Symposium; Eryxmachus’ Views in Relation to Contemporary Society

Elizebeth Dylan Fisher

Honors IT 2101-004

Love and Energy

Eryxmachus takes a very different view on love than his colleagues in Plato’s “Symposium.” His model of love doesn’t examine partners or sexual desire, but the physical effects love has. The traditional role of love is challenged by Eryxmachus, “Love isn’t only a human mental response to physical attractions; he influences a great many other situations and circumstances as well.” (Pg20) Eryxmachus’ view of good and bad love is very similar to the contemporary view of energies.

Love is more of a tangible object than an abstract idea according to Eryxmachus. When it comes to health, Eryxmachus speaks of the effects good and bad love have on the body. Good love brings about harmony and balance in the body. Bad love, on the other hand, brings disease and discordance. This take on love is closely related to a holistic point of view in contemporary terms. Holism originated from the Greek word holos, meaning all, entire, whole. Thoughts and energy of a whole can produce tangible results just like the balance of good and bad love could produce tangible symptoms.

“The Secret” is a book, and now movie, about the laws of attraction. The overall idea is that if one wills events to happen they are more likely to occur. Focusing on and gratifying the positive energy can have physical effects on one’s life. The gratification of the positive energy is essentially the same thing as gratifying good love. When one is “filled” with positive energy one will be more healthy and happy. Gratifying good love brings about good people, these people, in theory, would be model citizens. Their lives would be harmonious and in balance. The same goes for negative energies and gratifying bad love or “self-indulgence.” The negative energy throws people off balance, thus their behaviors and persona would also be imbalanced. The balance between good and bad love imply the same effects as the balance of positive and negative energy.

Eryxmachus stated that if you focus and gratify the bad love, then the disease and imbalance in the body will continue to grow and have adverse affects. “…It is no only all right, but even essential, to gratify the good, healthy parts of the body (that’s just another way of describing the process of healing, after all) but it’s wrong to gratify the bad, diseased parts- in fact a professional doctor ought not to pander to them at all.”(Pg21) If the bad is given no thought or attention, it will have nothing to thrive on and eventually a change will bring the good love in. It is not good to gratify bad love, by any means, but you cannot ignore and bury it all together. This is where Eryxmachus and contemporary holistic