Maslow proposed 5 levels of need: Physical, Safety and Security, Love and Belonging, Esteem of Self and Others, and Self-Actualization. People who become self-actualized do so by reaching out and helping more and more people, thus, self-actualization is inherently altruistic and is based on helping others, not selfishly pursuing ones own interests to the detriment of others.

I have made two additions to the Maslovian levels: Nurtural and Self-Transcendence.

Physical — the need to survive

At the first level of need, physical survival, we can notice that a single person alone, with all of the supplies they need for physical survival, doesn’t need anyone else. Of course, this is largely impractical, and you would be lucky to survive on your own for any length of time with no one else’s assistance.

And of course, a new born infant, no matter how many supplies they have on hand, will be physically incapable of survival alone. This leads us to our next level of need, one of those that I have added: Nurturance.

Nurtural

This level of need is in between Physical Needs and Safely and Security Needs. Deprivation of nurturing can but does not necessarily result in death, as do the physical needs. On the other hand, it does not need an outside threat, such as enemies, predators, diseases and natural disasters, to bring about death. Deprivation of nurturing is enough for a highly significant percentage of infants and young children to die. It can also result in the deaths of adults by homicide, suicide, grief and illness. Deprivation will also result in other detriments physically, mentally and emotionally.

The needs at this level are dyadic. They involve two people in interaction with one another in a caring, nurturing way. This can be a life partnership, typically called marriage, or it can be a mother and child type of partnership. And yes, the mother/child dyad is a partnership. The child is, admittedly, the junior partner initially, but as the child grows older, the partnership becomes more reciprocal.

Safety and security

Fear of loss of protection leads to adaptations in order to attempt to achieve it. Some parents do protect their children sufficiently, but simply do not reassure the child so that the need can eventually become quiescent. Instead, it either gets elevated, as in the pre-occupied strategy, or suppressed, as in the avoidant strategy.

We need to fell safe with the people we need to feel safe

Our parents are the ones with whom we need to feel most safe. Yet many parents either intentionally or inadvertently cause their children to feel unsafe. This is the catch-22 of all catch-22s: you can’t feel safe with them, and you can’t feel safe without them.

Without this base of security, we have difficulty moving higher up the hierarchy of needs. Our social interchanges become awkward, uncertain, driven by fear and longing. And this interferes with our ability to move upwards to the next level of need.

Love and belonging

The term ‘love’ is often used to describe a variety of different states, including lust and limerence. We really confuse ourselves when we don’t use the language properly. I urge you to re-define what you mean by ‘love.’

The essence of the Love and Belonging level is affiliation, or identity, for the long-term benefit that will come to us via this affiliation. We begin to identify and affiliate ourselves with others not on the basis of biological kinship fulfilling the nurtural needs or banding together to avoid a common threat fulfilling the safety and security needs, but rather for the promotion of our optimal well-being by banding together as a community to satisfy our common and mutually supportive interests and goals.

Esteem of self and others

Our esteem is based on what we do: the purpose we serve. I imagine that all of us serve some important purpose in life. The problem is being able to appreciate it. Hence, we must start with esteem of self.

This level has been greatly misunderstood. Maslow posited esteem of self and others on what we do. Unfortunately, the ‘me’ generation of the ‘60s misconstrued and misused the concept of esteem.

As we go higher in the hierarchy, we begin to affect more and more people. We have progressed from the individual survival level to the mating level involving one significant other, to the family and tribal level, to the community at large and how we can contribute to the well-being of our entire community. Now we are at a level that begins to transcend these local and personal contacts into the realm of the world at large, and this brings us to the level of self-actualization.

Self-actualization aka spiritual awakening

Self-Actualization means being all that you can be for the benefit of others. The term, however, has misled many people to misunderstand what he meant by it.

Self-Actualization means to awaken to your full potential and to strive to achieve it. It means becoming the best version of yourself that you can imagine: the most fulfilled. Maslow used examples such as Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein, Victor Frankl, and William James. We can add Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King to that list, and Maslow himself. These people all became self-actualized and by doing so they reached a worldwide audience and following.

Self-transcendence

Maslow posited a psychology about this level and the ideal that it embraces. It is today known as ‘Transpersonal Psychology.’ The emphasis is on this sense of identity with our spiritual selves. However, he did not go so far as to posit this as a separate level of need. Again, I am coming to his rescue because I think he was being too modest. Maslow wrote persuasively about this level of need.