Greed: the search for a feeling
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Greed has received little attention in psychology - why?
DR. BEATE WEINGARDT: DR. BEATE WEINGARDT: Because greed does not appear in psychological practice. There is no one who says of himself: My problem is that I am greedy. On the contrary, the phenomenon of willing to possess is not at all objectionable in our consumer society, but acknowledged. If someone says I want to become a millionaire, everyone thinks it's great. But those who have always problematized the greed, was the church. Greed is one of the seven deadly sins. It is a kind of addiction that can completely fill and trap man.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Where does this addiction come from?
DR. BEATE WEINGARDT: Ownership, which greed implies, apparently covers many basic human needs. Security, also the need for recognition and power, for exclusivity, for specificity and for enjoyment. Doing makes you attractive and strengthens self-esteem: I am a valuable person when I accumulate values. Even if you can not prevent bad catastrophes anyway, because they happen on an interpersonal level. What good is money for people when they are lonely or ill? To satisfy his greed is only a momentary pleasure, which distracts from the great emptiness.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Does that mean greedy people do not know what they're doing? Like the presenter Andrea Kiewel, who praised her Weight Watchers achievements, without anyone suspecting that she had a public relations contract with the company. Or Kurt Biedenkopf, who wanted to negotiate a special discount at Ikea and made a fool of himself. , ,
DR. BEATE WEINGARDT: At least Biedenkopf has not noticed that he ruined his reputation. Greed is something irrational, which is not critically reflected by the people themselves. It is controlled by the subconscious. Those who are greedy do not comment or find pseudo-rational reasons for doing so. A tax evader, like Mr. Zumwinkel, for example, will probably say, "I still pay a lot of taxes." Arguments to note that these people do not finish their work and do not ask themselves: what do I actually have of my greed? What's in it for me to raise so much money?
On the next page: is greed a sport?
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Why does greed not end when our needs are saturated?
DR. BEATE WEINGARDT: Who says what is enough? We are constantly comparing ourselves, and we are always comparing ourselves upwards. The moment we have a house, for example, we turn around and see: Oops, the other one has a bigger one. It takes a lot of inner independence and self-confidence to say: I am enough for what I have.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: So you can not limit from when someone is really greedy?
DR. BEATE WEINGARDT: I even find it dangerous to define greed at a certain scale. When rich people are greedy, it only seems more grotesque than when they are poor, because one says: They already have everything. But where wealth begins, nobody can say.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: What does greed have to do with greed?
DR. BEATE WEINGARDT: Much. Avarice and greed belong together. Bargain hunting is total greed behavior for me. This bargain mentality - that's what everyone comes in to, no matter if he needs something or not.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: But no one would call themselves greedy, as stingy rather.
DR. BEATE WEINGARDT: No, not as stingy, but rather as clever. In our society, having, saving, spending less, having a lot of cash, having more options are considered clever and clever variants.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Why are some people greedy? For athletic ambition? Or is it the occasion that makes her greedy?
DR. BEATE WEINGARDT: Both - although advertising and the media also play a major role. Infinite possibilities of comparison spur greed systematically. Now the theologian speaks in me, but I think that man needs a meaning in life and an identity basis: What makes me valuable? Man needs something in which he invests his lifeblood. And if he does not invest the lifeblood in people or idealistic goals, then he seeks something tangible. As human relationships become more superficial, greed increases. Many men in top positions live in a permanent neglect of relationships, women, children, friends.
On the next page: Are men more greedy than women?
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Are there differences between male and female greed?
DR. BEATE WEINGARDT: Basically certainly not - think of the fairy tale of the fisherman and his wife, who always wants more and finally destroys everything with her greed. However, women tend to base their self-esteem more than men on living in good and harmonious relationships.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Power, money and influence are more valuable to men than women and children?
DR. BEATE WEINGARDT: Still - but not at all. A man is not prized when he goes home in the afternoon to spend time with his children. But when he says: The family has to back down. A chief physician once told me that no one in his career wants to see his children awake in the evening.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Are women less greedy because they are in less important positions?
DR. BEATE WEINGARDT: Few women want jobs in which they barely see their children.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Is the loss of interpersonal relationships the downside of greed?
DR. BEATE WEINGARDT: Greedy people are often only with their peers together, an exclusive layer. The greater the reputation of ownership, the less human coexistence and solidarity become. Greedy people are suspicious of their surroundings because they never know whether they are not envied or exploited.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Children are often very greedy. Where does it come from? Does greed ensure survival?
DR. BEATE WEINGARDT: Greed is an innate instinct or impulse, but not necessarily necessary for survival. In children, she is very jumpy, they want to have the shovel in the sandbox and give it back, without thinking twice. Children usually do not accumulate large inventories, they are impulsive, they want to have what they see immediately, then forget it again.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Growing up also means learning to be modest?
DR. BEATE WEINGARDT: That applies to all innate impulses. Also for the impulse to take revenge or to eat a lot. Civilization and culture, however, mean learning how to regulate one's impulses. Otherwise, primitiveness and barbarism are spreading. Greed destroys the handling of the creation. Take, for example, factory farming - exclusively profit-oriented. The claim to be a cultured society and the "where-is-the-cheapest-meat" shopping behavior completely contradict each other. That's barbaric.
On the next page: How to stop greed
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Is there anything positive about greed? The curiosity, the curiosity, the lust for life?
DR. BEATE WEINGARDT: Curiosity is also something very ambiguous. Basically very superficial. If someone asks me curiously, how I am doing in my job, I usually notice right away whether it is about me or just for gaining information. Also the curiosity, what is behind it? Know more than others? If there is nothing else to fill you with in life, a minor matter like greed has to be made the main thing.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: How can I protect myself against my own greed?
DR. BEATE WEINGARDT: Searching for goals in life, immaterial values. Then the willingness to slips almost automatically to the right place. When I say an apartment is there to live and a car to drive. Not more. The poet Gertrud von Le Fort said: "Of all that I had, only the gift was left to me." I believe that life gains its meaning through its relationship with God, with fellow human beings and with oneself. "Love God and your neighbor as yourself": Even as you start to think about it, you get some awareness of many things. , ,
Dr. Beate Weingardt
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde:. , , the tax evader did not have?
DR. BEATE WEINGARDT: Tax evaders show us that in their lives, they have found nothing but possession. A poor life balance and a poor understanding of democracy. But if tax evaders are quickly rehabilitated like Otto Graf Lambsdorff after the Flick affair, then the risk of having a good fortune was almost worth it. The only correct reaction would be to be ashamed.
