Erich Fromm and the ART of LOVING: summary and phrases

  • Jul 26, 2021
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Erich Fromm and the art of loving: summary and phrases

Erich Fromm with his book "The art of loving", left us a great reflection on love that everyone should read. Understand love as an art resulting from learning, just as it is also an art to live.

If you want to learn the art of loving, we recommend that you continue reading this Psychology-Online article. In it, you will find everything you need to know about Erich Fromm and the art of loving, with a summary and phrases. Because, despite everything, is there anyone who is not interested in learning to love?

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Index

  1. Erich Fromm: biography
  2. "The art of loving": Summary
  3. Mature love according to Erich Fromm's art of loving
  4. Fromm's phrases about the art of loving

Erich Fromm: biography.

Erich Fromm (1900-1980), born in Frankfurt, was psychoanalyst and philosopher partnerl. He trained in psychoanalysis at the University of Munich and at the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute. He left Nazi Germany in 1933 and went to the United States.

From 1934 to 1941, Fromm was on the faculty of Columbia University in New York, where his views became increasingly controversial. In 1941 he joined the faculty at Bennington College in Vermont, and in 1951

he was appointed professor of psychoanalysis at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He applied psychoanalysis in social and cultural questions.

Erich fromm He presented the view that an understanding of basic human needs was essential for a good understanding of society.

Erich Fromm's most important books

The first major work he published was Escape from Freedom (1941). It was in 1956 that he published the book: the art of Loving. He has many other books such as: "Man for himself", "Psychoanalysis and religion", "Beyond the chains of illusion", "The revolution of hope" and "The crisis of psychoanalysis".

Erich Fromm and the art of loving: summary and phrases - Erich Fromm: biography

"The art of loving": Summary.

The book entitled "the art of loving" is not a self-help manual, it is a reflection on the nature of love understood as an art. In other words, it can be learned and evolved and we all have the potential to generate it even though it requires great care to maintain it. Real love is not something we fall into, it is something we learn to do.

Throughout the story analyze romantic love, love fraternal, maternal, love of God and the self-love and refers to some basic concepts to maintain a relationship.

It starts from the basis that society has false premises about love: love is measured in the fact of being loved and not in one's own capacity to love and real love is confused with the initial experience of falling in love.

What is the art of loving about: brief synopsis

Erich Fromm talks about what love is the only healthy answer and satisfactory to the problem of human existence. A moment of happiness can compensate for all the suffering that life brings us and that is when you know how to love and you let your friends, your partner, your family love you, that you find meaning in your life to always go out go ahead.

He speaks of love as an art, which must be learned in order to be able to exercise it with mastery and depth. It is not just desire, impulse, it is much more than all this. And it is that there is nothing easier than to love, the difficult thing is to keep the flame of love alive when the initial passion is lost of falling in love.

Love is energy, but it is not enough to feel it, it must also be cared for and fed in order to live it. To do so, it starts from four basic premises that any art needs to be developed:

  • Discipline
  • Concentration
  • Patience
  • Concern to master the art
Erich Fromm and the art of loving: summary and phrases - "The art of loving": Summary

Mature love according to Erich Fromm's art of loving.

  • For Fromm, mature love is saying “I need you because I love you”.
  • On the contrary, immature love, that is to say "I love you because I need you”.

Loving someone is equivalent to wanting that person to develop and be happy, and not loving to satisfy my needs.

The goal is to get a interpersonal bonding Through a mature love where one's individuality is preserved and that is based on respect and the desire to give to the other. If you are interested in this type of love, we also recommend reading this article about the characteristics of the unconditional love.

Fromm's phrases about the art of loving.

  • "The great paradox of love is that two beings become one but remain two."
  • "If two people who have been strangers... suddenly let the wall between them break to feel and discover each other, this will be one of the most exciting experiences of life"
  • “Envy, jealousy, ambition, all kinds of greed, are passions: love is an action, practice of a human power, which can only be realized in freedom and never as a result of a compulsion."
  • "For most of the people, the problem of love consists fundamentally in being loved, and not in loving, not in one's own capacity to love."
  • "Sexual attraction creates, for a moment, the illusion of union, but without love, such union leaves strangers as desperate as before."

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Erich Fromm and the art of loving: summary and phrases, we recommend that you enter our category of Feelings.

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