Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionIII. Humanistic/Existential
Theories- Maslow: Holistic
Dynamic Theory
(^306) © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2009
Maslow (1971) listed a second explanation for why people evade greatness.
Most people, he reasoned, have private ambition to be great, to write a great novel,
to be a movie star, to become a world-famous scientist, and so on. However, when
they compare themselves with those who have accomplished greatness, they are ap-
palled by their own arrogance: “Who am I to think I could do as well as this great
person?” As a defense against this grandiosity or “sinful pride,” they lower their as-
pirations, feel stupid and humble, and adopt the self-defeating approach of running
away from the realization of their full potentials.
Although the Jonah complex stands out most sharply in neurotic people,
nearly everyone has some timidity toward seeking perfection and greatness. People
allow false humility to stifle creativity, and thus they prevent themselves from be-
coming self-actualizing.
Psychotherapy
To Maslow (1970), the aim of therapy would be for clients to embrace the Being-
values, that is, to value truth, justice, goodness, simplicity, and so forth. To accom-
plish this aim, clients must be free from their dependency on others so that their
natural impulse toward growth and self-actualization could become active. Psy-
chotherapy cannot be value free but must take into consideration the fact that every-
one has an inherent tendency to move toward a better, more enriching condition,
namely self-actualization.
The goals of psychology follow from the client’s position on the hierarchy of
needs. Because physiological and safety needs are prepotent, people operating on
these levels will not ordinarily be motivated to seek psychotherapy. Instead, they will
strive to obtain nourishment and protection.
Most people who seek therapy have these two lower level needs relatively well
satisfied but have some difficulty achieving love and belongingness needs. There-
fore, psychotherapy is largely an interpersonal process. Through a warm, loving, in-
terpersonal relationship with the therapist, the client gains satisfaction of love and
belongingness needs and thereby acquires feelings of confidence and self-worth. A
healthy interpersonal relationship between client and therapist is therefore the best
psychological medicine. This accepting relationship gives clients a feeling of being
worthy of love and facilitates their ability to establish other healthy relationships out-
side of therapy. This view of psychotherapy is nearly identical to that of Carl Rogers,
as we discuss in Chapter 11.
Related Research
As you just read, one of the most notable aspects of Maslow’s theory of personality is
the concept of a hierarchy of needs. Some needs such as physiological and safety
needs are lower order needs, whereas needs like esteem and self-actualization are
higher order. Generally speaking, according to Maslow’s theory the lower order needs
must be met early in life, whereas the higher order needs such as self-actualization
tend to be fulfilled later in life.
Recently, researchers have tested this aspect of Maslow’s theory by measur-
ing need fulfillment in a sample of 1,749 people of all age groups (Reiss &
300 Part III Humanistic/Existential Theories