This article is about human physiological and psychological needs. Before we proceed, it is important to note that the words need, desire, drive, urge, will, wanting, and striving have similar meanings and can be used interchangeably.
So, what is a need? A 19th-century philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer, in his book The World as Will and Representation, describes a fundamental law of Nature, which he calls the "Will to Live." According to the author, it is the Will to Live that forces every organism to preserve its life. The word “force” precisely captures the essence of the law, because we are all involuntarily forced to live—no one asked us whether we wanted to be born or not. To make us want to continue living, Nature has invented a clever trick: it equipped us with needs and associated feelings that we experience when fulfilling or failing to fulfil these needs. Nature uses emotions as tools to compel us to preserve life as long as possible. When needs are not fulfilled, we feel negative emotions; when they are fulfilled, we experience positive emotions.
All activities that are useful for survival, such as eating or procreating, are linked by Nature with positive emotions. By engaging in activities that produce pleasant emotions, we involuntarily continue living. On the other hand, all life-threatening situations, such as starving, being lonely, or damaging your body, are linked with unpleasant emotions. By avoiding negative emotions, we also involuntarily continue living. For example, animals do not know that if they don’t eat, they will die. When they eat, they don’t do it for survival; they are simply avoiding the unpleasant feeling of hunger, thereby unknowingly preserving their lives. This was the main idea of Schopenhauer’s philosophy, which was highly regarded by such prominent thinkers as Darwin, Einstein, Schrödinger, and many others.
It has also sparked exploration of how the Will to Live manifests in humans. Perhaps the most comprehensive theory of human needs was developed by Abraham Maslow. Maslow's theory is often illustrated in the shape of a pyramid, with the largest, most fundamental physiological needs at the bottom and more refined, human-specific needs at the top. The placement of basic physiological needs at the bottom of the pyramid implies that needs designed to preserve the physical body take precedence over higher-level needs.
Here is how the hierarchy of our needs looks:
1. Physiological needs are at the base of the hierarchy. These include needs for food, water, warmth, shelter, sleep, and others. They are designed to preserve our body and must be met before advancing to the higher levels of needs. It’s difficult to want something other than food and water when we are hungry and thirsty.
2. Safety needs take precedence once physiological needs are satisfied. After securing food, we need to ensure that we can access it regularly and that no one will take it away or steal it from us.
3. Interpersonal needs come after physiological and safety needs are fulfilled. Once we can maintain our life—by finding food and protecting it—we are ready to procreate and provide for our children. Additionally, having a partner who cares about our well-being increases chances for survival.
4. Social needs. Humans are social animals. We need to be part of a larger group because it increases our chances for survival. It’s difficult to kill a mammoth on your own; it’s easier to hunt with a team.
5. Esteem needs come next. Having a higher status in a social group increases chances for survival, especially when resources are limited. For example, if there is only one apple and 10 people want it, the chances of getting it are higher if others respect or fear you.
These first four types of needs are present in almost all animals. The following needs are more specific to humans.
6. Cognitive and aesthetic needs. Cognitive needs urge us to seek meaning, attain knowledge and understanding. Aesthetic needs urge us to beautify ourselves, our lives, and our environment.
7. Self-actualization is the next level—the need to realize one’s full potential. Put simply, it is the need to become better. For example, if you are a hunter, the need for self-actualization pushes you to improve your hunting skills.
8. At the highest level of the pyramid is the need for self-transcendence—giving yourself to something beyond yourself. Once you have satisfied all your lower-level needs, you start to think about the needs of others and want to contribute to your relatives, community, country, or even humanity.
It should be noted that the pyramid is not the same for each individual and it is not a rigid, linear process. Individuals can have various needs at the same time, shift between levels, compensate dissatisfaction of one needs by focusing on other needs, or prioritize some needs over others. For example, a parent may give up their own needs for food and sleep (physiological needs) in favour of the needs of their children (self-transcendence).
It is important to recognize that emotions are intimately connected with needs. We feel positive when our needs are satisfied and negative when they are not. In fact, emotions are secondary to needs. Their purpose is to give us feedback on how we are progressing with our needs and to motivate us either to continue trying to satisfy them (in the case of negative emotions) or move on to the next level (in the case of positive emotions). For example, fear or anxiety indicate that there is a risk of not satisfying our need. Let’s imagine you are at risk of losing your job, it means you are at risk of becoming unable to satisfy your physiological, safety, interpersonal, and esteem needs. Anxiety that you might feel in such situation will activate you, keep you awake at night so that you can work harder, search for ways to avoid losing your job, or find other sources of income.
Sadness signals that we failed to satisfy a need. Imagine you wanted to get a higher paid job, but your application was unsuccessful. Unlike anxiety, which compels you to do something, sadness urges you to slow down and analyze the situation, carefully think about the reasons for your failure, and try a different approach – may be improve your CV before applying next time. The point is that negative emotions are designed to motivate you and increase chances to fulfil your needs.
Imagine that you are in terrible emotional distress because you have lost all your money, your job, become homeless, and been abandoned by friends. You’ve essentially reached the bottom of the pyramid. In this case, your emotional distress is not pathological—it is a normal reaction to life circumstances. Feeling of hunger will urge you to seek ways to find food and fulfil physiological needs. Once you satisfy basic needs—by filling your stomach, finding a warm shelter—you will briefly feel pleased and content, but soon after, you will become anxious about how to find food tomorrow and the day after. The need for stability and safety kicks in. Anxiety will motivate you to find ways how to satisfy safety needs. Let’s say you manage to find a new, stable job with a decent salary that allows you to rent a house. For a moment, you feel positive and relaxed again. But once safety is reached, interpersonal needs arise, and you begin feeling lonely, and negative emotions return. These negative emotions will urge you to seek someone to love. Imagine that you found such person and you together started a family. Everything is fine, you a happy and content, but now the need for esteem creeps in. Now, you want a bigger house, more wealth, and so on. Let’s say you meet that need as well—you’re now a millionaire, with a loving family, and you are respected by others. Everything is great, you feel happy. But then, cognitive needs emerge. You begin to contemplate the meaning of life, your purpose—and the midlife crisis begins. Also, at any time, the needs that you’ve previously satisfied may resurface—there can be issues with your business, family, health, and so on. The point is that some need and associated negative emotions are always present. Even if you’ve satisfied all your needs and reached the top of the pyramid, then you need to help everyone—which is not achievable. It means that dissatisfaction and negative emotions are inevitable. It is not possible to be happy forever. Nature does not care about your happiness. All it cares is survival and expansion of life. In fact, happiness may be bad for survival. Imagine all you need to be happy is food, you don’t worry about tomorrow, don’t have any of the higher-level needs. In such case, you won’t be able to procreate and expand life.
And remember that the universal need—Schopenhauer’s Will to Live, in its various physiological and psychological forms—is not something we choose to have; it is a law of nature, forced upon us, like gravity. To realize that we are forced to have needs, just think back to the time when you started experiencing sexual desires. Did you choose to have them? No, because you are programmed to have them. Or do you choose to fear when something threatens your life? No, it’s a default reaction set by the Will to Live. Therefore, negative emotions, some level of discontent, and suffering resulting from the dissatisfaction of needs are inevitable. This idea aligns with Buddhist notions that life is suffering, and the cause of suffering is desire. So, if you are suffering from anxiety or depression and want to understand why, the first thing you need to do is to look at your needs. Which of them are not satisfied? Have you set correct thresholds for their satisfaction? If yes, then you need to try to satisfy them. That’s the law. If you do not obey the law, you will be punished by enduring anxiety and depression. Anxiety and depression are simply signals indicating that certain needs are not fulfilled. Anxiety and depression will persist as long as the needs are not satisfied. The only way to make a break in negative emotions is through fulfilment of the needs and climbing the pyramid.
This picture may look very daunting, but that is the truth. On the other hand, the pyramid will keep you busy and make your life interesting and meaningful. And with the right understanding of the Nature’s logic behind the law and correct approach to this task, it is possible to reach the top. Typically, the problem lies not with the needs, but with the way we approach them, how we try to satisfy them, and how we respond to failures. We will discuss this in more detail in future articles.