STUDY OF HUMAN NEEDS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23339, 6 May 1939, Page 1 (Supplement)

STUDY OF HUMAN NEEDS

Trends in Modern Life

By MATANGA

EVERY serious mind, in these days of critical change, must be visited by.at least an occasional suspicion that many proffered remedies for human ills are valueless because they are the products of insufficient knowledge of fundamental and enduring human needs. Such offers of cure must ever fail if they are not based upon full and accurate diagnosis. This should be obvious. That it is not so is -proved by the prevalent lack of scientific analysis in the tangle of advice. There is plenty of assertion -about what is wrong, but this, as a rule, is slapdash, and most of the thinking is back-to-front, proceeding from the alleged virtues of pet nostrums to speculative dogmatism on the maladies. In a rapidly-changing world the necessity for close analysis of symptomatic happenings is urgent. Who can keep pace with the swift uprush of new symptoms and see them intelligently in relation to deep and constant elements in human nature? Certainly not the -devotees of particular social creeds. Vehemence in enunciation and advocacy of these cannot reasonably be taken for proof of their champions abilitv to help. Of course, the foolish will be impressed by the force and flnnrish and if the foolish be numerous S5 theyovill lend the aid of the r ' mass-demand for adoption of some advertised panacea; but there is no salvation that way. Its certain outcome -is a complication of the disease. For this reason any carefully analytical contribution to discussion, so long as it keeps close to practical realities and does not. end in mere a oofness from the sufferings borne, should be doubly welcome. In sober fact, no analysis is uorth a rap if it be not shot through with svmpathy, not as a bedside manner" but in acute realisation of the ureencv of human happiness as the inalienable right and requirement of " every sufferer. ~ Fortunately, a tendency to take this analytical approach is quietly growing. An "impatience with catck-as-catch-ca gocial gospels is beginning to match the impatience df the quackery that is still perilously prevalent, lhe most recent of these helpful approaches mil be found in a hook, "Human Needs in Modern Society," by B. 1. Reynolds and R. G. Coulson,

Mainsprings of Man Its double origin is significant. One of its writers, Coulson, is well equipped in psychological and sociological study of what he calls the "mainsprings of man." His friend and associate Reynolds is particularly able in handling the structure of modern society, with a view to explaining the reasons for the dissatisfaction, unhappiness, and ill-being inherent in it. Tue share of each in the joint product is clearly acknowledged, .yet. the book is _ not of _ the loose ion,' often, inconclusive and confusing, known as a symposium. Each dominates his own part of the analysis, yeij their intimacy has been such that" an organic union of minds and of hearts has been mutually helpful even in these portions, and in tne practical deductions, compact with remedial suggestion,- they think and speak as one. s ■ Hovr well mated in the task they have been is worth emphasis. Apart in earliest years, their separate paths led to vital contact with the current of international affairs. One had been a professional soldier for two years before the war; the other joined the army, also; as a professional soldier, shortly before the end of the war, soon after his landed property was lost to him. Both were eventually in the British army of occupation on the Rhine as liaison officers, one with the French force, the other with the German civil authorities. Afterwards they gave up soldiering, and in seeking deeper satisfaction of personal interests went their separate ways.

Moral Responsibility "We were not, and are not," they vrita in a joint _ introduction, "what is mown as pacifists." Instead, they came to a position that is becoming increasingly intelligible. "Circumstances May arise at the present imperfect stage of development of our civilisation under which it is a moral duty to employ force as a means of restraint, it is correspondingly immoral to fail in this. To declare oneself in advance to be a pacifist under all circumstances and conditions is to renounce all responsibility for the moral and spiritual progress of mankind. . . It is tragic r? a t so many morally and spiritually Highly developed people should renounce their responsibilities owing to a misunderstanding of the means to attain that which they themselves "rive for as their highest* aim in When their liaison duty ended they moved apart in characteristic directions, one to practical social work, in an effort to forget his own dissatislaction by helping others more dissatisfied, and, the other to philosophy, to lay' bare and to understand explicitly the causes of his dissatistaction. ,"We did not regard our work as an occupation, a career, a job, but a means ,of salvation, much as a rowning man regards a floating spar." otn attained understanding and vocai ° n '.L together again it was first to combine , SCl "vice to some of Britain's unemTO'™ and then to pool their knowoge and thought in this book, which l D °t a recital of personal experiences ill 4.u rea study of the general * ..hey knew at first hand and the P asible remedies for these ills.

Essentials of Well-being . for attentive reading and reWi lng i trough all its nearly three tn,?l re x d P a K° s - Many will find it a «i,: e ? s ,®" e for their own theories, in rw , fundamentals" not really funj mental are taken for granted. *1 ,'V unswervingly critical and yet of i y - instructive., The essentials uinr 1 n& . aro traced below the o r t l e *y material dissatisfactions that so e .. 1° do . platform and literary duty as Prions qf individual and social,' Onal and international, unrest. j n „ J lls tice would be done to so searchwere any attempt made flip' -.J 0 give its findings in detail. Suftjj.i (, to say that, if it be still true toan „ the proper study of mankind is Bethf> ,these two writers have tothcir 1 " come nearer than many of sccrpt V c u ' 3 ' e contemporaries to the their °j- 0,1 r P resc ' nt discontents by Drr/i ra ica ' examination of pressing u.fns and'possible solutions. wil.fi good is by no means tornnfi' n ? r * s there the slightest atriirUf i, e i° ct it from the place it real;/ y takes in all rational selff° n i- a self-regard; but the sbsorVi" 3 m . os t recent approach to betri*!!- ng Questions of the day is its thai *? the human instincts Prociwi- y ital wants and its of rZ ?PB> ' step by step, to a discussion Hot r 5 C l . cn remedies for ills. It may Septan once with a universal acjtn ® Ce of eitlier its criticism or its of °f I'fe, yet no further study intensoi ca " a ff° r( i to ignore it. Its fiiD ffry! y • a^ra saves its scholarorQ being uselessly academic.