As Fromm points out, ours is ';a lifebetweenhaving and being'between merehavingand healthybeing, between destructiveness and creativity, between narcissism and productive self-understanding, between passivity and the joy of positive activity. The alternatives ofhavingandbeingare basic orientations of our character and determine our behavior. The mostly unpublished and unknown texts featured inThe Essential Frommencapsulate Fromm's views on the fulfilling life. To put down roots yet remain free is what the late Erich Fromm called the art ofbeing. It is the secret of happiness.