The Midas Legacy Project - A Psychological Approach
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Different to the Greek myth, where King Midas notices the tragic curse of his gift at the eve of the day he received it, successful businessmen and women - or their heirs - may never gain awareness about the curse of money and wealth in their life. The potential unhappiness surrounding a life in material success and wealth may become suspicious and contradictory, but one would rather blame personality, character and lacking virtue of the owner rather than recognize it as a built-in characteristic of great wealth. In what way does money and great wealth impact psychological well-being of its owners and their social context?
The social significance of money - the psychological implications of its presence in social relations - needs to be well understood by the owner to deal appropriately with the fate of King Midas. Numerous biographic accounts describe the paradox of material wealth turning into a social and even psychological handicap and this even more so, if material wealth forms the persons context from an early age on. What may generally be assumed to be a blessing - a door-opener into a world of almost endless possibilities - may turn into a social dead end. The path into this dead end may even seem inevitable, since it is not so much the owner who walks his way, but the social arena pulling the wealthy individual into a twilight zone of mundane privileges. Due to its material manifestation, wealth is often misconceived as an absolute state, something that exists independently from the observer and his context as an objective fact. People may pinpoint some things (e.g. a castle, jewels, art collections) as a "clear indicator of wealth", where really a thing is assigned (collectively or individually) an attribute (wealth). The attribution process (assigning wealth) extends from the thing to the owner and forms an aura which - in the worst case - outshines the individual who owns the wealth. Especially for the young person and her developing social identity (about the age of nine) the difference between being and having may remain blurred. The development of new social relations outside the family, and in questioning the nature of these relations - "Is it about me or is it about what I have?" - the wealth of the family reveals its potential to penetrate domains of live where it is not supposed to matter. Further, and considering the predominance of materialistic values in our society, it is easy to recognize the challenges a young wealthy adult has to face. From a psychological perspective we find that the touch of King Midas is less a metaphor of material success but a very realistic account of the curse that material success brings about in a materialistic society. |
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There are also the non-trivial questions of How to relate oneself meaningfully to another’s outcome of extraordinary success? How to appropriate resources mentally which are not the direct outcome of the personal life story, ones efforts and decisions, ones preferences and accomplishments? If psychologically unprepared, these questions have the potential to touch upon the very foundation of an individual’s identity, constituting a threat to the person's self esteem, one’s own significance - one’s meaning of life. Further, the issue of psychological appropriation and ownership of resources is not only of importance to an individual’s well-being, but has also far-reaching social implications when it comes to the responsible use of great wealth.
On one hand the purchasing power of money, and on the other the social desire for its power create a double edged sword for the owner of money. One may be a cautious spender, a refined investor and a sober owner of great wealth, maintain awareness about the true proportions in the role of fate and merit which brought about material fortunes and still be defenseless against the attitudes and judgments of the social context. Money and wealth may be of no intrinsic interest of who possesses it, but it constitutes a hot issue of a society suffering monetary scarcity and is founded on materialistic values.
The research project also aims for the modeling of a very specific form of psychological ownership as the necessary precondition for responsible agency.
On one hand the purchasing power of money, and on the other the social desire for its power create a double edged sword for the owner of money. One may be a cautious spender, a refined investor and a sober owner of great wealth, maintain awareness about the true proportions in the role of fate and merit which brought about material fortunes and still be defenseless against the attitudes and judgments of the social context. Money and wealth may be of no intrinsic interest of who possesses it, but it constitutes a hot issue of a society suffering monetary scarcity and is founded on materialistic values.
The research project also aims for the modeling of a very specific form of psychological ownership as the necessary precondition for responsible agency.
Start of the research project: Summer 2013.
Status of the project: ongoing data collection (interviews)
Status of the project: ongoing data collection (interviews)