Why “Being Your Best Self” Is Terrible Advice
Our loved ones aren’t stepping stones on the road to self-actualisation
In the 1930s, Abraham Maslow, then still in his 20s, was struggling with his attempt to explain human motivation. In the summer of 1938, Maslow accepted an invitation from his friend, the anthropologist Lucien Hanks, to assist with Lucien’s research on the Siksika Nation in Alberta, Canada.
Abraham Maslow spent six weeks with the Siksika (also known as the Blackfoot) that summer. The trip appears to have been fruitful for Maslow, who gained inspiration from Blackfoot worldviews in developing his hierarchy of needs.
Five years after this trip, in 1943, Maslow published his influential paper “A Theory of Human Motivation”, introducing his “hierarchy of needs” (the HON). The work remains one of the most cited in psychology. Yet, it remains highly misunderstood and, thus, mischaracterised.
A Brief Description of the Hierarchy of Needs
Outside psychology, Maslow’s HON is a familiar tool for marketing professionals. Marketers commonly visualise the HON as a pyramid.
The bottom three steps of the pyramid are considered to be “deficit needs”. Deprivation of these things leads to unhappiness.
