Virtually anything can be possessed if a person orients his way of life toward having. The issue is not whether one does or does not have something, but rather whether a person’s heart is set on what he or she does or does not have. Orientation toward not-having is a having orientation, too. Fromm is not advocating asceticism; orientation toward “being” is precisely what is not identical with orientation toward “not-having.” The perpetual question concerns the position that having or not-having holds in the determination of one’s purpose in life and in the determination of one’s own identity.
