Existential-analytic theory of emotions (Alfried Langle). What motivates a person? Existential Motivation Person

The diversity of human needs also determines the diversity of motives for behavior and activity, however, some motives are quite often updated and have a significant impact on human behavior, while others act only in certain circumstances. Let's consider the main types of motives.

Self-affirmation motive- the desire to establish oneself in society; associated with feeling self-esteem, ambition, self-love. A person tries to prove to others that he is worth something, strives to obtain a certain status in society, wants to be respected and appreciated. Sometimes the desire for self-affirmation is referred to as prestige motivation (the desire to obtain or maintain a high social status).

Thus, the desire for self-affirmation, to increase one’s formal and informal status, to a positive assessment of one’s personality is a significant motivational factor that encourages a person to work intensively and develop.

Motive for identification with another person- the desire to be like a hero, an idol, authoritative person(father, teacher, etc.). This motive encourages you to work and develop. It is especially relevant for teenagers who try to copy the behavior of other people.

The desire to be like an idol is an essential motive of behavior, under the influence of which a person develops and improves.

Identification with another person leads to an increase in the individual’s energy potential due to the symbolic “borrowing” of energy from the idol (object of identification): strength, inspiration, and the desire to work and act as the hero (idol, father, etc.) did. By identifying with the hero, the teenager becomes bolder.

Having a model, an idol with whom young people would strive to identify themselves and whom they would try to copy, from whom they would learn to live and work - important condition efficient process socialization.

Power motive- the individual’s desire to influence people. The motivation of power (the need for power) is one of the most important driving forces human actions. This is the desire to take a leadership position in a group (collective), an attempt to lead people, determine and regulate their activities.

The motive of power occupies an important place in the hierarchy of motives. The actions of many people (for example, managers of various ranks) are motivated by the motive of power. The desire to dominate and lead other people is a motive that encourages them to overcome significant difficulties and make enormous efforts in the process of activity. A person works hard not for the sake of self-development or satisfaction of his cognitive needs, but in order to gain influence on individuals or a team.

A manager may be motivated to act not by the desire to benefit society as a whole or an individual team, not by a sense of responsibility, i.e. not by social motives, but by the motive of power. In this case, all his actions are aimed at gaining or maintaining power and pose a threat to both the cause and the structure that he heads.

Procedural-substantive motives- motivation to be active by the process and content of the activity, and not external factors. A person likes to perform this activity, to demonstrate his intellectual or physical activity. He is interested in the content of what he is doing. The action of other social and personal motives (power, self-affirmation, etc.) can enhance motivation, but they are not directly related to the content and process of activity, but are only external to it, therefore these motives are often called external, or extrinsic. In the case of the action of procedural-substantive motives, a person likes and encourages the process and content of a certain activity to be active.

For example, a person goes in for sports because he simply likes to demonstrate his physical and intellectual activity (ingenuity and unconventional actions in sports are also significant factors for success). An individual is encouraged to play sports by procedural-substantive motives when the process and content of the game cause satisfaction, and not by factors that are not related to sports activities (money, self-affirmation, power, etc.).

The meaning of activity during the actualization of procedural and content motives lies in the activity itself (the process and content of activity are the factor that encourages a person to show physical and intellectual activity).

Extrinsic (external) motives- such a group of motives when the motivating factors lie outside the activity. In the case of extrinsic motives, activity is encouraged not by the content or process of the activity, but by factors that are not directly related to it (for example, prestige or material factors). Let's consider some types of extrinsic motives:

The motive of duty and responsibility to society, group, individuals;
. motives of self-determination and self-improvement;
. the desire to gain the approval of other people;
. the desire to obtain a high social status (prestigious motivation). In the absence of interest in the activity (procedural-content motivation), there is a desire for those external attributes that the activity can bring - excellent grades, getting a diploma, fame in the future;
. motives for avoiding troubles and punishment (negative motivation) are motivations caused by the awareness of some troubles and inconveniences that may arise if an activity is not performed.

If, in the process of activity, extrinsic motives are not supported by procedural-substantive ones, i.e. interest in the content and process of the activity, then they will not provide maximum effect. In the case of extrinsic motives, it is not the activity itself that is attractive, but only what is associated with it (for example, prestige, fame, material well-being), and this is often not enough to motivate action.

Self-development motive- desire for self-development, self-improvement. This is an important motive that encourages an individual to work hard and develop. According to A. Maslow, this is the desire to fully realize one’s abilities and the desire to feel one’s competence.

As a rule, moving forward always requires a certain amount of courage. A person often holds on to the past, to his achievements, peace and stability. Fear of risk and the threat of losing everything holds him back on the path of self-development.

Thus, a person often seems to be “torn between the desire to move forward and the desire for self-preservation and security.” On the one hand, he strives for something new, and on the other, fear of danger and something unknown, the desire to avoid risk restrains his movement forward.

A. Maslow argued that development occurs when the next step forward objectively brings more joy, more internal satisfaction than previous acquisitions and victories, which have become something ordinary and even boring.

Self-development and movement forward are often accompanied by intrapersonal conflict, but do not constitute violence against oneself. Moving forward is anticipation, anticipation of new pleasant sensations and impressions.

When it is possible to actualize a person’s motive for self-development, the strength of his motivation for activity increases. Talented coaches, teachers, and managers know how to use the motive of self-development, pointing out to their students (athletes, subordinates) the opportunity to develop and improve.

Achievement motive— the desire to achieve high results and mastery in activities; it manifests itself in the choice of difficult tasks and the desire to complete them. Success in any activity depends not only on abilities, skills, knowledge, but also on motivation to achieve. Man with high level achievement motivation, striving to obtain significant results, persistently works to achieve set goals.

Achievement motivation (and behavior that is aimed at high results) even for the same person is not always the same and depends on the situation and subject of activity. Some people choose complex problems in mathematics, while others, on the contrary, limit themselves to modest goals in exact sciences, selects complex topics in the literature, striving to achieve high results in this area. What determines the level of motivation in each specific activity? Scientists identify four factors:

1. the importance of achieving success;
2. hope for success;
3. subjectively assessed probability of achieving success;
4. subjective standards of achievement.

Prosocial (socially significant) motives- motives associated with awareness public importance activity, with a sense of duty, responsibility to the group or society. In the case of prosocial (socially significant) motives, the individual identifies with the group. A person not only considers himself a member of a certain social group, not only identifies with it, but also lives with its problems, interests and goals.

A person who is driven to action by prosocial motives is characterized by normativity, loyalty to group standards, recognition and protection of group values, and the desire to realize group goals. Responsible people, as a rule, are more active, perform more often and more conscientiously professional responsibilities. They believe that the common cause depends on their work and efforts.

It is quite important for a manager to update the corporate spirit among his subordinates, since without identification with the group (company), namely, with its values, interests, and goals, it is impossible to achieve success.

A public figure (politician) who identifies more than others with his country and lives by its problems and interests will be more active in his activities and will do everything possible for the prosperity of the state.

Thus, prosocial motives associated with identification with the group, a sense of duty and responsibility are important in motivating a person to act. The actualization of these motives in the subject of activity can cause his activity in achieving socially significant goals.

Affiliation motive(from the English affiliation - joining) - the desire to establish or maintain relationships with other people, the desire to contact and communicate with them. The essence of affiliation is the intrinsic value of communication. Affiliative communication is communication that brings satisfaction, captures, and pleases a person.

An individual, however, can communicate because he is trying to settle his affairs and establish useful contacts with necessary people. In this case, communication is motivated by other motives, is a means of satisfying other needs of the individual, and has nothing in common with affiliative motivation.

The purpose of affiliative communication may be the search for love (or, in any case, sympathy) on the part of the communication partner.

Negative motivation- motivations caused by the awareness of possible troubles, inconveniences, punishments that may follow in case of failure to perform an activity. For example, a schoolchild may be motivated to study by the demands and threats of his parents, or by the fear of receiving unsatisfactory grades. Studying under the influence of such a motive takes on the character protective action and is compulsory.

In the case of negative motivation, a person is encouraged to act by fear of possible troubles or punishment and the desire to avoid them. He reasons like this: “If I don’t do this, then trouble awaits me.” This is what drives action under the influence of negative motivation.

The forms of negative sanctions that can be applied and that can actualize negative motivation are varied:

Verbal (verbal) punishment (condemnation, reprimand, etc.);
. material sanctions (fine, deprivation of privileges, scholarships);
. social isolation (neglect, ignorance, rejection by the group, social ostracism);
. deprivation of liberty;
. physical punishment.

The main disadvantage of negative sanctions is the short duration of their influence: they stimulate activity (or deter undesirable actions) only for the period of their effect.

Negative motivation has a stronger influence on a person, the greater his confidence in the inevitability of punishment.

Thus, negative motivation, including punishment, is a fairly strong motivational factor that can motivate a person to activity, but is not without many disadvantages and undesirable consequences.

Current and potential motives

Motives that occupy a leading place, are constantly updated and have a significant motivational influence on human activity are called active. Motives located at the bottom of the motivational hierarchy, which have little influence on a person’s activity and often do not appear at all, are called potential, since at a given specific period of time they do not exert a motivating influence, but can be actualized under certain circumstances.

Under the influence of certain factors, potential motives acquire motivating significance (become active motives). For example, after a conversation with a manager, a subordinate’s social motive (responsibility), which was passive (did not encourage activity), acquires greater motivating significance and becomes active.

The dynamism of the hierarchy of motives

The hierarchy of motives is not an absolutely stable motivational complex; it changes over time and age (depending on circumstances and the influence of people). For example, a subordinate is motivated to work by the manager's demands and the desire to avoid trouble. Later, this motive has less influence on his activity, and the cognitive motive may acquire leading importance.

The motivational sphere is quite dynamic: the meaning and influence of individual motives change (accordingly, the hierarchy of motives also changes). Various factors can change this hierarchy, however, despite the dynamism of the motivational sphere, each person is characterized by relative stability of the hierarchy of motives.

It can be argued that the motives that motivate us to activity are relatively stable, unchanged over a certain period of time. The relative stability of the hierarchy of motives is predetermined by the fact that the personality in general and motives in particular (but not motivation, which also depends on situational factors) are not so easily subject to change. And if it is relatively easy to change or develop a child’s motivational sphere, then doing this with an adult is much more difficult.

Thus, despite the influence various factors, which are capable of changing the hierarchy of motives, there is reason to consider it relatively stable.

Activity is stimulated not by one, but by several motives. The more motives determine activity, the higher general level motivation. For example, when an activity is motivated by five motives, the overall level of motivation is usually higher than in the case when a person’s activity is determined by only two motives.

Much depends on the driving force of each motive. Sometimes the power of one motive prevails over the influence of several motives. In most cases, however, the more motives are actualized, the stronger the motivation. If you manage to use additional motives, the overall level of motivation increases.

Therefore, the overall level of motivation depends on:

On the number of motives that encourage activity;
. from the actualization of situational factors;
. on the driving force of each of these motives.

Based on this pattern, a manager, in an effort to increase the motivation of his subordinates, must fulfill three conditions:

1. engage (update) as much as possible larger number motives;
2. increase the motivating power of each of these motives;
3. update situational motivational factors.

This pattern also applies to motivational self-regulation. When it is necessary to perform a certain activity, but there is not enough motivation, additional motives should be activated (involved) that can increase the overall level of motivation.

4. In order to understand feelings, you need to turn to the structure of phenomenological perception. Thanks to phenomenology we know what can be discovered two types of feelings: feelings-indicators, or emotions in the narrow sense (Fuhlen), And flair (Schpuren), or intuition. The first type of feelings reflects the mood, well-being, history and biography of the person himself. They also associatively accompany previous traumatic experiences. The second type of feelings has nothing to do with the state of the perceiving person, but relates to the essential characteristics of the person What perceived - to the object of cognition. The problem is not to confuse emotions with intuition. To do this, when preparing a psychotherapist, great importance is given to self-knowledge, the experience of exploring one’s own problems and typical feelings. Self-openness, self-knowledge and self-acceptance are important for any person.

5. Feelings allow us to perceive the existential situation in its significance for human life. A person perceives the situation contactally, “feels with his own life.” In doing so, perhaps without awareness, he receives precise information about what the situation means for his vitality. This information is provided by primary feeling(revival, excitement, joy or coldness, inhibition) and primary impulse(spontaneous movement To or from object of perception). The primary feeling and impulse form the primary emotion, which is an indicator of “like” or “dislike.” Primary emotion does not appear on its own, but as a function fundamental attitude.

6. Fundamental attitude to life denotes a person’s deep, often unconscious position in relation to a fact own life and, in essence, is the answer to the question: “Is it good that I live?” This question becomes relevant against the backdrop of difficult life trials, deterioration in the quality of life, when the warm, joyful side of life can no longer be lived (in depression, in the process of suffering, experiencing losses). Within the framework of the fundamental attitude, three types of attitude towards life are distinguished: positive (“Despite everything, say yes to life”), negative (“I don’t want to live such a life. It would be better if I didn’t exist”) and indefinite (“I haven’t yet I know if it’s worth continuing to live if life is like that”). A positive fundamental attitude leads to the fact that healthy vitality, vitality, determines the quality of experience: everything that enhances in me the feeling “I am alive (I am coming to life), young (rejuvenated), mobile, healthy” is perceived as good - joyfully, positively . Everything that reduces this type of experience is not pleasant. The poles of this system change 180 degrees when the fundamental attitude changes from positive to negative. Then the primary emotions in a healthy person and a neurotic patient will be opposite. For example: cheerful music, a holiday, a sunny day, children's laughter, etc. evoke negative feelings in a neurotic, while twilight, conversations about illness and death, and the dark side of life become attractive. Therapy for depression must certainly go to work with a fundamental attitude.

7. Primary emotion- only the first stage of emotional perception. In its phenomenological content, the primary emotion, which guards vitality, meets the self - the values ​​of the individual. In the subtle process of integrating primary emotion with the current correlation of personality values, the context of feeling expands, as it were. The first impression is placed on the horizon of values ​​and meanings of the individual. This job is done conscience- the organ of perception of what is correct in a given situation (= that is, what corresponds to me in my essence). The primary emotion refers to contact, accompanying feelings, and the one that arises as a result of this meeting integrated emotion– this is an intuitive feeling, it reflects the essence of the situation for me.

8. Integrated Emotion has a motivating force, creates the prerequisites for a decision to have the power of an incentive motive, readiness to act in accordance with it, that is, for action.

9. Experience a feeling of existential fulfillment, giving the deepest sense of connection with life, the experience of meaning on an emotional level is different from the emotions that accompany the simple satisfaction of a need. Existential fulfillment cannot be “done”; it can be experienced if a person managed to bring into life what he experienced in relation to internal Yes, internal agreement. It also occurs when a person simply experiences something valuable or when the primary impulse from a situation is received intuitively. personal No, then fulfillment can arise on a different basis - as a consequence of taking a position in relation to the primary emotion (these three forms of existential fulfillment are described by Frankl as three roads to meaning: the values ​​of creation, experience and position).

10. Psychodynamics (= defense mechanisms personality) performs, in general, a function that is friendly to the body: it warns a person against tasks that are beyond his strength (through coping reactions or a temporary loss of attention to the personal aspect of the situation). In the personal-existential aspect, psychodynamics brings into the field of work of conscience (as if offering for analysis) such factors as current well-being, state of health, strength, presence or absence of courage in the face of the task at hand. Psychodynamics warns against tasks for which a person has not yet matured. In relation to it, however, Person can take a stand (say “No”) and decide in favor of overcoming. Or the experience of the existential importance of value can turn psychodynamics into an ally of the spiritual dimension, becoming a source of its strength.

11. The significance of A. Langlet’s theory of emotions for psychotherapy is that it opens up a meaningful thematic structure for understanding the emotionality of a person, both healthy and sick. Clinical existential analysis provides a phenomenological description of patterns of experiences of patients with various nosologies. Descriptions of painful forms of emotionality, as well as descriptions of universal human feelings - fear, anxiety, uncertainty, peace, trust, courage (1st fundamental motivation); sadness, joy (2nd fundamental motivation); resentment, envy and jealousy, guilt, repentance, justification (3rd fundamental motivation); disappointment, cynicism (4th fundamental motivation) are given at a level of depth of understanding of human existence that excludes psychological research arrogance, but leaves good chances for a true personal dialogue with the Other.

Scientific editor candidate psychological sciences S. Krivtsova

Gratitude

This one and two previous books A. Langle, published in Russia, would not have seen the light if not for the highly professional and meaningful editorial work of Ph.D. psychol. Sciences O. V. Safuanova.

The topic of this article is human motivation. In it we're talking about about what motivates us in our Being as people. This does not mean basic needs and bodily desires. They are known from a variety of teachings about motivation. Many things attract, seduce, captivate a person and set him in motion. Body and soul, surrounding people, society insist on their rights. We have needs, we feel desires, we have pain, desires, and fears, we are also aware of our responsibilities to society. Hunger, thirst, sleep, sexuality - too important factors, which daily move us to action, and if we do not take these forces into account, they can attack us with all their ancient instinctive power.

However, if we only care about satisfaction needs, we will never survive execution. Needs regulate preconditions for vital survival, and yet they are not what for what we are living. Viennese psychiatrist Viktor Frankl made a significant contribution to this issue, developing the concept of meaning and helping it bear fruit in psychotherapy, and especially in counseling and psychological prevention.

Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung

Dangerous desires. What motivates a person?

© Publishing House "Algorithm" LLC, 2014

3. Freud. How desires are born

Oedipus complex

Exploring the first psychic formations sex life in a child, we usually take as the object a male child, a little boy. We believed that for a little girl things should be the same, but somehow different. At what point in development this difference should be sought has not been established with certainty.

The situation of the Oedipus complex is the first stage that we can confidently recognize in a boy. It is easily understandable to us, since in it the boy is fixed on the very object to which in the previous periods of infancy and care he was already attached with the help of his libido, which did not yet have a genital character. The fact that he takes into account the personality of his father as a rival standing in his way, whom he wants to eliminate and whose place he wants to take, follows directly from real ratios. The boy's Oedipal attitude belongs to the phallic phase and dies due to the fear of castration, that is, due to a narcissistic attitude towards the genitals. The difficulty of understanding arises from the complicating circumstance that the boy’s Oedipus complex itself has a dual attitude, active and passive, corresponding to the bisexual disposition. The boy also wants to replace his mother as his father's love object; we call this the feminine attitude.

Regarding the prehistoric period of the boy's Oedipus complex, not everything is clear to us. We know from him an identification with the father, associated with tender motives and still devoid of the nature of competition in relation to the mother. Another element of this previous period is, in my opinion, not absent in any case, masturbatory manipulation of the genitals, masturbation in early childhood; more or less violent suppression on the part of educators activates the castration complex. We assume that this masturbation is associated with the Oedipus complex and means a reaction to his sexual arousal. It is not known whether it originates in these relationships or whether it arises spontaneously, as an activity associated with certain organs, and only subsequently joins the Oedipus complex; the second possibility is much more likely. Another question arises about the role of bedwetting and about weaning from it due to educational intervention. We prefer a simple synthesis, according to which bedwetting is the result of masturbation, and its suppression is assessed by the boy as inhibition of his genital activity, i.e., in the sense of a threat of castration; but it is not known whether we will be right in each individual case. Finally, the analysis allows us to vaguely learn that eavesdropping on coitus between parents at a very early age childhood can cause the first sexual arousal and become, due to its subsequent influence, the starting point for all sexual development. Masturbation, as well as both attitudes of the Oedipus complex, are subsequently added to the impression resulting from eavesdropping. However, we cannot assume that such eavesdropping of coitus always takes place, and here we are faced with the problem of “first fantasies.” If, therefore, in the prehistoric period of the boy's Oedipus complex there is so much that is not clear, then it is necessary to check and decide whether the same path always exists and whether the most different preliminary stages do not lead to the central point of the same final situation.

Sigmund Freud

The little girl's Oedipus complex hides a deeper problem than the boy's Oedipus complex. Initially, the mother was the first object for both; we should not be surprised if the boy retains this object in the Oedipus complex. But how does the girl refuse him and choose her father as an object? In resolving this question, I was able to establish certain provisions that can shed light specifically on the prehistoric period of the Oedipus relationship in the girl.

Each analyst had the opportunity to study women who, with particular intensity and tenacity, maintained their attachment to the father and the desire to receive a child from the father - a desire in which this attachment received its highest expression. One can reasonably assume that this fantastic desire was also the driving force behind their infantile masturbation, and then one easily gets the impression that we are here faced with an elementary fact of children’s sexual life that cannot be further decomposed. However, a detailed analysis of these particular cases shows something else, namely, that the Oedipus complex in this case has a long prehistoric period and is to some extent a secondary formation.

According to the old pediatrician Lindner, the child opens the pleasurable genital area - the penis or clitoris - during voluptuous sucking. I want to leave open question about whether the child really uses this newfound source of pleasure to replace the recently lost mother's breast, as later fantasies may indicate. In short, the genital zone opens up someday, and we apparently have no reason to subsume the first manipulations with it under psychic content. However, the immediate moment in the phallic phase that thus begins is not the connection of this onanism with the object attachments of the Oedipus complex, but the discovery that befalls the little girl, fraught with grave consequences. She accidentally discovers a large, easily visible penis on a brother or peer, recognizes it as an exaggerated analogue of her own small and hidden organ, and is overcome by penis envy.

The contrast in the behavior of both sexes is interesting: in a similar case, when a little boy sees the girl's genital area for the first time, he behaves hesitantly, first of all, he is little interested; he sees nothing or denies his perception, weakens it, seeks confirmation that would bring this perception into line with his expectation. Only later, when the threat of castration has its effect on him, does this observation become significant for him: the memory of it or a new observation causes an explosion of frightening affect in him and forces him to believe in the reality of the threat, which he had hitherto treated ironically. From this relationship follow two reactions that can be fixed, and then each of them separately or both together or in combination with other moments can determine his attitude towards a woman for a long time: fear of a mutilated creature or contempt for him, caused by a feeling of superiority. But this development is already taking place in the future, although not very distant.

The other day, I was thinking about the reasons why people do things. Many books have been written on this topic, and many are taught at institutes on the theory of human motivation. Nevertheless, a common understanding has not yet emerged, and as I understand it, it’s not just me.

To begin with, I tried to highlight two basic aspects that motivate people to action. I took as a basis the theory of Fear and Greed, as the most widespread in modern society. I tried to identify the main drivers of people's actions. What happened in the end is a controversial issue, but it seems very interesting to me.

So the aspects of motivation to action.

1. Reason (aka logic) includes the following not always conscious components:

Fear (fear of losing - greed, fear of suffering - pain). Forces us to do something or not do anything just so that there is no fear.

Pride (the desire to be the best according to or contrary to the rules of achievement or possession established by society) is actually also the fear of being last - its antithesis. Forces us to do something despite the fear of failure.

2. The heart is the “irrational logic” of human behavior:

Inexplicable desire (for example, justifying actions as “I just want it that way,” I “love”). We're just doing something. Nothing forces us to do this, but we really want to and we do it. We have hobbies for a reason, but we can’t explain them with reason. Someone skates, someone climbs rocks, someone experiments with food, and these hobbies are not reasonable from a logical point of view. We just like them and we do it.

Moreover, note that we get joy from life mainly from acting according to the heart, and not according to the mind. If you wanted to do it, you did it and you’re happy.

People for the most part have forgotten how to feel the heart and live in harmony with it - the mind drowns out all inexplicable desires, and this is encouraged by the established norms of modern societies that follow the European path of development. It's not good, it's not bad, it's the way it is now and we all play this game.

It would seem that the situation is hopeless for the heart, and everything will eventually come to the point that over time the mind will defeat the unreasonable behavior. (by the way, this can only be done by force. Since no one of his own free will can betray love and his heart. Only under pressure from the outside.) This is what all religious wars stem from, the mind of some against the faith of others and vice versa. Whereas the mass of people forget that any person believes in what he wants, but there is her...

True Love is a feeling that the mind will never conquer, no matter how hard it tries. And not just physical attraction, but love. Not dependence, but fulfillment. Integrity within, regardless of the presence of a person nearby.

By the way, this is a metaphorical description of the Abrahamic Fall of Adam and Eve. The fruit of knowledge threw man from Paradise to earth. The mind is what first creates all our problems and then, at the very least, tries to solve them.

Notice for yourself what brings you the most sadness - let me guess - your own thoughts and what we think about these thoughts and so on :)

We constantly think - “what if?” “What did he mean by this?” "What then?" And hundreds of thousands more thoughts visit and disturb our minds every day. We, depending on our state, choose which of them we will think and which ones we won’t, forgetting about the option “not to think.”

We are constantly in thoughts - and not here and now, thereby missing a moment of life. We think through and invent fears and possibilities. Instead of acting here and now.

The mind is just a part of a person, but not the whole person. This, by the way, is the essence of Eastern teachings about enlightenment.

An enlightened person knows how to simply be in the world, accepting his unity with it. No thoughts. And act in accordance with your heart.

You ask - how can you live according to your heart? I think that this means not trying to explain your desires if they come. Just accept and achieve them. In this vein - the whole point that explains why, despite the fact that people have more and more tools to satisfy their needs, they live more and more unhappily.

By increasingly streamlining the processes of life in society, we are increasingly losing the opportunity to live outside society, becoming totally dependent on it. And not only technologically, but also traditionally. And in combination, these two manifestations of human activity form a powerful tool for controlling masses of people. Behind the apparent external order of society, chaos reigns in the hearts of people.

The soul, the heart desires, and the mind tries to understand and explain the desire - which came not from him, but from the soul. It’s okay if I can understand it myself at least on a level, I want it because I want it. But we in society often have to justify ourselves to other representatives of society for our desires and actions. And in modern society, to tell them that I want to just like that means to look like a complete madman. (Here I’m a little unclear why this is so - Collective fear of change? Fear of falling behind? Fear of letting someone overtake you?)

Although, among our activities there are very basic exceptions - for example, shopping. But here we are for some reason trying to explain why we just liked something. How a child finds a beautiful pebble and takes it. We just liked him, and only then do we explain why we liked him in words. But why?

Because we make excuses for spending money (?) of our own or someone else’s. In front of yourself, others. Otherwise, we are afraid of either not understanding ourselves or not being understood by others. Believing that misunderstanding causes rejection.

And note, it is the satisfaction of such inexplicable things that brings us real joy.

If you want to hug, go, say, do - you do it and enjoy it. Without any because. And you get a piece of happiness... Connect these pieces throughout your life and you will get a happy life...

BUT, when is reason needed? But he really is needed... I see it only, and only for solving specific problems within the framework of fulfilling the dictates of the heart. It is a tool - nothing more.

Example - I want to go to the other side of the river, social strata, relationships, etc. We ask the mind - How to do this? We get answer options. Next, choose the option that you liked the most. Well, I just like him better. Without because.

We begin to act, but first we turn off our minds. All.

This is the entire function of the mind for humans.

If you don’t agree, I’m ready to discuss in more detail.

I began to wonder, if our behavior is not driven by pleasure and pain, then what is? What really matters to us?

Plato's theory

According to Plato (427-347 BC), the pursuit of truth (curiosity) is one of the most important engines of life, and wisdom is one of the greatest true pleasures. Plato further developed the idea of ​​an eternal world of ideals that determine the essence of all things; when we discover such eternal ideals, we experience the joy of knowledge. Plato also placed a high value on reason, moral duty, and service to society.

Freud's theory

A completely different point of view about the motivation of human behavior was put forward by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). He said that from birth to death, people want sex, sex and more sex. The reason we don't fully realize this desire is, according to Freud, that many of our sexual urges are subconscious, which means that acknowledging them entails overwhelming feelings of guilt, anxiety and embarrassment. Freud later changed his views somewhat, adding that our behavior is controlled not only by sex, but also by aggressiveness.

Unless you have read Freud or had the pleasure of personally knowing some of the psychoanalysts of the past, you probably simply have no idea how important they considered the importance of sex from a psychological perspective. Freud was so amazed by the importance of sex that he even invented a new name for it - libido. He wrote that in the subconscious, a pencil is a symbol of the penis, and a box is a symbol of the vagina. He formulated the Oedipus complex: the theory that boys between 4 and 5 years old desire to have sexual relations with their mothers. He believed that young girls develop an inferiority complex, which is based on envy of males because they are endowed with a penis. When I was a graduate student in psychology at Yale University, I heard a lecture by John Dollard, one of the world's leading psychoanalysts at that time. “Whatever we do in life, we must make sure we get enough sex,” he advised. He encouraged us to follow his advice to avoid developing neuroses. Speaking to a group of young college students, Dollard had no trouble convincing his audience of the importance of his message.

Freud's contemporaries

Many psychologists of Freud's contemporaries, or those who came after him, accepted much of what Freud said, but disagreed with him about the importance of sexual motivation. For example, Carl Jung (1875-1961) believed that the will to live, the general life force, is the most important motivator of human behavior. Alfred Adler (1870-1937) wrote about the desire for superiority and power. Erik Erikson (1902-1994) developed a theory of the development of the self (ego), or what can simply be called the human developmental drive.

Various schools of behaviorism (the science of human behavior - translator's note) expressed different views on the question of what controls human behavior.

Clark Hull (1884-1952) and Kenneth Spence (1907-1967) developed an influential model of behavior that viewed human motivation in terms of a range of known and unknown drives, such as the drive to eat when hungry or the drive to relieve anxiety. This approach pays more attention to the activating function of motives than to the role of specific motives that determine people’s desire to achieve certain goals rather than others. The Hull-Spence theory was enormously influential between 1950 and 1975.

What drives human behavior. B. F. Skinner (1904-1990), another leading behaviorist, who urged psychologists to pay less attention to the search for the underlying motives that control our lives. Skinner believed that all motives, thoughts and feelings (including pleasure and pain) are personal. Only you know what motivates you, and if you don't tell us about it, then we can only guess about them. Since personal motives cannot be determined with scientific certainty, Skinner concluded that psychologists should not pay attention to them. (If your spouse stops paying attention to your motives, thoughts and feelings, then he/she may have become a behaviorist).

What drives human behavior. Carl Rogers (1902-1987) stated that people are driven to varying degrees by two desires: the desire to grow, called self-actualization, and the desire for self-recognition. According to this view, the key to happiness is living in accordance with your value system. If people do something that goes against their own ideas about life, they lose self-respect, stop growing and become unhappy. In fact, Rogers's theory represents an initial attempt to reduce much of what is meaningful to us into a few overlapping motivations.

James' theory

William James (1842-1910), the great American psychologist, philosopher and educator, and William McDougall (1871 -1938), a brilliant specialist in social psychology from Harvard, believed that behavior is motivated by instinctual desires. In his epic Principles of Psychology, James presents the following list of basic instinctual desires:

thrift desire to store and collect

creation the desire to build and achieve

curiosity desire to explore and learn

narcissism, desire to be the center of attention

family desire to raise their children

hunting desire to obtain writing

order the desire for cleanliness and organization

game desire to have fun

sex desire to procreate

shame the desire not to be singled out

pain desire to avoid painful sensations

gregariousness the desire to establish social contacts revenge the desire for aggressiveness McDougall expanded and improved this list.

James and McDougall realized together that human desires are multifaceted. They resisted attempts to reduce everything to one or two supermotives, such as sex and aggression (Freud) or the desire for superiority (Adler). James and McDougall were the first influential psychologists to develop a comprehensive theory of basic human desires.

After James' death in 1910, MacDougall was opposed by both behaviorists and psychoanalysts. Behaviorists rejected McDougall's idea that desires are inherited, arguing that they are acquired through the process of cognition. Viewing human behavior in terms of primarily sexual motivation, psychoanalysts argued that James and McDougall emphasized too many instinctual desires. The influence of James and McDougall might have been completely lost, however, Harvard psychologist Henry A. Murray (1893-1988) reformulated McDougall's list and presented it as a list of psychological needs. Murray's work received widespread attention, partly because he developed a popular technique for assessing the motivation of human behavior.

Maslow's theory

Another psychologist who made important contributions to the study of human motivation was Abraham Maslow (1908-1970). Maslow was one of the few psychologists who considered human nature primarily from a motivational point of view. He made an important point that we are creatures of desire who constantly want something. In this sense, Maslow analyzed human behavior in a completely different way than many psychologists did. I accept and even expand on Maslow's thoughts, arguing that a motivational approach to human behavior has the potential to explain much more about human behavior than is commonly believed.