The component parts of love are generosity, gratitude and forgiveness, and the focus of the paper is on generosity, arguing that the source of sanity lies in generosity of heart. Madness as a condition springs from the absence of love. Psychoanalysis itself can promote either mean-minded or generous responses to the patient, and I give clinical vignettes to illustrate this belief. Scientific and religious approaches to ‘the real’ are discussed, and I emphasize the idea of the mind as an active power in grasping reality. Religion safeguards the creative power of the mind, in particular the world's mystical traditions. I consider the relationship between inner autonomy and creativity, and make links with Bion's concept of O, emphasizing that the spiritual is woven into the very fabric of what we do as psychoanalysts and psychotherapists.