11/03/2025
Fromm’s text “The Art of Loving” reminds us that love is both the most difficult and the most affirming action we can take. He details the ways in which giving, described here as necessitating courage, is not the sacrificial martyrdom implied in the phrase “giving up”. The courageous lover “gives of that which is alive in him; he gives him of his joy, of his interest, of his understanding, of his knowledge, of his humor, of his sadness… In thus giving of his life, he enriches the other person, he enhances the other’s sense of aliveness by enhancing his own sense of aliveness… In truly giving, he cannot help receiving that which is given back to him.” This gift of one’s own aliveness, and the faith that giving of it multiplies it rather than depletes it, is Fromm’s notion of real love.