The Need to Be Loved – Thomas Merton

We are struggling with a debased concept of self. It’s debased to some extent by popular psychology, and of course, again, my advertising. It’s a question of who you identify with; and if they can get you to identify with the person who has certain fears and certain needs—they’ve got you… Just think of how people are dominated in this country by the need to be loved—in a superficial way; not real love, but the need to be accepted and appreciated. You can’t begin unless you are free to some extent from that. — Thomas Merton in California: The Redwoods Conference and Letters, p. 65