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Chapter 9    Maslow: Holistic-Dynamic Theory305
 Concept of Humanity
Maslow believed that all of us can be self-actualizing; our human nature 
carries with it a tremendous potential for being a Good Human Being. If we 
have not yet reached this high level of functioning, it is because we are in 
some manner crippled or pathological. We fail to satisfy our self-actualization 
needs when our lower level needs become blocked: that is, when we cannot 
satisfy our needs for food, safety, love and belongingness, and esteem. This 
insight led Maslow to postulate a hierarchy of basic needs that must be 
regularly satisfied before we become fully human.
Maslow concluded that true human nature is seen only in  self-actualized 
people, and that “there seems no intrinsic  reason why everyone should not 
be this way. Apparently, every baby has possibilities for self-actualization, 
but most get it knocked out of them” (Lowry, 1973, p. 91). In other words, 
self-actualizing people are not ordinary people with something added, but 
rather ordinary people with nothing taken away. That is, if food, safety, love, 
and esteem are not taken away from people, then those people will move 
naturally toward self-actualization. 
Maslow was generally optimistic  and hopeful about humans, but he 
recognized that people are capable of great evil and destruction. Evil, how -
ever, stems from the frustration or thwarting of basic needs, not from the 
essential nature of people. When basic needs are not met, people may steal, 
cheat, lie, or kill. 
Maslow believed that society, as well as individuals, can be improved, 
but growth for both is slow and painful. Nevertheless, these small forward steps 
seem to be part of humanity’s evolutionary history. Unfortunately, most people 
“are doomed to wish for what they do not have” (Maslow, 1970, p. 70). In other 
words, although all people have the potential for self-actualization, most will 
live out their lives struggling for food, safety, or love. Most societies, Maslow 
believed, emphasize these lower level needs and base their educational and 
political systems on an invalid concept of humanity. 
Truth, love, beauty, and the like are instinctoid and are just as basic to 
human nature as are hunger, sex, and aggression. All people have the 
potential to strive toward self-actualization, just as they have the motivation 
to seek food and protection. Because Maslow held that basic needs are 
structured the same for all people and that people satisfy these needs at 
their own rate, his holistic-dynamic theory of personality places moderate 
emphasis on both uniqueness  and similarities.
From both a historical and an individual point of view, humans are an 
evolutionary animal, in the process of becoming more and more fully human. 
That is, as evolution progresses, humans gradually become more motivated 
by metamotivations and by the B-values. High level needs exist, at least as 
potentiality, in everyone. Because people aim toward self-actualization, 
Maslow’s view can be considered teleological and purposive.
Maslow’s view of humanity is difficult to classify on such dimensions as 
determinism versus free choice, conscious versus unconscious, or  biological Final PDF to printer