Our Five Basic Needs
Almost all approaches to psychology assume that people have certain basic needs and, indeed, there is broad agreement on what these needs are.
In Reality Therapy they are classified under five headings:
- Power (which includes achievement and feeling worthwhile as well as winning).
- Love & Belonging (this includes groups as well as families or loved ones).
- Freedom (includes independence, autonomy, your own 'space').
- Fun (includes pleasure and enjoyment).
- Survival (includes nourishment, shelter, sex).
One of the core principles of Reality Therapy is that, whether we are aware of it or not, we are all the time acting to meet these needs.
But we don't necessarily act effectively. Socialising with people is an effective way to meet our need for belonging. Sitting in a corner and crying in the hope that people will come to us is generally an ineffective way of meeting that need - it may work, but it is painful and carries a terribly high price for ourselves and others.
So if life is unsatisfactory or we are distressed or in trouble, one basic thing to check is whether we are succeeding in meeting our basic psychological needs for power, belonging, freedom and fun.
In this society the survival need is normally being met - it is in how we meet the other four ``psychological'' needs that we run into trouble.
