Lemann Lecture Examines Love, Identity, Intimacy

Huston Smith, professor of Philosophy at M.I.T., last night closed the first series of Lemann Lectures with a discussion of the "Ambiguities of Love."

Smith referred to "excessive loneliness" as the "most virulent poison invented by industrial society," and pointed out that the primary task of young adulthood is to "develop the capacity nor intimacy."

This capacity can be nourished, he said, not only by sexual relations as some psychoanalysts suggest, but also by "close friendships, physical combat, and inspiration from teachers."

"Freud is misconstrued to have prescribed good orgasms, with fitting objects, and regularly." Smith stated; but in fact "what Freud wanted was both love and work carried on in the atmosphere of intimacy and trust that overcomes distance between people."

"Absolutely essential to achieving intimacy is a sure sense of one's identity," Smith went on, "as evidenced by confidence in one's saneness, the feeling of being at case with one's body, an idea of where one is going, and recognition from the most important people in one's life."

Without the sense of identity, intimacy is felt to be a threat to the self, Smith stated. Unfortunately, many men and women who lack identity enter marriage, hoping to overcome "isolation and inner emptiness." What results is a "possessive, pseudo-intimacy," between what Smith called "hollow men and hollow women."

Emphasizing that marriage is no quick cure or therapy, Smith pointed out that people approach marriage with "the unfinished tasks of childhood," their personalities encumbered by "all the trivia and deformation of twenty years of living."

Smith stated that a truly intimate marriage could, however, provide the "inner security and psychical resources" necessary for the self to turn outward, ending anomie and giving one "a conviction of belonging to the stream of life." He explained that opening up to one's spouse enriches the capacity to relate to humanity in general