Sunday 23 June 2019

'A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately happy!'

On Motivation, Maslow and Self-actualisation!

The year 1954 has been such a productive year for all of literature! Indeed the literary output of this year has an amazing varicoloured potpourri of such diverse genres to its litty-kitty!

Some of the hot favourites in literature who’ve given us some endearing reads during the course of this flourishing year in literature, include, Kingsley Amis, who published his first novel titled, Lucky Jim, this year [1954].

Famed Irish novelist and Winner of the Booker Prize, Iris Murdoch’s Under the Net was also published this self-same year [1954].

The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien, saw its publication spree starting only from 1954 on!

Interestingly, Nobel Laureate William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies was also published this very year, in 1954.

Simone de Beauvoir’s famed roman-à-clef titled The Mandarins, in which her long-time partner Sartre and her friend Albert Camus adorn the novel with such curiously intriguing, invented names in the guise of Robert Dubreuilh and Henri Perron respectively, was also published this year, in 1954. So what is the invented name of Simone de Beauvoir, you may ask? No points for guessing! It’s another Dubreuilh, named, Anne Dubreuilh!

1954 also saw renowned Japanese director Akira Kurosawa giving us his epic samurai drama film titled, Seven Samurai! More on Akira Kurosawa on our past post HERE.

It’s quite interesting to note that, celebrated Booker awardee Kazuo Ishiguro was also born in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1954.

Eminent Oxford academic and novelist C. S. Lewis had also come up with his phenomenal intellectual treatise titled, English Literature in the 16th Century during the same year, in 1954. [Added, his scholarly work on Milton titled A Preface to Paradise Lost is one of the most indispensable reference books on Paradise Lost till date!]

On the home front, Kamala Markandaya’s Nectar in a Sieve, her first published novel, which went on to be published in more than 18 languages worldwide, and became a quick best seller on the international arena, was also published this year, in 1954.

Yukio Mishima’s gripping novel titled, The Sound of Waves also saw publication, this year, in 1954. A preview to Yukio Mishima HERE on our same past post as well!

Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s favourite memoir of all time, from Peter Abrahams, titled, Tell Freedom was also published this year, in 1954.

[Well, on an aside, Thiong’o had once particularly singled out three marvelous and impactful works that have had a great influence on him. They are, George Lamming’s In the Castle of My Skin (1953), Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958) and Peter Abrahams’ Tell Freedom (1954).]

Nigerian writer, Amos Tutuola, whose stories were almost always based on the Yoruba folk-tales, also published his My Life in the Bush of Ghosts an autobiographical novel in this very year, in 1954.


This apart, what gives this post an added wide-eyed coverage is the fact that, Maslow’s famed book on Motivation titled, Motivation and Personality was also published this year, in 1954. The germ of the book was originally published as a paper, almost a decade back in the famed Psychological Review.

This Maslow masterpiece of 1954 is much credited with popularizing the term, self-actualisation which has shot to prominence today in the fields of psychology, literature and related research.

Well, self-actualisation is defined as a person's desire to use all their abilities to achieve and be everything that they possibly can. It is also defined as ‘the psychological process aimed at maximizing the use of a person’s abilities and resources.’

One reason why self-actualisation tops the charts, and is on the highest level on Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs!

Hence it was that, Maslow, who’s famously credited with creating his all-time popular ‘Maslow's hierarchy of needs,’ strongly believed that, all of human motivation hinges much on an individual's ability to seek personal fulfillment through means of personal growth.

To Maslow then, individuals strive for higher needs only when their lower-level needs have been met, fulfilled or satisfied.

The structure of Maslow's hierarchy of needs is given in this diagram that comes below -


To put it simply, then, Maslow’s index to his hierarchy of needs is made up of  - 

physiological [needs],
safety [needs],
love [needs],
esteem [needs], and finally,
self-actualization

which comes in a pyramid from bottom to top.

Hence, to Maslow, each level of need must be taken care of before moving on to addressing the next in the hierarchy of one’s need!

That means to say that, it is only when one’s physiological needs, safety needs, love needs, and esteem needs are very much taken care of, that one can really move up the hierarchical pyramid to achieving self-actualization, or reaching one’s fullest potential and capabilities in one’s life.

Connecting this post with our last post, we could surmise the prime importance that encouragement, motivation, positive thinking, and positive words can have on one’s self-actualisation, isn’t it?

And that’s one reason why, (Albeit I repeat), parents, teachers, professors and mentors the world over, ask their wards to stay clear of negative minds, demotivating people, people who always have a sting in their tongue, venom in their words and poison in their hearts!

And that’s added reason why, it goes on to say that, the more you surround yourself with positive people, [that comes up in the third step of the hierarchy: amongst friends, groups, families, and in society,] the more are your chances of gracefully climbing up the ladder to self-confidence, and finally to self-actualisation or self-fulfillment!

Maslow moves on to describe the top of his hierarchy of needs, saying that,

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately happy!

It’s no wonder then that Maslow cultivated a wide-eyed curiosity for everything by making the library his second home!

A few decades thence, Maslow also listed out a few eminent minds who had attained a high degree of self-actualisation in their lives! Some of them are - Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, Aldous Huxley, Baruch Spinoza, Jane Addams, William James, Thomas Jefferson, etc.

Yesss folks! Let’s steer full-throttle onto the road of self-actualisation, the Maslow way, shall we?

Musings on Motivation to continue…

images: amazondotcom, pinterestdotcom

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