Eupsychian Theory I: Reclaiming Maslow and Rejecting The Pyramid - The Seven Essential Needs

Abstract

In 1943, Abraham Maslow presented a now widely accepted theory of human motivation. This theory was shortly represented by a now iconic Pyramid of Needs. Building upon the work of Abraham Maslow, this article rejects the pyramid of needs as an ideologically rooted, sanitized, and stripped-down version of Maslow’s nascent Eupsychian Theory. Instead, the article proposes a Circle of Seven Essential needs as the core of a sophisticated and integrative humanistic/transpersonal Euspychian theory of human development and human potential, a theory that Maslow was in the process of developing before his untimely death. As argued in the article, the Circle of Seven Essential Needs encourages us to develop a broad, holistic, and integrative view of human nature, human development and the role of human society more in line with Maslow’s thinking on human development and human potential.