Accidental revolution

Abraham Maslow's role as a revolutionary was accidental (Cox, 1987)—and the dismissal of his ideas may have been premature (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Wilber, 2000). Maslow initially attempted to synthesize Freudian and behaviorist models of human development. Instead, his theories of human motivation and self-actualization presented "a positive model of human experience" (Cox, 1987) that created a revolutionary "third force psychology" (1968, p. iii) that overthrew the mechanist perspective that had dominated psychology in the first half of the 20th century.

Maslow rejected the "first force" Skinnerian view of humans as passive pawns of their environment to stress the "profoundly holistic nature" of the human being (1987, p. xvii). Maslow's "holistic-dynamic" perspective saw the human as a purposeful organism that dynamically controls and reacts to situations to progress toward potential. Maslow also proposed to build on the "Second Force" Freudian perspective, which "supplied to us the sick half of psychology" (1968, p. 5) and "captured humanity's dark side, that part of our animal heritage" (Rogers, 1995, p.xii). The Third Force would provide a "health psychology" that explored the "higher levels of human nature" (Maslow, 1987, p. xviii) to develop methods for helping people make their lives better, control themselves, and freely develop toward their potential (1968, p. 5).

Maslow’s (1943) early statement of motivation theory proposed a "hierarchy of relative prepotency" through which people advance as they satisfy "deficiency" needs. Deficiency needs are lower-order needs that are driven by the absence of something. The need for nourishment will consume an individual who lacks food. As Maslow described, "Man lives by bread alone--when there is no bread. But what happens to man's desires when there is plenty of bread and when his belly is chronically filled" (p. 375)?

Maslow answered that once an individual has satisfied physiological needs, he or she becomes consumed by satisfying safety needs. Once an individual is secure, he or she becomes driven to satisfy belongings or love needs. The individual who lacks self-esteem becomes consumed by proving his or her worth. Once the individual satisfies the lower-order needs, he or she is no longer driven by deficiency but by a desire to grow toward the potential to satisfy self-actualization needs.