Brian Johnson summarizes Abraham Maslow’s Toward a Psychology of Being by outlining five core ideas: (1) self-actualization as a fundamental human need ("what one can be, one must be"); (2) every action leaves an imprint in consciousness so we should choose growth over safety; (3) actualization functions both as an end and as a bridge toward self-transcendence; (4) healthy people embrace the full range of emotions and their overall baseline rises as they grow; and (5) humans possess capacities that are clamoring to be used, and acting on them reduces angst. The piece is a brief, practical synthesis encouraging moment-to-moment growth.
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Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to Philosopher's Notes tv. Today we've got another great book, Toward a Psychology of Being by Abraham Maslow. Toward a Psychology of Being. Philosopher's note. Five of my favorite big ideas from that note. And let's jump in. Abraham Maslow, humanistic psychologist in the 20th century. Literally, I think he had the highest IQ of his era. Unbelievably smart guy who looked at human behavior and said in psychology and said, why are we just focused on all the negative stuff? Why don't we look at what makes great people great, Those among us who have actualized their potential. Everyone else was studying depression and schizophrenia and disease oriented aspects of human behavior. And he said, but I want to understand the best of our species and how do we help people move not just from negative 10 to negative 5 to 0, but from 0 to 5 to 10 to the infinite potential of human beings. He's an amazing guy. We have another one of these episodes and notes on his book Motivation and Personality. But today, Toward a Psychology of Being. So the first idea is his idea of self actualization. So my hunch is you've heard of his hierarchy of needs, the most basic needs of safety and then belonging and then love and then self esteem. And as we move up the hierarchy of needs, we arrive at the peak, self actualization. As we become healthier and healthier, there's this impulse within us, a calling within us to actualize our potential, to fulfill our destiny, to live our calling or mission, whatever you want to call it. And he said, this is as fundamental a need as your most basic needs. We have a need to breathe, for oxygen, for water, for food, for safety. He says our need to actualize is as fundamental as those basic needs. Huge idea. That's the basic idea of actualization. What one can be, one must be. I like to say, if I had to summarize my entire philosophy in one phrase, what one can be, one must be. If I had to summarize what I believe in one sentence, that might just be it. What one can be, one must be. This is the fundamental human need to actualize. And let's talk about some of the other aspects of that and how we can do it. Obviously we can talk about that for about 10 years and barely scratch the surface of it. The second big idea here is records. He says every single thing that we do registers in our little unconscious tabulator, whatever you want to call it. Everything we do records in our consciousness. It leaves a mark, an imprint in our consciousness. We want to pay attention to that because anytime we do less than what we're capable of being and doing, we feel that it makes an imprint in our overall self image of who we are. And as I've mentioned in other videos, it's almost like you've got zero when you start the day. And Maslow says, in any given moment you have a choice. You can step forward into growth or you can step back into safety. Forward into growth, back into safety. Here's what you're capable of doing. And if there's a gap, there's going to be suffering. You need to close the gap. What you're capable of doing and what you actually do match. You want to step forward into growth. But if you go backwards all day long, at the end of the day, you're sitting here in this big negative hole and you want to go fill up a hole like that with alcohol or TV or other addictive behaviors. But if we discipline ourselves to move forward, to step forward into growth, moment to moment to moment to live with Arte, how do you feel at the end of that day? You feel great. You come home and you give your spouse and kids a big hug or whatever, whoever you're hanging out with, you feel great, you feel on top of the world. Move forward into growth, moment to moment to moment. And know that you can't avoid. You may think that you can avoid it, but you can't. You're making imprints and records every single time. You step away from expressing your highest self. This is why the Greeks told us arete, expressing the highest version of yourself, moment to moment to moment is the cornerstone of happiness and flourishing. Third big idea is a good one, the end and the bridge. So we talk about actualization. And he says, look, interestingly, actualization is both an end in itself and it's a bridge to something more than itself. And this is his way of integrating kind of Eastern and western thought. So if we want to transcend the ego, a self actualized individual is essentially someone who has a very integrated ego. There's the id, which is impulse. There's a superego, which is the conditioning. Then there's the ego, which Joseph Campbell says is what keeps us in the game. Most people think they have a faulty ego when they do something faulty or less than optimal. But the reality is it was their ID driving the show, their impulse they couldn't control, or it was their conditioning and they were shitting on themselves and thinking about what they needed to do to make people happy. One of those things was going on. But a healthy ego integrates that. And as we self actualize our individualized expression, we transcend it and we move into something even bigger. And he talked about that as not just self actualization, but self transcendence. Transcend the self. Big idea. A lot more we can talk about there. I'm going to leave it at that for now. And the fourth big idea, all of it. We need to embrace all of it. He says healthy human beings still have sadness and frustration and anger and anxiety. All these negative emotions that I used to think I needed to get rid of and something was wrong with me if I experienced them. He tells us, look, there are no perfect human beings. Not one. He studied the greatest people of his era, Eleanor Roosevelt, Albert Einstein, these extraordinary human beings. Not one of them was perfect. There are no perfect human beings. You are not going to be the first perfect human being. I'm not going to be the first perfect human being. And the moment we embrace that, there's a freedom to it. And we want to recognize that healthy people have a full range of emotions. We don't need to get rid of them. Another idea is that your highs, you're still going to have highs and lows, right? But what's interesting is that if this is your old high and low, or maybe your highs were like here, and your lows were all the way down here. High, low. Well, as you actualize and you become healthier, you're still going to have highs and lows. But it's almost like your highs got higher and your lows got higher. They might even come all the way up here. So you still have a range, but your highs are actually higher than they used to be. And your lows are higher. Well, much higher in this case. And your lows might even be higher than your former. I'm sorry, your new lows might be higher than your prior highs. Because now, even when you have an off day, you know how to create a great day and you never go too off the rails. It's hard to have a bad day when you start your day with meditation and exercise and doing your creative work and other things you know are important. You won't have a perfect day every day, but you know how to maintain a certain level of balance. You'll have highs and lows, but they'll move up. It's a big idea. Embrace all of it, but know that there'll still be a dynamic there. And then the final idea here, capacities. He says that we all have capacities that are clamoring for use. We have capacities that, that are clamoring for use. Again, this is the what one can be, one must be. If you have gifts, if you have capacities, they're clamoring to be used. And if you're not using them, you're going to feel a level of angst, anxiety, disillusionment, depression. Those aren't bad things. Those are indicators. You have an opportunity to grow and you will allow those capacities to be more fully expressed. Then the trick is just take your baby step. Head in a positive direction. Start cultivating habits that allow you to have more stability, more health, so you can actualize more completely. There you go. Toward a Psychology of Being Abraham Maslow Extraordinary Guy we need to actualize our potential. We need to know that every single thing we do is making an imprint in our consciousness. Choose wisely. Actualization is both an end and a bridge to self transcendence. All of it is what we want to embrace the whole human experience. Put your capacities to use. Hope you enjoyed and I look forward to sharing more with you soon. Have another awesome day. See you.
