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The Art of Loving
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"Erich Fromm is both a psychologist of penetration and a writer of ability. His book is one of dignity and candor, of practicality and precision."--"Chicago Tribune"Every line is packed with common sense, compassion, and realism."--"Fortune
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
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Product Description
The Art of Loving has helped hundreds of thousands of men and women achieve rich, productive lives by developing their hidden capacities for love. An astonishing frank and candid book renowned psychoanalyst Erich Fromm, it explores the ways in which this extraordinary emotion can alter the course of one's life.
Most of us are unable to develop our ability to love on the only level that really counts-a love that is compounded of maturity, self-knowledge, and courage. Learning to love demands practice and concentration. Even more than any other art, it demands genuine insight and understanding. In this startling book, Fromm discusses love in all aspects: not only romantic love, so surrounded by false conceptions, but also love of parents for children, brotherly love, erotic.
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
49 of 50 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In a world of fuzzy love epitomised by trashy love songs whichbrainwash young people into thinking such things as 'I can't live without you' and 'I love you more than life itself', this book offers an invaluable perspective on just what it is you might be feeling when you 'fall in love' with someone. Indeed, Fromm questions the whole concept of 'falling in love'. One will conclude that there is more 'falling' than there is 'love' in the whole process. He argues that we are better served by 'standing' in love. And how true. While practice makes perfect, and no book can compensate for that, Fromm's enlightenment is sure to raise an eyebrow of awareness among anyone who has ever loved or been loved. While we older, and perhaps wiser, folk may say 'yes, indeed' to Fromm's lucid and thought-provoking work, surely it's the teenage generation which needs this map of the one emotion which is perhaps most prominent in their minds. If you have ever experienced the pain of love, this book will change your attitudes towards the whole emotion, for ultimately you will conclude that where there is love,ie. the real honest variety, there is no pain and there can be no pain. Excellently written, like all Fromm's work, you will want to read it in one sitting.
40 of 42 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Although a short book ... 104 pages .... it has taken me a fortnight to read .... there is not a superfluous sentence in this seminal work on the nature of the "glue" which binds humans to each other ... Fromm raises questions without providing the answers ... knowing that in order to understand .. we have to find the answers within ourselves. Whilst being deeply disturbing it nevertheless enabled me to understand clearly, for the first time in my life, where I have gone wrong in the past, and, at 57 years old, has given me hope that I might just "get it right" before I am too old to enjoy life as it ought to be!
Along with another seminal work ... Conditions of Love by John Armstrong ... it ought to be compulsory reading for every young adult.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I nicely written book with engaging style and a good pace in its narration.
Fromm uses object relations theory and social psychology to investigate the nature of love and loving, with insights into varieties of love and loving, such as parental love, love of god, love of fellows, romantic love, self love or self regard.
I found it very interesting how he portrayed the varieties of love, society does tend to elevate some sorts above others and it can foster expectations of love that are unrealistic or downright unhealthy.
With luck, if clarity of this kind where more popular then there would be less murder-suicides by jilted lovers, obsessive behaviour and stalking or even parents failing to treat their children as paramount.
There have been criticisms of Fromm that he is too rationalist or pours cold water upon the idea of soul seering or earth shattering love affairs, classing such ideas as neurotic, I really think that that is a very superficial and unworthy reading of this book.
A great companion to Conditions of Love: The Philosophy of Intimacy, a more philosophical musing on love or Falling in Love another good psychological investigation of the topic.
Edit December 2008:
NB buy the PS edition, the PS section is almost as good as Erich Fromm: His Life and Work - A Pictorial Biography, it incorporates so much about the author, his ideas and how they developed, that for a fan (and the power of this book is such that it could make you an instant fan of Fromm) it could rival the main presentation. Its also a great place to decide what to read next.
Fromm uses object relations theory and social psychology to investigate the nature of love and loving, with insights into varieties of love and loving, such as parental love, love of god, love of fellows, romantic love, self love or self regard.
I found it very interesting how he portrayed the varieties of love, society does tend to elevate some sorts above others and it can foster expectations of love that are unrealistic or downright unhealthy.
With luck, if clarity of this kind where more popular then there would be less murder-suicides by jilted lovers, obsessive behaviour and stalking or even parents failing to treat their children as paramount.
There have been criticisms of Fromm that he is too rationalist or pours cold water upon the idea of soul seering or earth shattering love affairs, classing such ideas as neurotic, I really think that that is a very superficial and unworthy reading of this book.
A great companion to Conditions of Love: The Philosophy of Intimacy, a more philosophical musing on love or Falling in Love another good psychological investigation of the topic.
Edit December 2008:
NB buy the PS edition, the PS section is almost as good as Erich Fromm: His Life and Work - A Pictorial Biography, it incorporates so much about the author, his ideas and how they developed, that for a fan (and the power of this book is such that it could make you an instant fan of Fromm) it could rival the main presentation. Its also a great place to decide what to read next.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
best book ever
this was actually a gift for a friend - i'm always sure that whoever picks up this book can't put it down until they're finished .... really fast shipping , thanks !
Published 3 months ago by librarian
Interesting read
In my younger days I believed love just happened, people fellin and out of love because thats how it was meant to be. Read more
Published 4 months ago by wutheringheights
Like a zen manual on vegetable growing, written by someone who hates...
I remember buying this book in about 1967; I'm revisiting my copy, to see if it had any substantial content. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Rerevisionist
All you need is Fromm
Fromms book on love where he binds Marx, the Bible, Islam and Bowlby along with(Stirner and Nietzsche) is his crowning glory as he immerses himself in love and he comes out the... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Dr. Delvis Memphistopheles
Thought provoking
I picked this book up quite by chance. Am I glad I did! Erich Fromm analyses love in all its forms. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Pen pal
Very helpful and inspiring
Although difficult to put in practice in the world we live in, I am up for the challenge, in order to change the world we should start by changing ourselves and this book is all... Read more
Published 8 months ago by F. Garcia Elvira
Love: equals care, responsibility, respect, knowledge
This is a quite extraordinary slim little volume. I started to underline certain sentences and paragraphs as being particularly potent and insightful, (or particularly open to... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Lady Fancifull
Yes, but.
This book was written a long time ago and it shows. Whilst I thought the overall message was very good - that is, in order to love you need to develop your entire personality - the... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Brrnrrd
Interesting book!
It can be a bit difficult book for non-psychologists, however with patience and concentration it is a valuable book.
Published 19 months ago
Deep, comforting and inspiring
This book has such a positive and active idea about the "verb" to love that I could not help but be inspired to believe in it's premises of loving as an exercisable art that one... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Mariana
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