Byron Hathaway
Aug 27, 2017 · 3 min read

Where’s John Venn when we need him?

I have an interest in motivation and the influences that develop various mindsets in humans. Certainly, there are many factors at work…maybe even womb envy.

But each of us is different.

A young boy who witnesses the execution of his parents because of their political leanings, may long for the day he can saw off the executioner’s head. This driving force supersedes all the other biases, environmental or biological, that may drive a more rational person. Please note I said more rational and not completely rational.

I use this one example above to illustrate how our progress through life may force us into an encounter that represses or erases our most “base” urges/motivations.

If we really want to know how time and motivating circumstance have shaped us, we’ll need a Venn diagram. And no two people will have an identical grid. So penis envy or womb envy may sound convincing, but they’re just two cards in a deck.

Here’s a few cards from my own deck.

I’m a white male born in the US.

My first language is American-English.

I hope my accomplishments have made a difference in others lives, but I’m mature enough to know much of my behavior is motivated by a drive for self-preservation, both of my physical self, and my emotional self.

I’m an empath. I feel the pain of others even if I’ve never experienced what they’re experiencing.

I’ve helped others and others have helped me.

I’ve disappointed others and others have disappointed me.

I’ve been shot at six times; once by a cop who mistook me for a burglar as I was coming out of my own house. I’m not sure if he was fired for shooting at me or for missing. I suffer, to some extent a form of PTSD.

I have a fair musical background, but am inquisitive enough to seek out songs and other forms of sound expression from different cultures though I find the most comfort in classical and gospel music. But I love to dance to rock and roll.

I describe myself as a hedonistic aesthete, or maybe an epicurean. How did I get to be this way? Part of it was the way I was raised. Another part was searching for a way to describe my desires.

I like to play sports, but get bored if watching a game or contest on television.

When I’m with a girl I find as much comfort in our post coital sleep as I do from my own orgasm. Maybe I have a form of womb something or other as I always seem to be trying to get back into one.

I have a picture of a nude Balinese girl as my desk-top image as I love the female form above all others.

I was a horrible soldier as I loathe authority earned from someone having more time on the job than me. This is because I believe in and practice respect for merit.

I’ve examined my motivations in so many areas of psycho-babble, I feel cheated because though in some areas I change behaviors to be more efficient, in others I feel trapped. And though I’m sad to admit it, sometimes nothing is sweeter than surrender.

And so on.

These are a few of the cards in my deck of psychological motivations. I’m not a woman so I can’t validate or negate the concept of penis envy. I don’t fully understand the concept of womb envy either. But I do believe there are multiple drivers of who we are at birth and who we become with time.

So please, all of you amateur and professional psychologists/psychiatrists, please come up with a better grid than the overly simplistic womb envy/penis envy explanation as a primary driver of motive.

To me, saying one or the other is the underlying reason for the makeup of one sex is like saying a car runs because it has an energy source. A better word for car is system. The same can be said, and illustrated with a Venn diagram, about underlying human motivation(s).

Thank you for the post. It obviously opened my eyes to something and someone I was unfamiliar with.

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