Law Students and the "Drum Major Instinct"

-- By DeborahSparks - 18 May 2021

In his 1968 sermon, Martin Luther King, Jr. draws from psychoanalyst Arthur Adler in describing what King calls the “drum major instinct.” Sermon Audio at 5:25-6:20. The concept is that the dominant impulse driving human life is a quest for praise and recognition. Id. If the “drum major instinct” is left uncontrolled, it distorts personality. Id. at 13:40-14:20.

This desire to seek praise and recognition influences the behavior of law students at varying levels during the process of becoming a lawyer. Many law students are perfectionist, high achieving “type As.” To compound the problem, law school culture fosters and rewards personality distortion.

To stop this cycle of destructive behavior, we must understand what these unconscious impulses are and why they’re harmful, where they come from, and why they remain with us into law school. Armed with this understanding, we can learn how to change.

The “Drum Major Instinct” Distorts Personality

The “drum major instinct” compels us to conform in order to gain attention and importance. Id. at 8:11-9:07. Advertisers take advantage of our insecurities: “to be a man of distinction, you must drink this whiskey.” Id. at 9:06-9:47. We fear that if we fail to conform, others will see us as a failure.

Our desire for praise and recognition also breeds narcissism. The “final great tragedy of the distorted personality” is that one “ends up trying to push others down in order to push himself up.” Id. at 16:15-18:06. The “drum major instinct” makes us feel satisfied that we’re part of something that is exclusive. We feel superior to those who are not “members” and lack our status. Id.

Where Does This Instinct Come From?

The “drum major instinct” was formed to handle the conditions of our early upbringings. Our early attachment experiences, tracing back to infancy, nurtured an inherent desire to receive praise or attention from our caregivers. Our achievements were simple: first steps, first words, or singing the alphabet. Our accomplishments were met with praise: cheering, smiling, cradling, or perhaps some sweets during our toddler years. A cycle of attention was formed that reinforced an unconscious impulse to mold our behavior to gain recognition.

A few years passed, and a new forum for praise emerged: school. Beginning at a young age, school meant grades. The grades may have been gold stars, letters, or numbers, but the objective was the same: to earn the best marks. In return, we would receive a fleeting dose of praise from caregivers ranging from teachers to family members. I received a present for every good report card. It was a mini holiday celebrating what perhaps should have been fairly insignificant for a fifth grader.

From elementary school to college, there have been many other forums for praise, such as sports competitions, musical performances, or science fairs. Our desire to excel and receive recognition for our excellence in these forums reflects the same cycle of attention entrenched in our early attachment experiences.

Why Has This Instinct Remained with Us into Law School?

The “drum major instinct” has remained with us as law students because majoritarian values, expectations, and anxieties in law school trigger an unconscious switch to this desire for praise and recognition. This switch breeds conformity and narcissism.

Law school fosters the notion that students should be “engaged” by joining as many extracurriculars as humanly possible. Our inboxes are flooded with emails about applying to club boards, externships, journals, and research positions. It makes you start to worry: am I doing something wrong if I’m not running for anything? Insecurities trigger the “joiner” impulse to engage in impressive or selective activities. In exchange, we receive recognition from employers, peers, family, and others.

Prospective employers appeal to our insecurities. These “advertisers” explicitly promise us prestige. They insist that there is no alternative to buying their product if we want to be "the best." Our anxieties are intensified when it seems like all of our peers are doing the same thing.

Feelings of superiority also creep in. There is a constant pressure to compare ourselves to our peers. Factors such as “the curve” and the exclusivity of extracurriculars and internships mean that we are measured against one another. Students who excel according to majoritarian values become trapped in a loop of feeding the “drum major instinct.” From 1L orientation onward, we are constantly told that we are gifted and special for attending our school, triggering feelings of superiority to those outside of our school as well.

Learning How to Change

The “drum major instinct” distorts personality, moving us further away from imagining what we want to do in our practices and why. We should not focus our energy on trying to change law school to eliminate the triggers. Instead, we can change ourselves. We can develop new patterns of thought and behavior by confronting harmful impulses and cultivating skills to cope with triggers for the “drum major instinct.” These efforts will help turn some of what we automatically do based on the “drum major instinct” into conscious choices that will advance our personal growth and fulfillment.

Change requires efforts to talk our insecure states up and our grandiose ones down. Falling prey to our insecurities about the accomplishments and expectations of others will detract from our happiness. Self-praise of our “excellence” relative to others is another damaging distraction from our growth. Praise and recognition are fleeting and will not help us imagine the lives we want to live.

We have endless choices in the process of becoming lawyers. It is a true privilege. By making conscious efforts to feel confident in our choices regardless of the behavior of others, we can dedicate ourselves to the imagination test. These efforts will help us avoid waking up one day in what Tharaud called the “what-is-life-really-about?” stupor. Lawyerland at 126. Understanding who we want to be has no simple formula, but learning how to actively reconfigure our personality states, rather than passively allowing their distortion, is a good start.

I don't think using phrases and sentences verbatim from my comments on the last draft is a good revision strategy for demonstrating change away from the conformist impulse.

Refocusing the draft certainly helped. More clarity in the presentation of your ideas shows where the analysis can be made stronger. Writing about change means showing both that it occurs and giving insight into how it happens. What has happened to your sense that you need to join clubs and run for things? Can you devote your second year to making a plan for your practice and securing the knowledges, skills, and networks that will require, free of the need for "extracurricular" activities that don't serve your educational needs? If not, what is in the way of that change?

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