# Love & Will by [[Rollo May]] #existential #psychology [[Books Index]] My takeaways - Modern man in the state of Apathy - as a defence mechanism. ^de9dd0 - The more we treat ourselves as machine, as if we can tweak, adjust, and "hack" ourselves, the more we become a machine, and less human; to feel. - Victorian era people repressed their sexuality; Love without sex. Today, there is too much sex but without love. - Too much "freedom", actually become a straitjacket, and internalised repression. - Sexuality become a tool for identity and worth, no longer for love. - Too much focus on the doing, the technicalities of doing - Why is that modern people have more (more freedom, more sex, more knowledge, more technologies) but have less (love, connections, and ability to connect with others emotionally)? - Sexuality, gender differences - the more we think that we are equal, the more we undermine our uniqueness and our identity and self. - How common are people being depersonalised; losing their self and identity? - If we treat sex as if another skills (like playing tennis), we cheapen sexuality? (What's the opposite for integrations and being holistic)? - So Freud's view of Love is different from Plato's view of love? One pushes, and one pulled.. The author seems to said that it's two halves, can be integrated?, part of human psychological development. - If human life is all about "pleasure principles," or "releasing tension", then ultimately, there will be nothing. Return to nothingness. So in oppose to this "death instinct", there is "love instinct", Eros... which has given us cultures. ![[Notes from Love & Will.pdf]]