The Art of Loving > The Practice of Love

The difficulty of the problem is enhanced by the fact that most people today, hence many readers of this book, expect to be given prescriptions of "how to do it yourself," and that means in our case to be taught how to love. I am afraid that anyone who approaches this last chapter in this spirit will be gravely disappointed. To love is a personal experience which everyone can only have by and for himself; in fact, there is hardly anybody who has not had this experience in a rudimentary way, at least, as a child, an adolescent, an adult. What the discussion of the practice of love can do is to discuss the premises of the art of loving, the approaches to it as it were, and the practice of these premises and approaches. The steps toward the goal can be practiced only by oneself, and discussion ends before the decisive step is taken. Yet, I believe that the discussion of the approaches may be helpful for the mastery of the art, for those at least who have freed themselves from expecting "prescriptions."

The Art of Loving

Eric Fromm

1

Chapter 1: The Practice of Love

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The Art of Loving

Eric Fromm

1 Chapter 1: The Practice of Love

Not in the Public Domain

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1

Chapter 1: The Practice of Love