Mercantile Cynicism on the Karpman Drama Triangle
The (M)ad Men want to keep us on their game board. We can fold it up and put it away.
Once was a magical place
Over time it was lost
Price increased the cost
Now the fortune of the kingdom
Is locked up in its dungeon vaults
The castle floor lies in traps
With coiled wires set back
Decoyed by the old cheese
Now the drawbridge
Has been lifted
As the millions
They drop to their knees
They pay homage to a king
Whose dreams are burried
In their minds
His tears are frozen stiff
Icicles drip from his eyes
The cold wind blows as it snows
On those who fight to get in
On heads that are small
Disillusioned as they enter
They're unaware what's
Behind castle walls
But now it's written in stone
The king has been overthrown
By jesterly fools
And the power of the people
Shall come to believe they do rule
They pay homage to a king
Whose dreams are buried
In their minds
His tears are frozen stiff
Icicles drip from his eyes
Welcome to the tragic kingdom
Cornfields of popcorn
Have yet to spring open
Have they lost their heads
Or are they just all blind mice
We've heard all their stories
One too many times
Hypnotized by fireflies
That glow in the dark
Midgets that disguise themselves
As tiny little dwarves
The parade that's electrical
It serves no real purpose
Just takes up a lot of juice
Just to impress us
They pay homage to a king
Whose dreams are burried
In their minds
His tears are frozen stiff
Icicles drip from his eyes
Ohh, they drip from his eyes
Into the night
They drip from his eyes
Welcome to the tragic kingdom
Cornfields of popcorn
Have yet to spring open
Welcome to the tragic kingdom
No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom - 1995
A friend sent me a list of Malsow’s hierarchy of needs with notations from an adman about product categories for the various need levels. It was somewhat similar to the sort of thing that was circulating in the early ‘70s when I was in the Mad Men game on Wilshire Boulevard in LA. (See http://www.amctv.com/originals/madmen/ about the newish TV version of the advertising game in New York a decade earlier.)
My notions of morality (a value set, after all) found the notions to be cynical* and offensive, but my narcissistic notions of self-advancement (another value set) found the notions to be “intriguing,” at least. The early ‘70s were, after all, the dawn of the New Age of actualization, if only for the sake of narcissistic self-empowerment.
I signed up to be a whore, and drank, drugged, spent, over-exercised and sexualized my way through a 30 year career as one of the Mad Men. I outran the Big Breakdown until the summer of '94. After that, Not... So... Good.
*Meaning “showing contempt for accepted standards of honesty or morality by one's actions, esp. by actions that exploit the scruples of others” (see dictionary.com).
My revision of the original list (of five items in dark red) is arranged…
a) from the lowest (or most survivalistic) to the highest (and most evolved),
b) from the most fear-based to the most growth- (healthy, ego-integrated) or power- (pathological, dysfunctional, ego-diffused, "sick") based, and
c) with segregation for the healthy vs. pathological polarities Maslow did not address.
Biological and Physiological Needs - wife/child-abuse help-lines, social security benefits, good samaritans, roadside recovery.
Suggested additions: medical appliances, powered wheel chairs, stairway chair lifts, cancer treatment, cardiac surgery, home health nursing, convalescent homes, pain killers, psychiatric medications, cardiovascular medications, emphysema medications, diabetes testing systems.
Objects of Insecurity: More immediate concerns about physical illness or harm, comfort when older and less competent, helplessness, powerlessness.
Safety Needs - home security products (alarms, etc), homeowners’ and apartment renters’ insurance, life insurance.
Suggested additions: savings accounts, IRAs and other retirement accounts, large sport-utility vehicles, LifeAlert and other personal monitoring systems, personal firearms, security patrols, computer security software, identity theft protection.
Objects of Insecurity: Less immediate concerns about physical illness or harm, comfort when older and less competent, helplessness, powerlessness.
Belongingness and Love Needs - dating and match-making services, chat-lines, clubs and membership societies, McDonald’s, family themes like the old style Oxo stock cube ads.
Suggested additions: Health clubs and gyms, social entertainments, bars and nightclubs, churches, employment services, military services, clothing, self-improvement classes or books, sexual dysfunction products, body dysmorphia solutions, sex tools, sexual organ enhancements, alcoholic beverages. (But the relentless use of women's secondary sexual characteristics in ads for all manner of things suggests love and security needs of males can be exploited for pretty much any product pitch now.)
Objects of Insecurity: More immediate but less intense concerns about attachment and masking uncomfortable emotions.
Esteem Needs - cosmetics, fast cars, home improvements, furniture, fashion clothes, drinks, lifestyle products and services.
Suggested additions: Ego-integrated: Trade schools and colleges, job skill and self-improvement courses, health clubs and gyms, military services, law enforcement agencies. Ego-diffused: Sexual enhancement products, cosmetic surgeries, sexual- or power-image clothing and accessories, sexual or power clubs (e.g.: swinger groups, “old boy” men’s clubs, radical feminist organizations), energy drinks, and prestige products like country club homes, luxury cars and designer clothes.
Objects of Insecurity: Less immediate but more pervasive concerns about attachment and masking uncomfortable emotions.
Self-Actualization needs - Open University, and that's about it; little else in mainstream media because only 2% of population are self-actualizers, so they don't constitute a very big part of the mainstream market.
Suggested additions (for the more ego-diffused; the ego-integrated people are poor responders to marketing ploys save those for post-graduate education in the humanities): Human potential schemes, get-rich-quick schemes, real estate schools, post-graduate education in instrumentalistic realms of endeavor (e.g.: law, medicine, architecture, technology), acting schools, charismatic divinity schools.
Objects of Insecurity: More ego-integrated: few, if any; more ego-diffused: denied narcissistic obsession with power or significance to dissociate from anxiety.
For more on Maslow, see George Boeree’s fine work at http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/maslow.html .
The major media do not carry ads for cigarettes anymore, but when they did, it was clear that the ads appealed to both belongingness and love, and self-esteem, needs.
Many years ago, I spent a lot of time with a fellow who has since become one of the most famous (and financially succesful) names in television infomercials. His company (formed in the late 1980s in partnership with a man with a divinity degree, by the way) has produced long-form, video sales presentations for products like ProActive Solution, (Victoria) Principle Secret, Meaningful Beauty, Get the Edge, Natural Advantage, Youthful Essence, Core Secrets and more.
I knew his father, too. He was an advertising client of mine for a time, and one of the most chillingly bitter and cynical men I think I have ever met.
Interestingly, my acquaintance’s company developed a lot of talent that has since jumped ship to another firm nearby which also produces infomercials for products like Orrick vacuum cleaners, Orbitrek, True Cover cosmetics, Slim N Lift, Klear Action, Sudden Lift, Sudden Glow and Youth Cocktail. Some say the guy who runs the outfit has a rep for being a very focused, obsessive, ruthless and demanding boss (surprise, surprise). I don't know him personally.
I myself, spent seven years over the course of a total of 16, working for a Mad Men outfit up the highway from these two guys pitching prestige products (vacation real estate, jet set travel, high fashion, jewelry, etc.) for yet another "focused man." There I learned pretty precisely how to appeal the beliefs, ideas, values and attitudes of the very, very wealthy. I learned that while such people may have had to be quite intelligent to get as rich as they did, they also parted with gobs their money on the basis of appeals to Maslow’s hierarchy, especially to esteem needs.
We also pitched a lot of medical products for wealthy, older people. We went straight for the biological, physiological and safety jugulars. Shameless (and cynical)… but very, very effective.
In my last years as a “(m)ad man,” I had my own ad and design firm. We did a lot of work for gambling casinos.
Where do amorality and shamelessness come from? And why do the people who aren’t amoral or shameless put up with those who are?
From Maslow’s perspective, at least, one could argue that the various shaping forces of society (parents, educators, churches, clubs, the media, the government) appeal to biological, physiological, safety, belongingness, love, esteem and self-actualization needs we neither understand nor pay attention to, and manipulate us quite easily because of our lack of awareness of those needs as well as the manipulations of them.
But let’s jump out of Maslow’s box and into Karpman’s Drama Triangle. Because, I think the answers to the two questions posed above can be answered there. (See my previous work on the KDT at http://sighkoblahgrr.blogspot.com/2007/08/karpmans-drama-triangle-revisted.html , http://sighkoblahgrr.blogspot.com/2007/12/effective-role-management-on-karpmans.html , http://sighkoblahgrr.blogspot.com/2008/01/gordons-pet-through-lens-of-karpmans.html , http://sighkoblahgrr.blogspot.com/2008/02/drama-triangle-dos-and-donts.html , http://sighkoblahgrr.blogspot.com/2008/02/codependents-perfectionistic-impulse-to.html , and http://sighkoblahgrr.blogspot.com/2008/03/sadomasochism-on-drama-triangle.html .)
The basic “sick” or pathological version of the KDT looks like this:
. . . . . . . . . Rescue - - - - - Persecute
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . \ . . . . . /
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . \ . . . /
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . \ . /
. . . . . . . . . . . . . Be the Victim
An enhanced schematic shows the sadomasochistic (dominance-submission) scheme:
. . . . . . . . . Rescue - - - ! - - - Persecute
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . \ . . . . ! . . . . /
Rescue / Victim . . . . . ! . . . . Persecute / Victim
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . \ . . ! . . /
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . \ . ! . /
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Be the Victim
...and...
. . . . . . . . Rescue - - - - - - - Persecute
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .\ . . . . . . . /
Dominant . . . . . \ . . . . . . /. . . . . Sadistic
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Submissive . . . . . \ . . . /. . . . . . . Masochistic
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .\ . /
. . . . . . . . . . . . . Be the Victim
From Albert Ellis’s, Aaron Beck’s, Martin Seligman’s, Jeffrey Young’s, or Richard Wessler’s cognitivistic point of view, our home and reactive positions on the KDT reflect our unconscious, or semi-conscious but rationalized, beliefs, ideas, values and attitudes.
If our beliefs, ideas, values and attitudes are highly absorbed with (and reflective of)...
1) biological, physiological, and safety issues, it’s likely we will see ourselves as “learned helpless” (see Seligman) and caught in an “external locus of control” (see Rotter). Such people make fine candidates for the Victim position on the pathological KDT.
2) belongingness and love issues, it’s likely we will see ourselves as able to exert an influence upon the rest of the world (see Seligman) and possessing an “internal locus of control” (see Rotter). Such people make fine candidates for the Rescue position on the pathological KDT.
3) esteem and self-actualization issues, it’s likely we will see ourselves as able to exert an influence upon the rest of the world (see Seligman) and possessing an “internal locus of control” (see Rotter). But our emotional health and ethics will determine if we make fine candidates for the Rescue or Persecutor positions on the pathological KDT… or perhaps even move to the healthy KDT shown below:
. . . . . . . . . Support - - - - Distance
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . \ . . . . . /
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . \ . . . /
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . \ . /
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Adapt
Maslow made no distinction (that I am aware of, at least) with respect to healthier or more pathological manifestations of belongingness and love, esteem and self-actualization. Because it is clear from my own personal experience, as well as my experience working with hundreds of people in recovery from various forms of pathological obsession, I can see the “matrix” or multi-level aspect of combined, intervening variables.
My “Mad Men” acquaintances are, for example, highly functional fellows with very high achievement on Maslow’s scale with respect to both esteem and self-actualization. Believe me, they are far more firmly rooted in social reality and blessed with the sense of competence and efficacy (see Bandura) than most of us. But does that make them more – or even as – moral or ethical as the most of us? Awareness and the ability to convert that awareness to self-empowerment does not necessarily equal “honesty,” “morality” or “ethics.”
I saw this first-hand in my four-year-flirtation with the human potential movement of the 1970s (see http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0oGkmvdHZZIpQQAR8ml87UF?p=human%20potential%20movement&ei=UTF-8&iscqry=&fr=sfp ) which morphed into the corporate culture change movement of the 1980s and ‘90s. We became very aware, conscious, capable, competent, efficacious and adept at developing our own capacities and capabilities. Some of us also became very good at rescuing, manipulating, controlling, dominating, persecuting and punishing others for the sake of “the cause.”
I saw this from a (considerably) greater distance in the charismatic and/or fundamentalist religious movement of the 1990s (see http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0oGkxQZH5ZIV34AiwGl87UF?p=charismatic%20movement&ei=UTF-8&iscqry=&fr=sfp and http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0oGkjMiH5ZIilcAZgpXNyoA?p=fundamentalist+movement&y=Search&fr=sfp&ei=UTF-8 ). They became very aware, conscious, capable, competent, efficacious and adept at developing their own capacities and capabilities. Some of them also became very good at rescuing, manipulating, controlling, dominating, persecuting and punishing others for the sake of “the cause.”
I saw this from a greater distance yet in the fascist and communist political movements of the 1920s and 1930s. They became very aware, conscious, capable, competent, efficacious and adept at developing their own capacities and capabilities. Some of them also became very good at rescuing, manipulating, controlling, dominating, persecuting and punishing others for the sake of “the cause.”
I saw this in the radical liberal political movements of the 1960s and 1970s. They became very aware, conscious, capable, competent, efficacious and adept at developing their own capacities and capabilities. Some of them also became very good at rescuing, manipulating, controlling, dominating, persecuting and punishing others for the sake of “the cause.”
And I see it in the radical conservative political movement of the 1980’s, ‘90s and ‘00s. For some, Karl Rove is the very embodiment of becoming aware, conscious, capable, competent, efficacious and adept at developing one’s own capacities and capabilities, regardless of morality, scruples or ethics.
In the realms of government and politics, I refer the reader to Woodward and Denton. In the realm of persuasion and influence in general, I refer the reader to Cialdini. In the realm of simply learning to see through the (M)ad Men, I refer the reader to Beck and Freeman, Ellis, and Ruggiero.
Understand what they offer, how they offer it, and how and why we were conditioned (or "socialized") by our parents, teachers, preachers, political leaders, sports heros and Mad Men to buy, buy, buy... and I expect it will be far more difficult to fall prey to the seductions of Madison Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard, and far easier to sort the chicken salad from the chicken s**t.
References and Resources
Bandura, A.: Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control, San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, 1997.
Beck, A.: Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders, New York: Penguin-Meridian, 1976.
Beck, A.; Freeman, A.: Cognitive Theory of the Personality Disorders, New York: Guilford Press, 1990.
Berger, K.; Thompson, R.: The Developing Person, 4th Ed., New York: Worth, 1995.
Bern, E.: Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships, San Francisco: Grove Press, 1964.
Bernstein, A.: Emotional Vampires: Dealing with People who Drain You Dry, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000.
Bozarth, M.: Pleasure systems in the brain, in Warburton, D. (ed.), Pleasure: The politics and the reality, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1994.
Branden, N.: The Disowned Self, New York: Bantam Books, 1976.
Branden, N.: The Psychology of Self-Esteem, New York: Bantam Books, 1973.
Byrne, R.; Whiten, A: Machiavellian Intelligence: Social Expertise and the Evolution of Intellect in Monkeys, Apes, and Humans, Cambridge, UK: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Carver, J.: Love and Stockholm Syndrome, New York: Mental Health Matters (online), 2003.
Cermak, T.: Diagnosing and Treating Co-Dependence, Minneapolis: Johnson Institute, 1986.
Cialdini, R.: Influence Science and Practice, 4th Ed., New York: Allyn and Bacon, 2000.
Dacey, J.; Travers, J.: Human Development, 4th Ed., Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1999.
Davison, G.; Neale, J.: Abnormal Psychology, 4th Ed., New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1986.
DePaulo, B.; Lindsay, J.; Malone, B.; et al: Cues to Deception, in Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 129, No. 1, 2003.
Ellis, A.; Harper, R.: A Guide to Rational Living, North Hollywood, CA: Melvin Powers, 1961.
Erikson, E.: Childhood and Society, New York: W. W. Norton, 1950, 1967, 1993.
Evans, P.: Controlling People, Avon, MA: Adams Media Corp., 2002.
Frankl, V.: Man’s Search for Meaning, New York: Pocket Books, 1984.
Fromm, E.: Escape from Freedom, New York: Avon, 1965.
Griffin, R.; Moorhead, G.: Organizational Behavior, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1986.
Hare, R.: Without Conscience, New York: Guilford Press, 1993.
Hoffer, E.: The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, New York: Harper and Row, 1966.
Kassin, S.: Psychology, 3rd Ed., Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2001.
Katz, J.: Seductions of Crime, New York: Harper-Collins Basic Books, 1988.
Kopp, S.: Guru: Metaphors from a Psychotherapist, New York: Bantam, 1976.
Korzybski, A.: Manhood of Humanity, 2nd Ed., New York: Institute of General Semantics, 1950.
Laing, R. D.: Knots, New York: Penguin, 1973.
Lazarus, R.: Emotion and Adaptation, New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Mellody, P.; Miller, A. W.: Facing Co-dependence…, San Francisco: Harper, 1989.
Meloy, J. R.: The Psychopathic Mind: Origins, Dynamics, and Treatment, New York: Jason Aronson, 1994.
Miller, A.: For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child Rearing and the Roots of Violence, London: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1983.
Millon, T.; Simonsen, E.; Birket-Smith, M.; Davis, R.: Psychopathy: Antisocial, Criminal, and Violent Behavior, Guilford Press, 1998.
Peck. M. S.: People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil, New York: Touchstone, 1998.
Pizarro, D.; Uhlmann, E.; Salovey, P.: Asymmetry in Judgments of Moral Blame and Praise: The Role of Perceived Metadesires, in Psychological Science, Vol. 14, No. 3, May 2003.
Rotter, J.: Generalized expectancies for Internal vs. External Locus of Control of reinforcement, in Spielberger, C.: The Development and Application of Social Learning Theory, New York: Praeger, 1982.
Ruth, R.: Working with Problems of Narcissism in Entrepreneurial Organizations, Small Business Administration online at http://www.sba.oakland.edu/ispso/html/ruth.html , 1995.
Seligman, M.: Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life, New York: Knopf, 1990.
Skinner, B. F.: Beyond Freedom and Dignity, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1971.
Skinner, B. F.: About Behaviorism, New York: Random House, 1974.
Tangney, J. P.; Dearing, R.: Shame and Guilt, New York: Guilford Press, 2002.
Vaknin, S.; Rangelovska, L.: Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited, Prague: Narcissus, 2003.
Winnicott, D.: Human Nature, London: Routledge, 1990.
© 2008 by Rodger Garrett; all rights reserved. Links are fine. Please contact rajah524@fastmail.fm with comments, questions or death threats.
Once was a magical place
Over time it was lost
Price increased the cost
Now the fortune of the kingdom
Is locked up in its dungeon vaults
The castle floor lies in traps
With coiled wires set back
Decoyed by the old cheese
Now the drawbridge
Has been lifted
As the millions
They drop to their knees
They pay homage to a king
Whose dreams are burried
In their minds
His tears are frozen stiff
Icicles drip from his eyes
The cold wind blows as it snows
On those who fight to get in
On heads that are small
Disillusioned as they enter
They're unaware what's
Behind castle walls
But now it's written in stone
The king has been overthrown
By jesterly fools
And the power of the people
Shall come to believe they do rule
They pay homage to a king
Whose dreams are buried
In their minds
His tears are frozen stiff
Icicles drip from his eyes
Welcome to the tragic kingdom
Cornfields of popcorn
Have yet to spring open
Have they lost their heads
Or are they just all blind mice
We've heard all their stories
One too many times
Hypnotized by fireflies
That glow in the dark
Midgets that disguise themselves
As tiny little dwarves
The parade that's electrical
It serves no real purpose
Just takes up a lot of juice
Just to impress us
They pay homage to a king
Whose dreams are burried
In their minds
His tears are frozen stiff
Icicles drip from his eyes
Ohh, they drip from his eyes
Into the night
They drip from his eyes
Welcome to the tragic kingdom
Cornfields of popcorn
Have yet to spring open
Welcome to the tragic kingdom
No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom - 1995
A friend sent me a list of Malsow’s hierarchy of needs with notations from an adman about product categories for the various need levels. It was somewhat similar to the sort of thing that was circulating in the early ‘70s when I was in the Mad Men game on Wilshire Boulevard in LA. (See http://www.amctv.com/originals/madmen/ about the newish TV version of the advertising game in New York a decade earlier.)
My notions of morality (a value set, after all) found the notions to be cynical* and offensive, but my narcissistic notions of self-advancement (another value set) found the notions to be “intriguing,” at least. The early ‘70s were, after all, the dawn of the New Age of actualization, if only for the sake of narcissistic self-empowerment.
I signed up to be a whore, and drank, drugged, spent, over-exercised and sexualized my way through a 30 year career as one of the Mad Men. I outran the Big Breakdown until the summer of '94. After that, Not... So... Good.
*Meaning “showing contempt for accepted standards of honesty or morality by one's actions, esp. by actions that exploit the scruples of others” (see dictionary.com).
My revision of the original list (of five items in dark red) is arranged…
a) from the lowest (or most survivalistic) to the highest (and most evolved),
b) from the most fear-based to the most growth- (healthy, ego-integrated) or power- (pathological, dysfunctional, ego-diffused, "sick") based, and
c) with segregation for the healthy vs. pathological polarities Maslow did not address.
Biological and Physiological Needs - wife/child-abuse help-lines, social security benefits, good samaritans, roadside recovery.
Suggested additions: medical appliances, powered wheel chairs, stairway chair lifts, cancer treatment, cardiac surgery, home health nursing, convalescent homes, pain killers, psychiatric medications, cardiovascular medications, emphysema medications, diabetes testing systems.
Objects of Insecurity: More immediate concerns about physical illness or harm, comfort when older and less competent, helplessness, powerlessness.
Safety Needs - home security products (alarms, etc), homeowners’ and apartment renters’ insurance, life insurance.
Suggested additions: savings accounts, IRAs and other retirement accounts, large sport-utility vehicles, LifeAlert and other personal monitoring systems, personal firearms, security patrols, computer security software, identity theft protection.
Objects of Insecurity: Less immediate concerns about physical illness or harm, comfort when older and less competent, helplessness, powerlessness.
Belongingness and Love Needs - dating and match-making services, chat-lines, clubs and membership societies, McDonald’s, family themes like the old style Oxo stock cube ads.
Suggested additions: Health clubs and gyms, social entertainments, bars and nightclubs, churches, employment services, military services, clothing, self-improvement classes or books, sexual dysfunction products, body dysmorphia solutions, sex tools, sexual organ enhancements, alcoholic beverages. (But the relentless use of women's secondary sexual characteristics in ads for all manner of things suggests love and security needs of males can be exploited for pretty much any product pitch now.)
Objects of Insecurity: More immediate but less intense concerns about attachment and masking uncomfortable emotions.
Esteem Needs - cosmetics, fast cars, home improvements, furniture, fashion clothes, drinks, lifestyle products and services.
Suggested additions: Ego-integrated: Trade schools and colleges, job skill and self-improvement courses, health clubs and gyms, military services, law enforcement agencies. Ego-diffused: Sexual enhancement products, cosmetic surgeries, sexual- or power-image clothing and accessories, sexual or power clubs (e.g.: swinger groups, “old boy” men’s clubs, radical feminist organizations), energy drinks, and prestige products like country club homes, luxury cars and designer clothes.
Objects of Insecurity: Less immediate but more pervasive concerns about attachment and masking uncomfortable emotions.
Self-Actualization needs - Open University, and that's about it; little else in mainstream media because only 2% of population are self-actualizers, so they don't constitute a very big part of the mainstream market.
Suggested additions (for the more ego-diffused; the ego-integrated people are poor responders to marketing ploys save those for post-graduate education in the humanities): Human potential schemes, get-rich-quick schemes, real estate schools, post-graduate education in instrumentalistic realms of endeavor (e.g.: law, medicine, architecture, technology), acting schools, charismatic divinity schools.
Objects of Insecurity: More ego-integrated: few, if any; more ego-diffused: denied narcissistic obsession with power or significance to dissociate from anxiety.
For more on Maslow, see George Boeree’s fine work at http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/maslow.html .
The major media do not carry ads for cigarettes anymore, but when they did, it was clear that the ads appealed to both belongingness and love, and self-esteem, needs.
Many years ago, I spent a lot of time with a fellow who has since become one of the most famous (and financially succesful) names in television infomercials. His company (formed in the late 1980s in partnership with a man with a divinity degree, by the way) has produced long-form, video sales presentations for products like ProActive Solution, (Victoria) Principle Secret, Meaningful Beauty, Get the Edge, Natural Advantage, Youthful Essence, Core Secrets and more.
I knew his father, too. He was an advertising client of mine for a time, and one of the most chillingly bitter and cynical men I think I have ever met.
Interestingly, my acquaintance’s company developed a lot of talent that has since jumped ship to another firm nearby which also produces infomercials for products like Orrick vacuum cleaners, Orbitrek, True Cover cosmetics, Slim N Lift, Klear Action, Sudden Lift, Sudden Glow and Youth Cocktail. Some say the guy who runs the outfit has a rep for being a very focused, obsessive, ruthless and demanding boss (surprise, surprise). I don't know him personally.
I myself, spent seven years over the course of a total of 16, working for a Mad Men outfit up the highway from these two guys pitching prestige products (vacation real estate, jet set travel, high fashion, jewelry, etc.) for yet another "focused man." There I learned pretty precisely how to appeal the beliefs, ideas, values and attitudes of the very, very wealthy. I learned that while such people may have had to be quite intelligent to get as rich as they did, they also parted with gobs their money on the basis of appeals to Maslow’s hierarchy, especially to esteem needs.
We also pitched a lot of medical products for wealthy, older people. We went straight for the biological, physiological and safety jugulars. Shameless (and cynical)… but very, very effective.
In my last years as a “(m)ad man,” I had my own ad and design firm. We did a lot of work for gambling casinos.
Where do amorality and shamelessness come from? And why do the people who aren’t amoral or shameless put up with those who are?
From Maslow’s perspective, at least, one could argue that the various shaping forces of society (parents, educators, churches, clubs, the media, the government) appeal to biological, physiological, safety, belongingness, love, esteem and self-actualization needs we neither understand nor pay attention to, and manipulate us quite easily because of our lack of awareness of those needs as well as the manipulations of them.
But let’s jump out of Maslow’s box and into Karpman’s Drama Triangle. Because, I think the answers to the two questions posed above can be answered there. (See my previous work on the KDT at http://sighkoblahgrr.blogspot.com/2007/08/karpmans-drama-triangle-revisted.html , http://sighkoblahgrr.blogspot.com/2007/12/effective-role-management-on-karpmans.html , http://sighkoblahgrr.blogspot.com/2008/01/gordons-pet-through-lens-of-karpmans.html , http://sighkoblahgrr.blogspot.com/2008/02/drama-triangle-dos-and-donts.html , http://sighkoblahgrr.blogspot.com/2008/02/codependents-perfectionistic-impulse-to.html , and http://sighkoblahgrr.blogspot.com/2008/03/sadomasochism-on-drama-triangle.html .)
The basic “sick” or pathological version of the KDT looks like this:
. . . . . . . . . Rescue - - - - - Persecute
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . \ . . . . . /
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . \ . . . /
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . \ . /
. . . . . . . . . . . . . Be the Victim
An enhanced schematic shows the sadomasochistic (dominance-submission) scheme:
. . . . . . . . . Rescue - - - ! - - - Persecute
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . \ . . . . ! . . . . /
Rescue / Victim . . . . . ! . . . . Persecute / Victim
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . \ . . ! . . /
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . \ . ! . /
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Be the Victim
...and...
. . . . . . . . Rescue - - - - - - - Persecute
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .\ . . . . . . . /
Dominant . . . . . \ . . . . . . /. . . . . Sadistic
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Submissive . . . . . \ . . . /. . . . . . . Masochistic
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .\ . /
. . . . . . . . . . . . . Be the Victim
From Albert Ellis’s, Aaron Beck’s, Martin Seligman’s, Jeffrey Young’s, or Richard Wessler’s cognitivistic point of view, our home and reactive positions on the KDT reflect our unconscious, or semi-conscious but rationalized, beliefs, ideas, values and attitudes.
If our beliefs, ideas, values and attitudes are highly absorbed with (and reflective of)...
1) biological, physiological, and safety issues, it’s likely we will see ourselves as “learned helpless” (see Seligman) and caught in an “external locus of control” (see Rotter). Such people make fine candidates for the Victim position on the pathological KDT.
2) belongingness and love issues, it’s likely we will see ourselves as able to exert an influence upon the rest of the world (see Seligman) and possessing an “internal locus of control” (see Rotter). Such people make fine candidates for the Rescue position on the pathological KDT.
3) esteem and self-actualization issues, it’s likely we will see ourselves as able to exert an influence upon the rest of the world (see Seligman) and possessing an “internal locus of control” (see Rotter). But our emotional health and ethics will determine if we make fine candidates for the Rescue or Persecutor positions on the pathological KDT… or perhaps even move to the healthy KDT shown below:
. . . . . . . . . Support - - - - Distance
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . \ . . . . . /
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . \ . . . /
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . \ . /
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Adapt
Maslow made no distinction (that I am aware of, at least) with respect to healthier or more pathological manifestations of belongingness and love, esteem and self-actualization. Because it is clear from my own personal experience, as well as my experience working with hundreds of people in recovery from various forms of pathological obsession, I can see the “matrix” or multi-level aspect of combined, intervening variables.
My “Mad Men” acquaintances are, for example, highly functional fellows with very high achievement on Maslow’s scale with respect to both esteem and self-actualization. Believe me, they are far more firmly rooted in social reality and blessed with the sense of competence and efficacy (see Bandura) than most of us. But does that make them more – or even as – moral or ethical as the most of us? Awareness and the ability to convert that awareness to self-empowerment does not necessarily equal “honesty,” “morality” or “ethics.”
I saw this first-hand in my four-year-flirtation with the human potential movement of the 1970s (see http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0oGkmvdHZZIpQQAR8ml87UF?p=human%20potential%20movement&ei=UTF-8&iscqry=&fr=sfp ) which morphed into the corporate culture change movement of the 1980s and ‘90s. We became very aware, conscious, capable, competent, efficacious and adept at developing our own capacities and capabilities. Some of us also became very good at rescuing, manipulating, controlling, dominating, persecuting and punishing others for the sake of “the cause.”
I saw this from a (considerably) greater distance in the charismatic and/or fundamentalist religious movement of the 1990s (see http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0oGkxQZH5ZIV34AiwGl87UF?p=charismatic%20movement&ei=UTF-8&iscqry=&fr=sfp and http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0oGkjMiH5ZIilcAZgpXNyoA?p=fundamentalist+movement&y=Search&fr=sfp&ei=UTF-8 ). They became very aware, conscious, capable, competent, efficacious and adept at developing their own capacities and capabilities. Some of them also became very good at rescuing, manipulating, controlling, dominating, persecuting and punishing others for the sake of “the cause.”
I saw this from a greater distance yet in the fascist and communist political movements of the 1920s and 1930s. They became very aware, conscious, capable, competent, efficacious and adept at developing their own capacities and capabilities. Some of them also became very good at rescuing, manipulating, controlling, dominating, persecuting and punishing others for the sake of “the cause.”
I saw this in the radical liberal political movements of the 1960s and 1970s. They became very aware, conscious, capable, competent, efficacious and adept at developing their own capacities and capabilities. Some of them also became very good at rescuing, manipulating, controlling, dominating, persecuting and punishing others for the sake of “the cause.”
And I see it in the radical conservative political movement of the 1980’s, ‘90s and ‘00s. For some, Karl Rove is the very embodiment of becoming aware, conscious, capable, competent, efficacious and adept at developing one’s own capacities and capabilities, regardless of morality, scruples or ethics.
In the realms of government and politics, I refer the reader to Woodward and Denton. In the realm of persuasion and influence in general, I refer the reader to Cialdini. In the realm of simply learning to see through the (M)ad Men, I refer the reader to Beck and Freeman, Ellis, and Ruggiero.
Understand what they offer, how they offer it, and how and why we were conditioned (or "socialized") by our parents, teachers, preachers, political leaders, sports heros and Mad Men to buy, buy, buy... and I expect it will be far more difficult to fall prey to the seductions of Madison Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard, and far easier to sort the chicken salad from the chicken s**t.
References and Resources
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© 2008 by Rodger Garrett; all rights reserved. Links are fine. Please contact rajah524@fastmail.fm with comments, questions or death threats.
posted by raj at 2:46 PM
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