Essay 1: Needs and Urges

Essay 1: Needs and Urges

If you had to build a comprehensive skeleton of the phenomenological experience of man, where would you begin? What is the one aspect of experience that is so fundamental and indivisible that it can serve as the foundation on which the mind of man can be built? Action? No, any real analysis shows that there are so many components to action that even today we cannot fully account for how we act at all. Perception? Reasoning? Our role in a group? The will to live? No, all of those are derivatives of a more fundamental principle that all of the above share. Many, not least Aristotle in his book “Nicomachean Ethics”, attempted to answer this question. Using Aristotle as an example, his realization that there had to be an answer was built on a paradox. When analyzing any action there always seemed to be a reason why, but then also a reason why for the why, and it was unclear when the regress of “whys” stopped. Why do we wake up early? To get to work. Why do we go to work? To make money. Why do we make money? Because I am saving to buy a home. Why do you want a home? And on and on and on ad infinitum. Aristotle was among the first to posit that there had to be something that was valuable to man for its own sake, something that when you ask enough “whys” always appears as the final answer for why we do or experience anything at all. His answer was eudaimonia; happiness as defined by our ability to exercise virtues. That, however, is where our lines of reasoning begin to differ, as man will willingly give up their virtues to satisfy their needs. These needs, or how they come up phenomenologically, urges, serve as the foundation that unifies every component of the conscious experience for every conscious creature, not just humans (although I’m sure other species may differ in the nuances). My claim is that all actions we ever take in our lives are caused by five to seven needs/urges. I will detail this by defining the terms, going into homeostasis and what it motivates, briefly listing our psychological needs and how I will go into more detail on each in future essays, and describing how knowledge of these needs can improve your life.

So, how would I define these two words that comprehensively account for every action we have ever taken since birth or will ever take until death? The first, and only, caveat I would like to set to this claim is that this is a phenomenological accounting. This will not be a biology lesson, although I will reference biology whenever it proves useful. With that being said, the first term is needs. Needs are the five to seven “stomachs” our biology urges us to satiate. These can be broken down into the five core needs: homeostasis, certainty, uncertainty, significance, and connection, all of which are present continuously from the moment we are born, and the two emergent needs: growth and contribution, which present and express themselves later in life through the process of maturation. I use “stomachs” as a metaphorical term here because while they are not tangible in any sense, they should be viewed as neurological organs that feed on their own sources of sustenance, these sources being the needs in question. One “stomach” feeds on certainty, another one significance, etc. The use of the term “stomach” also emphasizes that these organs can be satiated in relative terms, allowing us to shift priorities from one need to another when we sufficiently satisfy one need in the moment. Additionally, this analogy shows that our needs communicate their lack of satiation with feelings that can be equated to “hunger”. These feelings are how needs make themselves known phenomenologically, and I will henceforth refer to them as urges. Urges are feelings, initiated by our needs, caused by the relative lack of satiation of a need, that motivate all action (physical or mental). My answer to “What is valuable to man for its own sake?” is that which satisfies our needs through the addressing of our urges. While this answer does not comprehensively address how we act or why we choose a specific course of action, it does single-handedly answer why we act, why in the way we do, and how valuable we consider something. Also, as far as is phenomenologically the case, our needs cannot be interacted with in any way beyond our evaluation of their expression of urges. To detail how comprehensively this model accounts for the motivation behind every action we ever take, I will lay out the needs starting most comprehensively with homeostasis, and then overviewing the others.

Homeostasis is defined by the National Cancer Institute as “A state of balance among all the body systems needed for the body to survive and function correctly. In homeostasis, body levels of acid, blood pressure, blood sugar, electrolytes, energy, hormones, oxygen, proteins, and temperature are constantly adjusted to respond to changes inside and outside the body, to keep them at a normal level.” Our physiology’s desire to keep itself within a narrow range of acceptable conditions is the first need (and core need) we ever come to process, as it becomes relevant as soon as the umbilical cord is cut. With that being said, the above definition is too broad in scope to be applicable phenomenologically; as 99% of what our body does to maintain homeostasis is directly irrelevant to our range of experience because they are too numerous and subtle for us to notice. At its most subtle are molecular-level adjustments like potassium or calcium homeostasis that are impossible to notice the nuances of in your day-to-day but may spiral into an urge under serious medical emergencies. Moving along that continuum toward the noticeable though we start we get to where they become applicable: nutrients, water, body temperature, oxygen levels, etc. Yes, our body can do a lot without having to resort to urges but when push comes to shove and there is a highly notable deficiency of the respective substance, these material needs, which fall under the larger category of homeostasis, come up as feelings such as hunger, thirst, dizziness, cold, weakness, suffocation, etc. For the sake of practicality, I place all of these feelings that do materially influence action under the umbrella of urges caused by homeostasis as there are too many to delve into here. 

This raises another point that can be pointed to as another universal principle that connects all urges, the listed feelings are not an on/off switch, they vary in intensity in proportion to the amount of the deficiency. I bet that if you held your breath for 20 seconds, you would feel only mildly uncomfortable because your carbon dioxide concentration (which can be conceived of as oxygen deficiency) is not high enough to raise any alarm bells. But by 60 seconds in, the feeling will be far more intense. I do not care what someone was doing before, if they start to suffocate then they will be doing everything possible to ensure they can breathe again long before 60 seconds have passed unless the urge to complete their prior task exceeds the urge to breathe again. This also implies that we only have a set amount of bandwidth, thus a subconscious evaluation is always occurring to prioritize the allocation of what limited concentration we have. Then, when all is said and done, we are only consciously presented with what amount of the highest priority urges can be fulfilled within our limited concentration, and the others can be, and likely are, ignored. There is no way this is not true. Even if our leg feels mildly itchy and we need to pee (both of which are urges), none of that takes priority when we have been suffocating for a minute so we may forget about them entirely. Not to mention even if we are a bit hungry, if we engage ourselves with something entertaining we can distract ourselves temporarily; distraction meaning that it completely escapes our phenomenological reality in the moment. 

Additionally, while I will not be delving into the details here, it is worth noting that the food each person turns to when they are hungry or the first thing they do when they suffocate cannot be fully accounted for by the umbrella of the urge itself, as it is an unintelligible feeling that motivates rather than being logical or specific by nature. This discrepancy can be accounted for in “stories” which is a universal I will detail potentially as early as next essay. To reiterate, all of the above equally apply to our psychological urges too.

This essay is not the time to delve into every psychological need/urge as each will have one or more essays spent detailing their respective nuances (hence I will not bold them here), but I will provide a non-specific overview so we know what to expect. The first of the four psychological core needs is certainty. Certainty is the need to be assured that you can attain pleasure or avoid pain. Certainty is why some of us can feel stressed when events do not follow a plan we set, why others can feel stressed when they are fired from a job, why some of us panic when we drown, and why some of us use our respective vices to escape our problems. To some capacity, we all need to feel sure that when all is said and done, we and our loved ones will be okay. The second is uncertainty, which is the need for the unknown, for change, and for new stimuli. Yes, we have both a need for certainty and a need for uncertainty, go figure. Evolutionarily it makes sense as while the creature who stayed in familiar territory lowered their risk of unforeseen death (thus certainty), the species that never searched new areas for food lacked the flexibility as a species to survive any sudden changes in their old environment. Uncertainty is why we get bored, go on trips, watch a new movie, and introduce variety in conversation and the bedroom. The third is significance, which is the need to feel unique, important, special, needed, competent, etc. In effect, it is why some of us like to win, why some of us show off, why some of us keep complaining about our problems, why some of us degrade others, why being around someone more competent than us can make us feel insecure if handled unhealthily, and why some people (hopefully no one I will ever know) rape others. We all want to feel special and that includes you. An upcoming essay will detail how people who claim not to often want it the most. The final of the psychological core needs is connection. Connection is the strong feeling of closeness or union with someone or something. Friendship, love, a sense of belonging to a community, vulnerability, and fear of public speaking are among the countless expressions of our need for connection. Every need I mentioned thus far is apparent in a baby, but there are two emergent needs, growth, and contribution, that wise people have told me exist but become more apparent through maturation. Now that we have a broad idea of them all, let’s do an exercise to prime our minds on how the six psychological needs relate to us and how to see them in others.

Before you begin, really try to understand what each of the six psychological needs refers to. If my broad-stroked, vague explanation of them (or even lack of that for the last two) was not enough for you to identify them within yourself, here  (or look up The Six Human Needs Tony Robbins on YouTube many will show) is a rare video of Tony Robbins overviewing them in eight minutes, it was lucky I ever found one of him going through them in under 30 minutes honestly. Honestly, you should watch it even if you are confident you understand. When you feel you can identify all six within yourself, close your eyes, think, and write down all six (certainty, uncertainty, significance, connection, growth, contribution) in the order you feel they are most prevalent in your life. The first place need being the one that influences the actions you take and your decision-making the most and continue listing them in descending order from there. If you are participating, do not read any further until you have your order established, and scroll down to continue reading.

I’d say there is an 80% chance that if you are being completely honest with yourself, certainty and significance are both in the top three if not the top two. These are the two most dominant needs for almost every living creature to ever exist but now among humans, we have variation. Now, for each of your top three needs write down the three most common actions or habits you take that are fueled by the urge to satiate that need and write them down (you are allowed to repeat actions). If you have a thorough understanding of what I am referring to you may have noticed that you at least had the urge to write down the same thing under two or even all three of the needs at least once, which makes sense. When an action fulfills three of these six needs, (especially of the four psychological core needs) it is a satisfying enough action to become an addiction, without exception. Obviously, not all addictions are bad, good actions can become addicting too, which leads me to the next step of the exercise. For each of the three most common actions, label whether they are good, neutral, or bad relative to the plans you have for your life (do not overthink it, this is not a trick question). From there, take some time to think through the ones you listed as bad or neutral and consider what other habits you can replace them with that meet the need but get you closer to who you want to be. Only after you do that should you answer the most important question, “Why would I fail to replace these bad habits?” There is no need to implement if you do not want to, but seriously pondering that question will change your life. At least, it did for me. Whenever I want to make an improvement in my life I like to close my eyes, breathe deeply, and ask myself genuinely “What is one stupid thing I do that I would give up, that I could give up?” then once I know what it is, I like to identify what need it satisfies, and what I should offer up as a genuine replacement. 

So to summarize, needs are the “stomachs” that demand to be satiated and can be broken down into five core needs: homeostasis, certainty, uncertainty, significance, and connection; and two emergent needs: growth and contribution. When a need is not satiated it expresses itself as an urge which is the motivating feeling that incites us to action (which accounts for every action and thought) and directs our attention. By taking the time to understand them and how they express themselves in your life, you gain the ability to empathize with yourself and others and it allows for a more effective and intentional self-improvement process. See you sometime before January 10th for “Certainty”!