> a mental basis...
No sane person would deny that human beings have material needs, which pretty much anyone can understand. How we *interpret* these needs is another thing - and that's what really counts. It is possible to force feed someone and keep them alive for a rather long time. But I wouldn't say that this is meeting their needs. Having needs and recognizing need are two very different things. A person who eats a peanut and says, "I'm full" might simply deny needing more: eathing "no thing" instead. Wasn't Feuerbach's favourite saying, "Man is what he eats?" Should we be surprised about eating disorders? We are what we eat, we eat nothing, because we are nothing.
ken
"I am nothing, and I should be everything" - Karl Marx
PS. Hey... I just found out that Marx didn't ask Darwin if it was ok if the second german edition of his book be dedicated to him. Apparently the letter was misplaced in the Marx archive.