Maslow’s Hierarchy still relevant today

IN my education year at University College of Wales, Swansea – as it was in 1960 – I recall being given “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs” as an essay topic.

This was an interesting subject. Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) was a psychologist who envisaged people’s needs as hierarchical in nature. At one level it is a simple idea and it can be seen clearly after very short reflection that the more urgent needs, notably for food and drink, will be satisfied urgently even before other basic needs like warmth, shelter, etc. But when these primary needs are satisfied, or partially satisfied, the individual might become preoccupied with a range of other needs, for entertainment perhaps on television or at the cinema, and there are then immaterial matters like love and friendship but also selfesteem. It would be tedious for me to itemise all these needs but the higher ones consist of things like self-actualisation or self-transcendence. Maslow added to his theory, first advanced in the 1940s, with later versions which appear to give more weight to the higher needs.

People at the top of society like Prince Charles are likely to satisfy all their basic needs for food, drink, shelter and warmth without any difficulty at all. But they, not just Prince Charles or the controversial Prince Harry, may then wrestle with their image and how to self-actualise. This may go beyond the content of somewhat tedious overrated television interviews though, about which the media is currently making such a fuss. More than half of some of today’s newspapers are devoted to the various aspects of that TV programme and the issues it brought to light. These were not unimportant matters but surely less important than the two leading egocentric protagonists Harry and Megan seem to think.

Michael O’Neill

Penarth

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