Comparing Freud and Maslow

Shane Walsh is a very rich and complicated fictional character with many deep-rooted and obvious flaws. He is quick tempered, territorial, aggressive, vengeful, and loves to be in power. However in the confines of modern society, he is able to not only hide these problems, he is able to flourish. He had a good job; he had friends, and was genuinely happy with his life. According to both Freudian and Maslowian standards, Shane was a productive member of society. But being comfortable and happy does not make for good television. So the creators of The Walking Dead took Shane's quiet life as a small-town deputy sheriff and turned it on its head by throwing him and the viewer into the chaos of a Zombie Apocalypse.

The sudden appearance of zombies completely changes the playing field. Societal structures are gone. Societal consequences are gone. Societal norms are gone. Throwing any character into an apocalyptic situation will challenge the intrinsic moral fibers of their being. These challenges will either showcase the power and tensile strength of those fibers or expose fragile, fraying fragments. Shane and his group of Atlanta survivors were stripped of the comforting societal restrictions which previously kept their inner demons in check. These are perfect circumstances to analyze a character's personality. Take everything away from them and examine who they are at their core.

Under these new circumstances, Shane quickly learns he no longer has to behave like a politically correct version of his former self. He is free to be himself for the first time in his life. As Dale confronts and criticizes Shane, he says, "This world, what it is now, this is where you belong. And I may not have what it takes to last for long, but that's okay. 'Cause at least I can say when the world goes to shit, I didn't let it take me down with it" (2.7). Shane does not share the same moral dilemmas as Dale. He realizes "You can't just be the good guy and expect to live. Not anymore" (2.10). Shane is perfectly fine with this harsh realization.

At first glance, Maslow's theory which is based on the most basic needs of a human seems to be the most obvious choice for analyzing the personality of a man trying to survive a Zombie Apocalypse. When a person is desperately trying to scavenge for food while avoiding being bitten by a zombie, that person has no time to focus on the selflessness required to achieve Self Actualization. The fine arts and aesthetic beauty are hardly high on anyone's list of priorities in this situation. Using his Hierarchical Pyramid, Maslow does an adequate job of explaining Shane's behavior based on what his current most pressing needs are at the time. In a world being attacked by zombies, the conditions of the surrounding environment change constantly. Consequently, Shane's needs rapidly fluctuate between the different levels of the hierarchy. If Shane cannot slide between his desire to be a father figure to Carl and his basic need to survive when a zombie wanders into camp, he is not going to survive very long. Shane has to be able to reassess and prioritize his needs in order to survive.

However, once the presence of zombies loses its sense of novelty for the characters and the viewers, the lines between Safety, Belonging, and Esteem Levels of Need begin to blur. Safety is now determined by how large and strong your group is and if your group likes you enough to put their lives on the line to help protect you. Without belonging there is no safety. Also in a world where there are no other accomplishments other than surviving and maintaining the respect of your family, Esteem bleeds down into Belonging and Safety. The rationales behind the characters' decisions are not as black and white as Maslow's theory leads us to believe. Trying to compartmentalize Shane's reasoning into prepackaged categories cheapens the complexity of his character and the depth of his emotional struggle. Even Maslow's retro-actively added Cognitive Need and d-motives vs. b-motives does not give his theory the complexity needed to properly explain the many facets of Shane Walsh's personality.

Shane does not live in the moment. He lives in his head. He is calculating, he spends time brewing over past mistakes, and he is vengeful and unforgiving. So much of Shane's personality and internal reasoning has developed over his lifetime. He is not only present in the moment but is drawing from a lifetime of experiences. Maslow's theory does not give credit to this rich back story. Describing Shane using Maslow's theory makes him sound ordinary and a little bit boring. Nothing could be further from the truth. While nothing Maslow's theory states contradict Shane's behavior, Shane is too complex and functions on too many levels to be condensed into five levels of mental functioning. To Maslow's credit, his theory was not made for someone as emotionally flawed as Shane. This prevents Maslow's theory from explaining Shane's behavior any deeper than on the surface.

Freud's theory seems to be equally inadequate at first glace. His theory was formed from countless therapy sessions with sexually and socially oppressed upper-class Victorian women. Their structured and controlled lives are polar opposites of Shane's life while trying to survive a Zombie Apocalypse. Even pre-zombie, when Shane lived within the social confines of modern society, life was hardly the Victorian Era. However, of the two theories, Freud's theory predicts and explains Shane's decisions and thought processes better than Maslow's Theory of Hierarchical Needs.

For a character that is so unconsciously driven like Shane, only a theory as multi-layered and multi-dimensional as Freud's can adequately both explain, and more importantly, predict his actions. At any given time, Shane is processing how he wants the world to perceive him and how he wants himself to believe he is thinking. Simultaneously, his unconscious is working underneath all of this to protect him from anxiety. Every action of Shane's, from why he joined the police force to why he tries to kill Rick at the end of Season Two, is multi-layered, multi-dimensional and never cut and dry. Shane's life is a continual internal struggle between his Id, Ego and Superego. His life is a battle between his Thanatos and Eros desires, and a battle between his past and his present.

Shane's fixation with Lori and his strong desire to be in control of the group cannot be explained without considering his childhood interaction with his parents as well as his attempt to overcome his Oedipus complex. Shane accomplishes this by transferring his feelings for his parents to Lori and Rick. To understand the friction between Shane and Rick when Rick returns to the group, we must understand Shane's fear of castration. To ignore his inner battle is to ignore what makes Shane such an intriguing and interesting character.

While Freud's theory does the better job over all, both theories explain the selfishness and self-centered world view Shane uses when interacting with those around him. Every action is somehow related back to his own best interests or his own problems. Shane never does something out of the kindness of his heart without expecting something in return. He saves Lori and Carl, but in return, expects them to accept him as their husband and father. He takes care of them because they make him feel good. Shane cares for the group because there is safety in numbers and they can do the menial labor he does not want to do for himself. Both Freud and Maslow's theories capitalize on the selfish nature of the human condition.

All in all, both theorists have well thought out and interesting takes on the human condition. But each must be viewed in its original context. Similar to understanding Shane, to understand these theorists in the present you must understand their past. Maslow's theory was never meant to explain personality in a Zombie Apocalypse. The worst conditions Maslow could imagine were starvation and human conflict. But Freud has a knack for qualifying and quantifying inner demons. He understands the inner animal in all of us. This is what a zombie is, our most basic instincts without the confines of societal structure. This allows Freud's theory to translate with ease into a world infested with zombies where Maslow's theory falls short.