Who Is Abraham Maslow and What Is the Taboo on Power?

P2 Text: “Apes with Self-Esteem: Abraham Maslow and the Taboo on Power,” Chapter 9 of Frans de Waal’s The Ape and the Sushi Master.

Who is Abraham Maslow and what is the Taboo on Power?

Maslow was one of the first modern psychologists to explore human ambition, but crouched this desire in terms of internal experiences rather than social ones, which upheld the taboo on power. This taboo causes us to call power by other names, all the while sidestepping this obvious and innate drive passed down through evolution.

# / Summary / Rhetorical “Moves”
1 / Abraham Maslow, one of the first modern psychologists to explore human ambition, was inspired by monkey and in 1936 postulated a “drive for dominance.” High status = access to resources, but the so-called subordinates never give up hope of besting their superiors. / Lays the ground of the conversation, connecting human psychology with evidence from the animal world
Evidence, outside authority
2 / Maslow turned to human behavior and coined the term “self esteem” in 1940, which struck a chord with American culture. De Waal defines it as a blend of self-love and evaluation that can be sometimes a goal beyond/apart from ability or merit / Transitions into human behavior
Strategically defines self-esteem, as understood by our culture
Evidence, outside authority, facts
3 / Biologists don’t want to know how animals feel to have high status, but why they need it. Self-esteem has no meaning in terms of survival, as animals don’t think in terms of progeny but act in a way that helps spread their genes. Connection to humans: Thomas Hobbes says human males have the same tendency, and political scandals point to the continuing connection between power and sex. / Indicates gap in conversation between our understanding of self-esteem and reality in the animal world, in particular the difference between thinking/feeling and acting.
Beginning to qualify his claim
Evidence, outside authority, facts, example
4 / For females, sex and power are separate issues. High rank may equal food and protection for offspring, but not sex appeal. Example of French politician. / Continuing to define power by sex in animal kingdom.
As in last paragraph, strategically weaves together facts about animals with examples of humans.
5 / Maslow’s interest is still relevant, and particularly relevant to us. De Waal feels connection to Maslow’s work, and the late psychologist’s idea of self-esteem reminds him of a rhesus monkey who was “self actualized” / Beginning to articulate claim: “Maslow’s interest in ambition and its potential benefits seem just as relevant today—to all primates”
Builds ethos
Evidence, personal experience, example of Mr. Spickles
6 / Younger males were psychologically inhibited in the older monkey’s presence even though he’d lost his physical vigor. Connects this example to the wild, where the monkeys may be more apt to challenge an older leader, but the leader’s power may rest more on the collective female support. The females may prefer a familiar, predictable leader. / Strategically uses evidence of monkey to make and qualify his claim that power lies in the leader’s support network.
Perhaps example of inductive logic (specific to general), and therefore appeal to logos
7 / Yet this didn’t cross Maslow’s mind. He thought of dominance as a sign of inherent biological superiority not as a social phenomenon. Ability does play a role in high status, but the abilities are social, including diplomacy and building lasting partnerships. / Articulates his claim most clearly (bolded left)
Indicates gap in Maslow’s research/thinking, which may provide a clue to Maslow’s own historical context (i.e. Social Darwinism)
8 / Maslow’s ideas remain influential in the management community, but Dallas Cullen, a professor, examined his ideas and came to the same conclusion about social links. / Evidence for claim, outside authority
9 / Human behavior is always placed in the larger context of other behaving organisms, including learning and conditioning, parental care, sex and hormones, aggression etc. / More generally articulates claim stated in p5.
10 / Specifically discusses inequality, and how the pecking order has helped us recognize ourselves as a hierarchical species. Uses self and generation as example, baby boomers who were anti-authority but chafed little at taking the reins. / Evidence for claim, fact, example
Appeal to logos: deductive logic (general to specific)
Appeal to ethos
Tone
Section Break:
Arnhem Revisited / What is Arnhem, and what are we supposed to learn from it?
Arnhem is home to the largest chimpanzee colony where the author witnessed the politics involved in power, in addition to the different roles males and females played in the pecking order.
11 / The social side of the drive for dominance is called politics. De Waal chronicled it, along with his six years of research at the world’s largest chimpanzee colony at Arnhem Zoo, in his book, Chimpanzee Politics. / Strategically defines the social drive for dominance
Begins to presents evidence
Builds his ethos
12 / The older chimpanzees still recognize him; he’d helped one learn how to bottle-feed an adoptive daughter. Appx. 30 apes. / Details two female apes, connects to his previous claim about sex and power.
13 / The males at Arnhem are the sons of the apes he knew, and are like their fathers. Their lives are full of stress, tension and risk. / Details males
14 / Explains how he did his research, to focus on actual events rather than abstractions and theories. Recognizes that this is atypical in science. Points to an anecdote regarding Nixon’s reaction to the loss of power / Defining his project at Arnhem for an unfamiliar reader
Strategically anticipates the opposition and seamlessly compares animal and human drama by using the Nixon anecdote as evidence
15 / Questions whether an anecdote makes a story less significant. The chimpanzees he studied threw tantrums just as Nixon did, and waited to be comforted by the rest of the group. / Seems to be responding to opposition about anecdotes vs. statistical evidence in science
Again, connects human and animal drama, using Yereon, the oldest male at Arnhem, as evidence.
16 / Uses example of being weaned from power—i.e. a juvenile being weaned from mother’s milk. Yeroen instantly gained courage and returned to his losing confrontation if the group that came to support him was big and powerful enough (and if it included Mama). Example of “deft social manipulation,” / Connects human/animal examples
Evidence for his claim that power depends on politics.
Nikkie’s Ghost / Who is Nikkie and how does his memory add to de Waal’s argument?
Nikkie was once an alpha male at Arnhem who died after being bullied by two other males. The memory of Nikkie shows us how affiliation and rivalry play key roles in chimpanzee and human politics.
17 / The lack of compromise among chimpanzees can have dire consequences: At Arnhem two rivals killed and castrated another. In the wild, another male received similar treatment. / Introducing the negative side of power
Evidence, two examples
18 / After de Waal’s time at Arnhem, another researcher Otto Adang witnessed further evidence of shifting alliances and social support for contenders. Two males—Yeoren and Dandy—banded together to oust alpha male Nikkie. Nikkie died in an attempt to escape. / Evidence of social support in success
19 / After Nikkie’s death, Yeroen and Dandy’s alliance dissipated and turned to rivalry. However, it rekindled when the apes saw a life-sized image of Nikki. / Further evidence that this “social support” depends on having a rival.
20 / Opportunism is a major part of chimpanzee and human politics, i.e. the history of our political systems. / Begins to state claim more directly here, and connects these chimpanzee examples to human behavior.
21 / Harold Laswell defines politics as a social process of “who gets what, when, and how.” Humans and apes engage in bluff, alliances, and divide-and-rule tactics. Recognizes those that do (Newt Gingrich) and don’t (“not all scholars”) agree with this connection between humans and apes. Stipulates that understanding ape behavior will help them recognize strategies they apply unconsciously and understand there is an internal logic, and even morality, to the system. Success is not just a matter of wiping out the opposition. Compromise and reconciliation are as much part of political skills as fighting ability. / Strategically defines politics
Indicates opposition, provides rebuttal
States claim
Power by Another Name / What does de Waal mean by this?
Though we all have an innate drive for dominance, we have a cultural power “taboo” that makes us call this desire for power by other names, i.e. self-esteem, prestige, etc.
22 / Chimpanzee and human society is unstable by nature. Primatologists speak of “social organization” as a fixed structure, but it is more like a river, always there but never the same. / Begins to articulate claim/indication of where section is going.
Indicates gap in larger conversation about social organizations
23 / Compares his visits to Arnhem to catching up on Big Brother, jockeying for power is ever-present and the players are always changing. / Evidence for his claim
Strategically compares his experience to pop culture reference
24 / Dutch social psychologists Mauk Mulder says there’s a taboo on the term “power.” Those in power could recognize the desire for power in others, but cloaked their own desires as responsibility, prestige, authority, etc. / Claim
Transitions to human behavior, defines power taboo, uses outside authority as evidence.
25 / Power taboo exists in politics and even when discussed in anthropology / Further evidence
26 / Questions quote from anthropologists, that self-esteem is not equivalent to power. Self-esteem has no value unless it varies in proportion to the esteem received from others and the privileges derived from it; it can’t be that important unless it’s socially constructed / Analyzes self-esteem by breaking apart evidence on the power taboo
Makes an important point/claim in his argument, self-esteem is about power.
27 / Maslow contributed to this “power taboo” by focusing on an internal experience based on personal ability instead of looking at the continuous interaction with others. We all uphold the power taboo. / Returns to Maslow, but this time with more evidence to indicate the gap in his research. Evidence/analysis
28 / Social psychology textbooks (and the field itself) fail to mention concepts like power and dominance, even though we witness social hierarchies in many facets of our social structure. Machiavelli understood this was an illusion. / Continuing to indicate gap in our discussion on power, strategically uses Machiavelli as evidence.
29 / In humans, language can distract as often as it performs. For example, politicians jockey for power by playing for their audience. They show us that power is not personal, but interpersonal. / Further evidence.
30 / The dominance drive is aimed at subjugating others and exerting one’s will, and is a product of our long heritage of resource competition. We can be fully conscious of our drive to power, but our behavior may be just as unconscious as it is to chimpanzees. It’s automatic. / Blatantly claims that we have just as much a drive to power as chimpanzees.
No Simple Lessons / Why are there no simple lessons?
Because animals, like us, are complex
31 / Animals can be used for evidence even when it doesn’t really support the claims, whether it be about their species or ours / Begin to state claim
32 / More recently, Judith Harris challenged a whole generation of scholars that claimed child development was nearly all nurture through her work with animals. She said it was just as much nature as nurture, that the influence came equally from family and peer group. / Evidence
33 / Uses chimpanzees child rearing to discuss the nurture concept that exists in animals (as it does in humans), and says it does not support popular arguments about child rearing / Evidence
34 / There are many wrong assumptions about animal behavior in social sciences and that will continue to be the case as long as research on people is divorced from animals. Hopes that animals will be used to uncover the complexity of animal/human behavior rather than support a preconceived notion. / Claim articulated more clearly: Animals are complex and contradictory, just as humans are, and cannot be merely used to support preconceived notions, but to help us understand ourselves.

Articulating the Argument: De Waal’s “Apes with Self-Esteem”

Project
De Waal explores the connection between apes’ well-documented drive for dominance and related human politics
Argument
Though humans have long embraced the concept of self-esteem and rejected desires for power, the drive for dominance exists in humans as it does in apes, who, like us, have a complex social structure that involved politics and interpersonal relations
Claim / Claim / Claim / Claim / Claim / Claim
The ability to dominate is largely social (7). / Human behavior should be placed in context of larger behaving organisms. (9) / There is a taboo on power (24) / Self-esteem is also socially constructed (26), and related to (synonymous with?) power. / Humans share the drive for power with animals (30) / Animals are complex, like us, and we need to understand them to understand ourselves (34)
Evidence / Evidence / Evidence / Evidence / Evidence / Evidence
Maslow’s drive for dominance (1) / Pecking order/ self-as- evidence (10) / Mauk Mular’s work (24) / Maslow coined term self-esteem (2) / Maslow’s ideas influential in management community (8) / Judith Harris’ work (32)
Monkeys depend on support network for power (6) / Internal logic and morality to system (21) / Taboo in politics/ social
sciences (25) / In animals, self-esteem has no meaning in terms of survival (3) – difference between feeling / thinking and doing / Our own political history (20-21) / His own experience with apes and child rearing (33)
De Waal’s work on chimp politics (11) / Maslow contributed to taboo (27) / In humans, self-esteem is also a social construct (26) / The connection between sex and power in humans and animals (4-5)
Yereon’s tantrum (16) / Machiavelli (28)
Otto Adang’s work/ousting death of Nikkie (18-19)
Politics shows us power is interpersonal (29)
Strategies that support claim / Strategies that support claim / Strategies that support claim / Strategies that support claim / Strategies that support claim / Strategies support claim
Indicates gap in Maslow’s work (7) / Appeal to ethos and logos (10) / Defines power taboo (24) / Definition (2) / Comparing and contrasting humans and animals throughout / Numerous examples throughout, that “humanize” animals
Defines politics (11) / Anticipates opposition (14-15) / Indicates gap in previous research (25-28)
Builds ethos (11) / Models, throughout, how one might place humans in the same context as animals

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