The Art of Being

How can we realise and actualise love, reason and meaningful, productive work?

If the Art of Being - the art of functioning as a whole person - can be considered the supreme goal of life, a breakthrough occurs when we move from narcissistic selfishness and egotism - from having - to psychological and spiritual happiness - being.

The Art of Being remains one of the most important and sought-after works in the Fromm canon. Fromm offers a path to true wellbeing and a way of living based on authentic self-awareness that comes only through honest self-analysis. He warns of the pitfalls of our attaining enlightenment without effort, or believing that life can be lived without pain. The tantalising 'spiritual smorgasbord' offered by our consumer-oriented world, Fromm maintains, only feeds our illusions of 'easy awareness'. Confronting the psycho-gurus who preach these shortcuts to enlightenment, Fromm offers another way to self-awareness through meditation rather than material gain.

This volume is a sequel to one of Erich Fromm's most popular works, To Have or to Be. In this book, Fromm examines the true paths - as opposed to false directions - that will lead us to self-knowledge and enlightenment. This edition, commemorating thirty years since the first English publication of The Art of Being, features an updated introduction from editor Rainer Funk.

ERICH FROMM (1900-1980) was an outstanding social scientist and author of bestsellers. He was also a practising psychoanalyst who applied his experience to the interpretation of social phenomena and reformulated Freud's basic insights into the unconscious of the individual and of society. Fromm's popular success rests principally on two later works, The Art of Loving and To Have or to Be, in which he urged readers to abandon the lure of materialism for meaningful love.