ABSTRACT
In ‘Three essays on the theory of sexuality’Freud used a quotation from Goethe’s Faust, ‘From Heaven, across the world, to Hell’ to convey how the highest and the lowest motives closely accompany each other in the sphere of sexuality. The same is true of the contradictions in our motives and attitudes to learning. It is not uncommon for a person to have the deepest and most extreme hatred or fear of knowledge and learning while still loving them for their own sakes. Indeed this coexistence is to be expected as a relatively usual state of affairs. Unfortunately, the potential for these contradictions can lead on to difficulties with learning, especially with new learning from experience.
