ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the selective-directive aspect of the traditional concept of motivation. The directive function is a prominent aspect of many psychotherapy theories, and increased self-direction for clients is psychotherapy’s most basic goal. Given the fundamental importance of the directive function in human life, it is sad that science has for so long treated it as an epiphenomenon. Directive functioning is an inborn human capability whose operation is apparent soon after birth. Day believes that almost anything is better “than to intentionalize human behavior.” Virtually all early investigators of development explored the development of “volition and intentionality”. The relation of intentions to actions, thoughts, and feelings “is one of the messiest tangles of puzzles in contemporary philosophy”, and in psychology. The function of intentional behavior is to reduce, remove, or prevent the occurrence of a particular discrepancy, that is, to produce or maintain a desired set of conditions.
