爱的艺术The Art of Loving(英文版).doc

The Art of Loving Erich Fromm Erich S. Fromm (March 23, 1900 – March 18, 1980) was a German social psychologist, psychoanalyst, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was associated with what became known as the Frankfurt School of critical theory. I. IS LOVE AN ART? II. THE THEORY OF LOVE 1. Love, the Answer to the Problem of Human Existence 2. Love Between Parent and Child 3. The Objects of Love a. Brotherly Love b.Motherly Love c. Erotic Love d. Self Love e. Love of God III. LOVE AND ITS DISINTEGRATION IN CONTEMPORARY WESTERN SOCIETY IV. THE PRACTICE OF LOVE I IS LOVE AN ART? Is love an art? Then it requires knowledge and effort. Or is love a pleasant sensation, which to experience is a matter of chance, something one “falls into” if one is lucky? This little book is based on the former premise, while undoubtedly the majority of people today believe in the latter. Not that people think that love is not important. They are starved for it; they watch endless numbers of films about happy and unhappy love stories, they listen to hundreds of trashy songs about love—yet hardly anyone thinks that there is anything that needs to be learned about love. This peculiar attitude is based on several premises which either singly or combined tend to uphold it. Most people see the problem of love primarily as that of being loved, rather than that of loving, of one’s capacity to love. Hence the problem to them is how to be loved, how to be lovable. In pursuit of this aim they follow several paths. One, which is especially used by men, is to be successful, to be as powerful and rich as the social margin of one’s position permits. Another, used especially by women, is to make oneself attractive, by cultivating one’s body, dress, etc. Other ways of making oneself attractive, used both by men and women, are to develop pleasant manners, interesting conversation, to be helpful, modest, inoffensive. Many of the ways to make oneself lovable are the same as those used to mak