Farther Reaches of Need Theory

Abraham Maslow developed his hierarchy of needs alongside of, and with direct reference to, Erich Fromm’s work on existential needs, and both thinkers are key figures in the school of ‘humanistic psychology’. Maslow documents other sources for his theory as well: the functionalist tradition of Dewey and James; the holism of Wertheimer, who saw man as a creature who strives ‘to see rather than be blind’; the concept of self-actualisation as developed by Kurt Goldstein; the homeostatic theory of Canon who, in his Wisdom of the Body , postulated an innate disposition of the organism to seek what it needs — for example, minerals, protein, vitamins, etc.; the work of Adler, Horney, etc., on self-esteem needs; Gestalt theory; and the dynamic psychology of Freud (‘A theory of human motivation’, 1943, p. 371). Maslow sees a common denominator in this diverse body of literature in the concept of self-actualisation, ‘the tendency to growth or self-actualization, in one vague form or another, has been postulated by thinkers as diverse as Aristotle and Bergson, and by many other philosophers’, he observes. ‘Among psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, and psychologists it has been found necessary by Goldstein, Rank, Jung, Horney, Fromm, Rogers, May and Maslow’ (‘The instinctoid nature of basic needs’, 1954 a , p. 327). Maslow claims that he was also influenced by Hartmann’s definition of the ‘good’ as ‘the degree to which an object fulfils its definition or concept’. And it is probable that the basis for his theory of prepotency is to be found in Erich Fromm’s argument that ‘after [man] has satisfied his animal needs, he is driven by his human needs’ ( The Sane Society , 1955 b , p. 28).