What do We Human Individuals Really Need?

Photo by Timon Studler on Unsplash

It takes some of us human animals a long time to realize all that we really need:

• Pleasurable experiences, including ones that sustain our bodies. That we know from infancy.
• Unpleasant experiences, too. That’s harder to accept, but we need them to teach us compassion for other beings.
• Varieties of experience. They keep our lives interesting and create memories that sustain our imaginations at difficult times.
• Goals and a sense of purpose. They provide motivations for us to act, rather than vegetating.
• Support from groups of others to which we belong.

If we are lucky, we share our pleasurable experiences and our goals with other people and animals, benefiting both them and us. If we are unlucky, some of our basic needs go unmet, and we exchange unpleasant experiences with other people and animals.