Erich Fromm - being loving means being objective

Dec 18

The art of loving by Erich Fromm
If I want to learn the art of loving, I must strive for objectivity in every situation, and become sensitive where I am not objective. I must try to see the difference between my picture of a person and his behavior, as it is narcissistically distorted, and the person's reality as it exists regardless of my interests, needs and fears.

To have acquired the capacity for objectivity and reason is half the road to achieving the art of loving, but it must be squired with regard to everybody with whom one comes in contact. If someone reserved his objectivity for his loved ones and think can dispense with it in his rship to the rest of the world, he will soon discover that he fails both here and there.