Reason vs. Passion

Sigmund Freud saw the struggle between reason and passion as the difference between the superego – the part of the personality that makes decisions based on reason – and the id, the part that acts based only on desires.

However, I don’t really see a struggle: both are part of a continuum., and both are necessary to take a decision, communicate it, and implement it.

In a perfect world, all policy decisions should be based on reason and fact. They should also, however, be communicated with passion. It is this combination that can produce excellent results.

Imagine a company making sophisticated products based on passionately communicated claims rather than on scientific knowledge, excellent engineering and proven facts. 

Imagine that same company marketing its products based on reason alone without appealing to the passion and feelings of customers.

Imagine them not combining science with creativity to make the innovations that contribute to progress.

Years ago, Apple founder Steve Jobs hit the proper balance between both.

He and Steve Wozniak designed a computer that was easy to use, based on the best technology of the day, yet clothed in an aesthetic package that appealed to the senses of customers.

Jobs replaced the “how” of marketing with the “why” – using reason and creativity to build the product while using passion to sell it. Rather than concentrate on the technical details of their product – appealing to reason – the “why” appealed to the creativity and the pride of ownership of the client – the passion. The Apple computer was sold as a creativity machine rather than simply as a computer.

The result was a product that has been very successful, and whose client base is as passionate as it is rational.

This same analogy goes to the heart of the “reason vs. passion” argument.

Ideas and policies are products. They must be developed using reason and creativity and marketed with both passion and technology.

Leaders should use both reason and creativity as the bases for their policies, and passion to sell them and bring people along. Raising the bar rather than simply catering to an irrational base should always be their goal.

Lack of clarity and mixed messaging can lead the public to distrust rational leaders and follow those whose ideas are baseless but sound inviting to audiences. 

The passion of many to return to “normal” is tempting many leaders to choose an appeal to personal freedom and in some cases the economy over personal responsibility and health, despite proven facts. The result is that the pandemic rages on and the public begins to doubt leaders when messages are mixed or confusing.

These leaders are not preparing their societies for the new normal, one in which mobility will be affected by an ongoing pandemic that will not end any time soon, where education is on-line, business and tourism travel circumscribed, and a certain fear of contagion prevalent and ongoing. 

They prefer to cater to their base instincts to ignore the massive societal changes being produced by the pandemic. And in this sense, they continue to confuse their citizens and prevent the emergence of strategies capable of providing a roadway through an uncertain future. 

In my strategic communications classes, I always drill into students to have a clear set of proven facts based on reason and expertise in order to formulate proposals for their clients. 

Once done, I then counsel them to understand the needs of their clients and formulate messages that can reach their hearts through passion. 

Political leaders must craft their policies coherently to appeal to their voters on a rational basis.  And they must provide clear, consistent, and passionate messages to connect with and motivate them. 

Thus, I continue to believe that it is not a question of reason vs. passion but, rather, reason and passion together that can not only create good policies or products but can also get people to invest in them.

Absent clarity and reason, passion cannot address the myriad challenges that we face.

And absent passion, leaders cannot connect their policies and products with their intended audiences.

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Edition: Estefanía Cardeña