Love as Orientation

For Fromm, love is not a bond with one special person but an orientation toward the world. A truly loving person does not save it all for a partner — they bring care and genuine interest to friends, strangers, even rivals.

So the goal is not finding the right object but growing the right capacity. A skilled painter creates beauty with any materials; a person skilled in loving can build real connection with many people, because the skill lives in the lover, not the beloved.