Abraham Maslow is (imnho) the inspirational founder of the modern Positive Psychology movement, choosing to focus on lifting normal folks from a 6 to an 8, rather than fixing broken folks with ineffective therapies.
He never used a pyramid to illustrate his Hierarchy of Needs, he would likely be unhappy at the “oversimplification” of his more nuanced path.
Some unknown textbook writer in the 60’s came up with the pyramid to translate Maslow’s ideas into a simple visual form for students and business/management audiences. Much respect to that Unknown, as it elegantly depicted the ideas and fit them with our cultural intuition about hierarchies. And it certainly had legs, as all these decades later, few folks are aware of this irony of history.
Best known for his seminal works –
- A Theory of Human Motivation (1943): Originally an influential paper published in Psychological Review, it first introduced his famous hierarchy of needs concept.
- Motivation and Personality (1954): [Here’s a summary of the book at the excellent Heroic website] His core comprehensive text detailing human motivation, psychological health, and the foundational hierarchy theory.
- Toward a Psychology of Being (1962): Expands into humanistic psychology, focusing on self-actualization, peak experiences, and human potential.
- Religions, Values, and Peak-Experiences (1964): Explores spiritual and transcendental experiences from a scientific and psychological viewpoint.
- The Psychology of Science (1966): Examines how traditional science is framed and advocates for a more human-centered approach to inquiry.
- Maslow on Management (1965 / Later editions): Later compiled and updated as The Maslow Business Reader, applying his psychological framework to workplace leadership and eupsychian management.
- The Farther Reaches of Human Nature (1971): Published posthumously, gathering his final essays on transpersonal psychology, creativity, and societal structures.
- Future Visions (click here for a seemingly working, free, great precis by Brian at Heroic) – (1988) The Unpublished Papers of Abraham Maslow – by Dr. Edward Hoffman, currently selling on Bezos’ Basement for £100+!!!
Also renowned for developing the theory of “self-actualization” (“What one can be, one must be!”), Maslow developed this concept by studying what he considered exceptionally healthy, high-functioning people, rather than starting from clinical case studies of dysfunction, or broken folks, which was the norm in psychology at the time, he picked a mix of “Upward Achieving Outliers”, historical figures, contemporaries, and people he personally knew.
Famous Folks he analysed (mostly through biography):
- Abraham Lincoln (particularly his later years)
- Thomas Jefferson
- Albert Einstein
- Eleanor Roosevelt
- Jane Addams (social reformer, Nobel Peace Prize winner)
- William James (the philosopher/psychologist)
- Baruch Spinoza
- Aldous Huxley
Folks he knew personally:
His mentor Ruth Benedict (anthropologist) and his teacher Max Wertheimer (a founder of Gestalt psychology). Maslow said watching these two in daily life was actually part of what sparked his interest in self-actualization as a concept, he wanted to understand what made them different from most people around them.