People's (and Character's) Motivations

Elizabeth George says you cannot fully understand a person (or a character) unless you understand his/her "core need."

Core needs are automatic motivators, subconscious longings that drive an individual's choices (often subconsciously). I believe my core need is to be recognized (and respected!) for my writing, but it's probably something more neurotic like a desperate need for huge amounts of attention. This is, after all, mostly subconscious.

More interesting, however, is the psychopathology that results from a unmet core need. If a need for attention isn't met, an individual becomes exhibitionistic (is that a word?). If a need for power isn't met, a person might become controlling, maybe even to the point of abuse. A need for love and belonging might result in clinging dependence (the sort that drives people away, thus making the unmet need even greater).

My new novel, East of Jesus, has a sidekick character that is addicted to fun. I'd call "fun" her core need, and the resulting pathology, a debilitating irresponsibility (she's 32). But Mars (my husband) says "fun" cannot be a core need. (I say this reveals more about my All-Work-And-No-Play husband than anything else, but he insists he's right, and he usually is right about facts, at least trivial ones.)

I had a vague memory that Glasser included "fun" as one of mankind's basic drives. Glasser was a behavioral scientist who said all people are driven by one of a handful of primary needs. He applied this theory to the classroom, saying if a teacher simply met the students' primary needs, there would be no behavior problems (yes, the italics are an editorial comment on my part).

I taught at a high school whose administration loved Glasser. In fact, I think the administrators would happily have sold their bodies and souls to the man for pennies, they loved him so much. Probably even married him: all of them at once. Perhaps that sounds pathological, but you see, I suspect there was some pathology at play. Because these learnéd men blamed teachers any time a student misbehaved.

Like when a student pulled a knife on me (I guess I was inhibiting his sense of Power). And when some graduating seniors smeared fishheads in the school on Friday evening, and by Tuesday morning (it was a long weekend, and very hot), they were rotting, and the smell was sucked into the heating system and spread throughout the school and enhanced by the smell of umpteen students upchucking and...oh, sorry I got distracted. Wandering through memory lane.

Anyway, I had a vague memory that one of Glasser's primary needs was fun. I remember this because I taught an Earth Science class that included a senior we'll call Nadine (who had a GPA of 4.54 out of 4.0 and who was taking double science courses to bulk up her premed application at Harvard) and a boy we'll call Jack. The problem is: Nadine's primary need was the Power & Recognition that would come from learning lots of science and taking it all to Harvard to learn more. Jack's primary need? Fun. Teach that, Dr. Glasser!

I Googled Glasser so I could say Neener, neener, neener! to Mars (I rarely get the chance) and found this great website. Turns out I was right; Glasser says all humans are driven by either: Survival, Love & Belonging, Power & Recognition, Freedom, or Fun.

But even cooler, I found a list of many, many core needs (Murray's Needs), most more specific and some very interesting. The first one on the list, for instance, is "abasement: To surrender and submit to others, accept blame and punishment. To enjoy pain and misfortune. " Yikes!

Both pages are from changingminds.org, which apparently exists to teach people (salesmen perhaps?) how to change the minds of other people. Rather interesting to browse through--and worth bookmarking if you write fiction.