Sorry Dr Maslow, I think you got it wrong
Author: Graham Hunt

Sorry Dr Maslow, I think you got it wrong....

In the 1950s Abraham Maslow wrote a book entitled Motivation and Personality in which he outlined his now famous 'Hierarchy of Needs.'

Over the years since then Maslow's Hierarchy has gained wide acceptance as a tool in understanding motivation. Maslow rightly holds a place of high regard in many circles.

However, I believe, when it comes to Self-Esteem, Maslow got it wrong...at least where he places Self-Esteem within his Hierarchy.

According to Maslow, the order of the Hierarchy of Needs ran in the following ascending order
basic survival needs,
safety and security needs
relationship needs
Self-Esteem
self-actualisation.

Diagramatically, Maslow's Hiearchy is represented by a triangle with 5 'layers' reading from the base to the apex.

I want to suggest a change.

I would rather place the need for Self-Esteem at the very base of the hierarchy, even before the basic physiological needs of food and water.

Why?

I firmly believe that unless the self-esteem needs of people are met there is a strong chance they may arrive at the point where they ignore their need for the basic necessities of life.

Take, for example, a person suffering from one of the eating disorders that affect some young people. I suggest the basic problem stems from the fact that those people do not an appropriate level of Self-Esteem. They feel the need to be something other than who they are in order to be more acceptable.

Depression is another example. People suffering this terrible condition often draw back from their interactions with other people and thereby ignore their relationship needs. But even more basic than that, they might also become oblivious to the dangers associated with situations into which they put themselves; like walking across busy roadways without considering oncoming traffic etc.
As a result their safety needs don't get taken into consideration.

Again I suggest some, not necessarily all, of the underlying causes of depression relate to the person's level of Self-Esteem.

I would even go so far as to say Self-Esteem needs that go unfulfilled form the basis of the majority of problems people in our modern western world face in life today

So, if your life has not turned out the way you had hoped;
if the worldly success coming your way leaves you unfulfilled;
if you look to the future with disillusion because you can only look back at the past in disappointment;
if life means endurance rather than enjoyment...
there is every likelihood the underlying issue relates to your need for higher levels of Self-Esteem.

Big call. Yes I know.

And if you think I overstepped the mark in my revision of Maslow's Hierarchy,
I admit to working from a different understanding of Self-Esteem from Maslow.

Maslow understood Self-Esteem as "strength, achievement, competency and mastery,
confidence in the face of the world, the desire for reputation and prestige,
status, fame and glory, dominance, recognition"

My understanding of Self-Esteem came from reading the writings of people whose
reseach into Self-Esteem has continued for the half a century since Maslow's ground-breaking work. In that time, as you might expect, constant
work has led to a certain amount of refinement and development of Maslow's original
concepts.

For me, Self-Esteem relates to the belief that you have the capacity to achieve
whatever you consider worthwhile and the sense of being worthy to benefit from the
results produced by those efforts.







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Graham Hunt is founder of Prentis Carpenter Center, an organisation developed to resource an environment where people, who so desire, can discover and fulfill their potential. Graham lives and works from his home in Murray Bridge South Australia.

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