The Five Basic Forms Of Government Explained

Abraham Maslow - hierarchy of needs

Biography of Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

 He proposed that every child and adult has overlapping needs that fall into naturally-ranked levels or priorities:

Level 1)

We usually attend current physical comforts first: hunger, thirst, pain, air, temperature, smells, balance,  noise, light, and rest (sleep). When those are satisfied enough now ...

Level 2)

  We try to fill our need to feel safe enough in the near future. Safety comes from trusting that our level-one needs and protection from local dangers will be reliably met in the coming days and weeks (our safety zone). In our society, that translates into believing that we'll have a dependable source of money to buy those securities. The safety zone is short for some people, longer for fear-based   (wounded)  others.

        Maslow suggested that when we feel comfortable and safe enough, we then try to fill ...

Level 3)

our need for companionship: our primitive need to feel accepted by, and part of, a group of other people. We need to feel we belong to (are accepted by) a family, tribe, group, or clan. The alternative is feeling we're alone in the world, which is not only lonely, but less safe. For infants, being alone too long means dying. People abandoned emotionally or physically too often as infants unconsciously grow personality  subselves who remain terrified of abandonment in adulthood. Alternatively, their subselves protect them from (another) devastating abandonment by (unconsciously) never bonding  with anyone.

        The terror of rejection and abandonment is one root of relationship enmeshment and addiction,  or codependence.  The other root is excessive shame.  Unacknowledged codependence and it's underlying false-self wounds often cause adults to unconsciously pick the wrong mates over and over again, until they choose to heal. Personal recovery can partially heal each root of co-dependence, over time. These ideas gained acceptance after (1980+) Maslow proposed this hierarchy of needs.

      If we feel our level 1, 2, and 3 needs are satisfied enough, then we're free to work at filling ...

 

Level 4)

our need to be recognized as special and valuable by our group. We need to be more than just a featureless face in the crowd, we need to be known and appreciated. Survivors of low-nurturance childhoods who were shamed  too often as young children often endlessly search for the specialness and praise that they never got. Paradoxically, their false self discounts praise when it's offered ("I really don't deserve it..."). Until recovery releases them from this endless quest, such burdened, unaware people are never really free to achieve...

Level 5)

- being "self actualized." A key reason people still mull Maslow's ideas is the universal longing to be fully ourselves. That implies we each have unique talents and abilities that we long to develop and use to benefit the world if all our other need-levels are filled well enough, often enough. Then we can become creative, energized, centered, focused, and productive and live "at our highest personal potential."