Maslow’s hierarchy of needs -“Educational Psychology Interactive:Maslow’s hierarchy of needs”-has not been given the importance it deserves, I believe, it has something very important
to teach us about happiness. Maslow arranged his hierarchy of needs in the form of an equilateral triangle with physiological needs at it’s base, and working towards the apex of the triangle, is followed by safety needs, belongingness & love needs, esteem needs, need to now and understand, aesthetic needs, self-actualization, and lastly at the top of the triangle, transcendence (connections to someone or something beyond the ego).
My particular slant on Maslow is this; I view the triangle as an illustration of the degree to which we require order (or orderliness) in each level to achieve happiness. Perhaps it’s better view from the opposite angle, if we place an inverted triangle beside Maslow’s, and transpose the levels laterally, they would represent the degree to which we can tollerate disorder and still consider ourselves happy.
Implications: order=good/happiness disorder=bad/unhappiness
How we achieve happiness becomes more personal as we ascend the triangle.
My two cents on a saturday morning. Worthy of study or tripe?
Personally, I don’t think the pyramid of Maslow to be representative nor useful.
I think “happiness” is a illusion, fiction.
We have desire and fulfillment and/or dissipation of desire.
During the moment of satisfaction, we may name the state as “happiness” and we may even seek the state, later. But we are seeking the mirage in our memory, since it was the lack of desire/frustration and not active/positive state we can create.
I think it’s better to forget about happiness and simply focus more about desires, so that we can understand them to satisfy and/or dissipate them by removing the fear/frustration causing these desires.
Now, I think having ideals about anything, including happiness, is a natural result of our mind following its desire. But “idealizing” something has the effect of creating (artificial) division in your mind, thus it creates a seed for future internal conflict/dichotomy/contradiction.
In other words, you may not feel “happier” by thinking and especially by idealizing about “happiness”.
Instead, it’s better to notice that the very fact that you think about happiness is the indication on your unhappiness, and then you can study about the unhappiness so that the cause of your unhappiness can be resolved.
When there will be no more unhappiness, you don’t need to think about (imaginary) happiness, any more, since you are in it, which is marked by the lack of the notion/recognition of any happiness (nor unhappiness).