HEALTH, WELLBEING
Human Needs“And so, what that means is that we might actually say that needfulness — because it is temporal and changing and over the lifespan — is a feature actually of human life, and maybe even constitutive of the good life, I’ve come to think.”- Krista Tippet.
The Nine Fundamental Human Needs
As defined by economist Manfred Max- Neef.
Subsistence: Acknowledges our basic survival needs, including necessities like nourishment from food, clean water, air.
Protection: The need for security and safety, both physical, a safe place to live, and social (e.g., social security) and protection and care from life-threating forms of life, viruses, bacteria, predatory animals.
Affection: The need for love and connection, including relationships with friends and family.
Understanding: The desire to learn, to know, and to meditate on the world.
Participation: The need to be involved in decisions that affect one's life.
Idleness (Or leisure): The need for free time, relaxation, and rest.
Creation: The ability and drive to invent, design, and bring things into existence.
Identity: The need for a sense of self and belonging, including understanding one's own place and culture.
Freedom: The capacity to make choices and live life according to one's own will.
The work of Marshall Rosenburg who pioneered compassionate communication and and how it can help us to meet our needs, illuminated several similar and complementary categories.
Autonomy: The right to choose ones own dreams, goals and values and to choose ones plan for fulfilling these.
Celebration: to celebrate the cycles of life
Integrity: including, authenticity, creativity, meaning, self worth.
Interdependance: including, acceptance, appreciation, closeness, community, consideration, contribution to the enrichment of life, emotional safety, empathy, honesty, love, reassurance, respect, support, trust, understanding, warmth
Physical Nurturance; The need for intimacy, rest, touch and play
Spiritual Care: Beauty, harmony, inspiration, a sense of order, peace.
Our needs are what unite us, they are finite and are universal.
25/09/2025.
Updated 27/08/2026
By H. Coutts
References and Further Reading
Rosenburg M, 2002, Non Violent Communication, a language of compassion, Puddledancer Press.
Manfred Max-Neef's Fundamental human needs. Wikipedia. Accessed online 24/09/2025, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manfred_Max-Neef%27s_Fundamental_human_needs
Image Holly Fielder