About the human givens approach

THE HUMAN GIVENS APPROACH is a set of organising ideas that provides a holistic, scientific framework for understanding the way that individuals and society work. An effective new organising idea always encompasses more than earlier ideas because it explains the anomalies that previously caused confusion. It pulls information together so that the mind can make sense of it. The richer the pattern in the mind, the more ‘true’ the organising idea is likely to be.

The organising ideas underpinning the human givens framework encompass the latest scientific understandings from neurobiology and psychology, as well as ancient wisdom and original new insights.

At HG’s core is a highly empowering idea – that human beings, like all living organisms, come into this world with both a set of needs and a set of innate resources to help them get those needs met. It is when these essential needs are not being well met, or we are inadvertently misusing our resources, that problems with mental health occur. Perhaps no more powerful a statement could ever be made about the human condition than this: If human beings’ physical and psychological needs are being met healthily, and in appropriate balance, they won’t get depressed; they cannot have psychosis; they cannot be in the grip of addictions.*

To help us get our physical and emotional needs met, nature has gifted us our very own internal ‘guidance programme’ – this, together with our needs, makes up what we call the human givens. We come into the world with an instinctive knowledge of what we need in order to survive and thrive, and a set of inner resources, which we add to as we develop, that can help us achieve this, provided we use them properly and are living in a sufficiently healthy environment.

There has been a distinguished cast of contributors to our knowledge about human needs, going right back to ancient times. In more recent history, William James, Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler all explored human needs, and there was an outstanding contribution by Abraham Maslow, the pioneer of humanistic psychology, who first talked about a hierarchy of needs.¹ It was Abraham Maslow who introduced the idea that, until basic needs are met, people cannot engage with questions of meaning and spirituality – which he called self-actualisation.

Another important contributor was William Glasser, who put forward the idea that fulfilment of people’s needs for control, power, achievement and intimacy depends on their ability to behave responsibly and conscientiously; he argued vehemently that mental illness springs from these needs not being met.²

So the human givens approach belongs to no specific people, and certainly not exclusively to its co-founders Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell, as Griffin states:

Since it first began to be taught, back in 1997, this new school of psychology and psychotherapy has increasingly been recognised as representing a profoundly important shift in our understanding of human functioning. (It has been called “the missing heart of positive psychology”.)

The human givens framework enables us to see where a person’s life is not working well and to tailor solutions for each individual using, as appropriate, a combination of effective psychological interventions (as taught by Human Givens College), education and direct practical help. The insights into what we all need to live fulfilled, satisfying lives also bring clarity to the much-used phrase ‘wellbeing’ and point to concrete ways of achieving and maintaining such a state.

The often startling impact produced by the efficacy, adaptability and practical nature of the human givens approach, along with the new insights and models for effective therapy it encompasses, has led the approach to be adopted in wholly new areas, ranging from education, law and social work to international diplomatic relations and the world of business (see our Resources section for a wide range of examples).

* Sometimes adverse drug reactions or physical conditions such as urinary tract infections can cause symptoms that mimic those of mental disorders, but once the drug is stopped or the condition treated, those symptoms disappear.