system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
If working wasn't mandatory to live, would we psychologically need to work ?

I'm at work right now and I'm wondering if working is something we HAVE to do to be healthy mentally. Say everything is free, would we need to work to be mentally healthy ? Like do we need a professional purpose in life ? Could one not work in his entire lifetime if all of his physical need were met ( food, clothing etc.. enough to live normally, not poorly, not wealthily ) ?

My guess is kinda yes for some people, to be social and meet other people, and have something to pursue in life. But I don't know much about psychology unfortunately.
gpt
I don’t think we would need to “work” the way we define work now. However, we do need to have some sort of purpose as this adds to our psychological health, but this could be in a form other than a job. Historically speaking, great furthering of humanity and wellbeing has come directly as a result of some machine or processes taking away jobs and allowing for people to spend more time pursuing their dreams. So an extreme view of this could conclude that jobs, in their current state, actually inhibit, to a degree, our potential for greater psychological health. Great question, it’s really interesting to think about.