Abraham Maslow

Abraham Maslow (April 1, 1908 – June 8, 1970) was an American psychologist. Maslow help found both the Humanistic and [[Existential Psychology|Existential] branches of modern psychology. He studied [[[Peak Experiences]], human needs, and asked question about healthy human development and the establishment of healthy societies.

Notes

Maslow had some interesting things to say about Connection Experience.

In my first investigations … I thought some people had peak-experiences and others did not. But as I gathered information, and as I became more skillful in asking questions, I found that a higher and higher percentage of my subjects began to report peak-experiences.... I finally fell into the habit of expecting everyone to have peak-experiences and of being rather surprised if I ran across somebody who could report none at all. Because of this experience, I finally began to use the word “non-peaker” to describe, not the person who is unable to have peak-experiences, but rather the person who is afraid of them, who suppresses them, who denies them, who turns away from them, or who “forgets” them (Maslow 2012, 340-1).

At first it was our thought that some people simply didn’t have peaks. But, as I said above, we found out later that it’s much more probable that the non-peakers have them but repress or misinterpret them, or-for whatever reason-reject them and therefore don’t use them. Some of the reasons for such rejection so far found are: (1) a strict Marxian attitude, as with Simone de Beauvoir, who was persuaded that this was a weakness, a sickness (also Arthur Koestler). A Marxist should be “tough.” Why Freud rejected his is anybody’s guess: perhaps (2) his 19th-century mechanistic-scientific attitude, perhaps (3) his pessimistic character. Among my various subjects I have found both causes at work sometimes. In others I have found (4) a narrowly rationalistic attitude which I considered a defense against being flooded by emotion, by irrationality, by loss of control, by illogical tenderness, by dangerous femininity, or by the fear of insanity. One sees such attitudes more often in engineers, in mathematicians, in analytic philosophers, in bookkeepers and accountants, and generally in obsessional people (Maslow 1962: emphasis added).

At first it was our thought that some people simply didn’t have peaks. But, as I said above, we found out later that it’s much more probable that the non-peakers have them but repress or misinterpret them, or-for whatever reason-reject them and therefore don’t use them. Some of the reasons for such rejection so far found are: (1) a strict Marxian attitude, as with Simone de Beauvoir, who was persuaded that this was a weakness, a sickness (also Arthur Koestler). A Marxist should be “tough.” Why Freud rejected his is anybody’s guess: perhaps (2) his 19th century mechanistic-scientific attitude, perhaps (3) his pessimistic character. Among my various subjects I have found both causes at work sometimes. In others I have found (4) a narrowly rationalistic attitude which I considered a defense against being flooded by emotion, by irrationality, by loss of control, by illogical tenderness, by dangerous femininity, or by the fear of insanity. One sees such attitudes more often in engineers, in mathematicians, in analytic philosophers, in bookkeepers and accountants, and generally in obsessional people (Maslow 1962: emphasis added).

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