The human being is a complex unit: it is simultaneously man-body, man-psyche and man-spirit. Let’s dwell for a moment on the man-psyche, that is, his inner world, made up of emotions and passions, light and shadows, dreams and utopias. Just as there is an outer universe, made up of order-disorder-new orders, of horrible devastations and of promising emergencies, there is also an inner world, inhabited by angels and demons. They display tendencies that can take us to madness and death, and impulses of generosity and love that can bring us self-realization and happiness.

As observed by C. G. Jung, who well knew the pathways of the human psyche: the journey to our own Center, due to these contradictions, can be longer and more dangerous than a trip to the Moon and the stars.

Among the philosophers of the human condition, there is a question that has never been satisfactorily resolved: what is the basic structure of our interior, of our psychic being? There are many schools of thought.

In short, we affirm the thesis that reason is not the first reality. Before it, there is a whole universe of passions and emotions that arouse the human being. Above reason there is intelligence, through which we sense totality, our openness to the infinite and the ecstasy of contemplating the Being. Reasons start with reason. Reason itself is without reason. Reason is simply there, indecipherable.

But reason carries us to the more primitive dimensions of our human reality, those that nourish reason and that run through all its expressions. Kantian pure reason in an illusion. Reason always comes saturated of emotion and passion, a fact accepted by modern cosmology. Contemporary cosmology includes in the concept of the universe not only energies, galaxies and stars, but also the presence of the spirit and of subjectivity.

To know always involves entering into an interested and affective communion with the object of knowledge. Supported by many other thinkers, I have always maintained that the basic form of the human being does not reside in the Cartesian cogito (in the, I think, therefore I am), but in the Platonic-Augustinian sense (in the I feel, therefore I am), in the profound feeling. This puts us in live contact with things, making us aware of being part of a larger whole, always affecting and being affected. More than world ideas and visions, it is the passions, strong feelings, germinal experiences, love, and their opposites as well, the rejections and the overwhelming hatreds, that move us and propel us forward.

Sensible reason finds its roots in the moment life appeared, some 3.8 thousand million years ago, when the first bacteria erupted and started to dialogue chemically with the environment, in order to survive. That process deepened when, more than 125 million years ago, the organized brain of the mammals appeared, a brain that carried caring, tenderness, affection and love for the newly born. The emotional reason reached a level of self consciousness and intelligence in the human being, because we also are mammals.

Western thought is logic-centric and anthropocentric, and always held emotion under suspicion, for fear of harming the objectivity of reason. In some sectors of culture, a sort of lobotomy was created, that is, a great insensibility for human suffering and for the problems which nature and planet Earth have endured.

We now realize that it is urgent to definitively include sensible and cordial reason, in addition to intellectual reason, which cannot be replaced. If we cannot get back to feeling, with affection and love for the Earth as our Mother and for us as her conscious and intelligent organ, it will be difficult for us to mobilize to save life, heal the wounds, and prevent catastrophes.

One of the undeniable values of the psychoanalytical tradition, starting with Sigmund Freud, its founding master, was to have scientifically established passion as the basis, at level zero, of human existence. The psychoanalyst works not from what the patient thinks but from his affective reactions, from his angels and demons, seeking to establish a certain equilibrium and a sustainable inner serenity.

The question is how to creatively take control of our volcanic passions. Freud dwells on the integration of the libido, Jung in the search for individuation, Adler in will power control, Carl Rogers in the development of personality, Abraham Maslow in the effort of self realization of latent potentialities. Other names could be mentioned, such as Lacan, Reich, Pavlov, Skinner, transpersonal psychology and cognitive behaviorism, among others.

What we can affirm is that independently of the different psychoanalytical schools, the man-psyche sees himself as forced to creatively integrate his inner universe, always in motion, with the diabolic and symbolic tendencies, destructive and constructive. Through a process of successes and mistakes, we discover our path.

No one could take our place. We are condemned to be the teachers and disciples of ourselves.

Desire is not just another impulse. It is a motor that sets in motion all psychic life. It is the function of a principle, defined by philosopher Ernst Bloch as the hope principle. By its nature, it knows no limits, as Aristotle and Freud already observed. The psyche not only desires this or that, it desires the totality. It does not desire the fullness of man, it seeks the superman, as Nietzsche explained, that which infinitely surpasses the human.


Desire makes existence dramatic, and sometimes tragic. But also, when realized, it produces a happiness without equal. We are always seeking the object which would fulfill our infinite desire, and fail to find it in the realm of everyday experience. In the everyday, we only find finites.
 When the human being identifies a finite reality as the infinite object it seeks, a profound disillusionment results. Can the beloved person, a very desired profession, be the dream? A moment comes, and often very quickly, when a fundamental dissatisfaction is perceived and the desire for something more is felt.

How does one escape the impasse caused by infinite desire? By fluttering from one object to another, without ever finding repose? We must start to seriously seek the true object of our desire. I respond as follows: it is the Being and not the entity, the Whole and not the part, the Infinite and not the finite. After so much traveling, the human being is left with the cor inquietum (restless heart) experience of Saint Augustine: Late I loved you, oh Beauty so ancient and so new. Late I loved you. My restless heart will not rest until it rests in You. Only the Infinite Being can fulfill the infinite desire of the human being, and let him rest.

Desire involves powerful volcanic energies. How can one handle them? Above all, it is about welcoming the condition of desire, without moralizing. Passions push the human being in all directions. Some passions push towards generosity, others to egocentrism. To integrate such energies without repressing them requires caring, and more than a few renunciations.

The psyche is called upon to build a personal synthesis, that is the search of equilibrium of all interior energies. Neither to be victimized by an obsession for a specific desire, as for example, sexuality, nor to repress it. as if it were possible to debilitate its vigor. What is important is to integrate it as expression of affection, of love and of aesthetics, and watch it carefully, because we are dealing with a vital energy that cannot be fully controlled by reason, but through symbolic means of sublimation and redirection to other humanitarian purposes. Each person must learn how to renounce, in the sense of realizing an ascetic act that liberates one from dependencies, and creates an inner freedom, one of the most valuable gifts.

Another way of dealing with infinite desire is by taking precautions, that help us avoid the traps of the very human vulnerability. We are neither omnipotent, nor gods who cannot be touched by failure. We can find ourselves weak and, sometimes, cowards. But we must take precautions against situations that could make us fall and lose the Center.

C.G.Jung offers us perhaps an inspiring key, with his proposal of building a process of individuation along life’s trajectory. This process has a holistic dimension: accept without fear and with humility all the pulsations, images, archetypes, lights and shadows. Listen to the roar of the beasts that inhabit it, but also to the enchanting song of the thrush. How can one create an interior unity, resulting in the equilibrium of our desires, the experience of freedom and the joy of living?



Jung suggests that everyone strive to create a strong Center, a unifying Self that would function as the sun does in the solar system. The sun attracts all the planets around it. Something similar must occur with the psyche: one must nourish a personal Center that integrates everything, with reflection and internalizing, and not last, by nourishing the Sacred and the Spiritual. It is not uncommon that religion, as an institution, cuts off our spiritual life, with an excess of doctrines and too rigid moral norms. But religion as spirituality performs a fundamental function in the process of individuation. Religion has the function of linking and re-linking the person with his Center, with all things, with the universe, with the original Source of all beings, giving it a sense of belonging.

The lack of integration of the energy of desire manifests itself through the rupture of social relations, the murderous violence in the schools, or in the murders of the Blacks, the poor and homosexuals.


Consequently, learning to handle the forces of desire implies a concern for social health. A humanistic, ethical and civic education must not neglect educating the desire. The greatest obstacle lies in the very logic of the prevalent system, centered in the desire to have, not thinking of the civilizing values of gentleness, good treatment and respect for the person. To the contrary, the mass media extol individual desire and violence as the means of solving human conflicts.

Globalization as a human phenomenon will force us to moderate personal desires for the benefit of the collective ones, thus making human coexistence more equilibrated and friendly.