Dear Friends
Thank you for your excellent addition to the original HQR Socratic dialogue http://ow.ly/p1tn in this regard. You have made some extremely valid observations by pointing out that Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is extremely inadequate and simplistic in some respects. However, it is important to recognise the role it has played in helping to set government and NGO policy and also in developing business strategy across the world.
What are the primary areas of concern? Maslow’s 1943 pyramid-of-needs has sometimes been discussed in terms of which needs are 1. intrinsic and; 2. extrinsic. Further, Maslow has also discussed splitting needs into: 1. deficiency needs; and 2. growth needs. As we try to place his original pyramid shaped hierarchy-of-needs on these dichotomies, we find that some of the needs don’t fit clearly at all into one or the other class!
For example, physical needs must be met through external resources, though we use agencies of mind as we work to meet those needs. Similarly, safety needs include things like shelter and clothing, and have an extrinsic basis. But safety is not simply a case of physical provisions. Safety is a psychological state as much as it is a physical reality. We are only as safe as we feel!
Basic belonging needs depend both on other people and the support one may draw from them, ie, they are extrinsic, but also on the sense of being connected to something larger than ones’ self, ie, intrinsic and spiritual!
The hierarchical model, presented as a pyramid in the 93rd HQR image http://ow.ly/p1tn, does not adequately address the inherent dualities in our existence at all…
If we superimpose Maslow’s needs onto the trinity of spirit, mind and body fused spheres (image as shown), we begin to find some conceptual clarity.
Physical needs encompass the entire sphere of body, including overlapping sectors of mind and of spirit influence. Esteem needs, as well as the basic need to know are located in the sphere of mind. Of course, spiritual needs — including our need to understand and to become aware of our connectedness to something larger than ourselves — are located in the sphere of spirit.
Safety needs — our need to believe we are secure in body — are located at the intersection of needs of mind and body. Belonging needs — our need to feel a connection of self to others — are located at the intersection of the needs of body and spirit. Aesthetic needs — needs to experience beauty and transcendence beyond our normal cognitive experience — are located at the intersection of the needs of mind and spirit. Aesthetic needs are not usually considered a part of the hierarchy of needs but considered by Maslow to be part of the trans-physical meta-needs which are activated in self-actualising people…
In this reconceptualisation of Maslow’s Hierarchy-of-Needs we might describe self-actualisation as a state of integration of all of our needs and agencies: spirit, mind and body…
While Maslow suggested that self actualisation was manifest as work-in-progress in two percent of the human population or less, other eminent scientists and thinkers see self actualisation as a drive shared by all sentient beings!
The spirit-mind-body trinity can accommodate both positions if one conceives of self actualising as having both state (mood and character) and trait (awareness or consciousness) components. Thus, though we may generally not be continually self-actualising in a Maslowian sense, we may experience moments of transcendence as we are absorbed in some task we love or as we fully experience a spiritual moment!
The 98th image added to the "E8 Album" within the HQR initiative is of Spirit-Mind-Body Trinity Beyond Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs! Visit here to view the image and to contribute to the Socratic dialogue: http://ow.ly/paC0 The "E8 Album" photos at http://ow.ly/kGJj are visual intersections of Spirituality, Science, Art and Sustainability! Feel free to share them on your FB page by clicking share or you can tag yourself!
The Holistic Quantum Relativity (HQR) Group is on FB http://ow.ly/k5Q1 and on the internet http://ow.ly/7wb6
[ENDS]
We welcome your thoughts, observations and views. To reflect further on this, please respond within Twitter, Linked and Facebook’s ATCA Open and related discussion platform of HQR.
All the best
DK Matai
Chairman and Founder: mi2g.net, ATCA, The Philanthropia, HQR, @G140
To connect directly with:
. DK Matai: http://twitter.com/DKMatai
. Open HQR: http://twitter.com/OpenHQR
. ATCA Open: http://twitter.com/ATCAOpe
. @G140: http://twitter.com/G140
. mi2g: http://twitter.com/intunit
– ATCA, The Philanthropia, mi2g, HQR, @G140 –
This is an "ATCA Open, Philanthropia and HQR Socratic Dialogue."
The "ATCA Open" network on LinkedIn and Facebook is for professionals interested in ATCA’s original global aims, working with ATCA step-by-step across the world, or developing tools supporting ATCA’s objectives to build a better world.
The original ATCA — Asymmetric Threats Contingency Alliance — is a philanthropic expert initiative founded in 2001 to resolve complex global challenges through collective Socratic dialogue and joint executive action to build a wisdom based global economy. Adhering to the doctrine of non-violence, ATCA addresses asymmetric threats and social opportunities arising from climate chaos and the environment; radical poverty and microfinance; geo-politics and energy; organised crime & extremism; advanced technologies — bio, info, nano, robo & AI; demographic skews and resource shortages; pandemics; financial systems and systemic risk; as well as transhumanism and ethics. Present membership of the original ATCA network is by invitation only and has over 5,000 distinguished members from over 120 countries: including 1,000 Parliamentarians; 1,500 Chairmen and CEOs of corporations; 1,000 Heads of NGOs; 750 Directors at Academic Centres of Excellence; 500 Inventors and Original thinkers; as well as 250 Editors-in-Chief of major media.
The Philanthropia, founded in 2005, brings together over 1,000 leading individual and private philanthropists, family offices, foundations, private banks, non-governmental organisations and specialist advisors to address complex global challenges such as countering climate chaos, reducing radical poverty and developing global leadership for the younger generation through the appliance of science and technology, leveraging acumen and finance, as well as encouraging collaboration with a strong commitment to ethics. Philanthropia emphasises multi-faith spiritual values: introspection, healthy living and ecology. Philanthropia Targets: Countering climate chaos and carbon neutrality; Eliminating radical poverty — through micro-credit schemes, empowerment of women and more responsible capitalism; Leadership for the Younger Generation; and Corporate and social responsibility.
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