Desir

Desire is often seen as synonymous with vital momentum. Between the different philosophers, psychologists, psychoanalysts and linguists, not to mention the common sense, unity is never the rule when it comes to defining the fundamental elements of psychism. Epicure distinguished the necessary desires (food, protection, sleep, etc.), natural desires (search for pleasant=), artificial desires (richness, glory…), and unrealizable desires (immortality). The Church associated with them the capital sins: food?gourmandise, flesh?concupiscence, rest?paresse, money?cupidity, power?ambitiousness, honor?.

Rather than entering into vain quarrels of words or metaphysics, human ecogenetics postulates the following definition, at the centre of gravity of these different approaches: desire would be the management of the impulse by the mind.

Human beings are driven by a series of genetically programmed impulses that meet specific needs (food, sleep, sexuality, beauty, love, etc.). These impulses draw their source from the unconscious, but can be taken up by the mind, which elaborates them at the level of thought and representations. Thus the desire is formed, with all the risks of distortion or deviation that our psychic dysfunctions can induce.

The process is in itself essentially natural, because the human being inevitably thinks what he feels. Under natural conditions, this development would promote the right expression of the impulse taking into account the context. The difficulty arises from the moment when education or learning has led to thought patterns or even psychological structuring that are not in line with human genetic potential. These are counter-natural representations that short-circuit the natural impulse, divert or distort it. Some psychotropic substances may also distort the natural process.

We are here at the centre of the ecological problem: consumerism is the result of desires of any species. It is therefore essential to deepen the way in which desires are organized in our form of culture in order to rediscover their natural complexion. This in the hope that such a return to the sources helps to curb the degradation of the planet before blue turns black…