The Quality of Representing Basic Needs in the Feminine Poetics of Forough Farrokhzad and Kajal Ahmad (A Synthesis Reading Based on Glasser's Choice Theory

Abstract

Introduction

William Glasser’s Choice Theory, an alternative to external control theories, is a versatile framework for analyzing behavioral choices and literary texts produced by individuals across varying situational, historical, ideological, stylistic, and gendered contexts. This theory posits that all human behaviors are choices made to fulfill intrinsic basic needs. According to Glasser, these fundamental needs are:

Survival (the need to sustain life and maintain health),
Love and Belonging (the need to connect with others, to love, and to be loved),
Power (the need to succeed, achieve goals, or feel control over one’s life),
Freedom (the need to make choices), and
Fun (the need for enjoyment, laughter, and pleasure in life).

The two key concepts of the five basic needs and the "Quality World" discussed in Choice Theory convey fundamental propositions for human happiness and liberation from sources of suffering. Consequently, the Quality World and the satisfaction of these needs are intrinsically tied to the concept of well-being and its fundamental components, as well as ethical concerns. The needs for survival and fun largely reflect worldly happiness and the fulfillment of material needs. As such, literary texts may be viewed as behaviors, products of choices influenced by these basic human needs and the images of one’s Quality World.
Few poets embody significant levels of satisfaction and contentment in their works. Poets frequently express concerns and protests regarding the unmet fundamental needs of humanity as a collective "self," transcending individual identities. The frustration of these needs in poets often manifests in critical and oppositional behaviors and words, characterized by distinct tones of sorrow and rebellion at different historical junctures in their works. Since the creation of literary texts, especially poetry, is considered a behavior from a psychological perspective, a psychological critique of such texts is both relevant and appropriate. It reveals the nature and extent of the fundamental needs of their creators. Forough Farrokhzad and Kajal Ahmad, two contemporary female poets in Persian and Kurdish literature, share numerous similarities in their literary, behavioral, and intellectual choices. These shared aspects, particularly regarding their behavioral and ideological selections, as well as their depiction of the Quality World, are vividly reflected in their works.
 
Literature Review
Research based on Glasser’s Choice Theory in Persian literature can be categorized into two broad levels.

First Level:

Studies that focus on Glasser’s Choice Theory’s prescriptive aspects, emphasizing the effectiveness of Reality Therapy based on this theory. These studies are further divided into:

a) Family Therapy
b) Educational and Occupational Aspects

The first group aims to establish that Reality Therapy is an effective model for stabilizing marital and familial relationships. Examples include studies by Mohammadi and Pirkhayefi (2014), Abbasi et al. (2016), Mousavi et al. (2018), Haft Lang et al. (2019), Karimi et al. (2020), Solook (2020), Ghorbanpour Lafmejani et al. (2021), Mablian et al. (2021), and Rabiei Motmaen et al. (2022).
The second group focuses on Reality Therapy’s efficacy in enhancing career trajectories. Studies in this category include works by Ahmadi and Ramazani (2007), Razi Mordai et al. (2010), Shahabi Farahani et al. (2012), Shah-Monsh and Fekri (2017), Hashemi et al. (2018), Salmani Bastanavi and Nami (2022), and Heydari Vahed and Mohammadi Yusefnejad (2023).

Second Level:
Studies addressing the descriptive aspects of the theory (explaining the causes and mechanisms of behavior) focus on applying this theory or its key concepts to literary texts, including stories, novels, or poets’ works.
For example, Nikbakht et al. (2020) examined the five basic needs of Choice Theory, focusing on analyzing the need for freedom in characters from selected children's and young adult stories. Their study analyzed 145 prominent books (original and translated) over a 90-year period (1920-2010), selecting 30 stories with strong portrayals of the need for freedom, divided into positive and negative freedom.

 
2.Methodology
This study employs qualitative methods, analyzing the content of poems to identify and categorize themes related to Glasser's five basic needs (survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun). Additionally, it interprets the Quality World of the two poets as a cultural and social perspective.
 
3.Findings and Analysis
3-1.The Need for Survival
The most fundamental human need, survival, encompasses physical security, sustenance, and shelter. It enables individuals to endure challenging environments (Glasser, 1998, p. 32). The poetry of Farrokhzad and Ahmad vividly portrays the suffocated cries of Eastern women whose lives, across history, have been sacrificed to patriarchal societal norms under terms like chastity, weakness, and inferiority. For these poets, these terms evoke the relentless struggle for survival:
"In the land of poetry, roses, and nightingales / It is a privilege to live / When, after years, your very existence is finally acknowledged."(Farrokhzad, 1982: 291)
"Give me refuge, O greedy loves, / For the painful desire to survive adorns your conquest / With magic waters / And drops of fresh blood." (Ibid: 270)
"From the cradle, you were busy burying me alive / Constantly annihilating me, / Constantly killing me... / Yet I emerged from an eternal 'no' / And after all kinds of death, / I remain, still standing." (Ahmad, 2006: 33)
3-2..The Need for Love and Belonging
This need drives individuals to form interpersonal connections and feel a sense of belonging. People with a strong need for love and belonging seek meaningful and enduring relationships (Glasser, 1998, p. 45).
3-2-1. Love and Belonging as a Lover
"But here it is toward the heavens / Still, these hopeful eyes of mine, / God, do you recognize this voice? / I love him, I love him." (Farrokhzad, 1982: 186)
Further references to this theme can be found throughout Farrokhzad’s poetry (e.g., pages 35, 50, 85, 122, 151, 169, 176, 180, 270, 278, 324, and 327)
3-2-2. Love and Belonging in the Role of the Beloved
"He is not the one to inhale the delightful scent of my body / like a madman when he falls into my arms. / O mirror of my soul, I grieve this regret: / He is not the one to press my body to his chest." (Farrokhzad, 1382/2003: 57).
"Do you think Sharia suffices,
O suitor of mine,
For me to surrender my virginity
On just one night
In the bedsheets of a bedroom?
O clergyman! O confused preacher!
If only you knew what virginity means to us women
And how we guard it,
You would understand
Why losing it is no easy matter—
It is weighty, so very weighty." (Kajal, 2006: 15).
 3-2-3. Love and Belonging in the Role of the Mother
"Lullaby, O my little boy / Close your eyes, for night has come / Close your eyes, for this dark demon / With blood in his hands and laughter on his lips, has come." (Farrokhzad, 1382/2003: 43).
"I and the rain / are full of the unborn of lovers, / my heart heavy with the loves of thousands of Senems." (Kajal, 2006: 284).
3-2-4.The Need for Power
The need for power, as one of the basic human needs according to William Glasser, includes being capable, successful, famous, in control, notable, and in a position of leadership. Glasser believes this is a distinct and prominent need among humans, allowing individuals to feel valuable and maintain control over their lives. Power encompasses not only control over others but also mastery of oneself and the environment (Glasser, 2000, p. 57).
"I triumphed, yes, I triumphed. / Long live No. 678, issued from District 5, Tehran, / who, with perseverance and determination, / achieved such a lofty rank..." (Farrokhzad, 1382/2003: 29).
"Even I did not know
how this 'No' of mine grew tall
under a manly sky,
on a manly earth,
in the shadow of a manly God." (Kajal, 2006: 41).
 
3-2-5.The Need for Freedom
In Glasser's theory, the need for freedom refers to the ability to choose and act independently. He argues that individuals seek to act according to their values and choices without external constraints (Glasser, 1998, p. 68).
"It does not matter if a harsh barrier stands / between me and you across the desert / I am that bird who flies alone / to the vastness of the seas." (Farrokhzad, 1382/2003: 136).
"Before the altar of freedom, / I lay the crown of poetry, bowing in reverence." (Kajal, 2006: 295).
 
3-2-6. The Need for Fun
The final basic need in Glasser’s theory is the need for fun, which refers to enjoyment and amusement in life. This need helps individuals feel joy and satisfaction (Glasser, 2000, p. 76).
"And how I wish / to sit on Yahya’s cart among watermelons and melons, / spinning around the Mohammadieh square." (Farrokhzad, 1382/2003: 338).
"One evening, you said: If you ever get so angry / I'll hold a red cloth before the assault of your fiery, ram-like gaze / My only wish is for you to laugh." (Kajal, 2006: 69).
 
4.Conclusion
The representation of connotations tied to the five basic needs in the poetry of Farrokhzad and Kajal ultimately outlines their ideal world—a cultural and inner construct transcending mere needs. In this ideal world, which consists of the three fundamental components of individuals, objects, and beliefs, while all five basic needs of Glasser’s choice theory appear with varying frequencies, the need for love and belonging emerges as the superior quality and central axis of the envisioned ideal world. This need is intricately linked to the critical and protest-oriented nature of their discourse.
    The protest streak in the poetry of Farrokhzad and Kajal Ahmed stems from their epistemological framework and their reading of their social identity as women—and specifically as female poets in patriarchal societies. The frequent occurrence of concepts tied to the need for love can be seen as arising from their dual identity as both the beloved and the lover. This dual identity interacts, contrasts, aligns, and clashes with patriarchal and, at times, misogynistic discourses. Their laments and protests are thus articulated in both poets’ works.
In some cases, their grievances take the form of rebellion and rejection of predefined social structures linked to women's identities. Their criticism and dissent sometimes are reduced to expressions of dissatisfaction, while at other times, they negate, reject, or delegitimize prevailing patriarchal norms tied to women's social existences. These protests and rejections are often intertwined with the fulfillment of the need for love and belonging, at times with the need for power, and occasionally with the need for freedom and survival. Therefore, achieving love and belonging, power, freedom, and survival can be seen as secondary goals of the protests reflected in the works of these two poets.