I, Mammal

How to Make Peace With the Animal Urge for Social Power

De: Loretta Breuning

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Animals compete for power in their herds and packs and troops, and we humans have inherited the brain structures that motivate this. Nice people don't acknowledge the natural urge for social dominance, but it's harder to manage when you ignore it.

The mammalian limbic system releases a good-feeling chemical when you gain social power, and a bad-feeling chemical when you see a threat to your social position. This is why we all have strong feelings about social status, despite our best intentions.

The mammal brain makes social comparisons as if your life depends on it. Your conscious brain may insist that you don't care about social power, but your inner mammal seeks it because the serotonin feels good. This is not what you've heard about serotonin, but the research is fully explained in this book.

Serotonin is quickly metabolized, so the good feeling never lasts. This is why we are motivated to seek social recognition again and again. When these efforts fail, cortisol is released, which makes it feel like a survival threat. You fill your life with cortisol if you don't understand your inner mammal.

Our brain is wired by early experience. The social recognition of your youth wired you to seek more good feelings in similar ways. The social setbacks of your youth wired you to fear similar setbacks. It's not easy being a big-brained mammal!

Life is easier when you see these emotions as primal impulses rather than as reality. It helps to know that status-seeking helped our mammalian ancestors survive. Mammals live in groups for protection from predators, but group life brings competition for food and mating opportunity. Those who prevailed made more copies of their genes, and natural selection built a brain that rewards you with a good feeling when you do things that promote your genes.

You are not trying to spread your genes, but you have inherited a brain that longs for social power. An appetite for status is as natural as the appetite for food and sex. You may say you’re “against status,” but if you filled a room with people who said that, a status hierarchy would soon form based on how hard each person insists.

This book shows how "junk status" lures us as much as junk food. Then it explains how to enjoy serotonin without the frustrations of an endless quest for social power.

You will find peace when you know that social comparison is a natural brain function. When you know that your feelings about social rivalry are common to all mammals, you can just relax. Our neurochemical ups and downs make sense when you know how social power promotes survival in the animal world. Nothing is wrong with us. We are mammals. We work hard to restrain these urges, and we can celebrate how well we do with the mental equipment we’ve got instead of focusing on our flaws.

The book shows how animals reduce conflict by forming status hierarchies. This does not mean we should create status hierarchies. It means we do, and you are doing it yourself. You can build your power over this impulse instead of letting it hide. This book shows you how.

Your mammal brain is constantly comparing your strength to those around you. If it sees itself in the position of weakness, it releases cortisol, which motivates it to hold back to avoid conflict. If it sees itself in the position of strength, it releases serotonin and enjoys the opportunity to meet its needs. Our verbal brain struggles to make sense of this impulse. We have many words for it: ego, competitiveness, pride, respect, one-upping, self-confidence, attention-seeking, social dominance, prestige, arrogance, social-climbing, assertiveness, manipulative, ambitious, oppositional. We use good words for the impulse in ourselves and bad words for the impulse in others, especially those we don't like. More at: https://innermammalinstitute.org/books/i-mammal/