Psychology of greed and the principles of conflict

By  Jide Osuntokun

The Oxford English Dictionary defines greed as “a strong desire for more wealth, possessions, powers, etc. than a person needs”. Its counterpart, the Cambridge English Dictionary puts it thus: “a strong desire to continually get more of something, especially money”.

Another definition of greed is that it is “the excessive desire to acquire or possess more than one needs or deserves, especially material wealth”.

All these definitions of greed could be reasonably described as involving a diminution, if not the complete absence of of satiety, and this might be an opportune moment to look into our brains in search of a possible causative explanation of greed.

Neuroscientific theories of greed

The hypothalamus, a structure about the size of an almond, is located at the base of the brain, and, for something so small, it exerts a significant effect on several of the functions of a living human being.

These include, for example, regulating a number of metabolic processes, linking the nervous system to the endocrine system via it’s near neighbour the pituitary gland, and, crucially for the purposes of this lecture, forming a major part of the limbic system, which is involved in the key functions of emotions, motivation, learning and memory.

The ventromedial nuclei of the hypothalamus house the satiety centre, which, simply put, tells us when we have eaten enough, whilst the lateral nuclei prompt us to eat.

Now, it is obvious that these hypothalamic functions relate to the intake of food, but the critical factor here is that the same hypothalamus, as mentioned above, is also part of the limbic system, which is the link between subcortical structures and the cerebral cortex; in other words, between the satiety centre, emotions and behaviours/actions.

The obvious (to my mind, at least) question that needs to be asked here is this: is it possible that the phenomenon of greed, as defined above, may be partially have its origins in malfunctioning neuroanatomy or physiology?

In order to address this question, it is necessary to consider other potential causative factors, and to do this I move from the brain to the mind.

Psychological and philosophical theories of greed

The Chinese philosopher, Lao Tsu, writing in 500BC, wrote that “There is no calamity greater than lavish desires, no greater guilt than discontentment, and no greater disaster than greed”

The Ancient Greeks describe the concept of pleonexia, defined as the insatiable (that word satiety again!) desire to have what rightfully belongs to others, modified by John Ritenbaugh in 1988 as “ruthless self-seeking and an arrogant assumption that others and things exist for one’s own benefit”.

According to the Ancient Greeks, pleonexia was both immature and immoral, and thus to be signs of “an atrophic superego leading to perdition”.

The 17th century English philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, in his 1651 book Leviathan, had this to say: “If in this case, at the making of Peace, men require for themselves, that which they would not have to be granted to others, they do contrary to the precedent law, that commandeth the acknowledgment of natural equalitie, and therefore also against the law of Nature. The observers of this, are those we call Modest, and the breakers Arrogant Men”

It will come as no surprise to anyone that there are divergent views on the subject of greed. At around the same time that Hobbes wrote Leviathan, the English physician and philosopher, John Locke took exception to the idea that there was such a thing as greed, preferring to regard it as “enlightened self-interest”.

Writing in Capitalism Magazine 19 years ago almost to the day, Walter Williams, Professor of Economics at George Mason University in the United States, opined that, “without greed, our current economic and social structures would implode….greed produces profitable economic outcomes most times and under most conditions”.

So…is greed innate, or do we learn it?

One theory holds that, in addition to the obvious nutritional benefit of an infant suckling at its mother’s breast, there is also an additional element of pleasure involved – and that this pleasure is replicated in acquisitiveness, where possessions are acquired not just for need, but for the pleasure involved in taking, holding and hoarding.

This theory, however, has the obvious flaw that, whilst the vast majority of us have at one time suckled on our mothers’ breasts, not all of us (hopefully!) “have an excessive desire for more than is needed or deserved, not for the greater good, but for one’s own selfish interest, and at the detriment of others and society at large” (Burton, 2014).

So, what sets the greedy folks amongst us apart? We have already referred to the possibility of flawed neuroanatomical structure or neurophysiological function. Neel Burton suggests that greed may also arise from “early negative experiences such as parental inconsistency, neglect or abuse.

In later life, feelings of anxiety and vulnerability, often combined with low self-esteem, lead the person to fixate on a particular substitute for what he or she once needed but could not find” He goes on to point out that, as human beings, we have a unique capacity to project ourselves into the future, up to and beyond our death, and that we are all, to varying degrees, haunted by our own mortality.

This, when taken in combination with our strong survival instincts, generates anxiety “about our purpose, meaning and value”.

This existential anxiety, although mostly subconscious, occasional intrudes into our consciousness, prompting us to seek comfort through compensatory behaviours – of which greed is but one.

And then there is the factor of our culture. Where, as I would argue is the case in Nigeria, our culture places a premium on materialism, is it possible that we could become immune to satisfaction? If so, is that aided and abetted by the complex interplay between possible structural abnormalities and impaired physiological functioning in our brains, as well as early and on-going negative life experiences? Or is Nikelly right when, in 2006, he averred that greed is nothing more than “cultivated behaviour fueled by economic or cultural values, and is neither inherited nor universal”?

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Whatever its parentage, greed often spawns other problems: deception, spite, envy and theft, to name but four. Abraham Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs is often presented as a five-level pyramid, with needs at the higher levels of the pyramid coming into focus only when the needs at the lower, more basic levels of the pyramid have been met.

Maslow described the top level of the pyramid as a growth need, because it enables him or her to reach their fullest potential as a human being; the problem with greed in this context is that it gets the individual stuck on one of the four lower levels, and thus unable to “self-actualise”, as Maslow puts it.

Again, I strongly doubt that anybody would dissent from the suggestion that we live in an increasingly religious and religiously polarized society in Nigeria (and, in my humble opinion, also an increasingly godless one).

And yet, I know not of a single major religious faith that does not explicitly and strongly disapprove of greed, for the obvious reason that it not only exalts self above whichever deity one happens to believe in, but also because, as mentioned earlier, one result of greed is to deprive one’s fellow man of what belongs to them.

In summary, therefore, greed may be the result of a multitude of factors (neuroanatomical and neurophysiological defects, attachment theories, adverse life experiences, existential anxieties, learned behaviour fueled by cultural or economic values), and its harvest (bitter or sweet, depending on one’s particular perspective), include innovation and economic growth on the one hand, and deception, envy, theft and spite on the other.

I invite you all now, at this point, to consider substituting the word “GREED” for the word “CORRUPTION” in the context of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2020.

You might well question the validity of what appears on the face of it to be a bold suggestion that greed and corruption are synonymous….and you would have a point.

Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that corruption would neither exist nor thrive without greed, and that not all greedy people are necessarily corrupt. So, whilst it may not be strictly true to portray them both as being synonymous, there is nevertheless a strong association between both.

• Maj-Gen (rtd) Akinkunmi, MBBS LLM FRCPsych FRCP (Glasg) psc VRSM(+) formerly of the British Royal Army Medical Corps delivered this paper at the 21stAnnual Benjamin O Osuntokun Memorial Lecture on January 6.