Intrinsic Goals

A1 Mental integration

By mental integration I mean the mind’s capacity to hold its different parts in workable coherence. It is the opposite of chronic inner contradiction or fragmentation. Cognitive dissonance is the inner awareness or discomfort that can arise when integration is incomplete and different parts of the mind are pulling against one another. An integrated mind can contain multiple roles, needs and commitments without collapsing into confusion. It has enough internal consistency to know what matters, enough self-awareness to register its own requirements, and enough coordination to balance them. In that sense the aim is not simplicity but coherence: the different parts of the mind are able to work together rather than pull destructively against one another.

A2 Self-knowing

Self-knowing is the settled understanding of one’s own values, motives, strengths, vulnerabilities and recurring emotional patterns. Human beings are naturally curious about the world, and that curiosity includes themselves. A person who knows themselves is less likely to be surprised or destabilised by their own emotional life, because its patterns are already recognised as part of who they are. This is distinct from emotional auto-analysing, which is the more active process of examining feelings and reactions in the moment or after the event. Self-knowing is the broader condition that such reflection gradually helps to build.

A3 Personal emotional understanding

Personal emotional understanding is the mind’s need to make emotional life intelligible to itself. It is more than simply noticing a feeling in the moment. It involves grasping what the feeling is, what it may be connected to, and why it matters. When this understanding is weak, emotions can feel baffling, intrusive or overwhelming. When it is stronger, inner life becomes easier to navigate because feelings are less mysterious and more understandable.

A4 Give meaning to life

To give meaning to life is to interpret our experiences in ways that make them intelligible, bearable and connected to some larger purpose or pattern. We think about meaning because, for most of us, day-to-day survival is sufficiently secure for the mind to range beyond immediate necessity. We ask what our experiences add up to, what our efforts are for, what suffering means, and how our lives fit into something larger than isolated events. This is not a built-in purpose in the sense that we give meaning in order to survive, but an activity of mind made possible once survival is no longer the whole task. In democratic life, shared meanings matter because citizens and leaders act differently depending on what they believe life, society and responsibility are for.

A5 Self-actualisation

Self-actualisation is a whole-life construct concerned with achieving one’s full potential. It is not simply achievement in an external sense, but the movement towards becoming more fully what one is capable of being. For some people this may be reached only partially or late in life; for others, the more realistic task is to remain on the journey towards fuller development. What matters is that the person’s energies, values and abilities are being directed towards their highest viable expression.

A6 Establishing self-worth

Establishing self-worth is the formation of a viable sense that the self is worth inhabiting and sustaining. Without it, a person becomes more vulnerable to collapse, self-contempt or the need to prop up worth by unhealthy means. The goal here is not vanity, but the establishment of a basic foundation from which life can be lived with dignity. A person with enough self-worth can feel ashamed, disappointed or criticised without concluding that they are worthless as a whole. Public policy can affect this goal very directly. Employment policy, educational opportunity and retraining provision can all influence whether people are more able to develop competence, contribution and dignity rather than being left to feel discarded or without value.

A7 Independence / self-reliance

Self-reliance does not mean isolation. Human beings are social, and at times of illness, stress or trauma we may rightly depend on others for help. The point is not never to need support, but to retain sufficient autonomy that one’s emotional life is not wholly dependent on others carrying it. A self-reliant person can seek advice, comfort or expertise without surrendering personal agency. In that sense independence is compatible with relationship: others may support us, but they do not wholly replace our own inner responsibility for living.

A8 Motivation

Motivation is the drive and direction that help energy become purposeful. Emotionally, it matters because feelings can either strengthen or weaken the will to act. Motivation is not simply a matter of wanting something, since we may be driven to do something we do not want. It is better understood as the capacity to gather energy around a task, demand, value or goal and to keep it there.

A9 Effectiveness / constructiveness

Effectiveness or constructiveness is the capacity to generate outcomes that are genuinely positive: to build, improve, create, repair or enable something worthwhile. The result may be tangible, such as a business, a home or a practical solution, or more relational and intangible, such as trust, opportunity, encouragement or a healthier atmosphere.

A10 Creation and preservation of healthy relationships

The creation and preservation of healthy relationships is the intrinsic aim of forming, sustaining and protecting relationships that are emotionally healthy and mutually viable. Some people are personable and can begin relationships easily, yet lack the steadiness, reciprocity or emotional skill needed to sustain them. Healthy relationships require more than contact or charm. They require enough honesty, care, responsiveness and resilience for connection to remain viable over time.

A11 Stress oversight

Stress oversight is the ongoing monitoring and regulation of stress so that it remains within sustainable bounds. The aim is not a life without pressure, but the maintenance of a stress load that remains workable rather than corrosive. In this sense stress becomes something to be watched over, much as one might keep oversight of finances, workload or health, so that it does not quietly undermine wellbeing. Government policy can also influence this strongly. Housing insecurity, unstable employment, poor access to care, punitive systems and avoidable bureaucratic burdens can all increase stress across a population, while wise policy can reduce unnecessary strain and help keep the emotional load on people within more sustainable limits.

A12 Quality of life and wellbeing

Quality of life and wellbeing are major goals of emotional functioning because they express whether a person is living in a way that is both satisfying and sustainable. Wellbeing is not merely happiness in the moment; it includes contentment, security, health, adjustment to one’s circumstances and a sufficient sense of agency and support.

A13 A healthy concept of normal and usual

A healthy sense of what is normal, usual and good for us matters because people often confuse familiarity with health. What is common or personally familiar is not always what is genuinely beneficial. Emotional maturity involves developing a sense of the kind of life, relationships and habits that are not only recognisable, but also healthy and sustaining.

A14 Maintaining physical well-being

Maintaining physical well-being is the mind–body system’s ongoing work of preserving bodily functioning and registering physical signals as information about strain, distress, recovery and need. Emotional life does not occur apart from the body. Tension, fatigue, illness, pain and recovery all affect what we feel, while emotional strain often has bodily consequences in return. Maintaining physical wellbeing is therefore part of a complete emotional framework, not something separate from it.