CHAPTER VII: Other Inherent Characteristics
Apparently, the natural way for a human being to feel is zestful. Inherently, a human being “gets a whale of a kick” out of living. He/She views problems as interesting challenges to be solved with enjoyment, not as occasions to be depressed or anxious or irritable.
The third basic human characteristic fits well with the other two. It is the natural relationship between any two humans.
This relationship seems to consist precisely of enjoying affection to another person, enjoying affection from another person, enjoying communication with another person, and enjoying co-operation with another person.
Vast intelligence, zestful enjoyment of living, loving, co-operative relationships with others—these seem to constitute the essential human nature.
All the rest of human behavior and feeling except these three innate characteristics and their results is acquired, is not inherent, is the result of something having gone wrong.
All repetitive mistake making, all failures to handle the environmental situation well, all the terrible feelings which enclose adults so much of the time, all the miserable relationships that are common between adults in our societies; all these spring from a single common kind of source.
Something goes wrong.
Certainly, if the above description of what the inherent human is like is valid, something has gone wrong. The vast intelligence, enjoyment of living, and excellent relationships with others which we have described as inherent are not in clear evidence in adults.
What goes wrong?