I had an interesting evening this Shabbat at the home of a Prison Rabbi. There, he described the process of “reaching” (with a view towards helping to “uncover” the good self within) of the prison inmates. It occurred to me that in so many instances, a courageous mediator is doing the same “uncovering” process: digging down deep to find the reasons for the behavior that lead to the initial conflict in order to “recover” the relationship or the basis for moving forward in harmony. In looking for an image to depict this thought process, I took a chance and googled “Uncovery”–a term I thought I invented! What I found was a bit of marketing research by Abraham Maslow. I share those here for you: How to Fill Your Customer’s Needs
Ever hear of Maslow?s Hierarchy of Needs? If you are trying to uncover the critical information that will motivate potential customers to do business with you, if you are searching for the ?meat? in your messaging, you really want to think about what Maslow had to say.
Abraham Maslow didn?t spin out his theories for marketers ? he was conceiving an alternative to the more depressing, deterministic psychologies of the day. Maslow presented an optimistic view of human kind: folks are fundamentally focused on growth and love. Violence and other evils appear when basic human needs are not filled. So, for instance, denied a sense of safety, people might engage in violence to defend themselves, but they are not inherently violent.
This seems to me to be germane to both recovery, prison inmates, religion and mediation. In any case, it helps me to consider the pyramid ranging from physiologic needs to self-actualization. From “uncovery” to “recovery”.
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By Phyllis Pollack
