爱的艺术英原版The_Art_of_Loving.docVIP

THE ART OF LOVING Erich Fromm LOVE IN ALL ITS ASPECTS ?Love,” says dr. Fromm, “is the only satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.” Yet most of us are unable to develop our capacities for love on the only level that really counts—a love that is compounded of maturity, self-knowledge and courage. Learning to love, like other arts, demands practice and concentration. Even more than any other art it demands genuine insight and understanding. In this startling book, Dr. Fromm discusses love in all its aspects, not only romantic love, so surrounded by false conception, but also love of parents for children, brotherly love, erotic love, self-love and love of God. CONTENTS Forward 1 I. Is Love an Art? 2 II.The Theory of Love 5 1. LOVE, THE ANSWER TO THE PROBLEM OF HUMAN EXISTENCE 5 2. LOVE BETWEEN PARENT AND CHILD 24 3. THE OBJECTS OF LOVE 29 a. Brotherly Love 29 b. Motherly Love 31 c. Erotic Love 33 d. Self-Love13 36 e. Love of God 40 III.Love and its Disintegration in Contemporary Western Society 52 IV.The Practice of Love 66 EPILOGUE WORLD PERSPECTI VES 83 Forward THE READING of this book would be a disappointing experience of anyone who expects easy instruction in the art of loving. This book, on the contrary, wants to show that love is not a sentiment which can be easily indulged in by anyone regardless of the level of maturity reached by him. It wants to convince the reader that all his attempts for love are bound to fail, unless he tries most actively to develop his total personality, so as to achieve a productive orientation; that, satisfaction in individual love cannot be attained without the capacity to love one’s neighbor, without true humility, courage, faith and discipline. In a culture in which these qualities are rare, the attainment of the capacity to love must remain a rare achievement. Or—anyone can ask himself how many truly loving persons he has known. Yet, the difficulty of the task must not be a reason to abstain from