Survival of

 

Survival of the fittest was  noted in 1869 by Charles Steinman Darwin, in his famous "On the Origin of Species."  He suggested that the advantage for humans accrue with certain traits along an individual to both thrive and survive in the environment by out competing for limited resources.  This essay points out the importance of the motivational concepts of anxiety,  affiliation and dominance in reference to Darwin's survival idea.

 According to Freud , birth is a prototype of anxiety. It’s a reality, in which later signals of dangers  are  primary aspects  of man’s nature .  Sigmund Freud’s position influenced Otto Rank who then published a major book on this topic titled " The Trauma of Birth. '' Rank wrote  that the change from the all-encompassing effortless bliss of the womb to the painful  postnatal conditions required initiative from the infant. As a result and consequence  of this trauma, the infant experiences’ mortal fear’ for life.   He called this primal anxiety and the major goal for humans is to reinstate the embryonic bliss from the greatest human terror which is separation anxiety.

Karen Horney in "The Neurotic Personality of Our Time" differentiated between fear and anxiety.  Fear is neurological or instinctual, and located in both the reptilian and the mammalian brain.  For example, when I ran on the trail, years ago, I encountered a lioness  and her two cubs. I immediately stopped because of fear.  I slowly backed away and when out of sight ,picked up a tree limb . While retreating, I constantly  looked over my shoulder.  I experienced fear from an actual danger. 

 Anxiety is also an emotional and subjective reaction to danger and can be accompanied by the physical sensations  of trembling, perspiration , and increased heartbeat. Strong sudden  intense fear may lead to death.  According to Horney, the content of neurotic anxiety is a reaction to danger, but often it is not transparent or objective like fear . It is hidden and subjective so individuals may be anxious without knowing it. I know there are lions and rattlesnakes on the trail.  However, that does not keep me from running on the trail. Do I carry a weapon?  No , I don't carry a weapon. I am cautious and aware of potential danger and at times experience anxiety. 

Another important variable is dependence and  defined as "the state of relying on or being controlled by someone or something else.”  Henry Murray In Explorations in Personality incorporated dependency with the need for affiliation   "to draw near and enjoyably cooperate or reciprocate with an allied other ( an other who resembles the subject or who likes the subject).  To please and win affection of a cathected object.  To adhere and remain loyal to a friend."

Returning to birth, it's clear that  affiliation develops early in life as survival. For instance, a hungry, distressed, anxious infant  cries and begins to establish, with selective attention,   a particular pattern or mode of behavior of requiring food to satisfy.  The mother responds with acts of feeding, warming, drying, snuggling, cooing etc.  and the affiliation need becomes established  if there is a consistent ratio  of satisfaction  as distress or anxiety diminishes along with crying . Hunger satisfied and affiliation need met . In essence, attention seeking ,the need  for affiliation , on  another facilitates  survival.

 Patterns of behavior  toward another are not always rational, moral or safe because of the presence  of various emotions  of which insecurity, fear,  trust , distrust are examples .Thus, the infant,child, adult, moves towards another with either an approach or with avoidance.  Patterns and tendencies of behavior of child, adult can either be directed toward another, as in  fawning over a dictator;  aggressively against another ,although once a favored individual as with  personal lawyer Michael Cohen; or a withdrawal toward another, although once sexually pursuing  Stormy Daniels.  Liking, caring, respecting, non-respecting . being fearful, being suspicious as well as a host of other variables in situations determine the interactive behavioral character tendencies. Of course these three aspects of human interactions are tendencies that happen throughout one's lifetime depending upon the accumulative experiences in countless situations  found in our life space.

Stanley Schachter conducted a number of experiments measuring the relationship of affiliation to anxiety found in The Psychology of Affiliation: Experimental studies of the sources of gregariousness.  Stanford University press.  These were college students in introductory psychology classes.  In these experiments, Schachter created high and low anxiety groupings.  In one experiment, he told one group that they would receive electrical shocks painful but not harmful.  in  the other group, they were told that the shock would feel like a tickle and it wasn't harmful.  A number of conditions were set up with students either being alone or waiting with another prior to their  participation.  In this and other research conditions, he reported that anxiety led to affiliative behavior.  He also studied  firstborn, to see if they were more affiliative than second born  etc in research conditions.  He  postulated that the firstborn likely received much more attention from parents  than second born and as a result, that firstborn would receive much more attention and as a result likely to be more affiliative than subsequent children.  In his studies, high anxiety led to affiliative behavior and firstborns also exhibited more affiliative behavior.

We are born, we experience anxiety and we confront the world in a socio-relational configuration with the vigor of our behavior and the many conciliatory responses, placing us in many approach-avoidance situations.   In society, we experience many problems and conflicts that we have to solve .In essence, with anxiety, we develop a number of  needs that can or can not be satisfied at the expense of others.  With that being said, the necessity of  affiliation becomes all important and a significant need  as we dread separation.  However, there are other needs that we experience in order to satisfy our survival.  For example, the need for power. We seek power as a reassurance against our anxiety and  helplessness, which results in hostility that appears in the form of a tendency to dominate.  Murray has defined the need for dominance as "to control one's human environment.  To influence or correct the behavior of others by suggestion, seduction, persuasion or command.  To dissuade, restrain or prohibit."

The insurrection is  the news.  Will DJT and his cronies be held accountable?  It's clear that this narcissist has exhibited insecurity, affiliation and dominance during his lifetime. He certainly was dependent upon his father and others ( received money and all forms of assistance for his school studies).  Of course, his college transcript and records have not been released.  Additionally, there were records of lawsuits, failure to pay numerous individuals, bankruptcies, business failures, sexual scandals, and so forth.  However, he was not alone but in cooperation with depending- affiliation upon others such as his CEO ,family, attorneys and accountants to further his illegal activities.  His TV show symbolizes his character tendencies in that he arbitrarily fired whomever.

Then, DJT became the most powerful individual in the world.  His anxiety  and  affiliation and dominance needs surfaced for all to see.  He surrounded himself with a gang of loyalists.  The sycophants remained loyal to him regardless of consequences to them.  If you're not a loyalist you're an enemy.  His cabinet changed frequently as he fired those that were not fawners to him.  He was not properly audited by the IRS, controlled the Justice Department,  FBI, Department of Homeland Security, the Military,  Health and Human Services etc, the media, and  the narrative around  Covid-19.  The Evangelicals  and Catholics supported him and were loyal because he appointed  justices that would overturn Roe versus Wade.  He also appointed federal judges, and signed countless executive orders.The range of his gang reached both federal and state levels of power.

DJT lied, cheated, falsified and was criminal in his behavior.  He was impeached twice.  He was right when he said that he could kill somebody in New York and not be prosecuted.  As commander-in-chief, he identified and was “a want to be” with Russia, China and North Korea’s totalitarian dictators.  He was above the law.  He was the law.

Evangelicals and Catholics supported and voted for this amoral individual with their rationalizations.  Others in government like his  Chief of Staff and others were told by some  attorneys about illegality.  That didn't stop them, the Secret Service, and others in the media from lying or claiming executive privilege or taking the fifth.  They obviously were seeking some advantage for being his flunky.  They too are guilty by association and have significant character flaws as well. They know right from wrong.

Some might ask why are there so many dependent supporters and followers of this despicable person?.  A few examples include: 1.  Identification with an authoritarian controlling father figure.  2.  Economic policies that support the top 1% 3.  Employment security in highly advantageous positions with great benefits for power, possession, and prestige and afraid to lose it. 4.  Nominating Supreme Court and federal justices favorable  to overturning Roe versus Wade   5.  Expectations of pardons for breaking the law.  6.  Lack of dissonance with policies of discrimination , prejudice, exploitation , racism  and amorality 7.  Permission to express hate and act out aggression against authority.  8.  Hating Nancy Pelosi, her party, people of color, rule of law ,Intelligence, the educated,  human decency and democracy 9.  Mad at the Democratic Party for giving Hillary the super delegates and not Bernie Sanders in 2016 10.  Dissonance for voting Democratic 11.  Limited intelligence, lack of knowledge, easily manipulated with false ideas, lies and irrationality.  12.  Willing to risk incarceration, legal censure and loss of ability to practice law suggests the abasement need, which  according to Murray, to submit passively; to accept injury, criticism, punishment; to seek and enjoy pain, punishment, illness and misfortune 13.  They have similar character  traits of being narcissistic , paranoid, egotistical, and sociopathic .  In other words, they have no problem lying, cheating, and being above the law.  Note, these are egotistical, they are not moral equivalencies ,not democratic , not  humanistic behavior that can be  found in the 10 Commandments, the writings and brilliance of  Moses, Jesus, Aristotle, Confucius, Buddha, Kierkegaard, Marx, Spinoza, Mother Teresa, Bertrand Russell, Gandhi, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Henry David Thoreau, Noam Chomsky and others .  Further, morality and love are not ego needs .And this is a Christian what?

His door of opportunities is closing.  Consequences for DJT are now a likelihood.  His anxiety and fears are real and likely to increase.  His circle of sycophants is becoming smaller.  His prestige and reassurance against humility is humiliation with hostility.  Caesar was stabbed by Brutus and others; Hitler and his girl ingested poison in that bunker and Saddam was found in a hole. DJT's options do not look promising for this obese criminal .  With additional anxiety, expects more aggression, irrationality, and affiliation with attorneys and other crazies. He has been able to survive because of his inheritance and his affiliative needs.  However, his  character  as exemplified by  his destructive abasement need points in  despair nearing the end of his lifecycle.