All About Love: New Visions

In the preface of the book, bell hooks writes about being abandoned from love in her girlhood. While she does not provide the reader with context to the details of that abandonment, Hooks reflects to the reader that she realized that all the years she was looking for love, she was truly longing to heal from the initial abandonment. Hooks writes that when she finally got herself moved on from that incident and ready to love in the present , she felt that the world she lives in (our world) became "loveless."[1] Hooks ends the preface of the book to write to the reader why she wrote about love. She writes, "I write of love to bear witness both to the danger in this movement, and to call for a return to love. Redeemed and restored, love returns us to the promise of everlasting life. When we love we can let our hearts speak."[1]

• In the first chapter of the book, bell hooks describes how love is used but no one quite knows the definition of it. Bell Hooks says that the definition that she finds most fitting is the one that Erich Fromm uses. As mentioned in the book, Erich Fromm defines love as "the will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own, or another's spiritual growth...Love is an act of will-namely, both an intention and an action. Will also implies choice. We do not have to love. We choose to love. " [1]
• Hooks then reinforces the concept and draws on her own life to describe her belief that growing up her family was dysfunctional in meeting her emotional needs. She encourages readers to accept if their families of origin were lacking in sustained love, and writes that accepting this does not mean there was an "absence of care, love and affection.[1]
• Hooks draws upon her own desires to find love and discusses the notion that women are quick to adopt strategies that increase pleasure in love, finding these principles in self-help books. Hooks makes it clear in this chapter that she intends to write about love from the definition that it is an action.