Methods of Self-Analysis

The Art of Being by Erich Fromm

(Another approach is to) let one’s thoughts and feelings be centered around the goals of living, such as overcoming greed, hate, illusions, fears, possessiveness, narcissism, destructiveness, sadism, masochism, dishonesty, lack of authenticity, alienation, indifference, necrophilia, male patriarchal dominance or corresponding female submission, and to achieve independence, the capacity for critical thought, for giving, for loving.

This approach consists in the attempt to uncover the unconscious presence of any of these “bad” traits, the way they are rationalized, how they form part of one’s whole character structure, the conditions of their development. The process is often very painful and may arouse a great deal of anxiety.

It requires that we become aware of being dependent, when we believe that we love and are loyal; that we become aware of our vanity (narcissism), when we believe ourselves to be nothing but kind and helpful; that we become aware of our sadism, when we believe that we want to do for others only what is good for them; that we discover our destructiveness, when we believe that it is our sense of justice that demands punishment; that we become aware of our cowardice, when we believe ourselves to be only prudent and “realistic”; that we become aware of our arrogance, when we believe that we behave with extraordinary humility; that we are aware that we are afraid of freedom, when we think that we are only motivated by the wish not to hurt anybody; that we become aware that we are insincere, when we only thought that we did not want to be rude; that we discover that we are treacherous, when we believe that we are being particularly objective.

In short, as Goethe put it, only if we can “imagine ourselves as the author of any conceivable crime,” and mean it, can we be reasonably sure of having dropped the mask and of being on the way to becoming aware of who we are.

整理草稿箱看到這些摘抄。之前翻譯了幾段，覺得不怎麼好所以刪掉了。Fromm的排比句很有氣勢。我認同他說的，每個人都有作惡的能力，我們也常常自我欺騙。只有認清、面對那些醜陋的部分，才能活得更正直。也與讀到這些句子的有緣人共勉。

草稿箱裡滿是些有的沒的。2020年末想要參與馬特市活動寫的2021展望還可憐巴巴地躺在那裡，當時的願望也多半沒有達成。我變得更耐心，可以享受旅途，終點到不到都還好。還有開頭寫了一點的和朋友聊對死亡的想像，以及從禮儀師那聽來的故事。欸我不知道。不著急。有些東西需要水到渠成。

疫情剛開始結成的狗公園散步二人組，直到現在仍舊好好的堅持著一週一次的約會，真的好感謝朋友。今天還是很累，和朋友說我走不動，於是他帶了毯子帶我去樹蔭下的草地躺倒，愉快地看狗一下午。

和大家分享柏林人的日常。