Page 177 - Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring

c h a p t e r f o u r t e e n

Administering Sacred Nursing Acts—Further Development
of Carative faCtor/Caritas ProCess 9

Human need for food and fluid
With the backdrop of the discussion of broader views of human needs,
it can now be stated that the human need for food and fluid is both
physical and metaphysical; it is more than the need for survival. In
all cultures and occasions, eating and food have intrinsic meaning for
emotional relationships, communication, and feelings of love, friend-
ship, contentment, comfort, support, social life—good feelings. We do
not simply ingest food and fluid; we incorporate the associated sen-
sations, surroundings, the other’s human presence, sound, energetic
mood, the consciousness, if you will, of the person preparing or offer-
ing the food. We take all of this into the body and into our experience
of eating and being fed.
This need is very symbolic and full of meaning beyond the physi-
cal need for food and drink. This need, with all its real and symbolic

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