Eros and Civilization received positive reviews from the psychoanalyst Martin Grotjahn in The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, Paul Nyberg in the Harvard Educational Review, and Richard M. Jones in American Imago, and a negative review from the philosopher Herbert Fingarette in The Review of Metaphysics. In the American Journal of Sociology, the book received a positive review from the sociologist Kurt Heinrich Wolff and later a mixed review from an author using the pen-name "Barbara Celarent". The book was also discussed by Margaret Cerullo in New German Critique.
