- At the international level, Sweden is seen as a perfect society, a model and a symbol of the highest achievements of human progress. The Swedish theory of love digs into the true nature of the Swedish lifestyle, exploring the existential black holes of a society that has created the most independent people in the world. The Swedish Theory of Love (2015) is a documentary by director Erik Gandini that deals with the study of idealized modern and individualistic Swedish society through different frameworks and experiences. Modern Sweden is considered an advanced society with a high standard of living, but does a high standard of living directly condition the happiness of an individual? Is it possible that a completely independent society in which human contact is reduced to a minimum, in which there is a growing trend of people dying alone, in which there is an increasing number of single mothers, is one of the "happiest" countries in the world. This documentary deals with these, but also with the questions of how all this came about.
- The Swedish theory of love begins with a story about the relationship between parents and children, men and women, which shows that relationships, contact and love (any kind of love) are harmful to the freedom of the individual. For that reason, in the Nordic country, separation and radical autonomy have been advocated for decades, where individuality as liberation from the other is the only way to be free and complete. With the sexual revolution, that is, the development of the process of in vitro fertilization, a woman can get pregnant in her home by injecting sperm with a syringe, which exceeds the standard sexual act. For those women who still lack human contact during a sexual act, a virtual reality VR option is offered in which a woman can connect with her donor and get closer emotionally. On the other hand, with the rise of individualism and obsession with achieving personal goals, modern Swedish society is losing out on socialization, families are breaking up, teenagers are leaving family homes early, and the elderly are dying alone. The term "Swedish love theory" comes from a movement in the 1970s that aimed to make the Swedish people completely independent of each other. The idea was that if you didn't have to depend on someone else, it would lead to the final form of existence.
- In this documentary, Ethiopia, where Dr. Eriksen lives and works, is presented as a contrast to life in Sweden. The contrast is great, and Dr. Eriksen describes it as someone who lived in Sweden most of his life and decided to meet another world. The economic abundance of a country like Sweden and others like Ethiopia is not comparable, so we will not even deal with that topic, but that does not have to be about happiness. He describes a family in Ethiopia that is collectivist, the elderly take care of grandchildren and stay in their homes until the end of their lives, if someone is sick, the family is there to help, the worries of an average family are reduced to mere existence and thinking about basic necessities. In contrast, sociologist Zygmunt Bauman argues that in Sweden, individualistic behavior has reduced the ability to socialize. He states that the problem is that when you reach a certain standard of living, all your existential problems disappear, society takes care of you, your bills are paid automatically, so it happens, as shown in the documentary, that a person dies and no one found about it for two years because all his bills were duly paid from the account on which he still had 100,000 euros left. When a person loses the problems he has to face, it does not make him happy, on the contrary, it leads him to direct misfortune and absolute boredom.
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