Paul Mackenzie, head of the Good News International Church, was recently charged with terrorism for allegedly leading 429 followers to starve themselves and their children (Al Jazeera News, 2024).
Lethal bodily punishment is in no way limited to cult spirituality, either. People with eating disorders often starve themselves to the point of emaciation or death in pursuit of a thin ideal. Business executives and Ivy League students commit suicide over failed business ventures or bad grades. Even people who had previously normal if not superior mental health can become fatal to themselves under certain circumstances.
Not only is the mind capable of sacrificing the body outright, physical sustenance is not a precondition for the achievement of other priorities. I once knew a young woman who was earning accolades in a graduate program, learning Japanese, and studying advanced corporate negotiations, while experiencing severe starvation as a result of Anorexia. Viktor Frankl formulated his theory of logotherapy while surviving minute to minute in a concentration camp. History is littered with examples of humans realizing greatness despite physical threat and deprivation.
This presents a challenge to conventional psychological wisdom. The most pronounced of these is Maslow’s hierarchy of need theory, which says we can’t fulfill other social or psychological needs until the body’s safety and well-being is assured.
www.simplypsychology.com (2024)
Even though it’s a thorn in the side of logic, we see plenty of examples where this pyramid is inverted or dissolved entirely, and perhaps this calls for a new model of human behavior.
I propose one that is shaped like a bicycle wheel. Each spoke represents the social, experiential, achievement, or survival priorities we have.
At the hub of the wheel lies a limited supply of energy, and each spoke is a need that draws fulfillment from this communal pool.
Various mindsets and situational factors can cause one category of need to absorb an undue amount of energy, leaving less available for other needs to be met.
Humans are capable of EXTREME levels of imbalance, and we don’t have to be mentally ill to get there. Our drives and obsessions can overpower even the most fundamental imperatives of life, and eclipse every other social and psychological need we might hold.
This isn’t to say that I don’t see the logic behind Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, but like a lot of theories, the reality of human behavior is not reflected in its architecture.
Even though survival plays a trump card under most everyday circumstances, we must consider that playing field is not always level.
In order to realize health and good functioning, we must work to maintain careful balance and avoid obsession, lest the object of fixation overrule even our most basic survival. Even though the human mind abides by the basic laws of physics, in complex systems like ours, there are no guarantees.
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