Fiction: Fulfilling Our Needs?

4 Commentsby   |  11.22.10  |  The Schools of Psychology (Part IV-B)

When I was in seventh grade speech class I decided what I wanted to do with my life. We were learning about persuasive speeches or something and our teacher introduced Maslow’s theory as a way to help write persuasive speeches by figuring out at which stage your audience probably was. When I learned about his theories, I fell in love with the field of psychology. Then, when I was a freshmen, I revisited Maslow’s theory for a paper. It’s from that paper that I want to draw my thoughts for this post. It seems kind of unrelated to the class, but it’s something that I have wondered about. Granted, when I wrote the paper I was an uneducated freshman who just needed a paper topic and tried to make a somewhat scholarly-sounding paper to just make it by in the class.
The paper was about the intersection of literature and psychology: why people read fiction. I posited that perhaps one of the biggest reasons we read fiction (for those of us who do actually read fiction) is because we can live vicariously through the characters and fulfill the different stages of our needs through the characters of the book. In my paper I said that perhaps this did not apply to the first two levels, since those needs are necessary for survival. Before you read a book you make sure you can eat that day, etc. However, it might apply to the higher level needs. That’s why romance novels are so popular. Perhaps when it is too much effort to fulfill our own needs we turn to a book to fulfill the needs for us.
I don’t know. When it comes down to it, the idea seems somewhat ridiculous. After all, some people read certain novels even after their needs are filled. For example, people in committed relationships still read the Twilight books, so they’re not using those books to fulfill their desire for love. It was just something I was thinking about.

Comment

4 Comments

  1. Brandon Schmermund
    2:14 pm, 11.27.10

    Mary has a good point. One thing I was thinking about while reading this post was the fact that some people have to resort to this fantasy world because they do not like the actual real world they are in now. I believe it is harder to be satisfied with the world around us when we have so many fairy tale options we can run away to when this world is too boring for us. What about the old times when people were satisfied with going outside to find their fun? When talking to elderly people I am surprised to hear them say they do not have boring times in their lives. They find things to be involved in and appreciate. Our generation becomes too easily bored with anything now because the next big thing is already coming out. This is a great post by Mary, but I believe we just need to get outside more and turn off the fantasy world that so many of us would rather live in.

  2. Rebekah Hernandez
    8:51 pm, 11.28.10

    I love the story of how you fell in love with psychology. It is wonderful to know the field that you want to go into at a young age. I, myself, only knew that I wanted to help people and the way I wanted to do that changed over time. Until one day, I too fell in love with psychology. I am also an ardent lover of fiction. I read extensively and it is one of my greatest joys. Not surprisingly, then, I found you blog topic extremely interesting and I also believe that you are right if not fully then to an extent. Often times, I will read a novel that I know will inspire me when I am in need of inspiration. Or I will read a novel that is filled with struggle when I am personally struggling. In short, it seems as though my reading does serve to fill a need. In addition, I think you are right that those needs may be Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. As a side note, I think that was pretty good comparison for a freshman paper:). I bet you got an A+.

  3. Hannah Hendrix
    1:06 pm, 11.29.10

    I love this post. I spent my summer as a missionary intern in Honduras working with Mission Lazarus, and in the poor jungles I saw Maslow’s hierarchy of needs played out in a very big way. The people I came into contact with did not do so many of things that I take for granted, and it was because they were busy trying to survive. You don’t have a lot of time to read when you’re wondering where your next meal will come from. I wonder exactly what need that reading fiction fulfills. I personally love to read and will read anything I can get my hands on.

  4. Megan Novelli
    3:41 pm, 11.29.10

    The world has become a fast pace race, everyone is seeking to get where they want to go the fastest that they possibly can, even advertisements want to get your attention first, everything and everybody has begun to move faster in order to maintain with everyone else. People do not like to just sit around anymore and do nothing anymore, they want something to occupy their time even for a split second. the busier a person is the better they feel they are maintaining with the world. Even if they are sitting they cant just let their mind sit still they need something to grab its attention and hold it. Some are still able to sit and read for entertainment but most people are unable to do just that. Our world has become so fast paced that we are letting our thoughts be overrun with everyone elses, we need to be able to sit alone sometimes with our thoughts just to know who we are and what we believe in.

Add a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.