Unlearning “IQ is a measurement of value and Maslow's hierarchy can guide priorities”

This chapter argues that social respect is essential to a flourishing life, and too often denied to people and communities. It demonstrates that the much-cited Maslow hierarchy of needs, which suggests that basic physical needs must and do take priority before any others, has no solid foundations and should be abandoned. As should IQ tests and all of their progeny, which continue far too often to be used to rank the worth of individual human beings, despite their dark history of association with eugenics and genocide. Michael Young’s original, pejorative, meaning of “meritocracy” needs to be recovered and understood, the damage done by insisting everyone must aspire to advance in society (which would leave us with no one to do much essential work) acknowledged. So too must the role of luck and initial advantage in the advancement of individuals within society. “Experts by experience” deserve respect – and decision-making power – equal to that given to professionals. And “mental illness” needs to be reconsidered as a symptom of a sick society that is failing to meet individuals’ needs, rather than an individual pathology. The “broken brains” approach to psychiatry, with its tight links with the pharmaceutical industry, has failed.