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 continue our exploration of 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.
Selected Passages:
The awareness of human separation, without reunion by love—is the source of shame. It is at the same time the source of guilt and anxiety. The deepest need of man, then, is the need to overcome his separateness, to leave the prison of his aloneness. […]
— Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving
—
Most people are not even aware of their need to conform. They live under the illusion that they follow their own ideas and inclinations, that they are individualists, that they have arrived at their opinions as the result of their own thinking—and that it just happens that their ideas are the same as those of the majority. […]
— Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving
—
In contrast to symbiotic union, mature love is union under the condition of preserving one’s integrity, one’s individuality. Love is an active power in man; a power which breaks through the walls which separate man from his fellow men, which unites him with others; love makes him overcome the sense of isolation and separateness, yet it permits him to be himself, to retain his integrity. In love the paradox occurs that two beings become one and yet remain two. […]
— Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving
—
Love is an activity, not a passive affect; it is a “standing in,” not a “falling for.” In the most general way, the active character of love can be described by stating that love is primarily giving, not receiving. […]
Love is the active concern for the life and the growth of that which we love.
— Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving
—
Even if we knew a thousand times more of ourselves, we would never reach bottom. We would still remain an enigma to ourselves, as our fellow man would remain an enigma to us. The only way of full knowledge lies in the act of love: this act transcends thought, it transcends words. It is the daring plunge into the experience of union. […]
— 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.
—
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!