What Joan of Arc Can Teach Us about Human Motivation and Well-being

Twain's depictions of character, particularly in Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (1896), anticipate a general philosophy of human motivation called Self-Determination Theory.¹ This model can be used to examine both Joan's motivation and Twain's own motivation in writing about her. In this essay, I will explore the following SDT hypotheses: 1) that Twain was aware of the distinction between autonomous and controlled motivation and how they affect our well-being, behavior and achievements; 2) that Twain became intrinsically interested in Joan's life and chronicled it because her faith-based motivation was unlike his; 3) that he believed Joan was autonomously motivated by faith rather than extrinsically controlled to gain fame, power, or wealth; and 4) that the French people and army became autonomously motivated by their faith in her and in God.

Joan sought to achieve two specific goals she said were given to her by God: to liberate the French from the English invaders and to see the Dauphin crowned King of France. But why was Twain motivated to recount her story? Self-Determination Theory proposes that humans are inherently motivated for personal growth and well-being and SDT differentiates different types of motivation along a continuum of autonomy. As Edward Deci and Richard Ryan explain, the more autonomous an individual, the more likely that person will experience well-being, and achieve his/her goals. Behaviors are autonomously motivated if the person feels fully volitional—"to the extent that he or she assents to, concurs with, and is wholly willing to engage in the behaviors."² In Twain's account, Joan's motivation comes from an autonomous faith in God not compelled by guilt or powerful others. He clearly differentiated autonomous motivation (including intrinsic motivation) from controlled forms of motivation in himself, in his fictional characters (e.g., Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn), and in Joan.

Self-Determination Theory assumes that humans have three psychological needs. These are needs for autonomy (the need to self-regulate one's experiences and actions), competence (the need to feel effectance and mastery), and relatedness (the need to feel connected to and cared for by others). When social surroundings support these needs, people internalize values autonomously. They naturally master difficult challenges and experience a greater sense of well-being. Twain reports in Personal Recollections that Joan had a satisfying childhood. Between thirteen and sixteen years of age, he writes, she was visited many times by angels, saints, and the archangel Michael. She was afraid at first—her "Voices" accurately predicted future French army disasters—yet they always provided hope: "I knew what was going to happen before it happened. It made me grave. [. . .] But always there was a word of hope, too. More than that: France was to be rescued, and made great and free again."³ By providing accurate information about negative events, combined with a message of hope and autonomy for France, Twain provides the context that facilitated Joan's internalization of her motivation just as SDT predicts.

He also recognized that control can be exerted from without, by people and institutions like the church. Twain hated the hypocrisy of religions that teach kindness but kill people if they have a different religion: homo sapiens "is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself, and cuts his throat if his theology isn't straight."⁴ As Twain understood, control by external agents or internal guilt reduces motivation whereas autonomy enhances it. These two types of motivation result from our "training": "It is from experiences such as mine that we get our education of life. We string them into jewels or into tinware, as we may choose."⁵

Like Twain's "jewels" or "tinware," SDT has found evidence for two types of extrinsic motivation that result from internalization: autonomous (jewels), and controlled (tinware).⁶ In published studies of the influence of religious faith, the degree to which hundreds of Christians internalize their religious beliefs in an autonomous manner correlated with greater self-actualization and higher levels of self-esteem and with lower levels of anxiety...