André Luís Bordini:

“Desire is the engine behind all the major personal and collective changes”

The well-known psychotherapist and Spiritist speaker from Brazil’s
São Paulo state makes an assessment of desire through the
lens of psychology

	André Luís Bordini (photo) was born and bread in the city of Ribeirão Preto, in São Paulo state, where he works as a volunteer at the Spiritist Society Allan Kardec (SEK). He has degrees in Psychology and Social Sciences. He is also a teacher and a much loved Spiritist speaker and worker in his region. In this interview he talks about desire under the viewpoint of Psychology.
How does Psychology define desire?

The words comes from the Latin word “desiderium”, or “des” + “siderium”, which in a loose translation means “towards the stars”. The meaning has changed with time, but the word still bears the idea of restless search for something difficult, forbidden, inaccessible, but extremely rewarding and pleasure giving. For psychoanalysts it is a more intense expression of Id, or the unconscious, the outcome of an endless and irrational search for the reproduction of pleasurable experiences. It brings in itself life and death, as the realisation of desire brings about the temporary death of that desire. But it will come back soon, asking for a new death, in an endless cycle, which is often obsessive or compulsive, even though natural and unavoidable in all human beings. For Existentialism, mainly in the work of Heidegger, desire is part of our “being in the world”, or “being there”. Kierkegaard, however, sees man is despair and anguish, moving between what is finite and infinite, real and eternal, between choices and debts (or guilt) which derive from those very choices. Desire, in his view, is the element of passion, the only type of affection that gives real meaning to existence. Whatever way, whatever the philosophical or psychological approach, it is clear that man is a being who desires and that brings on inevitable practical and theoretical consequences to its experience in this world.  

How should we view desire, the different ways it appears and the need to submit it to certain criteria? Would it be possible to educate desire? 

Freud says that civilisation is the outcome of repression to desire. If humankind was not able to curb its desires and instincts, it would not have experienced the technological, intellectual, moral, political, legal and social progress it has experienced. Man’s capacity to say no to the satisfaction of his desires was essential for the construction of the great works of humankind, for setting parameters and even enjoying freedom. Brazilian psychoanalyst Jorge Forbes, who introduced the ideas of Jacques Lacan in the country, says that “desiring” is very different to “wanting”. Desire is spontaneous, affective, and symbolic. We desire millions of things but our common sense tells us we will have a few ones. Furthermore, achieving our desires has a high price. We are not always willing to pay such a high price. A young man who dreams (desires to) of being a doctor can see himself dressed in white, in a hospital, with all the prestige, fortune and social status that may come with it. But when it comes to working hard, giving up clubbing, persevering, he thinks well and finds out that he has the desire of being a doctor, but does not really want it. The same goes for the husband or wife who desire another person, but are not willing to pay the price to have their homes ruined.

Desire is an experience we cannot control, but it is up to every person has the freedom to decide what to do with it. Jean Paul Sartre’s Existencialism says we are not free to desire, as desire is automatic, but we are responsible for anything we do about it, be it repressing it, hiding it, feeling guilty, be open about it. Thus, from an existentialist perspective, man is only free when he is able to say no to his own desires. The man who is not able to say no becomes a slave of his own desires. Animals cannot choose, as they are condemned by nature to follow solely their instincts.

But we should not condemn our desires. Legislation penalises killers, not those who think about killing. It punishes paedophiles, not people who are sexually attracted to children. If it were not like that, we would all become judges of other people’s consciences.

As for the possibility of educating desire, well, I do not believe it is possible. Man has no control over desire. What we can educate is our freedom. That is what education is for, to show man that he must live an ethical life, that for one to survive in this world it is necessary to resist and survive our own desires. 

How do you see desire in the light of human evolution across the times? 

It is clear that the education of our liberty transforms our desires, making them less primitive. That is why cannibalism is view as repulsive in today’s world. People may not be able to choose their desires, but taking into account their social, economic, moral and geographical background they may decide whether they will satisfy their desires. Man is free to do so. The man of the past licked his lips with the thought of eating the raw meat of an animal he hunted, with the warm blood running down his face. We now enjoy the prospect of eating a good steak and fries. What will it be like in the future only God knows. Practice makes perfect, as they say. If at every incarnation we make an effort to be more disciplined, we will eventually change the nature of our desires. It is a change from within: after repeatedly saying no to a particular desire, it will eventually stop coming up. It’s like an oil well that dries up. But things in nature happen little by little. 

How do the great thinkers and philosophers of the past and the present contribute to this debate? 

Sartre was an atheist philosopher, but his views on the matter of freedom are very relevant. He said that “more important than what it was done to us is what we have done with what they have done to us”. I would add, in that spirit, that more important than our desires is what we have decide to do about them. We must continue to work on that, but to be patient. Meanwhile, we should try to be useful, even in the shadows and quagmires of our own desires. The great medium, Chico Xavier, whom I had the pleasure to meet, taught us that “peace is something we can offer to others even if we do not have it for ourselves”. No one needs to know what our desires are. They belong to us. We should be accountable of what goes inside our conscience only to God. In practical life, what really counts is the good or evil we have done to others. Chico Xavier tells us we are still imperfect, but should be useful to others. The envoy Jesus sent to the east, Buda, said enlightenment is achieved when we are completely free of all our desires: “When man is free of all his desire he will finally discovers that he has all he needs”. Desire is the engine behind all the major personal and collective changes. And perhaps the aesthetic experience, through the arts, is one of the most effective ways of helping us become lighter beings, more generous and enlightened.