Is greed a character trait?
Life in the material world dictates its own rules. It is extremely difficult to imagine people who are able to completely give up money, comfort, pleasures and other “benefits of civilization.” But this is not necessary! Unless, of course, you practice strict asceticism or live in a secluded monastery, ashram, or monastery.
Hand on heart, it is worth admitting that truly modest individuals, devoid of acquisitive tendencies, are extremely rare in the 21st century, especially in megacities. But greed, greed, acquisitiveness, hoarding are quite common character traits of modern people.
Greedy people will suffer from “Plyushkin syndrome” or plunge into shopaholism. The former can hardly part with even things that are completely unsuitable for use, while the latter love to spend money on unnecessary purchases. Sound familiar? We invite you to talk about what greed is and how this character trait can affect the quality of life of any of us.
Causes of greed
It is important to understand that a self-sufficient person is never greedy. He sets adequate goals for himself and always has a clear motivation for every action and decision. He knows that money is not a goal, but a means to achieve goals, so he does not behave stingily or stingily. If he manages to earn a large fortune, he does not seek to surround himself with luxury, but invests his funds wisely. Such a person cannot become greedy, since his inner world is complete, and he always has a worthy goal in life.
Most often, greed develops for one of two main reasons:
- Dissatisfaction or feelings of inferiority
. The cause of this condition may be gaps in education, serious failures, psychological trauma or complexes associated with physical disabilities. A person begins to look for a way to restore the integrity of his inner world and comes to the conclusion that only money can help. His thinking is transformed, and he begins to focus exclusively on getting rich. - Competitiveness and competition
. From school, we are taught that we should be better than others: get higher grades, achieve better results in physical education classes, and even grow faster than our classmates. This is how the child develops a stereotype that everyone around him is his competition, and he must constantly strive to “outplay” them and earn more.
This perception is reinforced by nature, which provides for competition in natural conditions. But this mechanism was formed in conditions of a serious shortage of resources. Today, every person can get everything they need for life without unnecessary struggle. We have the opportunity to work, buy necessary goods, use the services of modern medicine and other benefits of civilization. However, any of the above reasons can lead to a person becoming a greedy person.
Is greed a gift or a punishment?
The word “greed” has many interesting synonyms. You can find the archaic “love of money” or the more modern ones – “greed”, “stinginess”, “greed”, “acquisitiveness”.
From a psychological point of view, greed is an irrepressible desire to accumulate and increase material values, “seasoned” with the fear of losing what a person already possesses.
This character trait could be called completely neutral if it manifested itself as frugality, thrift, and the ability to save money. However, greed, unfortunately, knows no limits and can push a person obsessed with stinginess to act rashly. In pursuit of ever new profits or other benefits of our world, an individual is capable of committing dishonest acts and even illegal acts! And this is already serious.
Even if a person does not commit a crime, greed is a catalyst for such manifestations of character as anger, quarrelsomeness, timidity (we are talking about the fear of losing one’s property).
Strategies for behavior towards money
Every adult individual sooner or later determines for himself some strategy for earning and spending money. Basically, it is formed based on the attitude towards material wealth that was instilled in the child in childhood by his parents. It is not uncommon for a behavior strategy to be deliberately incorrect, because at an early age a person faced some financial problems that affected the quality of life of his family:
- Greed is an unhealthy desire to increase one’s income by any possible means.
- Stinginess is both a similar and different state from the previous one, in which a person avoids any financial expenses, even the most insignificant ones, in order to preserve his capital.
- Greed is a combination of the first two states that is formed in a person in the presence of one of them.
- “Big Game” is a very abstract term that can be interpreted in many different ways, but it can be used in the context of entrepreneurship. When we are talking about a person who has a healthy desire to increase his capital in order to be able to further allocate from it the funds necessary for investing in new projects that can generate profit.
- Prudence is a borderline state between frugality, thriftiness and stinginess, greed.
- Generosity is the ability to easily part with earned money. This is a quality that is directed largely not at oneself, but at other people surrounding a person in one or another area of his life.
- Wastefulness is the total inability to save what has been earned. Spendthrift people part with money so easily that almost all income from their work tends to disappear on the very first day after payday.
The ability to spend money wisely is an art that is not given to everyone. If a person was not endowed with it due to some life circumstances, he should learn to recognize the borderline states of frugality, so as not to get bogged down in greed and stinginess.
Are greed and greed synonymous?
How would you answer the question “What is greed?” You would most likely use the term "greedy".
In fact, these two words are synonyms, but their meanings are somewhat different. We most often use the word “greedy” when we talk about wealth and material values. But “greedy” has a broader meaning. Compare: greedy for knowledge, for attention, affection (love), but greedy for money (for money).
Linguists argue that the word “greedy” has a neutral connotation, while its synonym “greedy” has an openly negative connotation.
Greedy people: the reasons for this phenomenon
If we talk about this very briefly, then greed arises due to the substitution of life values. Modern man, being in the grip of mass culture, which is based on the theory of consumption, begins to seriously think that money and happiness are one and the same thing.
Greed can also manifest itself due to an overdeveloped ego. A stingy person asserts himself not through his own outstanding achievements or noble deeds, but through acquisitiveness and hoarding.
It’s not for nothing that Sigmund Freud argued that the causes of all our problems should be sought in childhood! Greed is no exception. Let's say that the child's parents were extremely busy with their own careers or personal lives. They did not have the time (energy, opportunity) to take care of the child and instead the child received expensive gifts as the equivalent of love. It is clear that this attitude will “work” in adult life! Such a person can measure any manifestations of feelings and emotions by material resources.
You will be interested to know how to attract luck and money.
Greed is a mortal sin. Is it so?
As we know, in the Christian religion there are 7 main sins, called mortal sins. Greed in this “top” is in second place, after pride.
There is an opinion, including among spiritual thinkers, that the cause of greed is an unfulfilled need to feel safe. Suppose a person whom everyone behind his back calls Plyushkin or, even worse, Gobsek, simply does not feel confident in his material security. That is why he drags all sorts of rubbish from the trash heap into the house, skimps on spending money on basic things, and tries to earn money by hook or by crook.
Thus, it turns out that greed may be a sin, but a greedy person is more likely a victim of circumstances.
What is greed?
Greed is an excessive desire to obtain wealth, not justified by real needs. A greedy person desires to acquire wealth for the sake of wealth, and not to achieve specific life goals or provide a certain level of well-being for his family. In Russian, this term has two main meanings:
- Greed and selfishness. A greedy person in any business is guided by selfish motives, measuring everything in monetary terms.
- A passionate desire for something. A person’s desire for fame, discovery or new experiences. This feeling is typical of all young dreamers and adventurers, and therefore is not reprehensible.
Usually the word “greed” is used specifically in relation to greedy people who are guided in all matters solely by selfish motives.
In Christian ethics, greed is the second of the seven deadly sins. The reason is that greedy people are not characterized by noble behavior, they easily succumb to anger and envy, and for their own benefit they are ready to commit any atrocities. At the same time, Christian teaching also contains a positive definition of greed. So in the Gospel of Matthew there is the phrase “Blessed are those who hunger for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
Greed can be seen as a type of idolatry, which is unacceptable in Christianity ( wealth acts as an idol ). A greedy person, from the point of view of religion, replaces spiritual and moral values with material ones. For a normal person, money is a means to achieve the desired comfort, obtain the necessary benefits, and provide good living conditions for their relatives. For a greedy person, money becomes the only goal in life, his greed becomes immeasurable and even painful. Therefore, he cannot be considered mentally healthy.
From a biological point of view, greed is a natural mechanism formed during the process of evolution. Our ancestors lived in very harsh conditions, and the resources essential for survival were always in short supply. Greed increased an individual’s chances of survival, so this trait is inherent in each of us at the genetic level. Thus, greed is an ancient instinct that awakened in a person and took control of his consciousness.
Many great writers have perfectly demonstrated what greed is by endowing the heroes of their works with this vice. Pushkin did this in the play “The Miserly Knight,” and Gogol did it in the poem “Dead Souls.” In both works this character trait is shown in great detail. Individuals endowed with it do not see other values in life other than preserving and increasing wealth.
A greedy person: how to recognize him?
We figured out a little about what greed is and what are the reasons for the development of this property of nature. The next step is to conduct a “diagnosis” and find out who from your environment falls into the category of individuals obsessed with stinginess and acquisitiveness. Although, perhaps, you can recognize yourself by reading these points.
- A greedy person always saves on everything, and, first of all, on himself. New things are bought only when they are completely out of order. Treat yourself to something new or something nice? For a greedy person this is an unacceptable luxury.
- A cheapskate is not the easiest person to talk to. A greedy woman will always be dissatisfied with the income of her lover, while a man obsessed with greed will demand an account from his missus for every penny spent.
- Food is a fairly significant part of our budget, isn’t it? A stingy person always saves on food! He doesn’t buy what he really loves, chooses products that are about to expire, and “hunts” for discounts and promotional offers.
- Why pay if friends, relatives, colleagues are always nearby? This is roughly how a self-interested person argues. If there is an opportunity to save on services by turning to loved ones for help, such a person will always choose this option.
- Do you think greed will allow you to give generous gifts to loved ones and friends? Of course not! If a greedy type does something similar, he tries to reduce expenses to a minimum.
- The last item on our checklist is visiting. Greedy people do not like to receive guests, but they themselves come for a courtesy visit without warning. They know that when visiting, you can profit from something delicious!
Psychological origins of greed
Despite the fact that the history of money as a means of exchanging various goods, benefits and services began relatively recently, greed was familiar to primitive people. Humanity began to fall into this state en masse when it was faced with the problem of a shortage of food and other vital resources. If at this stage you try to draw some conclusion, you can involuntarily come to the conclusion that a person is prone to greed at the genetic level, so consciousness is not able to control it. If we take this into account, it becomes clear why greed can manifest itself at a very early age - from the moment a child develops self-awareness.
Adolescence is the only time when a person, being not yet fully formed, can control the feeling of greed. This control is facilitated by purely youthful maximalism, seeing everything that happens around only in black and white. He makes the teenager understand that greed is a negative quality in a young team, where almost everyone does not stand out for their financial situation. The desire for respect from peers makes a teenager need to hide his greed, so as not to get out of the company. This effect cannot be maintained for all subsequent years of life.
Greed can be compared to the sexual instinct.
Their striking similarity is that they can remain deep in the subconscious for a long time, not bother a person for many years, but then, acquiring new, sometimes very perverted forms, they can ruin his life.
The most innocent manifestation of greed is the desire for high earnings, even if this is objectively beyond one’s strength. The desire to receive more and more, under the auspices of ensuring a decent standard of living for yourself and your family, at some point can get out of control, turning into mania. Often, workaholism is also connected to this, which can literally drive a person to the grave.
Submitting to a feeling of uncontrollable greed, some people are capable of consciously committing crimes aimed at the safety of other people's property, and sometimes the life of another person. In order to supposedly improve their quality of life, especially greedy representatives of the human species enter into arranged marriages, break off relations with close relatives and friends, and refuse custody of parents who, due to circumstances, cannot fully care for themselves.
How to deal with greed?
To fight something, you need to know its source. Greed is born from a person’s lack of confidence in himself and his importance. An illusion is created, as if without a fortune, this or that person will not have weight in society, without which it is impossible to achieve recognition.
In fact, the significance of a figure depends not on external factors, but on the personality as a whole. And here we are not talking about banal good nature. If it’s interesting to communicate with a person and spend time, then “rich scenery” is the last thing that will bother others. As soon as the uncertainty about your importance disappears, the need to create expensive surroundings for yourself will disappear.
To do this, it is enough to focus on spiritual resources: develop versatility, read interesting literature, look for new interests and hobbies, find zest in even the simplest little things - in a word, become interesting to yourself without financial resources.
The main thing to remember is that money is an auxiliary attribute to achieving intangible goals. In addition, the main weapon against greed is generosity, which includes not only finances, but also a person’s time and energy. The ability to share is the greatest wealth of the human soul, and this is one of the important points in the thinking of rich people.
conclusions
An unhealthy attitude towards money in the form of stinginess, excessive prudence and greed is a psychological illness widespread throughout the world.
This is the same addiction, only from money. Before condemning such people, you should remember that this is not a quality of the soul, but an acquired problem that can be overcome if desired. If treatment for this addiction is not started in time, advanced cases will lead to disastrous results.
First of all, the health and nervous system will be greatly affected, irreversible processes will begin to activate, as a result of which a person will no longer be able to return to a healthy state of mind and body.
By working on your weaknesses, you can get rid of any shortcomings. And knowing your hidden talents, you can enhance their self-realization. Do you want to learn how to build your natal chart to see your hidden potential and purpose, know your weak and strong points and upgrade them to avoid many problems? Watch our free master class, where we will tell you how to create your own individual horoscope and learn how to fulfill your desires using a special technique.
