When I was younger, I was intrigued by Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. In his 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation,” he asserted that as humans, we are motivated by a set of five needs, in order of importance. We only get motivated by the next level need if the one before is satisfied. The five needs, in their chronological order, are “physiological”, “safety”, “belonging and love”, “esteem”, “self-actualization”, and “self-transcendence.” The goal of Maslow’s Theory is to attain this top level. I have also read somewhere that at a later stage in his life, Maslow extended the idea to include “innate curiosity”, but I think the original idea is still powerful and complete.
I have also read online, which I wasn’t aware before, that Maslow studied what he called ‘exemplary people’ rather than mentally ill or neurotic people, believing that “the study of crippled, stunted, immature, and unhealthy specimens can yield only a cripple psychology and a cripple philosophy.” Maslow studied the healthiest 1% of the college student population [5].
This hierarchy of needs always impressed me, and made me think that it well described how ‘we’ (the healthy individual, apparently) get motivated to do what we do. So for example, why in a younger age I obsessed about a financially secure position so I could buy a house, in an area I will feel safe in, and then my focus was about getting friends that I love hanging around with, followed by a partner I would like to raise a family with, then a career that will justify all the long and difficult University years and make me appreciate who and what I am and have achieved (and yes, I am one of those that think that they pay you for how much they think you are worth, sorry), which in more recent years lead me to focus on having children and realising myself as an adult who is mature and round enough of personality to accompany another human being into this world. Still stuck on that one I’m afraid, but ‘self transcendence’ as a next stop is about the only positive thing I can imagine to look forward to as I get older.
Saying that, I think Maslow had one major oversight. The modern Western world. The world where everything we need is there for the taking, we just need to have a little bit of motivation, focus and self control to reach for it. What I think Maslow is missing in this context, is a motivational need that is entwined in all other five. And that is boredom.
Yes, boredom. Think about this. You are sitting in your nice comfortable house, heated or cooled as you wish, all your basic needs catered for, from running clear water, clean toilets, light, and an ultra HD 55” TV. What happens at that stage? Yes, you may be looking for a job, maybe a partner to live with, perhaps even get pregnant, but all of these thoughts are almost secondary. In that island of yours, your living room, you will probably do and say things that will not promote you in any way, or make your life more complete. You will do them just because there is a vacuum. Because you can. Perhaps a radical example is couples splitting up because one of them decided to hook up with an old Facebook friend they just reconnected with. Perhaps selling your car for a new one you don’t really need or want, but hey, it’s something to do. Perhaps it is allowing yourself to ponder back about your life and all the things you should or could have done, ‘if you only knew that…’ and then feel sorry for the choices you made. Perhaps it is why some people focus on themselves and obsess about their health niggles, and how they are scared, depressed, weak, unable, to live this life to the full.
Would Maslow agree? Probably not. I guess him dealing with the cream of society did not include the rest of us. But I think, maybe the whole reason he came up with this hierarchy is because there was nothing good on the telly.
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Examined Life 101 