Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionIII. Humanistic/Existential
Theories- Maslow: Holistic
Dynamic Theory
© The McGraw−Hill^291
Companies, 2009Neurotic Needs
The satisfaction of conative, aesthetic, and cognitive needs is basic to one’s physical
and psychological health, and their frustration leads to some level of illness. How-
ever, neurotic needslead only to stagnation and pathology (Maslow, 1970).
By definition, neurotic needs are nonproductive. They perpetuate an unhealthy
style of life and have no value in the striving for self-actualization. Neurotic needs
are usually reactive; that is, they serve as compensation for unsatisfied basic needs.
For example, a person who does not satisfy safety needs may develop a strong desire
to hoard money or property. The hoarding drive is a neurotic need that leads to
pathology whether or not it is satisfied. Similarly, a neurotic person may be able to
establish a close relationship with another person, but that relationship may be a neu-
rotic, symbiotic one that leads to a pathological relationship rather than genuine love.
Maslow (1970) presented yet another example of a neurotic need. A person strongly
motivated by power can acquire nearly unlimited power, but that does not make the
person less neurotic or less demanding of additional power. “It makes little differ-
ence for ultimate health whether a neurotic need be gratified or frustrated” (Maslow,
1970, p. 274).
General Discussion of Needs
Maslow (1970) estimated that the hypothetical average person has his or her needs
satisfied to approximately these levels: physiological, 85%; safety, 70%; love and be-
longingness, 50%; esteem, 40%; and self-actualization, 10%. The more a lower level
need is satisfied, the greater the emergence of the next level need. For example, if
love needs are only 10% satisfied, then esteem needs may not be active at all. But if
love needs are 25% satisfied, then esteem may emerge 5% as a need. If love is 75%
satisfied, then esteem may emerge 50%, and so on. Needs, therefore, emerge gradu-
ally, and a person may be simultaneously motivated by needs from two or more lev-
els. For example, a self-actualizing person may be the honorary guest at a dinner
given by close friends in a peaceful restaurant. The act of eating gratifies a physio-
logical need; but at the same time, the guest of honor may be satisfying safety, love,
esteem, and self-actualization needs.
Reversed Order of Needs
Even though needs are generally satisfied in the hierarchical order shown in Figure
10.1, occasionally they are reversed. For some people, the drive for creativity (a self-
actualization need) may take precedence over safety and physiological needs. An en-
thusiastic artist may risk safety and health to complete an important work. For years,
the late sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski endangered his health and abandoned com-
panionship to work on carving a mountain in the Black Hills into a monument to
Chief Crazy Horse.
Reversals, however, are usually more apparent than real, and some seemingly
obvious deviations in the order of needs are not variations at all. If we understood
the unconscious motivationunderlying the behavior, we would recognize that the
needs are not reversed.
Chapter 10 Maslow: Holistic-Dynamic Theory 285