Meaningful Social Bonding as a Universal Human Need

Abstract

Human needs theory, if it is to be universally applicable — and hence useful in resolving the broadest spectrum of human conflicts — must carefully avoid becoming merely a description of the self-perceived ``needs'' of the particular group that is developing the theory. Yet it is just this trap into which, I believe, the development of human needs theory in the West has largely fallen. And because Western thought — by which I mean Eastern European, Western European and North American intellectual traditions — dominates so much of the international scene at this moment in history, the failure to perceive our own narrowness could well have unfortunate consequences globally. What is needed, then, is for those of us in the West not only to seek understanding from others outside our own traditions, but also conscientiously to identify and critique as many of the assumptions underlying our own thinking as we possibly can.