Human Nature
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Human Nature
Human Nature
Concept Map
Key Terms
- Abraham Maslow
- Eupsychia Key Figures
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- Humanistic Psychology
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Notes
Abraham Maslow
Maslow rejected the idea that human nature could be understood by pointing to the animal kingdom. He felt it was absurd, noting "We can never make meaningful statements about human nature by arguing on the basis of other species’ behavior," noting that when one did this one's view of human nature became entirely dependent upon the animals once chose for comparison. Are chimp, wolf, tiger. Or are we rabbit, squirrel, or dear. It's a dumb "pseudo-Darwinian" approach.[1]
Maslow felt that aspects of human nature, like the trait of selfishness versus the trait of unselfishness, might have social/political roots. He is very clear about this. He said that
Selfishness correlates with emotional insecurity and unselfishness with emotional security, self-actualization, and psychological health in general. Thus, we can say that unselfishness tends to be a phenomenon of inner abundance,or relative basic gratification. Selfishness can be seen as a phenomenon of basic deprivation, inner poverty, and threat-past or present .[2]
Above he is basically saying that neglect of Essential Needs creates selfish people. He may be right. People who have experienced chronic neglect of their essential needs operate in what we call Deficit Mode, a mode of behaviour wherein most of the individual's daily energy goes into meeting unmet needs. Their energy is directed in a "self-ish" direction where everything around them becomes a thing they need to meet their unmet needs.
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Footnotes
- ↑ Maslow, Abraham H. “Is Human Nature Basically Selfish?” In Future Visions: The Unpublished Papers of Abraham Maslow, edited by Edward Hoffman. p. 110. Sage Publications, 1996.
- ↑ Maslow, Abraham H. “Is Human Nature Basically Selfish?” In Future Visions: The Unpublished Papers of Abraham Maslow, edited by Edward Hoffman. p. 108. Sage Publications, 1996.