260 Part III Humanistic/Existential Theories
and sexual behavior of monkeys suggested that social dominance was a more
powerful motive than sex, at least among primates (Blum, 2002).
In 1934, Maslow received his doctorate, but he could not find an academic
position, partly because of the Great Depression and partly because of an anti-
Semitic prejudice still strong on many American campuses in those years. Conse-
quently, he continued to teach at Wisconsin for a short time and even enrolled in
medical school there. However, he was repulsed by the cold and dispassionate
attitude of surgeons who could cut off diseased body parts with no discernible
emotion. To Maslow, medical school—like law school—reflected an unemotional
and negative view of people, and he was both disturbed and bored by his experi-
ences in medical school. When Maslow became bored with something, he usually
quit it, and medical school was no exception (Hoffman, 1988).
The following year he returned to New York to become E. L. Thorndike’s
research assistant at Teachers College, Columbia University. Maslow, a mediocre
student during his days at City College and Cornell, scored 195 on Thorndike’s
intelligence test, prompting Thorndike to give his assistant free rein to do as he
wished. Maslow’s fertile mind thrived in this situation; but after a year and a half
of doing research on human dominance and sexuality, he left Columbia to join the
faculty of Brooklyn College, a newly established school whose students were
mostly bright, young adolescents from working-class homes, much like Maslow
himself 10 years earlier (Hoffman, 1988).
Living in New York during the 1930s and 1940s afforded Maslow an opportu-
nity to come into contact with many of the European psychologists who had escaped
Nazi rule. In fact, Maslow surmised that, of all the people who had ever lived, he had
the best teachers (Goble, 1970). Among others, he met and learned from Erich Fromm,
Karen Horney, Max Wertheimer, and Kurt Goldstein. He was influenced by each of
these people, most of whom conducted lectures at the New School for Social Research.
Maslow also became associated with Alfred Adler, who was living in New York at
that time. Adler held seminars in his home on Friday nights, and Maslow was a
frequent visitor to these sessions, as was Julian Rotter (see Chapter 18).
Another of Maslow’s mentors was Ruth Benedict, an anthropologist at
Columbia University. In 1938, Benedict encouraged Maslow to conduct anthropo-
logical studies among the Northern Blackfoot Indians of Alberta, Canada. His work
among these Native Americans taught him that differences among cultures were
superficial and that the Northern Blackfoot were first people and only second were
they Blackfoot Indians. This insight helped Maslow in later years to see that his
famous hierarchy of needs applied equally to everyone.
During the mid-1940s, Maslow’s health began to deteriorate. In 1946, at age
38, he suffered a strange illness that left him weak, faint, and exhausted. The next
year he took a medical leave and, with Bertha and their two daughters, moved to
Pleasanton, California, where, in name only, he was plant manager of a branch of
the Maslow Cooperage Corporation. His light work schedule enabled him to read
biographies and histories in a search for information on self-actualizing people. After
a year, his health had improved and he went back to teaching at Brooklyn College.
In 1951, Maslow took a position as chairman of the psychology department
at the recently established Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. During
his Brandeis years, he began writing extensively in his journals, jotting down at