Key insights from
The Art of Loving
By Erich Fromm
Audio available
11 minute read
Published Nov 21, 2006
What you'll learn
For all the movies and songs about love, most of us fail to love well. Social philosopher and psychoanalyst Erich Fromm (1900-1980) argues that, since love is a basic human need and we cannot remove the longing for it even if we wished to, we would do well to discover the damaging assumptions beneath our failures to love, learn what love really involves, and begin to practice the art of loving. Love is an evergreen subject, and though originally published in 1956, Fromm’s essay retains its incisiveness.
Key insights
- • What you'll learn
- 1 We fail at love because we assume that we already know what love is.
- 2 We are determined to eradicate the pain of separation we feel through experiences of union.
- 3 We have many tactics to resolve the distress of our separateness, but they are partial solutions at best, and false solutions at worst.
- 4 The hallmark of mature love is giving oneself, and we can only give ourselves when we have a self to give.
- 5 Mature love is possible only when care, responsibility, respect, and knowledge come together.
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