I should like to describe sentimentality is feeling under the condition of complete detachment. Unless you are really insane, you have feeling, but if you are detached, remote, unrelated to things (…), then you have a very peculiar situation. You have feelings, but you do not refer really, concretely to something which is the reality. You are sentimental. Your feelings overflow. They appear somewhere. ― (1991e [1953]: Modern Man’s Pathology of Normalcy, in: E. Fromm, The Pathology of Normalcy. Contributions to a Science of Man, New York (American Mental Health Foundation) 2010, p. 57.)
Another form of pseudo-love is what may be called „sentimental love.” Its essence lies in the fact that love is experienced only in phantasy and not in the here―and―now relationship to another person who is real. The most widespread form of this type of love is that to be found in the vicarious love satisfaction experienced by the consumer of screen pictures, magazine love stories and love songs. All the unfulfilled desires for love, union, and closeness find their satisfaction in the consumption of these products. ― (1956a: The Art of Loving. An Inquiry into the Nature of Love New York (Harper and Row) 1956, p. 90.)