The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm

In the absence of love, states Fromm, individuals attempt to palliate their existential aloneness with less satisfactory “solutions”. The first is the “orgiastic solution”, in which the individual abandons his or her sense of separateness through fusion with the “tribe” or the cosmos at large. Orgiastic experiences are facilitated by the use of drugs, alcohol and group rites like dancing, chanting, drumming, and permit a deep and gratifying sense of immersion in nature, a loss of ego-boundaries etc. But however gripping the experiences afforded by orgiastic practices, the relief they bring is transient. When the ecstasy wears off, they often leave the person even lonelier than before. A second “solution” less convulsive and episodic than the orgiastic approach is “automaton conformity”, which entails a pervasive (but semi-deliberate) numbing of our humanistic conscience and critical faculties resulting in a state of frictionless adaptation to one’s surroundings.

Text Source: The Literary Encyclopedia - The Art of Loving

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