2 needs underlie our emotional wellbeing: 2) Personal desires not determined by culture

How we learn to fulfil our needs

Sullivan draws attention to the fact that babies probably have little idea about what it is they need in order to be satisfied when they feel in need. A baby will most probably simply feel ‘in turmoil’ when she is in need. A good example of this is seen when a child becomes tired and probably needs to sleep, but at the same time if she is with people she may not want to leave the people she is with in order to go to bed. She typically will become extremely irritable, and cry, yet not understand that it is sleep she needs.

However, as a baby grows, she begins to associate certain things in her environment with satisfaction. She may begin to associate food with satisfaction, or perhaps certain people. As she develops increasing thinking capacities, she will begin to more complicated pictures and understandings of what it might take in order to be satisfied.

Schizophrenia

I am not personally overly familiar with Schizophrenia and the issues surrounding Schizophrenia, but it is an area that Sullivan is particularly well known for dealing with. Sullivan believes that thought processes and patterns associated with Schizophrenia are similar (or the same as) the kinds of processes that very young children or babies use to process the work around them. Babies have little understanding of what it is that brings them satisfaction, and do not really understand what information or objects around them are relevant to personal satisfaction. There is a real lack of clarity in terms of understanding how to reach goals.

Sullivan believes these kinds of ‘Schizophrenic’ thought processes represent one end of a pole along which one can measure clarity of thought process. Different thought processes can be placed in various places along this continuum representing clarity of thought process.