30. mai 2006

Att ha eller att vara?, Erich Fromm

Att ha och att vara innebär två vitt skilda livsformer. A ha innebär ägande och leder till försvar, våld, aggression. Att vara kräver oberoende, frihet, mänsklig mognad, kritisk förnuft. Kärlek ligger inte inom ägandets utan inom varandets livsform.

Erich Fromm

22. mai 2006

The most ideal human passion, George Santayana

“In endowing us with memory, nature has revealed to us a truth utterly unimaginable to the unreflective creation, the truth of immortality. The most ideal human passion is love, which is also the most absolute and animal and one of the most ephemeral.”

George Santayana, 1863-1952
Spanish born American Philosopher, Poet and Humanist

“Love makes us poets, and the approach of death should makes us philosophers”

Perfect

“We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly”

Sam Keen
American philosopher

Love song, Roy Croft

“I love you,
Not only for what you are,
But for what I am
When I am with you.

I love you,
Not only for what
You have made of yourself,
But for what
You are making of me.

I love you
For the part of me
That you bring out;
I love you
For putting your hand
Into my heaped-up heart
And passing over
All the foolish, weak things
That you can’t help
Dimly seeing there,
And for drawing out
Into the light
All the beautiful belongings
That no one else had looked
Quite far enough to find.

I love you because you
Are helping me to make
Of the lumber of my life
Not a tavern
But a temple;
Out of the works
Of my every day
Not a reproach
But a song.

I love you
Because you have done
More than any creed
Could have done
To make me good
And more than any fate
Could have done
To make me happy.
You have done it
Without a touch,
Without a word,
Without a sign.
You have done it
By being yourself.
Perhaps that is what
Being a friend means,
After all.”

text: Roy Croft

One aspect of the battle

“The paintings are moods, impressions of the life of the soul, and together they represent one aspect of the battle, between man and woman, that is called love.”

Edvard Munch 1863-1944
Norwegian Painter and printmaker

21. mai 2006

Kjærlighet gjør enfoldig

Deltakere fra i alt 11 forskjellige land har deltatt i den omfattende undersøkelsen av hvordan hjernen ter seg når man er forelsket. Ved hjelp av MR- (magnet-resonnans) teknologi målte forskerne de forelskede deltakernes hjernaktivitet mens de ble vist bilder av sine respektive utkårne.

Forskerne er ikke nådige i sin konklusjon: Den intense følelsen av kjærlighet som kjennetegner forelskelsesfasen kan sammenliknes med den sløvende effekt narkotiske stoffer har på oss. Grunnen til dette er at det er nøyaktig de samme fire områdene av hjernen som får økt blodtilførsel når vi er forelsket som når vi tar sentralstimulerende stoffer. Områdene som stimuleres er de som er mest sentrale for hukommelsen og konsentrasjonsevnen vår.

Et annet aspekt ved forelskelse som vel må anses som en ekstrabonus, er at de forelskede hadde en redusert aktivitet i de områdene av hjernen som er knyttet til depresjon og frykt.

Elisabeth Endsjø


Undersøkelsen vil bli gjengitt i mai-nummeret (2001) av German psychology journal.
Kilde: Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) Publisert 8. mai 2001

19. mai 2006

The Art of Loving, Erich Fromm

"Kjærlighet er det eneste sanne og tilfredsstillende svar på menneskelivets problem," sier Erich Fromm.

"Most people see the problem of love primarily as that of being loved rather than that of loving, of one's capacity to love."

"Å bli elsket, ikke å elske er først og fremst menneskets oppfatning av hva kjærlighet er," mener Fromm. Og slik får kjærligheten alvorlige problemer.


Fromm har skrevet boken "Om kjærlighet". Orginaltittel: "The Art of Loving"

I denne boken beskriver han kjærligheten i videste forstand. Ikke bare den romantiske erotiske kjærligheten, men også kjærligheten til barn, mellom søsken og venner og kjærligheten til seg selv og til Gud.

Fromm fremsetter skarpt formulerte sannheter og slående iakttakelser relatert til kjærlighetens områder i vårt moderne samfunn. Han drøfter kjærligheten som en kunstform og berører kjærlighetens mange "teorier".

...

Love is not primarily a relationship to a specific person; it is an attitude, an orientation of character which determines the relatedness of a person to the world as a whole, not towards one 'object' of love. If a person loves only one other person and is indifferent to the rest of his fellow men, his love is not love but a symbiotic attachment, or an enlarged egotism. (Fromm 1957: 36)

The most fundamental kind of love, which underlies all types of love is brotherly love. By this I mean the sense of responsibility, care, respect, knowledge of any other human being, the wish to further his life. This is the kind of love the Bible speaks of when it says: love thy neighbour as thyself. Brotherly love is love for all human beings; it is characterized by its very lack of exclusiveness. (Fromm 1957: 37)

Whilst we teach knowledge, we are losing that teaching which is the most important one for human development: the teaching which can only be given by the simple presence of a mature, loving person

1. mai 2006

A Little Philosophy on Love

"When you really feel love, the things that you have been taught you should do are things you wish to do without pushing yourself, without forcing it. When I really feel care for another person's life, I don't have to force myself to do what needs to be done. I don't feel it's a big sacrifice to go against my wishes and help the other person."

Jacob Needleman, professor of philosophy at San Francisco State University
(from an interview with Kristen Fairchild)

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