Sixty nine non-material needs

Margaret Chisman

Are human beings unique? Our species shares with the rest of the animal kingdom, to a greater or lesser extent, a whole list of physiological needs. Some of our non-material needs are very similar to those of higher social mammals, but we have developed them far more extensively. So if we can study these needs we might begin to get some idea of human-ness.

'We are 'open-ended' creatures - and that is our glory'

The list below shows some of our non-material needs. It is not possible to make a complete list as we are not wholly definable. We are 'open-ended' creatures - and that is our glory.

The numbers do not represent any order of importance but are for reference only. There seem to be rough categories of personal needs, social and community and authority.

Personal

(1) Need to learn to speak and use language;

(2) Need to exercise reason;

(3) Need to search for truth (to research, ask questions, satisfy curiosity, to seek and solve problems);

(4) Need to explore, to take risks and return home;

(5) Need for boundaries;

(6) Need to search for meaning and purpose in life;

(7) Need to bring order out of chaos;

(8) Need to seek and to make patterns and to use our imagination;

(9) Need for beauty (to enjoy it in nature, art, music, poetry, the opposite sex);

(10) Need to develop our aptitudes and to create something;

(11) Need to feel at one with nature;

'Need to feel wholeness of being'

(12) Need to feel wholeness of being;

(13) Need to find ways of dealing with the darker side of one's nature;

(14) Need for catharsis of the emotions;

(15) Need for contrariness (to act differently from others, to take opposite sides, to feel unique);

(16) Need to be able to cope with uncertainty;

(17) Need for hope;

(18) Need to be able to make choices, to make decisions and to implement them;

(19) Need for autonomy (to resist influences, to strive for independence);

(20) Need to defend one's territory;

(21) Need to defend one's ideas;

(22) Need to feel at home on this planet;

(23) Need for transcendence of self;

Social and Community

(24) Need for friendship;

(25) Need for physical and psychological 'stroking';

(26) Need for a loving, mated relationship;

(27) Need for family life;

(28) Need to have and to rear children;

(29) Need to share humour;

(30) Need to express joy in the company of others;

(31) Need to play games, physical and psychological;

(32) Need to relax, amuse oneself, seek diversions and entertainment;

(33) Need to share memories and nostalgia;

(34) Need to feel accepted;

(35) Need to feel pity and compassion and to display altruism;

(36) Need to be committed to ideas and concepts;

(37) Need to excel;

(38) Need for achievement (to overcome obstacles, to do something difficult as well and as quickly as possible);

(39) Need for recognition (to receive praise and commendation);

(40) Need to feel useful and needed, including to be able to find satisfying employment or self-employment;

'Need for a sense of community'

(41) Need for a sense of community;

(42) Need for social institutions which welcome us into the community;

(43) Need for festivals, ceremonies and celebrations;

(44) Need for rites of passage (to mark the phases of life, eg birth, puberty, adulthood, marriage, death, etc);

(45) Need for symbols and myths;

(46) Need for a vision that can inspire human idealism and heroic action;

(47) Need to practise exposition (to point, to demonstrate, to give information, explain, interpret, lecture);

'Need for a human-scale community. Need to feel human fellowship'

(48) Need for a human-scale community;

(49) Need to feel human fellowship;

(50) Need to have a moral code;

(51) Need for fairness and justice;

(52) Need to accept the call of duty;

Authority

(53) Need for dominance (to exercise authority, influence and control others);

(54) Need for a scapegoat;

(55) Need for aggression;

(56) Need to accept responsibility;

(57) Need for proselytisation (to convert others);

(58) Need for similance (to imitate or emulate others, to agree, to believe);

(59) Need for deference and respect (to admire and willingly follow a superior, to serve gladly);

(60) Need for forgiveness (absolution on repentance);

(61) Need for abasement (to comply and accept punishment, self-depreciation);

(62) Need to submit to government and the law;

(63) Need for prayer and meditation;

(64) Need for worship;

(65) Need for reverence and awe;

(66) Need to feel there is 'life' after death and that one will become nearer to God;

(67) Need for a redeemer (ie a bridge between humanity and God);

(68) Need for a reassuring, all-embracing, irrefutable explanation of everything;

(69) Need for mystery, mystical and 'magical' experiences.

In this categorisation there are grey areas; some needs fall into more than one section, and some are contradictory. This, in my opinion, does not invalidate them; the tension that this creates may be part of our growing process. Some needs may be, in fact, holding back our growth into fuller human-ness, However, I feel that we must include as many actual needs as possible in our endeavour to answer the question 'Are human beings unique?'

Some human concepts and activities seem to be a complex of simpler needs. For example, religion could include numbers 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 22, 23, 30, 34, 35, 36, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 50, 51, 52, 56, 59, 60, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68 and 69. Besides applying the idea of different groupings of needs to concepts, it could apply to the requirements of different professions. Insight gained by thinking about these needs will be helpful to all of us. We will begin to understand a little of what it means to be human.

I shall be happy to engage in discussion or correspondence on these matters. In addition, if you have any more needs to add to this list I shall be glad to receive them.

Margaret Chisman, The Bungalow, near the Station, Tring, Herts, HP23 5QX (tel 044282 3281).

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