What do you think?
Rate this book
The Right to Be Human: A Biography of Abraham Maslow
"...a solid history of uniquely American intellectual tradition..."--Kirkus Reviews. "...a fascinating and useful study."--The Los Angeles Times. "...a great deal for those seeking greater insight...."--Psychology Today. "Maslow laid the foundation for the human side of management. All students of and particpants in the human community, especially the management and organization of work, should read this seminal biography."--Warren Bennis. Recognized as one of the greatest influences on contemporary psychology, Abraham Maslow created the seminal concepts of team-decision and management, self-actualization and higher motivation. This edition of the critically acclaimed 1988 classic fully captures the renewed popularity of Maslow's business applications--what they are, what they mean, and why.
377 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1988
8 people are currently reading
280 people want to read
About the author
Edward Hoffman
115 books11 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 9, 2018
A real enjoyable read about the like of humanistic psychology father Abraham Maslow. He, along with Carl Rogers, and a few others shaped psychology toward a more positive, humanistic focus that still resonates today (and in many ways is more amplified).
This book does a great job of detailing the facts and events of Maslow's life, through what appears to be a thorough reading of Maslow's journals and his correspondence and interviews with relevant players. Maslow's ideas are still inspiring today, nearly 50 years after his death!
I didn't give it 5 stars, though, as I felt like the book avoided nearly any critical evaluation of Maslow's career. This is an appreciative inquiry, a good one at it. . . I think the book could have been even better if the final chapter would have provided a more nuanced evaluation of Maslow's life and career. As it is, the book ends with a 2 page epilogue after Maslow's death, without much evaluation.
This book does a great job of detailing the facts and events of Maslow's life, through what appears to be a thorough reading of Maslow's journals and his correspondence and interviews with relevant players. Maslow's ideas are still inspiring today, nearly 50 years after his death!
I didn't give it 5 stars, though, as I felt like the book avoided nearly any critical evaluation of Maslow's career. This is an appreciative inquiry, a good one at it. . . I think the book could have been even better if the final chapter would have provided a more nuanced evaluation of Maslow's life and career. As it is, the book ends with a 2 page epilogue after Maslow's death, without much evaluation.
August 14, 2015
Really enjoyed it and feel Ed Hoffman did justice to such an amazing human being. It lead me to begin the quest of reading Maslow's books which are as one would imagine, mind bending. The establishment of an entirely new approach to psychology based on the self actualized being is brilliant!
April 11, 2018
I LOVED this book.
Perfect ending: "It felt good to be human in his presence. In a disturbed world, he saw light and promise and hope, and he shared these with the rest of us."
AWESOME.
Perfect ending: "It felt good to be human in his presence. In a disturbed world, he saw light and promise and hope, and he shared these with the rest of us."
AWESOME.
August 31, 2024
Very worthwhile.
29 bits I learned by reading the book.
1. Maslow’s Jewish parents came to New York City from Eastern Europe, and he was born in the U.S. in 1908, the first of seven children. His father had a fairly successful barrel-making company but was not much of a presence in his son’s life, although he supported Abraham’s education.
2. Maslow strongly disliked his mother and did not attend her funeral: "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...".
3. While growing up, in addition to reading, Maslow was also into physical fitness, in part as a reaction to antisemitic bullying he suffered. Physics was a favorite subject.
4. Maslow married a first cousin of his, Bertha, in 1928. They had two children, and their marriage lasted till his death, from a second heart attack, in 1970.
5. Much of Maslow’s early work in psychology was in the experimental-behaviorist tradition, including research with primates.
6. After obtaining a PhD in psychology in 1934 from University of Wisconsin, Maslow had difficulty finding a job, partly due to the depression, as well as antisemitic discrimination, and he started studying for a medical degree. However, according to his biographer, Hoffman, “Throughout his life, it was characteristic of Maslow to quit anything that bored him or did not ‘feel right’ for him rather than struggle on in self-conflict.” Maslow recalled, “Violently disinterested year in medical school--no go—although attracted to parts of it. Had to leave medical school, partly due to the huge amount of time required for anatomy course, which bored me—all rote.” Maslow felt that doctors treated patients uncaringly and that medical students were desensitized in order to fit with this approach.
7. After Wisconsin, Maslow started a job at Columbia University working on a project studying the relative importance of nature and nurture. The project leader, E.L. Thorndike, was a pioneer of intelligence testing and a major figure in psychology. He and Maslow soon clashed over Maslow’s independent streak, but Thorndike was very impressed by Maslow’s IQ score of 195; so, he told him, “I dislike your work. I wish you wouldn’t do it, but if I don’t have faith in my intelligence tests, who will? And I’ll assume that if I give you your head [let you do what you think is best], it’ll be best for you and for me—and for the world.”
8. Max Wertheimer (1880-1943), a leading Gestalt psychologist, was a mentor of Maslow. Wertheimer’s views of psych can be seen as similar to those later developed by Positive Psychology. He called on psychology to study the development of positive emotions such as kindness, compassion, and altruism in children, adults, and society generally.
9. Maslow was also influenced by the humanitarian ideas of Erich Fromm (1900-1980), a leading psychologist and social critic who saw economic and social factors as tools for addressing psychological problems. Fromm also did daily self-analysis for personal growth, a practice that Maslow emulated.
10. Kurt Goldstein (1878-1965) was a neuropsychologist whose work with brain trauma victims led to the concept of self-actualization. Goldstein observed that when one part of the brain was damaged, another part took over its role, as humans and other organisms have an innate desire to achieve their potential.
11. In 1938, Maslow spent time living with the Blackfoot Tribe in Canada. Their values were quite different. When Maslow asked them to name some of the wealthier members of their tribe, no one mentioned the person with the highest wealth, because he never shared. “To most Blackfoot Indians, wealth was not important in terms of accumulating property and possessions. Giving it away was what brought one the true status of prestige and security in the tribe.”
12. In Maslow’s early days in psychology, he had followed the view espoused by behaviorists such as John Watson that people are basically identical lumps of clay that can be shaped to have any personality, beliefs, etc. by someone knowledgeable in the tools of behaviorism. However, in raising his two daughters, Maslow saw how they were each unique and, rather than being shaped by their parents, the children were doing the shaping of the parents.
13. Around the same time, Maslow decided to be a patient in psychoanalysis. One issue he hoped to address was his shunning of his mother, who lived in Brooklyn where Maslow was living and teaching. The results of the psychoanalysis are not known, but Maslow’s relationship with his mother was never repaired.
14. Maslow did counselling for his students and others. A case of particular interest was that of a recent graduate who was experiencing a range of physical and mental issues. After graduation, she had wanted to study further but needed to take a job to support her family, most of whom were jobless. She felt she was wasting her life, that her life was meaningless. After Maslow convinced her to take evening classes, her symptoms disappeared. This experience was one factor that led Maslow to focus on meaningfulness as a key human need, as part of self-actualization.
15. A seminal moment occurred shortly after the U.S. entered WWII at the end of 1941. Maslow encountered a patriotic parade in Brooklyn in support of the war effort. Tears began running down his face. He pictured a peace table: “I realized that the rest of my life must be devoted to discovering a psychology for that peace table. That moment changed my whole life.”
16. Maslow’s concept of self-actualization was greatly influenced by two intellectuals whom he greatly admired, the anthropologist Ruth Benedict and the psychologist Max Wertheimer. He wanted to understand what made them so great.
17. Maslow wondered whether his self-actualization concept was too individualistic and self-centered. What about collective actualization? What about helping others? Maslow seemed to feel that self-actualization promoted collective actualization and that self-actualizing people were more prone to help others than were people whose needs were not being met. Furthermore, Maslow wrote that people who advocated authoritarianism were often those who had a “jungle” view of the world, i.e., that the world is full of wild animals who will attack you regardless of how much kindness you show them. Maslow’s experience was that most, not all, people with an authoritarian outlook lacked belonginess and esteem.
18. At Brooklyn College, Maslow designed one of the first (at least in the U.S.) systems for university students to evaluate their lecturers. Maslow enjoyed teaching very much and seemed to be a popular lecturer. He also would try out his developing ideas with his students, e.g., he asked them to describe people whom they felt were self-actualized.
19. Here are some of Maslow’s thoughts about doing research: “I consider it quite scientific to work with vague, doing the best we can in the face of complex problems … The true scientist lives in the land of possibility, the land of questioning rather than the land of final and complete answers. He [sic] is not content to rest on the accomplishments of his predecessors … The true scientist continually tries to extend the areas of knowledge, and therefore … works primarily with questions rather than with answers.”
20. On self-actualization, Maslow’s question changed from discovering what makes self-actualized people special to why can’t everyone be self-actualized? Why can’t we all realize our vast potential? Self-actualizing brings happiness to individuals and brings gifts to the rest of the world.
21. Self-actualizing can be done in whatever a person is doing; it needn’t involve the creative arts. People can be creative parents, shoe sellers, cooks, etc.
22. In the 1960s, Maslow’s work became popular in the wider society. In particular, people in the “counterculture” espoused some of his ideas, including Abbie Hoffman, who had been an undergraduate student of Maslow’s at Brandeis. However, Maslow disagreed with many counterculture ideas and called for a return to traditional values and away from cynicism, selfishness, nihilism, and Marxism, as well as the use of drugs to achieve peak experiences. Politically, Maslow was more of a centrist, while many of his colleagues and students were more radical.
23. Maslow talked about B values (B = being). These values include:
• 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 (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; 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).
24. Maslow was elected as president of the American Psychological Association, but he felt that traditional science was inadequate to the task of understanding individuals and societies. Instead, Maslow felt psychologists should embrace the mystical: “I have got more ‘poetical’ experiences from my own and others’ researches than I have from poetry. I have got more ‘religious’ experiences from reading scientific journals than I have from reading ‘sacred books’ … Not only does science begin in wonder, it also ends in wonder.”
25. I (George) feel that behaviorists are too often stereotyped one-sidedly as mechanical and unfeeling, even though I agree with the overall critique of behaviorism. Thus, I like this note sent to Maslow by B.F. Skinner, perhaps the best-known behaviorist.
“I suppose I am a neo-behaviorist, and to some extent, a positivist psychologist, and I certainly do not feel … that values and the life of values are none of my professed concern. I do not renounce all consideration of poetry and art or even religious and transcendent experiences. I do want to find something in all of these which goes beyond experience, however, and I would hold that experience is a by-product or epiphenomenon.
So far as I can tell, [Skinner continued] I have had many peak experiences and they have not decreased as I have become rational or materialistic .. I do not feel that I am more at home with the cognitive than with the emotional, impulsive, or volitional, as you imply … You ought to get to know a behaviorist better!”
26. In 1967 (he died in 1970), Maslow was feeling tired and harried, at the same time, he felt an urgent need to address the world’s problems, such as human aggression against others. Psychology finding a path to world betterment was more important than curing cancer. Maslow’s devotion to this urgent task left him little time for relaxation and enjoyment.
27. While recovering from his first heart attack, Maslow spent time in a hospital. He used some of that time understanding why nurses chose such a demanding, poorly paid profession. Part of the answer was that they greatly welcomed the gratitude they received from patients and their families. Correspondingly, they felt hurt when gratitude was not expressed.
28. Maslow died (apparently almost immediately) of a massive heart attack at age 62 while doing light exercise at his home. Hoffman’s biography ends with a glossary of terms important to Maslow’s thinking, a list of Maslow’s publications, a list of publications about Maslow, and notes from each of the book’s chapters.
29. Maslow’s hierarchy has been criticized for cultural bias, oversimplification of human motivation, lack of empirical evidence, and the assumption that needs are linear and hierarchical in nature.
29 bits I learned by reading the book.
1. Maslow’s Jewish parents came to New York City from Eastern Europe, and he was born in the U.S. in 1908, the first of seven children. His father had a fairly successful barrel-making company but was not much of a presence in his son’s life, although he supported Abraham’s education.
2. Maslow strongly disliked his mother and did not attend her funeral: "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...".
3. While growing up, in addition to reading, Maslow was also into physical fitness, in part as a reaction to antisemitic bullying he suffered. Physics was a favorite subject.
4. Maslow married a first cousin of his, Bertha, in 1928. They had two children, and their marriage lasted till his death, from a second heart attack, in 1970.
5. Much of Maslow’s early work in psychology was in the experimental-behaviorist tradition, including research with primates.
6. After obtaining a PhD in psychology in 1934 from University of Wisconsin, Maslow had difficulty finding a job, partly due to the depression, as well as antisemitic discrimination, and he started studying for a medical degree. However, according to his biographer, Hoffman, “Throughout his life, it was characteristic of Maslow to quit anything that bored him or did not ‘feel right’ for him rather than struggle on in self-conflict.” Maslow recalled, “Violently disinterested year in medical school--no go—although attracted to parts of it. Had to leave medical school, partly due to the huge amount of time required for anatomy course, which bored me—all rote.” Maslow felt that doctors treated patients uncaringly and that medical students were desensitized in order to fit with this approach.
7. After Wisconsin, Maslow started a job at Columbia University working on a project studying the relative importance of nature and nurture. The project leader, E.L. Thorndike, was a pioneer of intelligence testing and a major figure in psychology. He and Maslow soon clashed over Maslow’s independent streak, but Thorndike was very impressed by Maslow’s IQ score of 195; so, he told him, “I dislike your work. I wish you wouldn’t do it, but if I don’t have faith in my intelligence tests, who will? And I’ll assume that if I give you your head [let you do what you think is best], it’ll be best for you and for me—and for the world.”
8. Max Wertheimer (1880-1943), a leading Gestalt psychologist, was a mentor of Maslow. Wertheimer’s views of psych can be seen as similar to those later developed by Positive Psychology. He called on psychology to study the development of positive emotions such as kindness, compassion, and altruism in children, adults, and society generally.
9. Maslow was also influenced by the humanitarian ideas of Erich Fromm (1900-1980), a leading psychologist and social critic who saw economic and social factors as tools for addressing psychological problems. Fromm also did daily self-analysis for personal growth, a practice that Maslow emulated.
10. Kurt Goldstein (1878-1965) was a neuropsychologist whose work with brain trauma victims led to the concept of self-actualization. Goldstein observed that when one part of the brain was damaged, another part took over its role, as humans and other organisms have an innate desire to achieve their potential.
11. In 1938, Maslow spent time living with the Blackfoot Tribe in Canada. Their values were quite different. When Maslow asked them to name some of the wealthier members of their tribe, no one mentioned the person with the highest wealth, because he never shared. “To most Blackfoot Indians, wealth was not important in terms of accumulating property and possessions. Giving it away was what brought one the true status of prestige and security in the tribe.”
12. In Maslow’s early days in psychology, he had followed the view espoused by behaviorists such as John Watson that people are basically identical lumps of clay that can be shaped to have any personality, beliefs, etc. by someone knowledgeable in the tools of behaviorism. However, in raising his two daughters, Maslow saw how they were each unique and, rather than being shaped by their parents, the children were doing the shaping of the parents.
13. Around the same time, Maslow decided to be a patient in psychoanalysis. One issue he hoped to address was his shunning of his mother, who lived in Brooklyn where Maslow was living and teaching. The results of the psychoanalysis are not known, but Maslow’s relationship with his mother was never repaired.
14. Maslow did counselling for his students and others. A case of particular interest was that of a recent graduate who was experiencing a range of physical and mental issues. After graduation, she had wanted to study further but needed to take a job to support her family, most of whom were jobless. She felt she was wasting her life, that her life was meaningless. After Maslow convinced her to take evening classes, her symptoms disappeared. This experience was one factor that led Maslow to focus on meaningfulness as a key human need, as part of self-actualization.
15. A seminal moment occurred shortly after the U.S. entered WWII at the end of 1941. Maslow encountered a patriotic parade in Brooklyn in support of the war effort. Tears began running down his face. He pictured a peace table: “I realized that the rest of my life must be devoted to discovering a psychology for that peace table. That moment changed my whole life.”
16. Maslow’s concept of self-actualization was greatly influenced by two intellectuals whom he greatly admired, the anthropologist Ruth Benedict and the psychologist Max Wertheimer. He wanted to understand what made them so great.
17. Maslow wondered whether his self-actualization concept was too individualistic and self-centered. What about collective actualization? What about helping others? Maslow seemed to feel that self-actualization promoted collective actualization and that self-actualizing people were more prone to help others than were people whose needs were not being met. Furthermore, Maslow wrote that people who advocated authoritarianism were often those who had a “jungle” view of the world, i.e., that the world is full of wild animals who will attack you regardless of how much kindness you show them. Maslow’s experience was that most, not all, people with an authoritarian outlook lacked belonginess and esteem.
18. At Brooklyn College, Maslow designed one of the first (at least in the U.S.) systems for university students to evaluate their lecturers. Maslow enjoyed teaching very much and seemed to be a popular lecturer. He also would try out his developing ideas with his students, e.g., he asked them to describe people whom they felt were self-actualized.
19. Here are some of Maslow’s thoughts about doing research: “I consider it quite scientific to work with vague, doing the best we can in the face of complex problems … The true scientist lives in the land of possibility, the land of questioning rather than the land of final and complete answers. He [sic] is not content to rest on the accomplishments of his predecessors … The true scientist continually tries to extend the areas of knowledge, and therefore … works primarily with questions rather than with answers.”
20. On self-actualization, Maslow’s question changed from discovering what makes self-actualized people special to why can’t everyone be self-actualized? Why can’t we all realize our vast potential? Self-actualizing brings happiness to individuals and brings gifts to the rest of the world.
21. Self-actualizing can be done in whatever a person is doing; it needn’t involve the creative arts. People can be creative parents, shoe sellers, cooks, etc.
22. In the 1960s, Maslow’s work became popular in the wider society. In particular, people in the “counterculture” espoused some of his ideas, including Abbie Hoffman, who had been an undergraduate student of Maslow’s at Brandeis. However, Maslow disagreed with many counterculture ideas and called for a return to traditional values and away from cynicism, selfishness, nihilism, and Marxism, as well as the use of drugs to achieve peak experiences. Politically, Maslow was more of a centrist, while many of his colleagues and students were more radical.
23. Maslow talked about B values (B = being). These values include:
• 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 (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; 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).
24. Maslow was elected as president of the American Psychological Association, but he felt that traditional science was inadequate to the task of understanding individuals and societies. Instead, Maslow felt psychologists should embrace the mystical: “I have got more ‘poetical’ experiences from my own and others’ researches than I have from poetry. I have got more ‘religious’ experiences from reading scientific journals than I have from reading ‘sacred books’ … Not only does science begin in wonder, it also ends in wonder.”
25. I (George) feel that behaviorists are too often stereotyped one-sidedly as mechanical and unfeeling, even though I agree with the overall critique of behaviorism. Thus, I like this note sent to Maslow by B.F. Skinner, perhaps the best-known behaviorist.
“I suppose I am a neo-behaviorist, and to some extent, a positivist psychologist, and I certainly do not feel … that values and the life of values are none of my professed concern. I do not renounce all consideration of poetry and art or even religious and transcendent experiences. I do want to find something in all of these which goes beyond experience, however, and I would hold that experience is a by-product or epiphenomenon.
So far as I can tell, [Skinner continued] I have had many peak experiences and they have not decreased as I have become rational or materialistic .. I do not feel that I am more at home with the cognitive than with the emotional, impulsive, or volitional, as you imply … You ought to get to know a behaviorist better!”
26. In 1967 (he died in 1970), Maslow was feeling tired and harried, at the same time, he felt an urgent need to address the world’s problems, such as human aggression against others. Psychology finding a path to world betterment was more important than curing cancer. Maslow’s devotion to this urgent task left him little time for relaxation and enjoyment.
27. While recovering from his first heart attack, Maslow spent time in a hospital. He used some of that time understanding why nurses chose such a demanding, poorly paid profession. Part of the answer was that they greatly welcomed the gratitude they received from patients and their families. Correspondingly, they felt hurt when gratitude was not expressed.
28. Maslow died (apparently almost immediately) of a massive heart attack at age 62 while doing light exercise at his home. Hoffman’s biography ends with a glossary of terms important to Maslow’s thinking, a list of Maslow’s publications, a list of publications about Maslow, and notes from each of the book’s chapters.
29. Maslow’s hierarchy has been criticized for cultural bias, oversimplification of human motivation, lack of empirical evidence, and the assumption that needs are linear and hierarchical in nature.
February 6, 2013
I like to read the occasional biography, and this is a pretty good one. I've long admired Maslow as one of the leaders of the humanist movement in psychology. He is well known for his hierarchy of needs, his theories of self actualization, and his exploration of peak experience. There were a lot of things I didn't know, such as his field work with the Blackfoot nation in 1938, his extreme difficulty breaking into academia due to antisemitism, and his keen interest in studying all branches of psychology. I didn't know that he started out as a strict atheist and grew into an appreciation of mystic and transcendent experience. And I appreciate his struggles as much as his triumphs.
August 4, 2024
A MARVELOUS AND ENLIGHTENING BIOGRAPHY OF THIS SEMINAL FIGURE
Edward Hoffman is a clinical psychologist who has written other books such as 'The Man Who Dreamed of Tomorrow: A Conceptual Biography of Wilhelm Reich,' 'The Way of Splendor: Jewish Mysticism and Modern Psychology,' etc.
He wrote in the Preface to this 1988 book, "Initially, my goal was simply to tell the story of Maslow's life and career in American psychology: to trace his early interests and training, his mentors and influences, and his seminal achievements in the science of human personality and motivation... But now, five years after I began this challenging project, my objectives have widened... Maslow's ideas have been badly distorted in their inevitable popularizations and retellings... [he] has been attacked as an enemy of reason and community, a panderer to narcissism. I hope to set the record straight..." (Pg. xvi-xvii)
He points out, "To those who associate Maslow' name solely with the humanistic writing that marked his later career, it may seem surprising that he was initially impressed with laboratory experimentalism as the path to psychological knowledge. But it would be a serious mistake to dismiss his early training as irrelevant to his seminal studies of the hierarchy of needs, self-actualization, and peak-experiences." (Pg. 40)
He observes, "Maslow centered his theory of motivation on what he called the hierarchy of human needs. In essence, he contended that every person is born with a set of basic needs encompassing the physiological and including the needs for safety, belongingness or love, and self-esteem... he argued that these basic needs can be seen as making up an unfolding hierarchy... Finally, Maslow outlined the existence of another inborn human need---the need for individual fulfillment, or what he preferred to call self-actualization." (Pg. 154-155)
He argues, "Maslow was challenging the fundamental premise of modern psychology: that we can devise accurate theories about human nature by studying the mentally ill or the statistically average... Maslow suggested that although self-actualizing people are not emotionally flawless, they can serve as exemplars in the values by which they lead their lives... Maslow felt sure that he was intuitively correct and that new research methods would eventually validate his ideas." (Pg. 186-188)
In a 1956 paper on peak experiences, "He described nearly twenty common features of the peak-experience, which he associated with extreme inner health... polar opposites, like good and evil, free will and destiny, seemed transcended in such instants; everything in the cosmos was connected to everything else in a unity of splendor... Maslow noted that peak-experiences often leave profound and transformative effects in their wake..." (Pg. 226)
He notes, "Not surprisingly, Maslow's long-standing disdain for religion initially made him uneasy in the company of clergy and religionists who flocked to his lectures on peak-experiences and the B-values. It was strange to him to speak in churches, but the admiration he felt from the audiences... was very real... Although he never abandoned his own atheistic contempt for ritual observance, such conversations convinced him that his unpleasant childhood experience of Judaism had blinded him to the wisdom within it and the world's other great religions, especially their views of human nature." (Pg. 264-265) Later, Hoffman adds, "While still an atheist, he therefore stressed a kind of naturalistic mysticism, denying the traditional trappings of religion such as an afterlife, a personal God, and a divine order. For Maslow, none of these is necessary to be religious..." (Pg. 277)
This biography will be of immense help to anyone studying Maslow, humanistic psychology, or transpersonal psychology.
Edward Hoffman is a clinical psychologist who has written other books such as 'The Man Who Dreamed of Tomorrow: A Conceptual Biography of Wilhelm Reich,' 'The Way of Splendor: Jewish Mysticism and Modern Psychology,' etc.
He wrote in the Preface to this 1988 book, "Initially, my goal was simply to tell the story of Maslow's life and career in American psychology: to trace his early interests and training, his mentors and influences, and his seminal achievements in the science of human personality and motivation... But now, five years after I began this challenging project, my objectives have widened... Maslow's ideas have been badly distorted in their inevitable popularizations and retellings... [he] has been attacked as an enemy of reason and community, a panderer to narcissism. I hope to set the record straight..." (Pg. xvi-xvii)
He points out, "To those who associate Maslow' name solely with the humanistic writing that marked his later career, it may seem surprising that he was initially impressed with laboratory experimentalism as the path to psychological knowledge. But it would be a serious mistake to dismiss his early training as irrelevant to his seminal studies of the hierarchy of needs, self-actualization, and peak-experiences." (Pg. 40)
He observes, "Maslow centered his theory of motivation on what he called the hierarchy of human needs. In essence, he contended that every person is born with a set of basic needs encompassing the physiological and including the needs for safety, belongingness or love, and self-esteem... he argued that these basic needs can be seen as making up an unfolding hierarchy... Finally, Maslow outlined the existence of another inborn human need---the need for individual fulfillment, or what he preferred to call self-actualization." (Pg. 154-155)
He argues, "Maslow was challenging the fundamental premise of modern psychology: that we can devise accurate theories about human nature by studying the mentally ill or the statistically average... Maslow suggested that although self-actualizing people are not emotionally flawless, they can serve as exemplars in the values by which they lead their lives... Maslow felt sure that he was intuitively correct and that new research methods would eventually validate his ideas." (Pg. 186-188)
In a 1956 paper on peak experiences, "He described nearly twenty common features of the peak-experience, which he associated with extreme inner health... polar opposites, like good and evil, free will and destiny, seemed transcended in such instants; everything in the cosmos was connected to everything else in a unity of splendor... Maslow noted that peak-experiences often leave profound and transformative effects in their wake..." (Pg. 226)
He notes, "Not surprisingly, Maslow's long-standing disdain for religion initially made him uneasy in the company of clergy and religionists who flocked to his lectures on peak-experiences and the B-values. It was strange to him to speak in churches, but the admiration he felt from the audiences... was very real... Although he never abandoned his own atheistic contempt for ritual observance, such conversations convinced him that his unpleasant childhood experience of Judaism had blinded him to the wisdom within it and the world's other great religions, especially their views of human nature." (Pg. 264-265) Later, Hoffman adds, "While still an atheist, he therefore stressed a kind of naturalistic mysticism, denying the traditional trappings of religion such as an afterlife, a personal God, and a divine order. For Maslow, none of these is necessary to be religious..." (Pg. 277)
This biography will be of immense help to anyone studying Maslow, humanistic psychology, or transpersonal psychology.
June 30, 2021
Maslow was born into a family of Russian Jews that immigrated to New York. His mother was extremely cruel to him, even killing his pet kittens. As a boy, he was extremely intelligent and precocious, but felt emotionally isolated.
He wanted to find a grand unifying theory for the psychology of human motivation. His initial breakthrough came by studying monkeys having sex. His research confirmed what Oscar Wilde already knew: sex is about power.
He then did some research on an indigenous tribe in Alberta. He found a lot of admirable values in their culture. Unfortunately, when he revisited a few decades later, alcoholism was rampant.
Maslow became famous by publishing his theory on the hierarchy of needs. But that didn’t make him rich, although it made him a bit more pompous. He was a teacher for most of his adult life.
Maslow was loved by his inner city students when he was an up and coming psychologist in New York. But by the late 1960s, his conservative stance on communism in Vietnam did not sit very well with students at liberal universities. Nonetheless, he found happiness with his family and watching children and grandchildren develop.
He wanted to find a grand unifying theory for the psychology of human motivation. His initial breakthrough came by studying monkeys having sex. His research confirmed what Oscar Wilde already knew: sex is about power.
He then did some research on an indigenous tribe in Alberta. He found a lot of admirable values in their culture. Unfortunately, when he revisited a few decades later, alcoholism was rampant.
Maslow became famous by publishing his theory on the hierarchy of needs. But that didn’t make him rich, although it made him a bit more pompous. He was a teacher for most of his adult life.
Maslow was loved by his inner city students when he was an up and coming psychologist in New York. But by the late 1960s, his conservative stance on communism in Vietnam did not sit very well with students at liberal universities. Nonetheless, he found happiness with his family and watching children and grandchildren develop.
April 8, 2018
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I have been a fan of Abraham Maslow since Psych 101 in college.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews