Back in the old days of psychology, there was this popular idea known as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. It was created by psychologist Abraham Maslow and had a cool, pyramid-type shape. Here’s a version I found online…
The fundamental idea is that, as we achieve basic survival needs, so we start to achieve social needs, thence love needs and finally self-actualisation needs.
It looks great, which is no doubt why it was so popular. What I find particularly exciting about this model is that it implies that if we all just keep getting our basic needs met, then we will all finally get enlightened and live in peace, wealth and happiness.
Maslow’s Hierarchy model was created around the time of the Second World War, when few people worldwide were really in a position to ascend far up the pyramid. Thus it came to, in a sense, justify the wealth-creating, trickledown culture of the post-war world, dominated by US capitalism.
I guess, sometime around the seventies, we entered a period when we might check out if Maslow’s Hierarchy were really true. The indicators looked good. Rich Californians were getting into meditation and Eastern gurus. The world was visibly getting less warlike and more peaceful.
But, fast forward four or five more decades, and have we all become enlightened? Do we all live in peace with each other, having respect for each others views?
Hardly!
I think Maslow’s Hierarchy was great and inspirational for its time. But it was extremely optimistic! For many people, having their basic physical and social needs met very evidently does not leave them focusing on how to be more loving or become self-actualised. Rather they prefer distractions, safety and comfort.
Being a therapist who is also interested in finance and geopolitics, not long ago I came across the following model. It was created by someone using the pseudonym FOFOA and illustrates one way that the development of financial systems over periods of stability might be described.
It shows how the financial system, as it grows, moves from furnishing basic human needs to creating increasingly abstract monetary vehicles for investors to profit from.
I thought “wow,” not just because it seemed so accurate. Rather because, intuitively, it seemed to me to transcend Maslow’s Hierarchy, and replace it with something more likely and realistic.
Instead of deepening human values, as we move out of the “survival phase” of acquiring money, many humans simply find ways to protect what they’ve got and increase it still further. This happens on both a personal and an institutional level.
FOFOA’s model inspired me to come up with something similar on a psychological level, to replace Maslow’s Hierarchy. It runs something like this:
We start, at the bottom, with the most core survival need - to stay alive today - and gradually work our way up to some sense of individual and social stability. At some point, our sense of personal selfhood becomes more fixed, at the level marked “Ego.”
What then seems to happen, for most people, is that they seek to protect and expand their wealth and comfort. Simultaneously, they begin to subscribe to progressive visions of how the world “should be.” This might possibly be to justify the fact that they have a great deal more money than many other people, a way to reduce any underlying sense of guilt, or for some other reason I haven’t yet figured out.
I think what I’m trying to say here is that deepening love and self-awareness is by no means a “done deal.” It does not just happen automatically, once our basic needs are met. Something more needs to take place.
In trying to figure this part out, I’m reminded of the process that I went through during the eight years of intense group therapy that I undertook to heal my life. It was like my existing, dysfunctional sense of self - the inverted pyramid - was constantly being bashed down and allowed to regrow, each new incarnation slightly improved upon the last.
Does humanity itself need a similar process to grow? Because it does seem to me that the mindset each of us forges, after adolescence, is like an inverted pyramid that can benefit from being worked on.
And might that process be facilitated by our going through repeated financial recessions?
I placed the two double-pyramid models side-by-side.
As times get harder, and money more scarce, so the ego we have formed and our notion of values and how the world should be comes under increasing pressure. Survival needs and, importantly, survival emotions, re-enter our lives. We have more pressing concerns than mapping out our own perfect world. We are compelled to fixate on core needs.
I think that, whilst gruelling, this is a healthy process. The emotions that re-enter our mind - fear, anger, pain, love - are core emotions, that we need to be in contact with in order to have a healthy psychological life, regardless of our wealth.
I think that recessions may provide a healthy process through which societies can develop. To my mind, they are certainly better than the world wars that marked the last century. Our culture does need a mechanism through which some of the natural immaturities of our ego can be bashed out, like a blacksmith working metal. I think if a critical threshold of people can come to realise that which is truly of value to them in life, then a much better world can really start to take shape.
Hello Deveraj - This is excellent . When we are in a situation where something is dominating us in a way that actually may compromise our survival ( Food / Sleep / Loving Guidance ) our body puts our own identity development on hold , and we appropriate the identity of the dominant factor - this can be a personality , a political system , our jailor , or the system of grades , money , or applied chemistry. The body does this so that the logical mind has the best chance to do battle with the agressor . Once the match has been done , and the individual is in a safe place , they can then return to the growth and engagement with their actual identity . This is something I have been looking at latetly . I grew up in an odd family where no rock and roll, and money was not the overlord in my dad's life , but was the reason for EVERYTHING in my mom's life / I saw the absurdity of it all . Money is an idea , at the same time it is a promissory note , at the same moment a cancellation of debt . To understand money , one must understand quantum relationship . However , it has a name , and we assign it value , but as I wrote in "Dinar Dreams " well , maybe I will just post the entire poem here . To me , water is far more valuable than money . Dinar Dreams -- I am being more brave about presenting my truth , the female reality of my experience . Right now , I actually believe mathematically that having debt is a better investment than having dollars . I have even read that . Personally , I invest in intellectual property . I believe that the knowledge you are developing is invaluable ( Priceless ) - if it means that one dad does not flip out at his family , or one mom is able to feel happy in her life, you are jesus ! I really feel happy when I see a posting notice with your name , it is always vital stuff . Jen
Since time before time
Dreams of goats
Dreams of gold
Dreams of water skins
Filled up full
Dinar dreams
would take hold
of men as they walked
on the dust
in the heat
dry wind
trying to blind
their eyes
so they will not see
Their Dinar dream
the head of a goat
one single coin
golden skin round curves
perfect inside the hand
Of every man
-- Aquiline design
So beautiful
--- feel, so smooth
So soft to hold
Now you are so far away
And still my eyes
search for you
I turn inside
To hide
from the dust
I wrap my face
I think of your gaze
And wonder
if your dinar dreams
Ever pass my gate
and float through my door
like a sun beam lit in
dusty haze.
The dust still blows
the sand moves and
changes shape
I move the cloth
over my face
A drink of water
so cool in my throat
I think of you
who would drink gold
I am the same
time before time
as in the days of old.
1. This looks like the Barrett Model all over again https://www.barrettacademy.com/7-levels-of-consciousness https://www.buildingthelifeyouwant.com/blog/barretts-seven-levels-of-consciousness https://www.valuescentre.com/barrett-model/
2. When it comes to reality inversion, there are Maslow derivations that suggests that it is a male-female distinction or a warrior-poet distinction. https://abstraction.live/2018/03/07/theory-of-love-men-v-women/ https://archive.ph/MwmzV https://archive.ph/du44k
3. Could it be that the financial system and the military-industrial system see-saw between each other every ~108 years? (between 100 and 120 years scientifically) https://danco.substack.com/p/debt-the-first-5000-years https://peterturchin.com/age-of-discord/ https://archive.ph/SKzaZ