Sublime

Reading Maslow is like putting on a new pair of glasses that allow you to see people more clearly. He says, “Although human beings are capable of being selfish, lustful, and aggressive, that is not what they are fundamentally. Beneath the surface, at the psychological and biological core of human nature, we find basic goodness and decency. When peo

In a paper entitled ‘A Theory of Human Motivation’ published in Psychological Review in 1943, Maslow arranged our longings and appetites in a pyramid-shaped continuum, ranging from what he called the lower needs, largely focused on the body, to the higher needs, largely focused on the psyche and encompassing such elements as the need for status, re

In 1943, the psychologist Abraham Maslow published his hugely influential paper “A Theory of Human Motivation,” which famously described people as having a hierarchy of needs. It is often depicted as a pyramid. At the bottom are our basic needs—the essentials of physiological survival (such as food, water, and air) and of safety (such as law, order

Maslow is best known for defining the “hierarchy of needs,” which describes how human desires evolve as more primary needs are met.

Maslow maintained that human motivation had deeper causes and a loftier purpose. Our highest need—indeed, what makes us human—was what he called self-actualization, the yearning to engage our talents and realize our potential.