Almost all these wants are usually gratified--all except one.
But there is one longing-almost asdeep, almost as imperious, as the
desire for food or sleep--which is seldom gratified. It is what
Freudcalls "the desire to be great." It is what Dewey calls the
"desire to be important."
Lincoln once began a letter saying: "Everybody likes a
compliment." William James said:"The deepest principle in human
nature is the craving to be appreciated." He didn''t speak, mindyou,
of the "wish" or the "desire" or the "longing" to be appreciated.
He said the "craving" to beappreciated.
Here is a gnawing and unfaltering human hunger, and the rare
individual who honestly satisfiesthis heart hunger will hold people
in the palm of his or her hand and "even the undertaker will
besorry when he dies."
The desire for a feeling of importance is one of the chief
distinguishing differences betweenmankind and the animals. To
illustrate : When I was a farm boy out in Missouri, my father bred
fineDuroc-Jersey hogs and pedigreed white-faced cattle. We used to
exhibit our hogs and white-facedcattle at the country fairs and
livestock shows throughout the Middle West. We won first prizes by
thescore. My father pinned his blue ribbons on a sheet of white
muslin, and when friends or visitors cameto the house, he would get
out the Long sheet of muslin. He would hold one end and I would
hold theother while he exhibited the blue ribbons.
The hogs didn''t care about the ribbons they had won. But Father
did. These prizes gave him afeeling of importance.If our ancestors
hadn''t had this flaming urge for a feeling of importance,
civilization would havebeen impossible. Without it, we should have
been just about like animals.
除去一点之外，几乎所有这些需要都能满足。还有一项需要如同食物或睡眠一样重要却很难满足，那就是弗洛伊德所说的“成为伟人的欲望”，也就是杜威所说的“显要感”。
林肯曾在一封信的开头说： “每个人都喜欢别人的恭维。”威廉·詹姆斯也说：
“在人类天性中，最深层的本性就是渴望得到重视。”一定要注意，他并没有说“愿望”、“欲望”或“希望”，而是说“渴望”得到重视。
这是一种令人痛苦而且迫切需要解决的人类的饥饿，只有极少数能满足这种人类内心饥饿的人才能把握别人，
“甚至在他去世的时候，连殡仪馆的人也会为之叹息”。
出人头地的“显要感”这种欲望是人与动物之间的一种主要差别。例如，当我还是密苏里州的一个农村孩童时，我父亲就在饲养良种杜罗·杰赛猪和白脸牛。我们经常在中西部的集市及家畜展销会上出售我们的猪和牛。我们获得过几十个头等奖。我父亲用别针把蓝缎带奖章别在一条白布上，当朋友或客人来我家时，他就取出这条长带。他拿着这一端，而我则持着那一端，为客人展示蓝缎带奖章。
这些猪并不关心它们得了什么奖章。但是我父亲却很在意，因为这些奖章给他一种显要感。假如我们的祖先对于这种显要感并没有强烈欲求的话，那么人类文明也就无法产生。而没有文明，我们和动物就没什么区别。
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