The Art of Loving
Fromm, E.
“The Art of Loving,” states that erotic love has an exclusiveness lacking
in brotherly love and/or motherly love, which is not really true. Fromm, E. contradicts himself over and over again in this book. As everyone knows, ‘Love is blind’ and Fromm’s logic is somewhat cloaked from the truth. He states that Love is an act of will, but we do not choose who we Love just as we do not choose who are our parents.
“The Art of Loving” is a slim volume of only a little over a hundred pages. His style is that of a scientist, it is unbiased and entirely objective. Love is a dead flower and only one in a million may ever revive it in his or her life. To make his point, Fromm quotes readily from Marx, Huxley, Rumi and several religious texts to hammer in his points. Fromm believes that economic and social factors are good for the mental well-being. He says that the world is a market and when it comes to love, one must find the most desirable and sought after person. “Two persons thus fall in love when they feel they have found the best object available on the market, considering the limitations of their own
exchange values. In a culture in which the marketing orientation prevails, and in which material success is the
outstanding value, there is little reason to be surprised that human relations follow the same pattern of exchange which governs the commodity and labour market.”
Fromm is a truly optimistic person in wanting love to survive in this world. He states that a “Mother’s love is unconditional, it is all- protective, all enveloping…” and most prominently, “Mother loves her children because they are her children and not because they are ‘good’, obedient or fulfill her wishes and commands, mother’s love is based on equality.” His conclusion is that we are all equal, but he didn’t say in what; I believe we would be all equal in love, if there weren’t so many ways of loving.
This book is an outstanding start to those who want answers to what life is all about – for the Art of Loving is the same as the Art of Life.