Analysis Of Erich Fromm's To Have Or To Be

A prominent humanistic psychologist called Erich Fromm wrote a book called To Have or to Be, in which he describes two opposing orientations to living life. These orientations are the having orientation, and the being orientation respectively. In short, he describes the being orientation to life as living life in such a way that values objects above all else. Be it living life for money, or living for the next edition of the iPad, the concept of the having orientation encapsulates the rampant materialism or consumerism that pervades our culture. Then, as opposed to this, he describes the being orientation, in which a person values experiences and emotions, or human contact above materialism. Though he framed the being orientation in a more …show more content…
I would say that achieving the level of black belt is liberating in a way, because not only is it a regression to the basics, it removes the material aspect of the game. Learning karate transcends from a race to the next colour, to an intimate experience of the self. This is something I experienced when I got my black belt three years ago. I feel like at that point, learning Kata was not a step towards getting my next belt; it was learning kata for the sake of learning it. Rather than extrinsically enjoying learning, which involves enjoying the end goal of an action, it became intrinsic enjoyment, which is the enjoyment of the action …show more content…
I would say that spirit is synonymous to passion, because when someone has passion, it is easy to see the spirit in the way they practice an in their attitudes. I would, however, say that, though spirit may derive from passion, passion does not necessarily derive from spirit. Where passion may be a positive fixation towards something particular, I would say that spirit is instead an attitude towards an activity or a situation. I will take a scenario from my military training for an example. Though no one was passionate in being stuck in a cold wet trenches all week, it was easy to tell who kept their spirits high, and who didn’t have any. They call it fighting spirit, and I know this can be applied to karate. It all boils down to a simple term: Positivity. Having spirit in karate is about being positive, and about having a good attitude. It doesn’t mean you have to be obsessed with karate, or that you need to practice 48 hours per week, but I think it means giving 100% when you do practice, even if you’re sick, or tired, because you want