Humanity and Its Motivators

Freud’s arguably flawed attempt at applying reason to human emotion can be interpreted to be an attempt at removing the romance of mystery, of human emotion out of the human life. Although he admits that he is not qualified to write on such matters due to his inability to relate to these “oceanic” feelings (Freud 23), Freud does propose some interesting perspectives on the origins of the two general states of human emotion and their immense influence on the human condition. The two general states, that is discontent and happiness, can be seen as deeply rooted, polarized emotions that are the product of the seemingly insignificant assembly of a group of humans, i.e. civilization.

From a Freudian analytical point of view, it may not be unreasonable to dissect the relationship between the emotional states that happiness and discontent describe. Put simply, happiness describes an elated and pleasant feeling while discontent is unpleasant. But is there another emotional state between these two extremes? Freud argues that contentment is the feeling that is between discontent and happiness, but that it is simply impossible to attain and mutually exclusive to the existence of human civilization. The very definitions of the words “happiness” and “discontent” rely on each other for context. Conversely, contentment does not respect the conventions of up or down, north or south, it just is — like an asteroid floating through space, an object lacking purpose, too distant to be affected by the gravitational push and pull of happiness and discontent.

The uncontrollable nature of these feelings demands the attention of the people they affect. For many, happiness and discontent serve as their daily fuel to commute to work, to remember to put a cover sheet on TPS reports, or to attain a college degree. This dirty fuel however brings no significance, no substance to life in and of themselves, and contentment certainly does not inspire. The notion that even happiness offers no lasting significance to human life may strike some as a contradiction of sorts, but consider that happiness is often only temporary — “Goethe, indeed, warns us that ‘nothing is harder to bear than a succession of fair days.’” (Freud 43) Freud’s seemingly all-encompassing coverage of human emotion therefore appears to be missing a few pieces, pieces that were not visible to him due to his self-proclaimed ignorance of human emotions.

Even with his emotional impediments, Freud may have seen a much bigger picture of human emotions by employing a higher level of objectivity. By further removing his biases from his ideas he may have been able ask himself “what fuels me?” It will likely prove difficult to convince someone that what fueled Freud was happiness or discontent with the human condition, for these emotional states are products of actions and therefore serve as inefficient fuels and motivators. The emotional states that Freud appears to have not considered were the cleaner burning motivational fuels of passion and satisfaction.

The burning desire that passion introduces is one that is inversely sourced to its somewhat similar to its Freudian counterpart, discontent. While discontent often originates from failure to meet expectations of others, an external force, passion is a wholly internal feeling that stems from the core of one’s being with the intention of attaining fulfillment. It equally critical to distinguish fulfillment from its Freudian counterpart, happiness. While fulfillment is undeniably pleasant, satisfaction does not float back down to the ground (i.e. discontent) in the way that happiness’ temporary elation does. Fulfillment may also only feel temporary, but it serves as a stepping stone for progress — it can be built upon incrementally without the inherent regression of happiness. The permanence of passion and fulfillment lay the groundwork for something bigger and better, from innovation to education and much, much more.

Freud’s unveiling of what some may say is the ugly truth of the human condition can instead be viewed in a more positive light, where when said truth is exposed, he may have provided some of the tools necessary to learn how to mitigate the impact of the civilizations unavoidable and superficial emotions of happiness and discontent and discover newfound significance, romance, and beauty in the mystery of the future of human civilization that comes after introspective understanding. Each of these four emotions has their place in life. Together they carve an emotional fingerprint that serves as the foundation of personalities within every single person, aptly exemplifying the human condition. Freud’s cold analysis of human emotions may have some truth to it — it may just be that humans really are merely slaves to the emotional push and pull of people around them, to civilization, like a compass needle is to the terrestrial poles. But it is also possible that passion and fulfillment are what form the molten iron core that is our soul, whose gravity triumphantly overcomes the magnetism of the superficial emotional poles that are happiness and discontent, and inspires the burning progressive motivation that makes us uniquely human.