Abraham Maslow - most famous for his concept of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs - was a famous 20th-century American psychologist. Maslow's work is an investigation and explanation of how people can accomplish everything that they are capable of achieving. Maslow labels the psychological state of fulfilling our true potential as self-actualization.
Maslow claims that for humans to achieve self-actualization, they not only have to satisfy basic needs such as safety, belonging, and respect, but they must also practice virtues that help them reach their fullest potential.
I’d like to share my biggest takeaways from Abraham Maslow’s, Toward a Psychology of Being.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs
Maslow views our needs as a hierarchy, where we must satisfy more basic needs to ascend to the next level. As an example, needs more related to survival (i.e. food, water, shelter) must be satisfied before a person can think about satisfying a creative urge or finding their dream job. Maslow states that "good or happiness or pleasure is essentially the consequence of amelioration of this unpleasant state-of-affairs of wanting, of desiring, of needing."
In Maslow’s view, humans are creatures that are continually striving toward some goal. The goals we strive for depend on our unique life circumstances such as our environment, education, and current habits.
(Image: "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs")
Whenever we satisfy a more basic need, our mind concentrates on achieving the next goal. We never reach a state of apathy or complete contentedness, but rather we move to a state of higher wanting. This is the foundational idea behind Maslow's famous hierarchy of needs:
"Just as all trees need sun, water, and food from the environment, so do all people need safety, love, and status from their environment. However, in both cases this is just where real development of individuality can begin, for once satiated with these elementary, species-wide necessities, each tree and each person proceeds to develop in his own style, uniquely, using these necessities for his own private purposes. In a very meaningful sense, development then becomes more determined from within rather than from without." - Abraham Maslow
What is Self-Actualization?
At the top of Maslow's hierarchy of needs is the state of being known as self-actualization. Self-actualization is the ultimate goal humans strive for. Maslow defined this state as follows:
“So far as motivational status is concerned, healthy people have sufficiently gratified their basic needs for safety, belongingness, love, respect, and self-esteem so that they are motivated primarily by trends to self-actualization (defined as ongoing actualization of potentials, capacities and talents, as fulfillment of mission (or call, fate, destiny, or vocation), as a fuller knowledge of, and acceptance of, the person’s own intrinsic nature”
Perhaps the most important trait that self-actualized people possess is an outlook on the world that is emotionally detached yet enamored by its fundamental workings. Similar to the Buddhist monk who has attained enlightenment, they can view even the most detrimental circumstances with rational acceptance and even gratitude. Maslow states that self-actualized people are overcome by a "feeling of gratitude, in religious persons to their God, in others to Fate, to Nature, to people, to the past, to parents, to the world, to everything and anything that helped to make this wonder possible."
Those who are self-actualized are live a life in which their daily actions are in line with their ultimate values. Consequently, those who violate their most innate beliefs and values feel a sort of dis-ease. Maslow writes:
"The intelligent man who lives a stupid life, the man who sees the truth and keeps his mouth shut, the coward who gives up his manliness, all these people perceive in a deep way that they have done wrong to themselves."
Conclusion
Maslow is an uplifting and optimistic psychologist. His work helps me understand how I can move towards self-actualization. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about how they can achieve their fullest potential.
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