1C Study Questions for Art of Loving

1.    How might some people, according to Fromm, be disappointed by his book? Foreword, first page.
2.    In spite of the book’s title, how does the book defy the hokum of self-help books?
3.    Why is the capacity to love a “rare achievement” in spite of the fact that most people are “starved” for it?
4.   In spite of people’s obsession for love, what are the primary causes of its absence in most people’s lives? The idea that it’s a “pleasant sensation”; the idea of being loved rather than actively loving; to make oneself “loveable” by becoming successful or attractive; focusing on the “object” of love rather than the “faculty” of love; the idea of love as a commodity in a consumer culture; the idea of a loving relationship being confused with a Chanel No. 5 Moment; confusing falling in love (infatuation, a sort of drug high followed by a crash) with being in love;
5.    Why did the “love object” emerge in the post-Victorian and Media Age?
6.   Explain why those who are most prone to “falling in love” and all-consuming infatuation are often the most lonely, loveless people of all. Compensation, addiction, using the other as a drug, etc.
7.    Explain Fromm’s idea that “love is an art.” (final 2 pages of Chapter 1)
8.   Explain the theory of human existence which is the foundation of the theory of love. (start of Chapter 2) Man is born separate, anxious, helpless, a prisoner to alienation, the consciousness of loss, suffering, and death. Only by honing his capacity to love can he embrace life fully and sanely.
9.    What is the “experience of separateness”?
10.    What is Fromm’s interpretation of the Adam and Eve story?
11.    Define “individuation.” Growing beyond “infancy” from mother and nature.
12.   What is the function of achieving “orgiastic states” and how do they differ when conducted within or outside of the tribe or community? Outside the community these states cause more separateness and guilt and anxiety, requiring even more “medication,” resulting in a vicious cycle of addiction.
13.    What are the 3 traits of “orgiastic union”?
14.    How is conformity “to the herd” an inadequate way to overcome one’s separateness?
15.    Explain how people are unaware of their desire to conform?
16.    What is the dignified and perverse definition of “equality”?
17.    Why is union through conformity often inadequate for overcoming one’s separateness?
18.    How does the work and pleasure routine dehumanize us?
19.    How is creative activity inadequate?
20.    How does Fromm eliminate all the false solutions and lead us to the final answer, the capacity to love?
21.    What is the difference between interpersonal and symbiotic union?
22.    What are active and passive forms of symbiotic unions?
23.    What is mature love?
24.    According to Spinoza, what is a free and what is an enslaved man?
25.    What are the 2 main types of giving?
26.    How does Fromm use the story of Jonah to illustrate the 4 essential attributes of love?
27.    What are the shortcomings of intellectualizing God and humankind? (experience vs. knowledge about)
28.    How might some argue that Fromm’s theories of sexuality are outdated at the end of part 2, Chapter 2?
29.    How is Fromm’s sexual instinct theory superior to Freud’s?
30.    What are the opposite realms of Mother and Father described in Chapter 2?
31.    What are the consequences of erring in either extreme of the Mother or Father realm?
32.    What is the danger of loving only one person as opposed to the whole world described in part 3 of Chapter 2?
33.   How does Fromm contrast a healthy love for oneself for a destructive, narcissistic self-love? (selfish person loves himself too little)
34.    How does Fromm describe the patriarchal and matriarchal sides of God?
35.    According to Fromm, what constitutes an immature and a mature relationship to God?
36.    For Fromm, why are Buddhism and Taoism more appropriate religious paths?
37.     For Fromm, why is paradoxical logic more compelling than Western logic?
38.    According to Fromm, how does modern capitalist culture degrade humankind?
39.    What are the common “palliatives” to modern man’s aloneness?
40.    What does Fromm mean by calling us “automatons”?
41.    How are Freud’s materialist theories inadequate?
42.    How is love currently a form of “disintegration” and a form of “neurosis”?
43.    How does man’s extreme mother attachment degrade his relationship with women in general?
44.   What are the forms of “pseudo-love” Fromm describes? (idolatry, sentimentality, abstract or idealized past, projection, absence of conflict fantasy,
45.    What is the primitive relation to God?
46.   What does Fromm mean when he writes that one cannot discipline oneself to love per se but that one must discipline one’s whole life? (essay topic)
47.    Why are our powers of concentration degraded? Why is this even more true now than when Fromm wrote the book over 50 years ago?
48.    Why are our powers of patience degraded?
49.    What does Fromm mean by the need to make love a “supreme concern”?
50.    What is the paradox of the person who can be alone as the person who can love greater than others?
51.    According to Fromm, what people should we avoid? (Energy Vampires)
52.    What is the curse of the narcissistic personality and how are we all challenged to overcome it?
53.    What is the difference between rational and irrational faith?
54.    How does a system geared toward “advantage” degrade our ability to love?
55.    How does nihilism result when we give up trying to love in a secular world?
56.    How does Fromm’s conclusion reiterate his thesis?