Is love an art?

Eric Fromm shakes you up with this question and knocks you out with this answer: Love requires knowledge and effort. Is this a recommendation or an observation? The author shows us how to learn about this kind of art, but before that, he analyses three mistakes we make in love.

First of all, Fromm focuses on the general view of love, where most of us look for being loved than being lover and we accept several stereotypes about men and women, who seem to be more lovable (there were two doors, one pink one blue…).

Secondly, love is presented like an object, a product, an attractive package available in our contemporary culture, where everything is bought and sold, but depending on the possibilities or potential of every human commodity (the supermarket of love).

And a further failure is about the lies of love, where the idea of being in love is confused with the beginning of falling in love, so we try to maintain that intensity forever; but, it has an expiry date (young love).

Finally, Eric Fromm gives us his prescription for being a master in love, where as in any art you have to learn the theory, put it into practice and consider your art the most important thing for you. However, all of us know what makes the world go round.