state of things which was disturbed by the emergence of life," is to be guilty of the crudest violation of logic: an
organism does not exist prior to its existence; it cannot "return" to non-existence; it cannot be "disturbed" by the
emergence of itself. Beyond the Pleasure Principle—the monograph in which Freud presents his theory of the
death instinct—is surely one of the most embarrassing productions in all psychological literature.
While the task of isolating and identifying man's physical needs is far from completed, biology has made enormous
advances in this direction. With regard to the task of isolating and identifying man's mental needs, psychology is in
a state of chaos.
This chaos serves, however, to emphasize the fact that the nature of man's needs has to be discovered. Needs are
not self-evident. Alleged needs must be proven by relating them to the requirements of man's survival.
That man possesses psychological needs is indisputable. The widespread phenomenon of mental illness is evidence
both of the existence of needs (which are being thwarted) and of the failure of psychology to understand the nature
of these needs.
Needs, Goals, and "Instincts"
The psychologist, seeking to understand the principles of human behavior, observes (a) that man, as a biological
entity, possesses various needs, and (b) that man characteristically acts to achieve various ends or goals.
It is the existence of needs that creates the necessity of action—i.e., of goal-seeking. Even when the goals a
particular man selects are incompatible with his needs, so that he is pursuing a course of self-destruction, this
principle still remains true.
The basic problem of motivational psychology may be formulated as follows: to bridge the gap between needs and
goals—to trace the steps from the former to the latter—to understand the connection between them, i.e., to
understand how needs get translated into goals.
It should be obvious that the solution of this problem requires a consideration of man's distinctive capacities. Yet in
large measure, the history of motivational psychology represents an attempt to bypass man's most distinctively
human capacity, his conceptual fac-