, power—almost all our energy is used for the learning of how to achieve these aims, and almost none to learn the art of loving. […]
— Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving
Who is Erich Fromm?
Erich Fromm (1900 — 1980) was a German-born American psychoanalyst and social philosopher who explored the interaction between psychology and society. By applying psychoanalytic principles to remedy cultural ills, Fromm believed humanity could develop a psychologically balanced “sane society.”
After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Heidelberg in 1922, Fromm trained in psychoanalysis at the University of Munich and the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute. He began practicing psychoanalysis as a disciple of Sigmund Freud but soon took issue with Freud’s preoccupation with unconscious drives and consequent neglect of the role of societal factors in human psychology. For Fromm, an individual’s personality was the product of culture as well as biology. …
In several books and essays, Fromm presented the view that understanding basic human needs is essential to understanding society and humanity itself. Fromm argued that social systems make it difficult or impossible to satisfy different needs at one time, thus creating both individual psychological and wider societal conflicts. […]
Source: Brittanica Encyclopedia
If you are available on a Friday (at Noon EST), feel free to drop into one of our Reading & the Good Life meetups (Register here). It’s a highly casual space for connection and conversations on the art of living.
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Thank you for reading; I hope you found something useful.
Until next time, be wise and be well,
P.S. As always, feel free to comment, ask questions, or suggest future reads!