Have you read Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum"? Your article reminds me on it. It's worth reading.
Maslow's pyramid I had in school during my first education. It was boring to death and nobody actually paid real attention. We students just copied it from the blackboard and I only got in touch with it later on when I was studying the Universal Basic Income.
I am happy to hear that Maslow himself did some progress in his life. Thank you for providing that information.
Alan Watts also stated that Psychology is more of an art than a science. Though I find some of the texts based on studies quite interesting and helpful. There are some changes within this field. I myself do rely on the systemic approach of therapy and often thought, that it's related to the Buddhist doctrine - the second order of cybernetics and the foundation of systemic family therapy is a relatively young profession and will have its after-effects in treating people psychologically. Altogether it is stated that human relations are by far to complex to explain them within the given linear frameworks the mainstream is still understanding psychology.
I suppose I do see conspiracies everywhere. It's easier that way, but, like generalizations they aren't always valid. Still, there are those who only exist to control, and any structure they could possibly use to do that is one I'm going to examine.
I'm often amazed, when flying over a city, how organized it seems, though I know that it is an organic growth, something that evolves and that there was no "conspiracy" to make it the way it appears at this moment. On the other hand, if I look at the intricacy of an integrated circuit board, it looks exactly like the city, but it isn't an organic trial and error product; it's something that was conspired, was planned down to the most minute detail long before it was built. If one single channel is incorrect the whole structure will not perform. In this way I believe that perhaps conspiracies that seem to be too complex to pull off, actually do exist.
I think Buddhism is the ultimate psychology. People (me included) get hung up on should be's and would be's but Buddhism teaches impermanence and the error of clinging as well as recognizing false identification.
Part of why I never gave much credence to Western psychology is its base in Western philosophy which assumes hierarchy to be a natural and normal part of human biology. It's focus is outward and deals with conditions that change and therefor must change with it. It is needlessly complex. I had already studied Eastern philosophy long before encountering Western psychology and so was not impressed by it and was, in fact, amazed at how unevolved it seemed.
You must have an interesting dilemma when dealing with your patients: your understanding of Buddhist principles up against your patient's immersion in delusional Western values that you must work with to bring them personal insight. That must take a lot of patience and compassion on your part.
Smile. Thousand "Lovies" for your humor.
For that I would have the question, what do you want to do with the knowledge about your investigation, after you are done with it? Or: do you ever get it done? ;-)
That could be, this is beyond my observation and interest. Birds build nests, other organisms build hills and other honeycombs or nets. The human form of architecture and locomotion goes far beyond the actual physical possibilities, and I am not sure if this is happening because of an unconscious conspiracy and whether there are countless other reasons that have nothing to do with it.
That's what I think, too. In any case, it seems to be much closer to Western philosophy and psychology than, for example, shamanism and the worldview of the still existing indigenous peoples in South America. Which I find also very interesting.
For me, there are criticisms and benefits to hierarchical structures. The benefits are obvious to me for historical reasons, as I know that there have hardly ever been any other main streams that were not hierarchically organized. You would have to explore the anthropological or ethnological field a little bit, like matrilinear peoples. Exactly these mother-centered clans are an example, but there is at least one kind of hierarchy in which the mother is the head of the family without being oppressive. The decisions to be made in such a clan are consensus-oriented.
I think that hierarchies have become established because every military is structured like this and because there has hardly ever been a time in history without military conflicts. Hierarchies are passed on to us through a very old heritage and have become a habit. The benefit is always there because people without this hierarchy become disoriented. The family is the first form in which the hierarchy is lived. It can't be abolished. Instead, it is merely establishing a slow transformation towards another form of cohabitation. If that is possible at all. I don't know. It is also not very practical to force it. That would be a hierarchical attempt :-)
HaHa! Yes, indeed. But it works surprisingly well in cooperation with people. Buddhism is astonishingly simple in its practical application. It is only in theory that the teaching is very complex, but in daily use, in direct physical contact with people, it contains a simplicity that is very beautiful, precisely because of its simplicity. As a rule, I can reach people much faster who are not so brainy. I'd say my quote is about seven to three. Seven people are immediately accessible while three are not. Average.
Those I can't reach, of course, are causing me the most headaches. I try not to blame them and stay tuned. In times, it is hard for me. But well, I am only human and no Bodhisattwa.
I hope I could give a perspective and information you do not already know about. ;-)
In this post I tell about how my parents lied to me about Santa Claus. It seems absurd, but ever since that time I haven't trusted authority. I always think I'm being lied to. In my 20s I became aware that something was wrong with the world, that it was dying and being buried under man-made junk for no apparent reason and so I began to investigate why this was so. I first realized that it wasn't just the times I was living in that were problematic, that my parents were also subject to propaganda and lived their lives like unknowing robots controlled by fashionable ideals.
Once the Internet went public and I had all this information at my fingertips I started tracing things backwards. The decimation of Turtle Island didn't get rolling until the railroads began criss-crossing the country. That started around the time of the American Civil War at the hands of industrial puppet, Abraham Lincoln. The late 1800 also saw the absurdity of corporations being granted the rights of flesh and blood citizens, another effect of the railroads and industrialization.
But I soon realized that mankind's descent began long before that. Western civilization's values descend from Semitic tribal culture via the Talmud and the Bible. This includes Islam and Christianity as cults of Semitism. The Vedic Scriptures of the East are Indoeuropean in origin, taken to India when the Aryans conquered that continent. China developed on it's own hierarchies but those who crossed over to turtle Island brought the shamanic beliefs of eastern Siberia with them, a belief in all-pervading spirit and personal inclusion in the mystery of life. Their "fall from grace" was imposed from without by the invaders. This is a vast generalization, but it served as a new platform from which to investigate.
What, I wondered, made man think that somehow he was special, exceptional and here to manipulate the environment to suit his desires at the expense of all other things including his fellow humans? False religion, to be sure, but religion grows out of self-image. What made man think he was apart from it all instead of part of it all? It was agriculture, the simple act of planting seeds.
This is the "fall from grace" talked about in the bible. Man became manipulator instead of beneficiary. I've already written about this in my Slacker's Guide, so I won't continue here.
I suppose I have answered this question to my own satisfaction but I feel that it is important that people understand the significance of this event and its ramifications, to look at the roots of their delusions, to gain insight into their motivations and therefore allow them to consciously alter them instead of reacting to them.
That is why I write, why I continue to find this thread and attempt to shed light on it. I realize that my endeavors are impotent, that even though we are racing towards the cliff that will end it all, nobody is much interested in taking their foot off of the gas pedal.