Autres citations d'Erich Fromm:
"The narcissistic, the domineering, the possessive woman can succeed in being a "loving” mother as long as the child is small. Only the really loving woman, the woman who is happier in giving than in taking, who is firmly rooted in her own existence, can be a loving mother when the child is in the process of separation."
"L'amour paternel a ceci de négatif qu'il doit être mérité, qu'il peut être perdu si l'on déçoit son attente."
"On ne peut être fidèle envers les autres que si on l’est d’abord envers soi-même." (Erich Fromm) [à comparer à Thomas Paine (1737-1809): "It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving, it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe." ou à Claude Roy (1915-97): "Si on n'était fidèle qu'à ceux qui le méritent, on ne le serait même pas à soi-même."]
"Mourir est une chose terrible, mais l'idée de mourir sans avoir vécu est insupportable."
"Des gens se sont suicidés à cause de leur incapacité à réaliser les passions d'amour, de pouvoir, de gloire, de vengeance. Les cas de suicide par manque de satisfaction sexuelle sont pratiquement inexistants."
"La tâche à laquelle nous devons nous atteler, ce n’est pas de parvenir à la sécurité, c’est d’arriver à tolérer l’insécurité."
"The selfish person is interested only in himself, wants everything for himself, feels no pleasure in giving, but only in taking. The world outside is looked at only from the standpoint of what he can get out of it; he lacks interest in the needs of others, and respect for their dignity and integrity. He can see nothing but himself; he judges everyone and everything from its usefulness to him; he is basically unable to love. Does not this prove that concern for others and concern for oneself are unavoidable alternatives? This would be so if selfishness and self-love were identical. But that assumption is the very fallacy which has led to so many mistaken conclusions concerning our problem. Selfishness and self-love, far from being identical, are actually opposites. The selfish person does not love himself too much but too little; in fact he hates himself. This lack of fondness and care for himself, which is only one expression of his lack of productiveness, leaves him empty and frustrated. He is necessarily unhappy and anxiously concerned to snatch from life the satisfactions which he blocks himself from attaining. He seems to care too much for himself but actually he only makes an unsuccessful attempt to cover up and compensate for his failure to care for his real self. Freud holds that the selfish person is narcissistic, as if he had withdrawn his love from others and turned it toward his own person. It is true that selfish persons are incapable of loving others, but they are not capable of loving themselves either."
"L’amour infantile suit le principe: J’aime parce que je suis aimé. L’amour parvenu à maturité suit le principe: Je suis aimé parce que j’aime. L’amour inachevé dit: Je t’aime parce que j’ai besoin de toi. L’amour accompli dit: J’ai besoin de toi parce que je t’aime." / "Immature love says: "I love you because I need you." Mature love says: "I need you because I love you.""
"Le véritable amour n'est pas un sentiment à la portée de n'importe qui: il dépend de notre niveau de maturité."
"If a person loves only one other person and is indifferent to all others, his love is not love but a symbiotic attachment, or an enlarged egotism."
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Jacques Lacan est cité ici:
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