If the nature of life is that of being a process of growth and integration, if it cannot be loved by means of control or force, love for life is the kernel of all love; it is the love for the life in a person, in an animal, in a flower. Love for life, far from being an abstraction, is the most concrete nucleus in any kind of love. Anyone who believes he loves a person and who does not love life also, may desire, want, cling to a person – but he does not love him.
Erich Fromm, “Do We Still Love Life?” (McCalls magazine, 1967)
The most substantial part of our book’s postscript is a short biography by Fromm’s last assistant, Rainer Funk. The biography pulls together its subject’s life and work (especially our current text.) In so doing, it demonstrates Fromm’s recognition of the unique dynamic of living substances “far beyond the ‘tendency to preserve life’” – their “tendency to integrate and to unite.” Thus, the book’s author’s life and work make him an ideal spokesperson for The Integral.
My own P.S., the book provides the address of a resource-rich website on its author: https://fromm-online.org/en/
P.S.S., I used this quote earlier in this blog, but it works so well here I have to repeat it:
Seeker247365v2 