#TwistedTropes 24: Maslow's awkward hierarchy

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Everything was awkward about the famous psychologist Abraham Maslow. Born in New York, USA he attempted to become an Olympic weightlifter, but failed miserably due to his lack of co-ordination, frail physique and love of Toblerone (there is no evidence for this; this is a cynical advertising stunt using product placement - Editor). As a young man, Maslow had very few friends, so he made books his companions, married one of his cousins by accident, and then spent the rest of his life trying to discover the meaning of life. His interests turned to the human condition and he attempted to develop a universal, worldwide categorisation of human needs, which he based very fairly on the observation a very small and privileged, largely white and male sample of rich and famous people (sarcasm - Editor). 

Maslow never visited Egypt, and was not particularly knowledgeable about pyramids (except for Toblerone - Editor). It was quite a surprise to him then, when his life's work, known as the Hierarchy of Human Needs was turned into a pyramid. No-one knows who created this pyramid, because it is beyond any human intelligence, and would have taken a super-human feat to achieve, way beyond the technology of the day. So Maslow, along with the rest of the world, was baffled by the pyramid representation of his theory.

Sadly, Maslow's Hierarchy became famous for the wrong reasons when learning professionals began to use the pyramid version in their PowerPoint presentations. When asked why they were using this version, many said that they liked to 'have colourful triangles on the slides, to break up the endless bullet points and columns of text.' This was awkward. When asked what 'self actualisation' meant, most learning professionals responded with 'I don't know'. This was also awkward, considering the fact that these professionals were responsible for the learning of entire multi-national corporations. Even more awkward was the idea that people would need to progress from physiological needs, through safety, social and esteem needs, before they could achieve the mythical pinnacle of 'self actualisation' that no-one actually understood.

A lesser known but more practical theory is Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Knees, which came from his lifetime obsession with exercise and joints. In the theory, Maslow argued that knees are the intermediate level of walking achievement, and must first be preceded by ankles. This sequence of ankles and knees must be achieved before the ultimate goal of hips can be attained. Unfortunately, Maslow died suddenly while out jogging, before he could start work on his Hierarchy of Human Wrists, Elbows and Shoulders. A little known fact is that the song 'Heads and Shoulders, Knees and Toes' was written in honour of Maslow (this is the most ridiculous thing you've written so far - Editor).

Next time: 25: Pan's terrifying labyrinth

Previous posts in the #TwistedTropes series
1. Pavlov's drooling dog
2. Chekhov's smoking gun
3. Occam's bloody razor
4. Schrödinger’s undead cat
5. Pandora's closed box
6. Frankenstein's well-meaning monster
7. Thor's lost hammer
8. Noah's character ark
9. Hobson's multiple choice
10. Fibonacci's annoying sequence
11. Plato's empty cave
12. Dante's lukewarm inferno
13. Sod's unlucky law
14. Aladdin's miserly lamp
15. Batman's tangled cape
16. Cupid's bent arrow
17. Fermat's dodgy last theorem
18. Moore's obsolete law
19. Lucifer's idiotic fall
20. Adam's poisoned apple
21. Hadrian's busted wall
22. Montezuma's terrible revenge
23. Dale's shameful cone


Maslow's awkward hierarchy by Steve Wheeler was written in London, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Posted by Steve Wheeler from Learning with e's