According to German Psychologist Erich Fromm, man is required to rise above his separation within himself and escape the confines of isolation. Throughout time, religion, race and creed, man has been answering the question of loneliness throughout their life, and have always craved to “overcome separateness, how to achieve union, how to transcend one’s own individual life and find atonement”. However, many attempts to fill the void in our heats by our ancestors have failed to do so, as they would sympathize by means of animalistic hierarchy, seek pleasure and reprieve in orgiastic, transitory states such as intercourse and drugs, or by engaging in the creative arts, such as by painting or performing music.
The reason for this, Fromm argues, …show more content…
The passive is the masochist, whereby the participant is incorporated into the active one, acting only as a “part and parcel of another person who directs him, guides him, protects him; who is his life and oxygen as it were”, much like a puppet and its marionette or a fetus in a mother’s womb. The active participant in this immature union is the sadist, whom is no less dependent or symbiotic within the relationship. The participants feel satisfied, as if their void is filled, but in truth, are unhealthy and unfulfilled as a true connection is not attained. True union is based upon the joining of two separate entities, but when one becomes lost and consumed, the union fails, as a vital component is …show more content…
From Erich Fromm’s analysis of a “healthy romance” which involves the coexistence of both participants in the romance, to the age-old concept of “love at first sight”, we are constantly realized of the necessity and the requirement of us as individuals to discover and create unity with others, let it be with singular, interpersonal love, or within a large group of persons working towards a common goal. Needless to say, the destructive “immature” symbiotic love is required to be avoided at all costs, especially when the hierarchical differences of the sadistic and masochistic participants create an unhealthy and often unsatisfied relationship of a superficial
The reason for this, Fromm argues, …show more content…
The passive is the masochist, whereby the participant is incorporated into the active one, acting only as a “part and parcel of another person who directs him, guides him, protects him; who is his life and oxygen as it were”, much like a puppet and its marionette or a fetus in a mother’s womb. The active participant in this immature union is the sadist, whom is no less dependent or symbiotic within the relationship. The participants feel satisfied, as if their void is filled, but in truth, are unhealthy and unfulfilled as a true connection is not attained. True union is based upon the joining of two separate entities, but when one becomes lost and consumed, the union fails, as a vital component is …show more content…
From Erich Fromm’s analysis of a “healthy romance” which involves the coexistence of both participants in the romance, to the age-old concept of “love at first sight”, we are constantly realized of the necessity and the requirement of us as individuals to discover and create unity with others, let it be with singular, interpersonal love, or within a large group of persons working towards a common goal. Needless to say, the destructive “immature” symbiotic love is required to be avoided at all costs, especially when the hierarchical differences of the sadistic and masochistic participants create an unhealthy and often unsatisfied relationship of a superficial