Abraham Maslow

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Abraham Maslow

Born

Abraham Harold Maslow

April 1, 1908
Brooklyn, New York

Died

June 8, 1970 (aged 62)

Menlo Park, California

Nationality

American

Fields

Psychology

Institutions

Cornell University
Brooklyn College
Brandeis University

Alma mater

University of WisconsinMadison

Doctoral

Harry Harlow

advisor

Known for

Maslow's hierarchy of needs

Influences

Alfred Adler, Kurt Goldstein,Henry Murray

Influenced

Douglas McGregor, Roberto Assagioli,[1] Colin

Wilson, Abbie Hoffman, Wayne Dyer, Elliot
Aronson

Abraham Harold Maslow (/mzlo/[citation needed]; April 1, 1908 June 8, 1970) was an
American psychologist who was best known for creating Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a theory of
psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human needs in priority, culminating in selfactualization.[2] Maslow was a psychology professor at Alliant International University, Brandeis
University,Brooklyn College, New School for Social Research, and Columbia University. He stressed
the importance of focusing on the positive qualities in people, as opposed to treating them as a "bag
of symptoms."[3] A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Maslow as the
tenth most cited psychologist of the 20th century.[4]
Contents
[hide]

Biography[edit]
Youth[edit]
Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Maslow was the oldest of seven children and was classed as
"mentally unstable" by a psychologist. His parents were first generationJewish immigrants from
Russia who fled from Czarist persecution in the early 20th century.[5] They had decided to live in New
York City and in a multiethnic, working-class neighborhood.[6] His parents were poor and not
intellectually focused, but they valued education. It was a tough time for Maslow, as he experienced
anti-Semitism from his teachers and from other children around the neighborhood. He had various
encounters with anti-Semitic gangs who would chase and throw rocks at him. [7] Maslow and other
young people at the time with his background were struggling to overcome such acts of racism and
ethnic prejudice in the attempt to establish an idealistic world based on widespread education and
monetary justice.[8] The tension outside his home was also felt within it, he rarely got along with his
mother, and eventually developed a strong revulsion to her. He is quoted as saying, "What I had
reacted to was not only her physical appearance, but also her values and world view, her stinginess,
her total selfishness, her lack of love for anyone else in the world even her own husband and
children her narcissism, her Negro prejudice, her exploitation of everyone, her assumption that
anyone was wrong who disagreed with her, her lack of friends, her sloppiness and dirtiness..." He
also grew up with few friends other than his cousin Will, and as a result "...[He] grew up in libraries
and among books."[9] It was here that he developed his love for reading and learning. He went to
Boys High School, one of the top high schools in Brooklyn. [10] Here, he served as the officer to many
academic clubs, and became editor of the Latin Magazine. He also edited Principia, the school's
Physics paper, for a year.[11]He developed other strengths as well:
As a young boy, Maslow believed physical strength to be the single most defining characteristic of a
true male; hence, he exercised often and took up weight lifting in hopes of being transformed into a

more muscular, tough-looking guy, however, he was unable to achieve this due to his humblelooking and chaste figure as well as his studiousness.[12]

College and university[edit]

Maslow attended the City College of New York after high school. In 1926 he began taking legal
studies classes at night in addition to his undergraduate course load. He hated it and almost
immediately dropped out. In 1927 he transferred to Cornell, but he left after just one semester due to
poor grades and high costs.[13] He later graduated from City College and went to graduate school at
the University of Wisconsin to study psychology. In 1928, he married his first cousin Bertha, who
was still in high school at the time. The pair had met in Brooklyn years earlier.[14] Maslow's
psychology training at UW was decidedly experimental-behaviorist. [15] At Wisconsin he pursued a line
of research which included investigating primate dominance behavior and sexuality. Maslow's early
experience with behaviorism would leave him with a strong positivist mindset.[16] Upon the
recommendation of Professor Hulsey Cason, Maslow wrote his master's thesis on "learning,
retention, and reproduction of verbal material".[17] Maslow regarded the research as embarrassingly
trivial, but he completed his thesis the summer of 1931 and was awarded his master's degree in
psychology. He was so ashamed of the thesis that he removed it from the psychology library and
tore out its catalog listing.[18] However, Professor Carson admired the research enough to urge
Maslow to submit it for publication. Maslow's thesis was published as two articles in 1934.

Academic career[edit]
He continued his research at Columbia University, on similar themes. There he found another
mentor in Alfred Adler, one of Sigmund Freud's early colleagues. From 1937 to 1951, Maslow was
on the faculty of Brooklyn College. His family life and his experiences influenced his psychological
ideas. After World War II, Maslow began to question the way psychologists had come to their
conclusions, and though he did not completely disagree, he had his own ideas on how to understand
the human mind.[19] He called his new discipline humanistic psychology. Maslow was already a 33year-old father and had two children when the United States entered World War II in 1941. He was
thus ineligible for the military. However, the horrors of war instead inspired a vision of peace in him
and this led to his groundbreaking psychological studies of self-actualizing people. These studies
began with his two mentors, anthropologist Ruth Benedict and Gestalt psychologist Max Wertheimer,
whom he admired both professionally and personally. These two were so accomplished in both
realms, and such "wonderful human beings" as well, that Maslow began taking notes about them
and their behavior. This would be the basis of his lifelong research and thinking about mental
health and human potential.[20] He wrote extensively on the subject, borrowing ideas from other
psychologists but adding significantly to them, especially the concepts of a hierarchy of
needs, metaneeds, metamotivation, self-actualizing persons, and peak experiences. Maslow was a
professor at Brandeis University from 1951 to 1969, and then became a resident fellow of the
Laughlin Institute in California. In 1967, Maslow had an almost fatal heart attack, and knew his time
was limited. Maslow considered himself to be a psychological pioneer. He gave future psychologists
a push by bringing to light different paths to ponder.[21] He built the framework that later allowed other
psychologists to add in more information. Maslow long believed that leadership should be nonintervening. Consistent with this approach, he rejected a nomination in 1963 to be president of the
Association for Humanistic Psychology because he felt that the organization should develop an
intellectual movement without a leader.[22]

Death[edit]
While jogging, Maslow suffered a severe heart attack and died on June 8, 1970 at the age of 62
in Menlo Park, California.[23][24]

Legacy[edit]

Later in life, Maslow was concerned with questions such as, "Why don't more people self-actualize if
their basic needs are met? How can we humanistically understand the problem of evil?" [25]
In the spring of 1961, Maslow and Tony Sutich founded the Journal of Humanistic Psychology, with
Miles Vich as editor until 1971.[26] The journal printed its first issue in early 1961 and continues to
publish academic papers.[26]
Maslow attended the Association for Humanistic Psychologys founding meeting in 1963 where he
declined nomination as its president, arguing that the new organization should develop an
intellectual movement without a leader which resulted in useful strategy during the fields early years.
[27]

In 1967, Maslow was named Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association.[28]

Humanistic theories of self-actualization[edit]

Humanistic psychologists believe that every person has a strong desire to realize his or her full
potential, to reach a level of "self-actualization". The main point of that new movement, that reached
its peak in 1960s, was to emphasize the positive potential of human beings. [29] Maslow positioned his
work as a vital complement to that of Freud:
It is as if Freud supplied us the sick half of psychology and we must now fill it out with the healthy
half.[30]
However, Maslow was highly critical of Freud, since humanistic psychologists did not recognize
spirituality as a navigation for our behaviours.[31]
To prove that humans are not blindly reacting to situations, but trying to accomplish something
greater, Maslow studied mentally healthy individuals instead of people with serious psychological
issues. He focused on self-actualizing people. Self-actualizing people indicate a coherent
personality syndrome and represent optimal psychological health and functioning. [32]
This informed his theory that a person enjoys "peak experiences", high points in life when the
individual is in harmony with himself and his surroundings. In Maslow's view, self-actualized people
can have many peak experiences throughout a day while others have those experiences less
frequently.[33]

Qualities of self-actualizing people[edit]

He realized that all the individuals he studied had similar personality traits. All were "reality
centered," able to differentiate what was fraudulent from what was genuine. They were also
"problem centered," meaning that they treated life's difficulties as problems that demanded solutions.
These individuals also were comfortable being alone and had healthy personal relationships. They
had only a few close friends and family rather than a large number of shallow relationships. [34]
Self-actualizing people tend to focus on problems outside themselves; have a clear sense of what is
true and what is false; are spontaneous and creative; and are not bound too strictly by social
conventions.
Maslow noticed that self-actualized individuals had a better insight of reality, deeply accepted
themselves, others and the world, and also had faced many problems and were known to be
impulsive people. These self-actualized individuals were very independent and private when it came
to their environment and culture, especially their very own individual development on "potentialities
and inner resources".[35]
According to Maslow, self-actualizing people share the following qualities:

Truth: honest, reality, beauty, pure, clean and unadulterated completeness

Goodness: rightness, desirability, uprightness, benevolence, honesty

Beauty: rightness, form, aliveness, simplicity, richness, wholeness, perfection, completion,

Wholeness: unity, integration, tendency to oneness, interconnectedness, simplicity,

organization, structure, order, not dissociated, synergy

Dichotomy: transcendence, acceptance, resolution, integration, polarities, opposites,

contradictions

Aliveness: process, not-deadness, spontaneity, self-regulation, full-functioning

Unique: idiosyncrasy, individuality, non comparability, novelty

Perfection: nothing superfluous, nothing lacking, everything in its right place, just-rightness,
suitability, justice

Necessity: inevitability: it must be just that way, not changed in any slightest way

Completion: ending, justice, fulfillment

Justice: fairness, suitability, disinterestedness, non partiality,

Order: lawfulness, rightness, perfectly arranged

Simplicity: nakedness, abstract, essential skeletal, bluntness

Richness: differentiation, complexity, intricacy, totality

Effortlessness: ease; lack of strain, striving, or difficulty

Playfulness: fun, joy, amusement

Self-sufficiency: autonomy, independence, self-determining. [36]

Dynamics of self-actualization[edit]
Maslow based his theory partially on his own assumptions about human potential and partially on his
case studies of historical figures whom he believed to be self-actualized, including Albert
Einstein and Henry David Thoreau.[37] Consequently, Maslow argued, the way in which essential
needs are fulfilled is just as important as the needs themselves. Together, these define the human
experience. To the extent a person finds cooperative social fulfillment, he establishes meaningful
relationships with other people and the larger world. In other words, he establishes meaningful
connections to an external realityan essential component of self-actualization. In contrast, to the
extent that vital needs find selfish and competitive fulfillment, a person acquires hostile emotions and
limited external relationshipshis awareness remains internal and limited.

Methodology[edit]

Maslow based his study on the writings of other psychologists, Albert Einstein and people he knew
who [he felt] clearly met the standard of self-actualization. [needs reference]
Maslow used Einstein's writings and accomplishments to exemplify the characteristics of the selfactualized person. But Ruth Benedict and Max Wertheimer were also Maslow's models of selfactualization. In this case, from a scientific perspective there are numerous problems with this
particular approach. First, it could be argued that biographical analysis as a method is extremely
subjective as it is based entirely on the opinion of the researcher. Personal opinion is always prone
to bias, which reduces the validity of any data obtained. Therefore, Maslow's operational definition of
Self-actualization must not be blindly accepted as scientific fact.[38]

Hierarchy of needs[edit]

An interpretation of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, represented as a pyramid with the more basic needs at the
bottom[39]

Main article: Maslow's hierarchy of needs

Maslow described human needs as ordered in a prepotent hierarchya pressing need would need
to be mostly satisfied before someone would give their attention to the next highest need. None of
his published works included a visual representation of the hierarchy. The pyramidal diagram
illustrating the Maslow needs hierarchy may have been created by a psychology textbook publisher
as an illustrative device. This now iconic pyramid frequently depicts the spectrum of human needs,
both physical and psychological, as accompaniment to articles describing Maslow's needs theory
and may give the impression that the Hierarchy of Needs is a fixed and rigid sequence of
progression. Yet, starting with the first publication of his theory in 1943, Maslow described human
needs as being relatively fluidwith many needs being present in a person simultaneously.[40]
The hierarchy of human needs model suggests that human needs will only be fulfilled one level at a
time.[41]
According to Maslow's theory, when a human being ascends the levels of the hierarchy having
fulfilled the needs in the hierarchy, one may eventually achieve self-actualization. Late in life, Maslow
came to conclude that self-actualization was not an automatic outcome of satisfying the other human
needs[42][43]

Human needs as identified by Maslow:

At the bottom of the hierarchy are the "Basic needs or Physiological needs" of a human
being: food, water, sleep and sex.

The next level is "Safety Needs: Security, Order, and Stability". These two steps are
important to the physical survival of the person. Once individuals have basic nutrition, shelter
and safety, they attempt to accomplish more.

The third level of need is "Love and Belonging", which are psychological needs; when
individuals have taken care of themselves physically, they are ready to share themselves with
others, such as with family and friends.

The fourth level is achieved when individuals feel comfortable with what they have
accomplished. This is the "Esteem" level, the need to be competent and recognized, such as
through status and level of success.

Then there is the "Cognitive" level, where individuals intellectually stimulate themselves and
explore.

After that is the "Aesthetic" level, which is the need for harmony, order and beauty.[44]
At the top of the pyramid, "Need for Self-actualization" occurs when individuals reach a state
of harmony and understanding because they are engaged in achieving their full potential.
[45]
Once a person has reached the self-actualization state they focus on themselves and try to
build their own image. They may look at this in terms of feelings such as self-confidence or by
accomplishing a set goal.[5]

The first four levels are known as Deficit needs or D-needs. This means that if you do not have
enough of one of those four needs, you will have the feeling that you need to get it. But when you do
get them, then you feel content. These needs alone are not motivating. [5]
Maslow wrote that there are certain conditions that must be fulfilled in order for the basic needs to be
satisfied. For example, freedom of speech, freedom to express oneself, and freedom to seek new
information[46] are a few of the prerequisites. Any blockages of these freedoms could prevent the
satisfaction of the basic needs.
Maslow's Hierarchy is used in higher education for advising students and student retention [47] as well
as a key concept in student development.[48] Maslow's Hierarchy has been subject to internet memes
over the past few years, specifically looking at the modern integration of technology in our lives and
humorously suggesting that Wi-Fi was among the most basic of human needs. [49]
Maslow defined self-actualization as achieving the fullest use of ones talents and intereststhe
need to become everything that one is capable of becoming. [50] As implied by its name, selfactualization is highly individualistic and reflects Maslows premise that the self is sovereign and
inviolable and entitled to his or her own tastes, opinions, values, etc. [51] Indeed, some have
characterized self-actualization as healthy narcissism. [52]

Peak experiences[edit]
Beyond the routine of needs fulfillment, Maslow envisioned moments of extraordinary experience,
known as Peak experiences, which are profound moments of love, understanding, happiness, or
rapture, during which a person feels more whole, alive, self-sufficient and yet a part of the world,
more aware of truth, justice, harmony, goodness, and so on. Self-actualizing people have many such

peak experiences. In other words, these peak experiences or states of flow are the reflections of
the realization of ones human potential and represent the height of personality development [53]

Metamotivation[edit]
Maslow used the term metamotivation to describe self-actualized people who are driven by innate
forces beyond their basic needs, so that they may explore and reach their full human potential. [54]

B-values[edit]
In studying accounts of peak experiences, Maslow identified a manner of thought he called "Beingcognition" (or "B-cognition"), which is holistic and accepting, as opposed to the evaluative
"Deficiency-cognition" (or "D-cognition"), and values he called "Being-values". [55] He listed the Bvalues as:

Wholeness (unity; integration; tendency to one-ness; interconnectedness; simplicity;

organization; structure; dichotomy-transcendence; order);

Perfection (necessity; just-right-ness; just-so-ness; inevitability; suitability; justice;

completeness; "oughtness");

Completion (ending; finality; justice; "it's finished"; fulfillment; finis and telos; destiny; fate);

Justice (fairness; orderliness; lawfulness; "oughtness");

Aliveness (process; non-deadness; spontaneity; self-regulation; full-functioning);

Richness (differentiation, complexity; intricacy);

Simplicity (honesty; nakedness; essentiality; abstract, essential, skeletal structure);

Beauty (rightness; form; aliveness; simplicity; richness; wholeness; perfection; completion;

uniqueness; honesty);

Goodness (rightness; desirability; oughtness; justice; benevolence; honesty);

Uniqueness (idiosyncrasy; individuality; non-comparability; novelty);

Effortlessness (ease; lack of strain, striving or difficulty; grace; perfect, beautiful functioning);

Playfulness (fun; joy; amusement; gaiety; humor; exuberance; effortlessness);

Truth (honesty; reality; nakedness; simplicity; richness; oughtness; beauty; pure, clean and
unadulterated; completeness; essentiality).

Self-sufficiency (autonomy; independence; not-needing-other-than-itself-in-order-to-be-itself;

self-determining; environment-transcendence; separateness; living by its own laws).

Humanistic psychology[edit]
Maslow's thinking was original. Most psychologists before him had been concerned with the
abnormal and the ill. He urged people to acknowledge their basic needs before addressing higher

needs and ultimately self-actualization. He wanted to know what constituted positive mental
health. Humanistic psychology gave rise to several different therapies, all guided by the idea that
people possess the inner resources for growth and healing and that the point of therapy is to help
remove obstacles to individuals' achieving them. The most famous of these was client-centered
therapy developed by Carl Rogers.
The basic principles behind humanistic psychology are simple: 1. Someone's present functioning is
their most significant aspect. As a result, humanists emphasize the here and now instead of
examining the past or attempting to predict the future. 2. To be mentally healthy, individuals must
take personal responsibility for their actions, regardless of whether the actions are positive or
negative. 3. Each person, simply by being, is inherently worthy. While any given action may be
negative, these actions do not cancel out the value of a person. 4. The ultimate goal of living is to
attain personal growth and understanding. Only through constant self-improvement and selfunderstanding can an individual ever be truly happy.[56]
Humanistic psychology theory suits people who see the positive side of humanity and believe in free
will. This theory clearly contrasts with Freud's theory of biological determinism. Another significant
strength is that humanistic psychology theory is compatible with other schools of thought. Maslow's
Hierarchy is also applicable to other topics, such as finance, economics, or even in history or
criminology. Humanist psychology, also coined positive psychology, is criticized for its lack of
empirical validation and therefore its lack of usefulness in treating specific problems. It may also fail
to help or diagnose people who have severe mental disorders.[56]

Transpersonal psychology[edit]
During the 1960s Maslow founded with Stanislav Grof, Viktor Frankl, James Fadiman, Anthony
Sutich, Miles Vich and Michael Murphy, the school of transpersonal psychology. Maslow had
concluded that humanistic psychology was incapable of explaining all aspects of human experience.
He identified various mystical, ecstatic, or spiritual states known as "peak experiences" as
experiences beyond self-actualization. Maslow called these experiences "a fourth force in
psychology", which he named transpersonal psychology. Transpersonal psychology was concerned
with the "empirical, scientific study of, and responsible implementation of the finding relevant to,
becoming, mystical, ecstatic, and spiritual states" (Olson & Hergenhahn, 2011). [57]
Maslow published in 1962 a collection of papers on this theme, which developed into his 1968
book Toward a Psychology of Being.[58][57] In this book Maslow stresses the importance of
transpersonal psychology to human beings, writing: "without the transpersonal, we get sick, violent,
and nihilistic, or else hopeless and apathetic" (Olson & Hergenhahn, 2011). [57] Human beings, he
came to believe, need something bigger than themselves that they are connected to in a naturalistic
sense, but not in a religious sense: Maslow himself was an atheist[59] and found it difficult to accept
religious experience as valid unless placed in a positivistic framework.[60]
Awareness of transpersonal psychology became widespread within psychology, and the Journal of
Transpersonal Psychology was founded in 1969, a year after Abraham Maslow became the
president of the American Psychological Association. In the United States, transpersonal psychology
encouraged recognition for non-western psychologies, philosophies, and religions, and promoted
understanding of "higher states of consciousness", for instance through intense meditation.
[61]
Transpersonal psychology has been applied in many areas, including transpersonal business
studies.

Positive psychology[edit]
Maslow called his work positive psychology.[62][63] His work has enjoyed a revival of interest and
influence among leaders of the positive psychology movement such as Martin Seligman. This
movement focuses only on a higher human nature.[64][65] Positive psychology spends its research
looking at the positive side of things and how they go right rather than the pessimistic side. [66]

Psychology of science[edit]
In 1966, Maslow published a pioneering work in the psychology of science The Psychology of
Science: A Reconnaissance, the first book ever actually titled psychology of science. In this book
Maslow proposed a model of characterologically relative science, which he characterized as an
ardent opposition to the historically, philosophically, sociologically and psychologically nave
positivistic reluctance to see science relative to time, place, and local culture. [67] As Maslow
acknowledged, the book was greatly inspired by Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific
Revolutions (1962), and it offers a psychological reading of Kuhns famous distinction between
normal and revolutionary science in the context of his own distinction between safety and growth
science, put forward as part of a larger program for the psychology of science, outlined already in his
1954 magnum opus Motivation and Personality. Interestingly enough, not only that Maslow offered a
psychological reading of Kuhns categories of normal and revolutionary science as an aftermath of
Kuhns Structure, but he also offered a strikingly similar dichotomous structure of science 16 years
before the first edition of Structure, in his nowadays little known 1946 paper Means-centering
versus problem-centering in science published in the journal Philosophy of Science.[68][69]

Maslow's hammer[edit]
He is also known for Maslow's hammer, popularly phrased as "if all you have is a hammer,
everything looks like a nail" from his book The Psychology of Science, published in 1966.[70]

Criticism[edit]
Maslow's ideas have been criticized for their lack of scientific rigor. He was criticized as too soft
scientifically by American empiricists.[60] In 2006, author and former philosophy professor Christina
Hoff Sommers and practicing psychiatrist Sally Satel asserted that, due to lack of empirical support,
Maslow's ideas have fallen out of fashion and are "no longer taken seriously in the world of
academic psychology."[71] Positive psychology spends much of its research looking for how things go
right rather than the more pessimistic view point, how things go wrong. [72] Furthermore, the Hierarchy
of Needs has been accused of having a cultural biasmainly reflecting Western values and
ideologies. From the perspective of many cultural psychologists, this concept is considered relative
to each culture and society and cannot be universally applied.[73] However, according to the
University of Illinois researchers Ed Diener and Louis Tay,[74] who put Maslow's ideas to the test with
data collected from 60,865 participants in 123 countries around the world over the period of five
years (2005-2010), Maslow was essentially right in that there are universal human needs regardless
of cultural differences, although the authors claim to have found certain departures from the order of
their fulfillment Maslow described. In particular, while they foundclearly in accordance with Maslow
that people tend to achieve basic and safety needs before other needs, as well as that other
'higher needs' tend to be fulfilled in a certain order, the order in which they are fulfilled apparently
does not strongly influence their subjective well-being (SWB). As put by the authors of the study,
humans thus
can derive 'happiness' from simultaneously working on a number of needs regardless of the
fulfillment of other needs. This might be why people in impoverished nations, with only modest
control over whether their basic needs are fulfilled, can nevertheless find a measure of well-being
through social relationships and other psychological needs over which they have more control.
Diener & Tay (2011), p. 364
Maslow, however, would not be surprised by these findings, since he clearly and repeatedly
emphasized that the need hierarchy is not a rigid fixed order as it is often presented:
We have spoken so far as if this hierarchy were a fixed order, but actually it is not nearly so rigid as
we may have implied. It is true that most of the people with whom we have worked have seemed to

have these basic needs in about the order that has been indicated. However, there have been a
number of exceptions.
Maslow, 'Motivation and Personality' (1970), p. 51
Maslow also regarded that the relationship between different human needs and behaviour, being in
fact often motivated simultaneously by multiple needs, is not a one-to-one correspondence, i.e., that
these needs must be understood not to be exclusive or single determiners of certain kinds of
behavior.[75]
Maslow's concept of self-actualizing people was united with Piaget's developmental theory to the
process of initiation in 1993.[76]

Abraham Maslow Biography

Abraham Maslow was a humanistic psychologist best known for his theory of selfactualization. This biography of Abraham Maslow provides detailed information
about his childhood, life, achievements, works & timeline.

Quick Facts
ALSO LISTED IN Psychologists
ALSO KNOWN AS Abraham Harold Maslow
NATIONALITY American

Famous American Men

RELIGION Jewish
BORN ON 01 April 1908 AD
BIRTHDAY 1st April

Famous 1st April Birthdays CENTURY 20th Century

DIED AT AGE 62
SUN SIGN Aries

Aries Men

BORN IN Brooklyn
DIED ON 08 June 1970 AD
PLACE OF DEATH Menlo Park
DISEASES & DISABILITIESCoronary Disorders
CAUSE OF DEATHIllness

SPOUSE/PARTNER: Bertha
EDUCATION City College of New York
Cornell University
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Columbia University
FOUNDER/CO-FOUNDER Journal of Humanistic Psychology
image: http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/abraham-maslow-2.jpg

Abraham Maslow
Image Credit
image: http://www.thefamouspeople.com/images/cite_this.png

Cite This

Abraham Maslow was a renowned psychologist whose biggest contribution to the

field of psychology is the Maslows Need Hierarchy theory. He believed that all
human beings strive to achieve satisfaction in life through the fulfillment of certain
needs. He had an intensely sad and unhappy childhood and had to face several
hurdles while growing up. His difficult childhood experiences instilled in him a
sensitivity which was often reflected in his works. In spite of having an indifferent
father who always belittled him and an uncaring and cruel mother who never gave
him any love, the youngster grew up to be a compassionate soul who focused on
the positive traits in people no matter what. His first career choice was to become a
lawyer, partly influenced by his wish to impress his father. However legal studies did
not suit the young man and he soon shifted to study psychology. He found mentors
in the noted psychologists Alfred Adler, Max Wertheimer, and the anthropologist
Ruth Benedict who deeply influenced his thinking. Maslow developed a positivist
mindset and became a driving force behind the school of humanistic psychology. His
major theories which were of immense significance to humanistic psychology were
the hierarchy of needs, self-actualization and peak experiences.

Childhood & Early Life

He was born as the eldest of the seven children of Samuel and Rose Maslow in New
York. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Russia.

He was raised in a multiethnic neighbourhood. His family was poor and his parents
were very uncaring and indifferent. His father verbally abused and degraded him to
the extent that the boy felt very unworthy. His mother was a selfish and cruel
woman who never gave the children any love or care.
As the only Jewish boy in his neighbourhood, he was also made the victim of
rampant anti-Semitism and was bullied by other boys because of his religion.
The various difficulties of his life forced him to seek refuge in the library where he
discovered his love for reading.
He attended the Boys High school where he was a member of several academic
clubs. He also edited the Latin Magazine and the schools Physics paper for a year.
He went to the City College of New York and also began taking legal classes in
evening. He realized legal studies were not for him and dropped out soon.
He later went to the University of Wisconsin to study psychology. There his field of
study was experimental-behaviorism. He developed a strong positivist mindset due
to his experience with behaviorism. He received his masters degree in psychology
in 1931.

Career
He became a member of the faculty at Brooklyn College in 1937 and worked there
till 1951.
When the U.S. entered the World War II in 1941, Maslow was too old to enlist and
was ineligible for the military. However, the horrors of wars, inspired a vision of
peace un him and influenced his psychological ideas and helped him develop the
discipline of humanistic psychology.
He was deeply influenced by his two mentors, the psychologist Max Wertheimer and
anthropologist Ruth Benedict whose behaviour formed the basis for his research
about mental health and human potential.
He proposed a theory of needs hierarchy in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human
Motivation in Psychological Review. This theory was explained in detail in his 1954
book Motivation and Personality.
He was of the view that human beings have a set of needs that need to be fulfilled
hierarchically in order to achieve self-actualization. According to him the needs
could be classified as: Physiological, Safety, Belongingness and Love, Esteem, SelfActualization and Self-Transcendence needs.
As a humanistic psychologist he believed that each individual has a strong desire to
realize their full potential to reach a level of self-actualization. He propounded this

theory by studying individuals like Albert Einstein, Henry David Thoreau, Ruth
Benedict, etc. whom he believed had achieved self-actualization.
He was appointed a professor at Brandeis University in 1951. He taught there till
1969 before becoming a resident fellow at the Laughlin Institute in California.
Maslow and Tony Sutich founded the Journal of Humanistic Psychology in 1961. The
journal continues to publish academic papers till date.
Major Works
His biggest contribution to the field of psychology is his Maslows Needs Hierarchy
Theory which he first proposed in 1943. The hierarchy is a very popular framework
in research and education in various fields like sociology, management, psychology,
psychiatry, etc.

Personal Life & Legacy

He married his first cousin Bertha in 1928 when he was just 20 years old. His
marriage marked the beginning of a very happy family life for him. The couple had
two daughters and shared a loving marriage that lasted till his death.
He had a history of heart problems and suffered a major heart attack in 1967. Three
years later, in 1970 he had another heart attack and died.
The American Psychological Association presents the Abraham Maslow award to
individuals for their outstanding and lasting contribution to the exploration of the
farther reaches of human spirit.
Trivia
He was highly critical of the noted psychologist Sigmund Freud.
He was once mentored by the psychotherapist Alfred Adler.

Famous Psychologists: Abraham Maslow

Famous Psychologists - Abraham Maslow
Abraham Maslow one of the founders of humanistic psychology and is often best
recognized for developing the theory of human motivation now known as Maslow's
Hierarchy of Needs. A psychologist, Maslow noted that some human needs were
more powerful than others. He divided those needs into five general categories,
from most urgent to most advanced: physiological, safety, belonging/love, esteem,
and self-actualization.

Abraham Maslow

Abraham Harold Maslow was born April 1, 1908 in Brooklyn, New York. He was the
first of seven children born to his parents, who themselves were uneducated Jewish
immigrants from Russia (adapted from the Webspace.ship.edu website. His parents,
hoping for the best for their children in the new world, pushed him hard for
academic success. Not surprisingly, he became very lonely as a boy, and found his
refuge in books.

To satisfy his parents, he first studied law at the City College of New York (CCNY).
After three semesters, he transferred to Cornell, and then back to CCNY. He married
Bertha Goodman, his first cousin, against his parents wishes. Abe and Bertha went
on to have two daughters.

He and Bertha moved to Wisconsin so that he could attend the University of

Wisconsin. Here, he became interested in psychology, and his school work began to
improve dramatically. He spent time there working with Harry Harlow, who is
famous for his experiments with baby rhesus monkeys and attachment behavior.

He received his BA in 1930, his MA in 1931, and his PhD in 1934, all in psychology,
all from the University of Wisconsin. A year after graduation, he returned to New
York to work with E. L. Thorndike at Columbia, where Maslow became interested in
research on human sexuality.

He began teaching full time at Brooklyn College. During this period of his life, he
came into contact with the many European intellectuals that were immigrating to
the US, and Brooklyn in particular, at that time -- people like Adler, Fromm, Horney,
as well as several Gestalt and Freudian psychologists.

Maslow served as the chair of the psychology department at Brandeis from 1951 to
1969. While there he met Kurt Goldstein, who had originated the idea of selfactualization in his famous book, The Organism (1934). It was also here that he
began his crusade for a humanistic psychology -- something ultimately much more
important to him than his own theorizing.

He spent his final years in semi-retirement in California, until, on June 8 1970, he

died of a heart attack after years of ill health.

Wikipedia: Abraham Maslow

The following has been adapted from the Wikipedia: Abraham Maslow website.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is a theory in psychology that Abraham Maslow

proposed in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation, which he subsequently
extended to include his observations of man's innate curiosity. His theory contends
that as humans meet 'basic needs', they seek to satisfy successively 'higher needs'
that occupy a set hierarchy. Maslow studied exemplary people such as Albert
Einstein, Jane Addams, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Frederick Douglass rather than
mentally ill or neurotic people, writing that "the study of crippled, stunted,
immature, and unhealthy specimens can yield only a cripple psychology and a
cripple philosophy."
Maslow's hierarchy of needs can be represented as a pyramid with the more
primitive needs at the bottom. The four lower levels are grouped together as
deficiency needs associated with physiological needs, while the top level is termed
growth needs associated with psychological needs. While deficiency needs must be
met, growth needs are continually shaping behavior. The basic concept is that the
higher needs in this hierarchy only come into focus once all the needs that are lower
down in the pyramid are mainly or entirely satisfied. Growth forces create upward
movement in the hierarchy, whereas regressive forces push prepotent needs further
down the hierarchy.
The physiological needs of the organism, those enabling homeostasis, take first
precedence. These consist mainly of:
the need to breathe
the need to drink water
the need to regulate homeostasis
the need to eat
the need to dispose of bodily wastes
If some needs are not fulfilled, a human's physiological needs take the highest
priority. Physiological needs can control thoughts and behaviors, and can cause
people to feel sickness, pain, and discomfort. Maslow also places sexual activity in
this category as bodily comfort, activity, exercise, etc. While several of these
activities are important, many are not essential to survive.
Safety needs
When physiological needs are met, the need for safety will emerge. Safety and
security rank above all other desires. These include:
Physical security - safety from violence, delinquency, aggressions
Security of employment
Security of revenues and resources
Moral and physiological security
Family security

Security of health
Security of personal property against crime
Sometimes the desire for safety outweighs the requirement to satisfy physiological
needs completely.
Love/Belonging needs
After physiological and safety needs are fulfilled, the third layer of human needs is
social. This involves emotionally-based relationships in general, such as:
friendship
sexual intimacy
having a supportive and communicative family
Humans generally need to feel belonging and acceptance, whether it comes from a
large social group (clubs, office culture, religious groups, professional organizations,
sports teams, gangs) or small social connections (family members, intimate
partners, mentors, close colleagues, confidants). They need to love and be loved
(sexually and non-sexually) by others. In the absence of these elements, many
people become susceptible to loneliness, social anxiety, and depression. This need
for belonging can often overcome the physiological and security needs, depending
on the strength of the peer pressure. i.e. an anorexic ignores the need to eat and
the security of health for a feeling of belonging.
Esteem needs
According to Maslow, all humans have a need to be respected, to have self-respect,
and to respect others. People need to engage themselves in order to gain
recognition and have an activity or activities that give the person a sense of
contribution and self-value, be it in a profession or hobby. Imbalances at this level
can result in low self-esteem, inferiority complexes, an inflated sense of selfimportance or snobbishness. There are two levels to Esteem needs. The lower of the
levels relates to elements like fame, respect, and glory. The higher level is
contingent to concepts like confidence, competence, and achievement. The lower
level is generally considered poor. It is dependent upon other people, or someone
who needs to be reassured because of lower esteem. People with low esteem need
respect from others. They may seek fame or glory, which again are dependent on
others. However confidence, competence and achievement only need one person
and everyone else is inconsequential to one's own success. (Steven Covey has
written extensively on this subject.)
Cognitive needs
Maslow believed that humans had the need to increase their intelligence and
thereby chase knowledge. Cognitive needs is the expression of the natural human
need to learn, explore, discover, create, and perhaps even dissect in order to get a
better understanding of the world around them.

Aesthetic needs
Based on Maslow's beliefs, it is stated in the hierarchy that humans need beautiful
imagery or something new and aesthetically pleasing in order to continue up
towards Self-Actualization. Humans need to refresh themselves in the presence and
beauty of nature while carefully absorbing and observing their surroundings to
extract the beauty that the world has to offer.
Growth needs
Though the deficiency needs may be seen as "basic", and can be met and
neutralized (i.e. they stop being motivators in one's life), self-actualization and
transcendence are "being" or "growth needs" (also termed "B-needs"), i.e. they are
enduring motivations or drivers of behavior.
Self-actualization
Self-actualization is the instinctual need of humans to make the most of their
abilities and to strive to be the best they can.
Self Actualization is the intrinsic growth of what is already in the organism, or more
accurately, of what the organism is. Maslow writes the following of self-actualizing
people:
They embrace the facts and realities of the world (including themselves) rather than
denying or avoiding them.
They are spontaneous in their ideas and actions.
They are creative.
They are interested in solving problems; this often includes the problems of others.
Solving these problems is often a key focus in their lives.
They feel a closeness to other people, and generally appreciate life.
They have a system of morality that is fully internalized and independent of external
authority.
They judge others without prejudice, in a way that can be termed objective.
In short, self-actualization is reaching one's fullest potential.
Self-transcendence
At the top of the triangle, self-transcendence is also sometimes referred to as
spiritual needs.
Maslow believes that we should study and cultivate peak experiences as a way of
providing a route to achieve personal growth, integration, and fulfillment. Peak
experiences are unifying, and ego-transcending, bringing a sense of purpose to the
individual and a sense of integration. Individuals most likely to have peak
experiences are self-actualized, mature, healthy, and self-fulfilled. All individuals are
capable of peak experiences. Those who do not have them somehow depress or

deny them. Maslow originally found the occurrence of peak experiences in

individuals who were self-actualized, but later found that peak experiences
happened to non-actualizers as well but not as often.
In 1969, Abraham Maslow, Stanislav Grof and Anthony Sutich were the initiators
behind the publication of the first issue of the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology
Counterpositions
While Maslow's theory was regarded as an improvement over previous theories of
personality and motivation, it has its detractors. For example, in their extensive
review of research that is dependent on Maslow's theory, Wahba and Bridwell
(1976) found little evidence for the ranking of needs that Maslow described, or even
for the existence of a definite hierarchy at all. For example, less individualistic forms
of society than described by Maslow in this theory, might value their social
relationships (e.g. family, clan or group) higher than their own physiological needs.
The concept of self-actualization is considered vague and psychobabble by some
behaviorist psychologists. The concept is based on an Aristotelian notion of human
nature that assumes we have an optimum role or purpose.[citation needed] Self
actualization is a difficult construct for researchers to operationalize, and this in turn
makes it difficult to test Maslow's theory. Even if self-actualization is a useful
concept, there is no proof that every individual has this capacity or even the goal to
achieve it.
Transcendence has been discounted by secular psychologists because they feel it
belongs to the domain of religious belief. But Maslow himself believed that science
and religion were both too narrowly conceived, too dichotomized, and too separated
from each other. Non-peakers, as he would call them, characteristically think in
logical, rational terms and look down on extreme spirituality as "insanity" because it
entails a loss of control and deviation from what is socially acceptable. They may
even try to avoid such experiences because they are not materially productive
they "earn no money, bake no bread, and chop no wood". Other non-peakers have
the problem of immaturity in spiritual matters, and hence tend to view holy rituals
and events in their most crude, external form, not appreciating them for any
underlying spiritual implications. Maslow despised such people because they form a
sort of idolatry that hinders religions. This creates a divide in every religion and
social institution. (Maslow. "The 'Core-Religious' or 'Transcendent,' Experience.") It is
important to note, however, that Maslow considered himself to be an atheist--thus,
by his conceptualization of transcendence, any individual can have such
experiences.
ABRAHAM MASLOW

1908-1970

Dr. C. George Boeree

Maslow (en franais: Silvia Moraru)

Biography

Abraham Harold Maslow was born April 1, 1908 in Brooklyn, New York. He was the
first of seven children born to his parents, who themselves were uneducated Jewish
immigrants from Russia. His parents, hoping for the best for their children in the
new world, pushed him hard for academic success. Not surprisingly, he became
very lonely as a boy, and found his refuge in books.

To satisfy his parents, he first studied law at the City College of New York (CCNY).
After three semesters, he transferred to Cornell, and then back to CCNY. He married
Bertha Goodman, his first cousin, against his parents wishes. Abe and Bertha went
on to have two daughters.

He and Bertha moved to Wisconsin so that he could attend the University of

Wisconsin. Here, he became interested in psychology, and his school work began to
improve dramatically. He spent time there working with Harry Harlow, who is
famous for his experiments with baby rhesus monkeys and attachment behavior.

He received his BA in 1930, his MA in 1931, and his PhD in 1934, all in psychology,
all from the University of Wisconsin. A year after graduation, he returned to New
York to work with E. L. Thorndike at Columbia, where Maslow became interested in
research on human sexuality.

He began teaching full time at Brooklyn College. During this period of his life, he
came into contact with the many European intellectuals that were immigrating to
the US, and Brooklyn in particular, at that time -- people like Adler, Fromm, Horney,
as well as several Gestalt and Freudian psychologists.

Maslow served as the chair of the psychology department at Brandeis from 1951 to
1969. While there he met Kurt Goldstein, who had originated the idea of selfactualization in his famous book, The Organism (1934). It was also here that he
began his crusade for a humanistic psychology -- something ultimately much more
important to him than his own theorizing.

He spend his final years in semi-retirement in California, until, on June 8 1970, he

died of a heart attack after years of ill health.

Theory

One of the many interesting things Maslow noticed while he worked with monkeys
early in his career, was that some needs take precedence over others. For example,
if you are hungry and thirsty, you will tend to try to take care of the thirst first. After
all, you can do without food for weeks, but you can only do without water for a
couple of days! Thirst is a stronger need than hunger. Likewise, if you are very
very thirsty, but someone has put a choke hold on you and you cant breath, which
is more important? The need to breathe, of course. On the other hand, sex is less
powerful than any of these. Lets face it, you wont die if you dont get it!

Maslow took this idea and created his now famous hierarchy of needs. Beyond the
details of air, water, food, and sex, he laid out five broader layers: the physiological
needs, the needs for safety and security, the needs for love and belonging, the
needs for esteem, and the need to actualize the self, in that order.

1. The physiological needs. These include the needs we have for oxygen, water,
protein, salt, sugar, calcium, and other minerals and vitamins. They also include
the need to maintain a pH balance (getting too acidic or base will kill you) and
temperature (98.6 or near to it). Also, theres the needs to be active, to rest, to
sleep, to get rid of wastes (CO2, sweat, urine, and feces), to avoid pain, and to
have sex. Quite a collection!

Maslow believed, and research supports him, that these are in fact individual needs,
and that a lack of, say, vitamin C, will lead to a very specific hunger for things which
have in the past provided that vitamin C -- e.g. orange juice. I guess the cravings
that some pregnant women have, and the way in which babies eat the most foul
tasting baby food, support the idea anecdotally.

2. The safety and security needs. When the physiological needs are largely taken
care of, this second layer of needs comes into play. You will become increasingly
interested in finding safe circumstances, stability, protection. You might develop a
need for structure, for order, some limits.

Looking at it negatively, you become concerned, not with needs like hunger and
thirst, but with your fears and anxieties. In the ordinary American adult, this set of
needs manifest themselves in the form of our urges to have a home in a safe
neighborhood, a little job security and a nest egg, a good retirement plan and a bit
of insurance, and so on.

3. The love and belonging needs. When physiological needs and safety needs are,
by and large, taken care of, a third layer starts to show up. You begin to feel the
need for friends, a sweetheart, children, affectionate relationships in general, even a
sense of community. Looked at negatively, you become increasing susceptible to
loneliness and social anxieties.

In our day-to-day life, we exhibit these needs in our desires to marry, have a family,
be a part of a community, a member of a church, a brother in the fraternity, a part
of a gang or a bowling club. It is also a part of what we look for in a career.

4. The esteem needs. Next, we begin to look for a little self-esteem. Maslow noted
two versions of esteem needs, a lower one and a higher one. The lower one is the
need for the respect of others, the need for status, fame, glory, recognition,
attention, reputation, appreciation, dignity, even dominance. The higher form
involves the need for self-respect, including such feelings as confidence,
competence, achievement, mastery, independence, and freedom. Note that this is
the higher form because, unlike the respect of others, once you have self-respect,
its a lot harder to lose!

The negative version of these needs is low self-esteem and inferiority complexes.
Maslow felt that Adler was really onto something when he proposed that these were
at the roots of many, if not most, of our psychological problems. In modern
countries, most of us have what we need in regard to our physiological and safety
needs. We, more often than not, have quite a bit of love and belonging, too. Its a
little respect that often seems so very hard to get!

All of the preceding four levels he calls deficit needs, or D-needs. If you dont have
enough of something -- i.e. you have a deficit -- you feel the need. But if you get all
you need, you feel nothing at all! In other words, they cease to be motivating. As
the old blues song goes, you dont miss your water till your well runs dry!

He also talks about these levels in terms of homeostasis. Homeostasis is the

principle by which your furnace thermostat operates: When it gets too cold, it
switches the heat on; When it gets too hot, it switches the heat off. In the same
way, your body, when it lacks a certain substance, develops a hunger for it; When it
gets enough of it, then the hunger stops. Maslow simply extends the homeostatic
principle to needs, such as safety, belonging, and esteem, that we dont ordinarily
think of in these terms.

Maslow sees all these needs as essentially survival needs. Even love and esteem
are needed for the maintenance of health. He says we all have these needs built in
to us genetically, like instincts. In fact, he calls them instinctoid -- instinct-like -needs.

In terms of overall development, we move through these levels a bit like stages. As
newborns, our focus (if not our entire set of needs) is on the physiological. Soon, we
begin to recognize that we need to be safe. Soon after that, we crave attention and
affection. A bit later, we look for self-esteem. Mind you, this is in the first couple of
years!

Under stressful conditions, or when survival is threatened, we can regress to a

lower need level. When you great career falls flat, you might seek out a little
attention. When your family ups and leaves you, it seems that love is again all you
ever wanted. When you face chapter eleven after a long and happy life, you
suddenly cant think of anything except money.

These things can occur on a society-wide basis as well: When society suddenly
flounders, people start clamoring for a strong leader to take over and make things
right. When the bombs start falling, they look for safety. When the food stops
coming into the stores, their needs become even more basic.

Maslow suggested that we can ask people for their philosophy of the future -what would their ideal life or world be like -- and get significant information as to
what needs they do or do not have covered.

If you have significant problems along your development -- a period of extreme

insecurity or hunger as a child, or the loss of a family member through death or
divorce, or significant neglect or abuse -- you may fixate on that set of needs for
the rest of your life.

This is Maslows understanding of neurosis. Perhaps you went through a war as a

kid. Now you have everything your heart needs -- yet you still find yourself
obsessing over having enough money and keeping the pantry well-stocked. Or
perhaps your parents divorced when you were young. Now you have a wonderful
spouse -- yet you get insanely jealous or worry constantly that they are going to
leave you because you are not good enough for them. You get the picture.

Self-actualization

The last level is a bit different. Maslow has used a variety of terms to refer to this
level: He has called it growth motivation (in contrast to deficit motivation), being
needs (or B-needs, in contrast to D-needs), and self-actualization.

These are needs that do not involve balance or homeostasis. Once engaged, they
continue to be felt. In fact, they are likely to become stronger as we feed them!
They involve the continuous desire to fulfill potentials, to be all that you can be.
They are a matter of becoming the most complete, the fullest, you -- hence the
term, self-actualization.

Now, in keeping with his theory up to this point, if you want to be truly selfactualizing, you need to have your lower needs taken care of, at least to a
considerable extent. This makes sense: If you are hungry, you are scrambling to
get food; If you are unsafe, you have to be continuously on guard; If you are
isolated and unloved, you have to satisfy that need; If you have a low sense of selfesteem, you have to be defensive or compensate. When lower needs are unmet,
you cant fully devote yourself to fulfilling your potentials.

It isnt surprising, then, the world being as difficult as it is, that only a small
percentage of the worlds population is truly, predominantly, self-actualizing.
Maslow at one point suggested only about two percent!

The question becomes, of course, what exactly does Maslow mean by selfactualization. To answer that, we need to look at the kind of people he called selfactualizers. Fortunately, he did this for us, using a qualitative method called
biographical analysis.

He began by picking out a group of people, some historical figures, some people he
knew, whom he felt clearly met the standard of self-actualization. Included in this
august group were Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein, Eleanor
Roosevelt, Jane Adams, William James, Albert Schweitzer, Benedict Spinoza, and
Alduous Huxley, plus 12 unnamed people who were alive at the time Maslow did his
research. He then looked at their biographies, writings, the acts and words of those
he knew personally, and so on. From these sources, he developed a list of qualities
that seemed characteristic of these people, as opposed to the great mass of us.

These people were reality-centered, which means they could differentiate what is
fake and dishonest from what is real and genuine. They were problem-centered,
meaning they treated lifes difficulties as problems demanding solutions, not as
personal troubles to be railed at or surrendered to. And they had a different
perception of means and ends. They felt that the ends dont necessarily justify the
means, that the means could be ends themselves, and that the means -- the
journey -- was often more important than the ends.

The self-actualizers also had a different way of relating to others. First, they
enjoyed solitude, and were comfortable being alone. And they enjoyed deeper
personal relations with a few close friends and family members, rather than more
shallow relationships with many people.
They enjoyed autonomy, a relative independence from physical and social needs.
And they resisted enculturation, that is, they were not susceptible to social pressure
to be "well adjusted" or to "fit in" -- they were, in fact, nonconformists in the best
sense.

They had an unhostile sense of humor -- preferring to joke at their own expense, or
at the human condition, and never directing their humor at others. They had a
quality he called acceptance of self and others, by which he meant that these
people would be more likely to take you as you are than try to change you into what
they thought you should be. This same acceptance applied to their attitudes
towards themselves: If some quality of theirs wasnt harmful, they let it be, even
enjoying it as a personal quirk. On the other hand, they were often strongly
motivated to change negative qualities in themselves that could be changed. Along
with this comes spontaneity and simplicity: They preferred being themselves rather
than being pretentious or artificial. In fact, for all their nonconformity, he found that
they tended to be conventional on the surface, just where less self-actualizing
nonconformists tend to be the most dramatic.

Further, they had a sense of humility and respect towards others -- something
Maslow also called democratic values -- meaning that they were open to ethnic and
individual variety, even treasuring it. They had a quality Maslow called human
kinship or Gemeinschaftsgefhl -- social interest, compassion, humanity. And this
was accompanied by a strong ethics, which was spiritual but seldom conventionally
religious in nature.

And these people had a certain freshness of appreciation, an ability to see things,
even ordinary things, with wonder. Along with this comes their ability to be
creative, inventive, and original. And, finally, these people tended to have more
peak experiences than the average person. A peak experience is one that takes
you out of yourself, that makes you feel very tiny, or very large, to some extent one
with life or nature or God. It gives you a feeling of being a part of the infinite and
the eternal. These experiences tend to leave their mark on a person, change them
for the better, and many people actively seek them out. They are also called
mystical experiences, and are an important part of many religious and philosophical
traditions.

Maslow doesnt think that self-actualizers are perfect, of course. There were several
flaws or imperfections he discovered along the way as well: First, they often
suffered considerable anxiety and guilt -- but realistic anxiety and guilt, rather than
misplaced or neurotic versions. Some of them were absentminded and overly kind.
And finally, some of them had unexpected moments of ruthlessness, surgical
coldness, and loss of humor.
Two other points he makes about these self-actualizers: Their values were "natural"
and seemed to flow effortlessly from their personalities. And they appeared to
transcend many of the dichotomies others accept as being undeniable, such as the
differences between the spiritual and the physical, the selfish and the unselfish, and
the masculine and the feminine.
Metaneeds and metapathologies

Another way in which Maslow approach the problem of what is self-actualization is

to talk about the special, driving needs (B-needs, of course) of the self-actualizers.
They need the following in their lives in order to be happy:

Truth, rather than dishonesty.

Goodness, rather than evil.
Beauty, not ugliness or vulgarity.

Unity, wholeness, and transcendence of opposites, not arbitrariness or forced

choices.
Aliveness, not deadness or the mechanization of life.
Uniqueness, not bland uniformity.
Perfection and necessity, not sloppiness, inconsistency, or accident.
Completion, rather than incompleteness.
Justice and order, not injustice and lawlessness.
Simplicity, not unnecessary complexity.
Richness, not environmental impoverishment.
Effortlessness, not strain.
Playfulness, not grim, humorless, drudgery.
Self-sufficiency, not dependency.
Meaningfulness, rather than senselessness.

At first glance, you might think that everyone obviously needs these. But think: If
you are living through an economic depression or a war, or are living in a ghetto or
in rural poverty, do you worry about these issues, or do you worry about getting
enough to eat and a roof over your head? In fact, Maslow believes that much of the
what is wrong with the world comes down to the fact that very few people really are
interested in these values -- not because they are bad people, but because they
havent even had their basic needs taken care of!

When a self-actualizer doesnt get these needs fulfilled, they respond with
metapathologies -- a list of problems as long as the list of metaneeds! Let me
summarize it by saying that, when forced to live without these values, the selfactualizer develops depression, despair, disgust,alienation, and a degree of
cynicism.

Maslow hoped that his efforts at describing the self-actualizing person would
eventually lead to a periodic table of the kinds of qualities, problems, pathologies,
and even solutions characteristic of higher levels of human potential. Over time, he
devoted increasing attention, not to his own theory, but to humanistic psychology
and the human potentials movement.

Toward the end of his life, he inaugurated what he called the fourth force in
psychology: Freudian and other depth psychologies constituted the first force;

Behaviorism was the second force; His own humanism, including the European
existentialists, were the third force. The fourth force was the transpersonal
psychologies which, taking their cue from Eastern philosophies, investigated such
things as meditation, higher levels of consciousness, and even parapsychological
phenomena. Perhaps the best known transpersonalist today is Ken Wilber, author of
such books as The Atman Project and The History of Everything.

Discussion

Maslow has been a very inspirational figure in personality theories. In the 1960s in
particular, people were tired of the reductionistic, mechanistic messages of the
behaviorists and physiological psychologists. They were looking for meaning and
purpose in their lives, even a higher, more mystical meaning. Maslow was one of
the pioneers in that movement to bring the human being back into psychology, and
the person back into personality!

At approximately the same time, another movement was getting underway, one
inspired by some of the very things that turned Maslow off: computers and
information processing, as well as very rationalistic theories such as Piagets
cognitive development theory and Noam Chomskys linguistics. This, of course,
became the cognitive movement in psychology. As the heyday of humanism
appeared to lead to little more than drug abuse, astrology, and self indulgence,
cognitivism provided the scientific ground students of psychology were yearning for.

But the message should not be lost: Psychology is, first and foremost, about
people, real people in real lives, and not about computer models, statistical
analyses, rat behavior, test scores, and laboratories.

Some criticism

The big picture aside, there are a few criticisms we might direct at Maslows
theory itself. The most common criticism concerns his methodology: Picking a
small number of people that he himself declared self-actualizing, then reading about
them or talking with them, and coming to conclusions about what self-actualization
is in the first place does not sound like good science to many people.

In his defense, I should point out that he understood this, and thought of his work as
simply pointing the way. He hoped that others would take up the cause and

complete what he had begun in a more rigorous fashion. It is a curiosity that

Maslow, the father of American humanism, began his career as a behaviorist with
a strong physiological bent. He did indeed believe in science, and often grounded
his ideas in biology. He only meant to broaden psychology to include the best in us,
as well as the pathological!

Another criticism, a little harder to respond to, is that Maslow placed such
constraints on self-actualization. First, Kurt Goldstein and Carl Rogers used the
phrase to refer to what every living creature does: To try to grow, to become more,
to fulfill its biological destiny. Maslow limits it to something only two percent of the
human species achieves. And while Rogers felt that babies were the best examples
of human self-actualization, Maslow saw it as something achieved only rarely by the
young.

Another point is that he asks that we pretty much take care of our lower needs
before self-actualization comes to the forefront. And yet we can find many
examples of people who exhibited at very least aspects of self-actualization who
were far from having their lower needs taken care of. Many of our best artists and
authors, for example, suffered from poverty, bad upbringing, neuroses, and
depression. Some could even be called psychotic! If you think about Galileo, who
prayed for ideas that would sell, or Rembrandt, who could barely keep food on the
table, or Toulouse Lautrec, whose body tormented him, or van Gogh, who, besides
poor, wasnt quite right in the head, if you know what I mean... Werent these
people engaged in some form of self-actualization? The idea of artists and poets
and philosophers (and psychologists!) being strange is so common because it has
so much truth to it!

We also have the example of a number of people who were creative in some fashion
even while in concentration camps. Trachtenberg, for example, developed a new
way of doing arithmetic in a camp. Viktor Frankl developed his approach to therapy
while in a camp. There are many more examples.

And there are examples of people who were creative when unknown, became
successful only to stop being creative. Ernest Hemingway, if Im not mistaken, is an
example. Perhaps all these examples are exceptions, and the hierarchy of needs
stands up well to the general trend. But the exceptions certainly do put some doubt
into our minds.

I would like to suggest a variation on Maslow's theory that might help. If we take
the idea of actualization as Goldstein and Rogers use it, i.e. as the "life force" that
drives all creatures, we can also acknowledge that there are various things that

interfere with the full effectiveness of that life force. If we are deprived of our basic
physical needs, if we are living under threatening circumstances, if we are isolated
from others, or if we have no confidence in our abilities, we may continue to
survive, but it will not be as fulfilling a live as it could be. We will not be fully
actualizing our potentials! We could even understand that there might be people
that actualize despite deprivation! If we take the deficit needs as subtracting from
actualization, and if we talk about full self-actualization rather than self-actualization
as a separate category of need, Maslow's theory comes into line with other theories,
and the exceptional people who succeed in the face of adversity can be seen as
heroic rather than freakish abberations.

I received the following email from Gareth Costello of Dublin, Ireland, which
balances my somewhat negative review of Maslow:

One mild criticism I would have is of your concluding assessment, where you appeal
for a broader view of self-actualisation that could include subjects such as van Gogh
and other hard-at-heel intellectual/creative giants. This appears to be based on a
view that people like van Gogh, etc. were, by virtue of their enormous creativity, 'at
least partly' self-actualised.
I favour Maslow's more narrow definition of self-actualisation and would not agree
that self-actualisation equates with supreme self-expression. I suspect that selfactualisation is, often, a demotivating factor where artistic creativity is concerned,
and that artists such as van Gogh thrived (artistically, if not in other respects)
specifically in the absence of circumstances conducive to self-actualisation. Even
financially successful artists (e.g. Stravinsky, who was famously good at looking
after his financial affairs, as well as affairs of other kinds) do exhibit some of the
non-self-actualised 'motivators' that you describe so well.

Self-actualisation implies an outwardness and openness that contrasts with the

introspection that can be a pre-requisite for great artistic self-expression. Where
scientists can look out at the world around them to find something of profound or
universal significance, great artists usually look inside themselves to find something
of personal significance - the universality of their work is important but secondary.
It's interesting that Maslow seems to have concentrated on people concerned with
the big-picture when defining self-actualisation. In Einstein, he selected a scientist
who was striving for a theory of the entire physical universe. The philosophers and
politicians he analysed were concerned with issues of great relevance to humanity.

This is not to belittle the value or importance of the 'small-picture' - society needs
splitters as well as lumpers. But while self-actualisation may be synonymous with
psychological balance and health, it does not necessarily lead to professional or

creative brilliance in all fields. In some instances, it may remove the driving force
that leads people to excel -- art being the classic example. So I don't agree that the
scope of self-actualisation should be extended to include people who may well have
been brilliant, but who were also quite possibly damaged, unrounded or unhappy
human beings.

If I had the opportunity to chose between brilliance (alone) or self-actualisation

(alone) for my children, I would go for the latter!