Customer Reviews

Farther Reaches of Human Nature

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Overall this is a very good book, but with some significant flaws. The first 100 pages are unbelievably good; as I began reading this book I really felt like I had hit the jackpot, and I quickly concluded I would attempt to read all of Maslow's works. As I got further into the book I was singing quite a different tune. I believe anyone with any interest in psychology whatsoever should buy this book and read the first 100 pages. This section alone is easily worth the price of the book - don't let me scare you away from exploring the ideas of this great man. However, the dropoff in quality after this first section is rather precipitous, and while pages 100-200 were OK, the final 100 pages are an absolute chore to get through and I had to force myself along to finish the book.

Keep in mind that Abraham Maslow died before he was able to make a final edit of this book, and it shows. The second half of the book is almost a verbatim repetition of the earlier sections, and Maslow tends to harp on the same concepts endlessly. Some of it comes across as a very generic self help book designed to be consumed by the masses. In other sections, he seems to start over right from square one, as if some of the essays were meant to stand alone and were not meant to follow other essays that were extremely similar. I would say nearly half of this book should have been relegated to an expanded appendix - but I guess it would be strange to have a book where full half of it consisted of an appendix. I'm sure that Maslow would have fixed these problems had he lived long enough, but we will just have to accept this book for what it is and try as best we can to extrapolate something useful from it.

To conclude, I must still vehemently stress the importance of at least the first half of this book. If you grow bored with it, just stop reading. The editors of this book obviously elected to take a throw-it-all-against-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks approach, and I suppose there is no harm in that. Just remember that the original author was not around to oversee the final editing, and the result is a large dose of disjecta and detritus towards the end of the book. Nevertheless, do not let this minor disclaimer prevent you from exploring the wonderful ideas of this brilliant man.

....about the possibilities of becoming fully human. This was one of the books that inspired me to study psychology. An eminently sane look at the "higher reaches" from the psychologist who dared to wonder why we study sickness but not health.

i could not put down this book. the only vague idea i had from Maslow was the classic pyramid of needs, of which i did not think much. I could not have been more wrong! this book lifted the veil from my eyes, i just so thouroughly identify with the author's views. i wish i had read this book 10 years ago. Maslow is so honest, his style so fluid, his statements so powerful. this book is all about what it means to be human, and it gives faith again in human nature, yet we are facing so many hurdles in our world. while reading it on a train journey, i stopped for a second and looked thru the windows of the cabin. there i saw some clouds in the blue sky, and i felt tears coming up to my eyes. I felt like a follower who had just met his prophet...

Published posthumously, this book is critical to understanding Maslow's concept of metaneeds, metavalues and metamotivations. He clearly outlines the need of self-actualizers to devote themselves to a cause greater than self. No surprise here, but in my judgment, what he would describe in "Religions, Values and Peak Experiences" as perhaps his "most important finding" has yet to be fully appreciated and understood. Dr. Maslow professes that the highest values, being values, or metavalues, are not grandiose platitudes but rather inner realities that are not made up but discovered. Moreover, metavalues are active agents that configure and inspire the motivations of self-actualizing personalities. Much as a contemporary fellow genius, Viktor Frankl, would observe, the True, the Beautiful and the Good are universal realities that are potential in all human beings. This finding flies in the face of Freud and Skinner, who insisted that human nature is virtually completely malleable by environment. Once Abraham Maslow's premise regarding values is entertained, the reader will discover the later sections of the book, especially the "Metamotivation" section, of supreme importance. When we understand and embrace Dr. Maslow's insights into supreme values, we will better understand his pronouncement that humankind has been sold short. Also see Malsow's "The Psychology of Science, a Reconnaissance."

This amazing book is a posthumous collection of previously published articles delineating the highest known levels of human development in a descriptive, scientific manner. These include not only his famous Self-Actualization but also transcendent levels within S-A. He describes his methods, distinguishing scientists from technicians, carefully suggests further research; explores both individual & society development/potentials, provides extensive descriptions of Being-Values demonstrated by highly developed people, associated metamotivation/metaneeds/peak & plateau experiences/ultimate values vs. polarities & pp. 21-5: "Metapathologies...the spiritual or philosophical or existential ailments...deficiency diseases...From the point of view that I have outlined, normalcy would be rather the kind of sickness or crippling or stunting that we share with everybody else & therefore didn't notice." Many of his observations are consistent with Zen, Taoism, & Tibetan Buddhist Dzogchen & Mahamudra--relating ego to Self (p. 159: "In all of these peak experiences it becomes impossible to differentiate between the self & the non-self...self-transcendence, not of self-obliteration," full humanness, leading a heavenly life in the here & now (p. 108: "Being & Becoming are, so to speak, side by side, simultaneously existing, now"), Rigpa/integration (p. 111: "Unitive consciousness...is the ability to simultaneously perceive in the fact--the is--its particularity & its universality; to see it simultaneously as here & now, & yet also as eternal, or rather to be able to see the universal in & through the particular & the eternal in & through the temporal & momentary" vs. dichotomizing, spontaneity & nonmeditation (pp. 126-7: Being can mean...effortless spontaneity...the `end' of developing, growing, & becoming"). While hypothesizing that America is a growing tip or Cosmic experiment, he also notes some current societal problems/roadblocks to S-A: p. 352: "The confounding of sex & dominance in the human being," p. 363: "All human beings, including children, `need a value system'...If there is no adult value system, then a child or adolescent value system will be embraced," & p. 229: "One can judge the level at which people live by the kind of humor that they laugh at." However, he asserts that p. 265: "To be a full member of the human species does not mean repudiating the lower levels; it means rather including them...enjoying the differences" & that p. 334: "The Bodhisattvic path is an integration of self-improvement & social zeal, i.e. the best way to become a better `helper' is to become a better person. But one necessary aspect of becoming a better person is via helping other people. So one must & can do both simultaneously."

While not necessarily an easy read (esp. with its long lists of traits), the author provides many approaches to make the incomprehensible understandable. His approach is scientific yet humanistic, demonstratively describing his positive vision. This is not only a classic of psychology but a brilliant, groundbreaking effort.

This book was unfortunately not finished by Maslow. The first part of the book is a philosophically profound book about human nature, that answered many ontological and epistemological questions for me.
The first part of the book was extremely well written, and it contained truly revolutionary ideas. Most of us think of Maslow's contribution as "the pyramid of the hierarchy of needs", since that is probably what is usually taught about him. But this book is much more than that, and it delves insightfully into the realization of the full human potential, including knowing, perceiving, being, needs, metaneeds, aesthetics, etc.
Because the book is an unedited, unfinished draft of a book, the second part reads like it. It is difficult to enjoy the last half of the book because it reads as the personal notes of a writer planning his essay. Despite its "annotated outline" format, one can still get glimpses of sheer genius in those notes, and it truly is a shame and a loss for our intellectual inheritance that the book wasn't finished. Of course, as unedited notes often do, these contain material that is deleterious to the overall quality of Maslows well-thought ideas. The editors (or perhaps un-editors) failed in this respect.
It is remarkable how timeless, elegant, and structured the first finished part of the book is, in contrast with some of the "culturally dated" second part of the book.
None-the-less, this book is well worth the time to read it. It is a brilliant piece of work, and Maslow is truly one of the great psychologist-philosophers of the 20th century.

Abraham Maslow's understanding of human values, such as Truth, Goodness, Beauty and Justice rises above all writers I have read. This book is extremely brave and forthright, as it contains Maslow's most insightful notes and they were published by his wife, Bertha, after his death! This is a master work and challenging to the psychological and philosophical and scientific professions. Maslow shows how the human values of being are also FACTS! His work can be scientifically replicated and verified according to the most rigorous scientific methods of the 19th century. Maslow said that education without values is highly destructive and dangerous. So, what are they teaching at Harvard that caused the global financial meltdown which has thrown millions of people out of work? Maslow's work is a classic--a must read--by anyone who cares, loves and wants to advance the forward days of humankind.

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"People are not evil; they are schlemiels."
[Abraham Maslow-1908-1970]

This posthumously-published work of Abraham Maslow is worth reading and reflecting upon. In it Maslow sums up his life work and theories about the perfectability of man, and the need for the rigid, quantifiable "science of psychology" to incorporate more spiritual, humanities-based elements.

Maslow grew up in a Jewish immigrant family in Brooklyn, New York. Stories of pogroms and the Russian mass destruction of Jews were the reality of his childhood. His mother's instability may have been associated with her related experiences. German extermination of the Jews in the 1940s extended these horrors into his early adult years.

"Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs" (developed at the peak of WW2) is still studied by every psychology and sociology student in America. For Maslow, that theory became a building block; a tool he used to construct his treatises on the nature of creativity, peak experiences, and self-actualization. Twenty-five years later, in 1968, still puzzling over the nature of good and evil, and the need to develop kind, good and thoughtful world citizens, Maslow wrote:

"My study of most Utopian efforts has taught me to ask the basic questions themselves in a more practicable and researchable way. "how good a society does human nature permit?" and "How good a human nature does society permit?"

"What if the [human] organism is seen as having "biological wisdom"? If we learn to give it greater trust as autonomous, self-governing, and self-choosing, then clearly we as scientists, not to mention physicians, teachers or even parents, must shift our vision over to a more Taoistic one...asking rather than telling."

This is the book of a modern philosopher; one who spent his life "asking rather than telling." We can all learn a great deal from the ponderings of Abraham Maslow.

Kim Burdick
Stanton, Delaware

This is the book that each and every educator must have! And read! If teachers and educational administrators were competent enough to drive students toward "peak experiences", we will have a happier world!

I am often asked what I studied in my journey of self-discovery that led to my book, audio book and workshops, Managing Thought: How Do Your Thoughts Rule Your World?. I explain that many roads lead to Rome. On the psychological path, The Farther Reaches of Human Nature significantly influenced me. Maslow wondered why we study what we don't want, sickness, and instead studied what we do want, health. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and his teachings on self-actualization explain man's expansive nature and our genuine interest in expanding our level of consciousness and becoming fully human.