Contact: george@deepermind.com
Contact: george@deepermind.com
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Chapter 10.1 Abraham Maslow  American psychologist Abraham
Maslow broke new ground in psychology by putting emphasis on the
best people instead of broken people. Instead of studying cars
in a junk yard, he moved to a new car showroom. Prior to his
time, psychology was limited to the spinal reflex theory of
Sechenov (1863) and Pavlov (1927), the behaviorism of Watson
(1913) and Skinner (1948).
While contemporary psychology at the time was wallowing in the mud of human misery, Maslow studied the values of the best men and women in history. He asked "What made people like Albert Einstein and Eleanor Roosevelt exemplary?" Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Behind
everything thing we do is a need that wants to be satisfied. We
have instincts that keep us alive and continue our species. But
there are other needs that go beyond our body's instincts.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs starts at the basic physiological
needs we need just to stay alive. Once these are made we have a
need for safety, then we want love and affection. Within
our group we want to have self esteem. Finally we have a need of
satisfying our full potential that Maslow calls Self
Actualization.
The five needs in Maslow's Hierarchy include: 1 Self Actualization -Fulfillment Needs (full potential) This is
the rare level where people have need of purpose, personal
growth and realization of their potentials. People on this
level are fully functional, acting purely on their own volition
and have a healthy personality. 2 Ego -Self Esteem Needs
(self respect, personal worth, autonomy) On this level, people
act from their ego needs. They value the options of others, in
order to believe in themselves. It is a matter of self-respect
through respect from others.
3 Social - Love and
Belongingness Needs (love, friendship, comradeship) On this
level, people need to feel loved. Here loving one's self has
not been fully discovered. Some families are tightly bond. If
this need is very strong, there can be a rush to fulfill this
need resulting in less than ideal partner selection.
4
Security - Safety Needs (security; protection from harm) Here we
might include living in a safe area away from threats. This
level is more likely to be found in children as they have a
greater need to feel safe. Those who worry about small things,
such as drinking out of plastic glasses have strong security
needs. 5 Body -Physiological Needs (air, food, sleep,
stimulation, activity) People on this level tend to be sick or
in emergency type situations. They have biological needs for
physical equilibrium (homeostasis). People with lack of
shelter, clothing, food focus on these needs. People often
neglect some of these basic needs in normal life when they eat
junk food, go without sleep, don't exercise, or do not simulate
their minds. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is not strictly true. When a
person is exposed to safety needs, the person may be used to it,
and experience higher needs in spite of feeling somewhat on
edge. Also as will be discussed, people have spiritual needs which are
not the same as being self actualized. Above the self actualized
level, there can be an idealized level driven by the spirit.
Maslow's B Values
In life we have to sort
out what is important and make determination of our and others
best course of action. We can chose plan A or plan B. How do we
determined what to do? We need a reference Maslow called B
Values. We compare this reference to the situation at hand.
For instance is something reflecting unity, perfection,
richness and honesty? As we ascend Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs,
more B Values are considered. Self-actualized people are most
likely to reflect on them. D Needs or deficiency needs are needs we notice by
their absence. A D Need of air is quickly noticed. We do not
have to think about needing air, we just need it.
Teaching
Methods Maslow had comments on teaching children which
included:
Self Actualization
Self
Actualization can occur when people reflect on their B needs.
Maslow suggested that only two percent of the people in the
world achieve self actualization. Maslow gave examples of people
who met this criteria using biographical analysis. People who
met this standard of self actualization included: Abraham
Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt,
Jane Adams, William James, Albert Schweitzer, Benedict Spinoza,
and Aldous Huxley Self actualized people were reality and
problem centered, and could distinguished what was fake and
dishonest from what genuine. They realized that the means and
ends are different, and thus the end did not always justify the
means. They enjoyed being by themselves, and having deeper
relationships with a few people instead of more shallow
relations with many people. These people tended to be
autonomous, relatively free from physical and social needs. They
had a sense of what was true beyond their culture, and were
highly resistant to enculturalization and thus enjoyed being
themselves and did not worried about fitting in.
Their humor
was never a threat, and they often were the brunt of their own
jokes. They tended to be spontaneous and simple in their
nonconformity while also having a certain humility and respect
for others. They had freshness, a creative spirit and were
original in the thinking. These people had experiences of being
moved by forces larger than themselves to enjoin peak
experiences.
In reality, these people were not perfect.
Indeed they suffered from what ordinary people do. Their anxiety
and guilt was about real things, and their moments of coldness
were brief and often somewhat justified.
Others saw them as
natural, and flowing with life. They appeared to rise above
distinctions such as the spiritual and physical and were
indifferent to what others perceived as masculine or feminine.
Maslow has much more to offer in his books:
The Hierarchy of
Needs: A Theory of Human Motivation (1943). Maslow, Abraham H. Toward a
Psychology of Being, New York: D. Van Nostrand Company (1968) It is obvious that many people
believe in a religion and are spiritually actualized instead of
being self actualized.
Many religious people are seldom self
actualized, but are actualized by their belief in their
religion. These people have never been born again so that
they have never started over in the search for truth. They
are the true believers, who know they have the truth. The
true believers have been indoctrinated to the point, their truth
is a frozen crystal as hard as rock. The
people how have reexamined their faith, and searched through
many religions and philosophies are self actualized, but when
they find their truth after their own personal search, it is a
far deeper understanding, with tolerance and respect for people
who have found another truth.
So in the diagram below, there is
another level added to the top of the hierarchy of needs
pyramid. This is the spiritual need. This need
expresses itself through spiritual emotions .
In the comparison table
earlier presented, the 7th Chakra, the Crown Chakra does not
have any correspondence in Maslow's Hierarchy. In strongly
spiritual and religious people, this is a very important need.
It is the need to do God's work. Perhaps we could add a 6th
level beyond Self Actualization and call it "Spiritual."
A Modified Maslow Hierarchy Comparison of Maslow's Hierarchy
of Needs with Chakras and Transactional-Analysis Ego States In the chart below we can compare Maslow's
Hierarchy of Needs to the Seven Chakras and the
Transactional Analysis (TA) Ego States. The row
reflecting the Spiritual Needs has been added.
This table is abbreviated, but it
does show that there is hierarchy suggested by the chakras should
not be taken too literarily. Its main function is to show that
there is a correspondence between levels in the Maslow's
Hierarchy and the different Chakras and TA ego states.
The Parent, Adult and Child ego
states are useful in understanding communications between two
people. A cross Transactions in Transactional-Analysis (TA)
occur when, for example, a person in their Parent Ego state
communicates with a person in their Child Ego state. If instead,
the two people are in their Adult Ego state, their feeling
towards each other are not filled with disruptive emotions.
A shown in the chart above, the TA states
have been expanded to a four level system. Many spiritual
people who are in their spiritual state have trouble relating to
people in one of the other states. For example, if a person is
in their child state, asking them to detach will be met with
hostility and misunderstanding. This is similar to having a
person in their adult state talk to a person in their child
state (a cross transaction) by saying "You should...".
The idea of cross transactions can be
extended to the seven Chakra states as well. For example, if a person is in their Crown
Chakra, and taking with a person in their Throat Chakra, it
usually does not go very well.
Why Hierarchies Might be
Fundamental to Understanding the Brain
Consider that the brain is made up of
billions of small neurons. Each neuron or group of neurons has a
small job to do. If that was all there was to it, the neurons
would defend themselves, have their own agendas, and might wall
of themselves from the rest of the brain. A better analogy might be government,
with not only a hierarchy, but different branches, and a balance
of power at the top. The organization usually has a police
department that can keep everyone from hurting each other
managers who can fire employees that do not perform well.
The president or CEO, must have a vision,
a direction for the organization. With this type of reasoning,
the brain must have some top brain cells that make sure the
person is generally doing what is good.
The top brain cells reference a
belief system. This belief system could range from hedonistic to
a true believer. These brain cells might communicate with a
higher power through their imagination. But here imagination is
not taken as making something up, but a channel to a higher
spirit or spirits.
Recommended
books which support many
of my ideas.
Feel free to write me if you have questions or My email address is:
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