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The Psychology of Needs is based on the idea that pleasure and pain are the constitutive elements of every emotion and feeling, and that they depend, respectively, on the satisfaction and the lack of satisfaction of particular needs.

A consequence of this idea is that to suffer as little as possible and enjoy as much as possible, a human being should satisfy in the best possible and sustainable way a set of needs of his own and (given our interdependence) of others.

This goal is far from easy to achieve because of certain structural conflicts in society and the individual mind. Understanding such conflicts requires a systemic and ecological vision of nature in general, of culture, of the others and ourselves, a vision that should take into account, among other things, what differentiates us and the resistance to change, characteristic of all living beings.

This book offers several useful ideas and tools for that purpose.  It contains:

  • a description of human nature based on ideas from different authors about life, mind, man, and society;
  • a methodology and a set of tools to be used as a complement to psychotherapies of any kind or for self-improvement;
  • a set of multimedia resources to stimulate imagination and creative thinking.

You can read this online book in your preferred order, or sequentially, in the order proposed by the author. In the latter case, please follow the table of contents.

A copy of the book in PDF version can be obtained here.

This book can be copied and distributed as long as it is not modified or used for profit. Quotations of excerpts from the book are authorized provided that the author’s name and the title of the book are mentioned.

I will be grateful to all those who send me their opinions, suggestions, or questions about this work using the contact page.

Bruno Cancellieri