description: Dr Fromm considers The Heart of Man a counterpart to The Art of Loving. The present volume reveals the other face of Janus, however, as he's concerned here essentially with the nature of evil--&amp; by the converse of its definition, good--&amp; the human capacity for it. He equates evil with tendencies toward death, the regression to the prehuman mass against the good of progressing toward life &amp; true humanness. He sees necrophilia, extreme narcissism &amp; incestuous symbiosis as the "syndrome of decay." Persons are free to choose between evil &amp; good, but previous choices have the more choices made against life, the harder it is to avoid a hardened heart, to turn back. Yet this is almost always possible. In a social context, he observes the influence of a Hitler or Stalin &amp; analyzes their appeal. More clinical than The Art of Loving, this will mainly be of interest in terms of its religious-phychological equation. It appears as the 12th volume in the Religious Perspectives series.--Kirkus (edited)Religious Perspectives--Ruth Nanda AnshenForewordMan--Wolf or Sheep?Different Forms of ViolenceLove of Death &amp; Love of LifeIndividual &amp; Social NarcissismIncestuous TiesFreedom, Determinism, AlternativismIndex
language: English
title: The Heart of Man
titlecomplete: The Heart of Man
genres: Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, Sociology, Social, Psychology, German Literature, Germany, Love, Unfinished, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 1492
publisher: HarperCollins Publishers