THE BASE OF MASLOW’S PYRAMID

 THE BASE OF MASLOW'S PYRAMID 

Maslow, after an earnest research, postulated the hierarchy of needs, with a simple bottom, and a sophisticated top. But what if the bottom of the pyramid is actually an anarchy of needs, messy and fussy with real and imagined survival factors? Why then even after having met our basic needs we always fail to reach the top? Why do we remain a worm all our lives and only at the fag end realise the butterfly that we could have been? Why do we keep biting, slighting, fighting everything and everybody but are not sighting and alighting and righting ourselves?

So, is the base of the pyramid really basic? I think it needs a re-visit. And for that we need to re-visit the brain. And guess what! The brain doesn’t know we are no more in a jungle, albeit a concrete jungle. Every second it is processing incoming sensory information and is deciding whether there is a reward or a threat. It has to be either a flower or a fruit or a snake or a wolf. If it's a reward, then ‘walk’ toward. If it is a threat, ‘run’ away! 

The brain is not as intelligent an organ as it is deemed to be. It is a computer, yes.  But intelligent, no! It is just a processor, a storage, an input and output device. It runs on chemicals and currents. Whether I am forming a habit of smoking tobacco or of reading a book, the brain is only forming a firmer and firmer neural pathway by adding more and more myelin layers around. The brain can’t add value judgement to that habit, only our consciousness can. Brain only does what we make it do. Without conscious control, the brain is anything from a computer to a calculator, or an idiot television box or a dumb smartphone. 

The circuits of the brain look at threat as threat per se. Whether a dog is baring its teeth or a snake it’s fangs, or a knife is pointed at our neck, whether we are hurt by someone’s word or deed, whether we have been slighted or secluded, whether we are physically bound in a chain or our mind is manacled, whether it is real pain or melancholy, it is the same brain area that is making us suffer - the ‘anterior cingulate cortex’. It is the same stress chemical that flows - cortisol. It is always the same centres and the same circuits in the ‘insula’ for fear, anger, sorrow or pain that are aroused. Whether it is due to hunger and thirst, or due to deprivation of special social needs - ‘relatedness’, ‘status’, ‘fairness’, ‘certainty’ and "autonomy', our suffering is biochemically the exact same. These needs are as basic as food, sex and shelter. And they are more evolutionary than environmental. David Rock in his book 'Your Brain at Work' has a handy acronym for these social survival issues - SCARF (S for status, C for certainty, A for autonomy, R for relatedness and D for fairness). We are always stressed, angered, sad, anxious, afraid, frustrated, dejected, desperate, irritable - if any one of these is threatened (unfortunately, usually in combos). Let’s take up these social survival needs one by one.

Let's start with ‘relatedness’. Nothing kills like loneliness. After all, solitary confinement is such a harsh punishment. Solitariness puts us in a danger zone. Therefore we always look for like-minded people to form protective groups. Anyone outside this group is now a threat! No wonder we fall for the ‘us versus they’ bogey, hook, line and sinker! And when we team up or collaborate or make a bond, we copiously emit a neurotransmitter called oxytocin. We become calm, quiet and rested. And feel so, so good!

Next is ‘status’. Every second that we face someone, the brain is assessing him or her as a potential friend or foe. The brain is one of the world's most restless and honest self-appraisal systems. What is my worth vis-a-vis he or she?  Am I greater or lesser? Am I smarter? funnier? healthier? richer? more righteous? more organised? fitter? stronger? and so on and on. The feedback is incessantly instantaneous and brutally honest. And the moment we become lessor to someone, he or she becomes a threat!

Now, ‘fairness’. Alas! There was no refrigerator during prehistoric times and the brain doesn’t know it yet. So if you killed a boar you and your family wouldn’t be able to eat it all. And who knows, next day you may not have a catch at all. So you would have to share. And you would also have to remember who owes you what and how much. After all, there was no bank to park your money! But men are men and would cheat too. And cheats must be caught and hanged. Fairness is another basic necessity deeply hardwired into the antique alleyways of the brain.

A sense of ‘certainty’ comes next. Since every second, and second after second after second, some or other input is being processed and is being pressed into some output - some action, some event, some possibility, some reaction - we must non-stop know what is going to happen, and what we are going to do. We must be certain at all times. And uncertainty can be killing.

Similarly, ‘autonomy’. We must be able to exercise our choices. Output of every sensory information is either to walk toward or run away. And the brain wants to make the body do it and keep doing it, again and again and again. Now run, then walk, now walk, then run. But alas! Social conditioning makes us suppress our feelings - say appropriate things, behave in a civilised manner, look gentlemanly or lady-like - but they remain. The thoughts remain too.

The emotion-tree of the limbic system is ever in slow motion. The feeling-leaves shake in slow wind, catch fire in slight heat. And then winter-mood comes and they fall off. Then the storm comes and they are blown away.

On the other hand, the thinking stage of drama is a classic mess. So small, and so dimly lit. And unwanted idea-actors jump in from the back-stage and the front row randomly doing ‘tandav’ on their own. The director is exasperated. Or mostly sent packing.

When the brain perceives a threat it triggers a runaway. And runaways tend to get into downward spirals. Because as we run our feeling older brain (the limbic system, the amygdala in particular) is aroused and the thinking newer brain (the neocortex, particularly the prefrontal cortex) is impaired. And then we slip, we skid, we stumble. And we get more and more threatened as the situation spins out of control.