Primo Levi Periodic Table - Titanium

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Primo Levi, along with the larger demographic he represents here, exhibited drastic inconsistencies in psychology in keeping with the massive fluctuations the world they lived in unjustly thrusted them into. The novel shows how before the war, Levi was close to achieving self-actualization by means of his scientific studies, but when the war came and Levi was taken as a prisoner, he was stripped of a fulfilled needs, forever altering his psychology, “Desperation and hope alternated at a rate that would have destroyed almost any normal person in an hour.”[9] Over the course of history, we can see how the events of WWII have altered people’s perception towards certain matters, like dictatorship and militarization, and that external factors like political and economic can influence psychology and perception. The notion that an external or political occurrence might impact individuals to the extent where their personal psychological and developmental makeup is altered is nothing short of horrifying. We, for the most part, have the privilege of living lives unaffected by anything short of esteem and self actualizational aspirations. As a result, we live fairly comfortable lives as a contrast to those we study. The contrast should represent the tremendous injustice that those subjected the side of the spectrum opposite that the first world endures. The fulfilment of physiological and security needs is nothing short of a human right.

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References

1. Levi, Primo. (1984). The Periodic Table. New York: Schoken Books.

2. Green, C.D. (2000). Classics in the History of Psychology – A.H. Maslow (1943) A Theory of Human Motivation. Retrieved March 15, 2016, from http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Maslow/motivation.htm

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