Now that you mention it this makes perfect sense..
ya i think maslow's hierarchy is one of csm's explicit thematic undertones. and i think aki and power, especially power, providing emotional support outside of sexual desires was a show of denji's potential progression up the hierarchy. i also think makima playing cultleader meant she was the figurehead of this undertone, since religion explicitly resides in the very top layer of the hierarchy (self-actualization). denji eventually reaches that state at the end of season 1, where he's able to come up with his own identity, wants, and desires outside of basic needs of a human being, only for all that to be taken away from him, even makima who was his last and desperate resort of finding a purpose after losing everything else (because even his own goal of killing her meant he was heavily dependent on her existence for self-purpose/actualization). and he's slowly rebuilding himself up through nayuta being his newest sense of purpose, but it's flimsy at best because denji has always lived for other people (pochita, makima, nayuta), but now that he's tasted the concept of living for something more internalized and based in his own explicit wants (being csm), he's extremely conflicted since this is the first time in his life where he really is able to feel a desire not rooted in basic survival-needs and has no life-skills to separate what he wants versus what he thinks he wants (sex). especially now, when he has absolutely nothing, not even the basic needs at the lowest layer of the hierarchy: like he currently has no shelter (burned down), no food (no sushi LMAOOO), and no social support system (which is within the realms of both basic and social needs). he's basically regressing in this second season in the worst ways possible, and it started after the self-actualization of makima and having her and the rest of denji's stability and self-identity killed off. (sorry im a psych major and i LOVE rambling about csm like it's SO perfect for sociology and psychology majors LMAOOO).
Bruh that's awesome! Thank you so much on the insight! I really adore this area of science and I love learning in depth stuff like this about it! (I am definitely looking up Maslow's hierarchy after this)
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR HAVING MEDIA LITERACY
yess excellent analysis
:D SCIENCE IS SO COOL !!! psychology is just a product of science and i think people overlook that since science is so westernized, that anything not grounded in simply empirical research or data is overlooked (even though psychology has both of those things too, especially in biology and neurology, but it's often just viewed as humanities due to its social aspect). i'm happy to hear you have an interest it science as a whole >:3 (RAHHH I LOVE SCIENCE!!!)
LMAOOOOOOO I'M FLATTERED BUT IDEK IF THIS IS MEDIA LITERACY bc like lowkey if you already know maslow's hierarchy, it's like, less reading between the lines and interpreting fujimoto's work, and more of fujimoto yelling about it across the table like some dude trying to explain its definition while being banned from actually using the term itself
:D THANK U
No cause everyone else is making fun of him without really understanding him you are a man amongst men
denji's forever stuck at the bottom layer of maslow's hierarchy of needs: physiological ones (which pertains to things such as food, water, reproduction). he's unable to mentally make the jump any higher which relates to more social or emotionally intimate since he's constantly in survival mode LMAO.