Live Life Team
Abraham Harold Maslow was a psychologist known as the “Father of Humanistic Psychology” and is renowned for his proposal of the “hierarchy of human needs”, a psychological theory. Born in Brooklyn, Maslow is the eldest of his seven siblings. He was raised by his uneducated Jewish parents who were Russian immigrants. He had a lonely childhood as he grew up in a non-Jewish community, and so he frequently spent time in the library.
Initially, Maslow took up law at the City College of New York (CCNY). His father wanted him to pursue law, but Maslow transferred to University of Wisconsin and began studying psychology. There he met his chief mentor, Professor Harry Harlow, and married Berta, his cousin. At the University of Wisconsin, Maslow engaged in an original research line, studying primate dominance sexuality and behaviour. He continued a similar line of study at Columbia University and found another mentor, Alfred Adler, an early follower of Sigmund Freud.
Maslow’s ideas were original since psychologists who preceded him centred on the ill and the abnormal. His research was on affirmative mental health. Humanistic psychology led to various therapies, generally guided by the principle that the focus of the therapy is to aid people in eliminating hindrances on and focusing on healing. He claimed that people have inner resources for healing and growth. Carl Rogers’ client centred therapy is the most renowned of these theories.
Maslow was named “Humanist of the Year” by the American Humanist Association in 1967. From 1951 until 1969, he became a Brandeis University professor and became a resident member of Laughlin Institute in California. He died on June 1970 from a heart attack.
