The Erotic

A short monograph for Martin Buber’s series of social-psychological studies, written before Andreas-Salomé turned to psychoanalysis. Starting from sexuality as a bodily need, it follows erotic love into the lover’s overvaluation of the beloved, which it treats as a creative act of idealisation rather than mere illusion, and compares love with artistic creation and religious fervour, which share its roots. It ends with love’s return into social life.