READING 8 – REPLACING THE PYRAMID OF NEEDS WITH A

SAILBOAT OF NEEDS
Excerpted from Frank Martela (2020). Replacing the Pyramid of Needs with a Sailboat of Needs.
Psychologytoday.com

A. In a bold new book, Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization, psychologist Scott Barry
Kaufman aims to make Maslow relevant again by retaining the healthy core of his theory while integrating
his ideas with the developments of empirical psychology that have taken place in the five decades since
Maslow passed away in Menlo Park, CA, on June 8, 1970, when his eager writing to revise his theory came
to an unfortunate halt through a fatal heart attack. 5

B. Kaufman argues that the part of Maslow’s theory that has stood the test of time is a distinction between two
types of needs. First, there are the deficit needs, which dominate our motivation and trump any higher needs
when they are urgently lacking. If I am underwater and start to be out of oxygen, self-realization is not the
first thing on my mind. The only need I care about is the necessity of being able to breathe again. The more
precarious a physical need becomes, the more it preoccupies our minds. Hunger is a powerful motivation. 10
However, as long as my access to water, food, and shelter feel secured, I don’t think about them much. The
deficit needs thus become activated mainly when we are lacking them.

C. Human existence, however, is not mere passive reactance to deficits. As the movie character Solomon
Northup memorably states in 12 Years a Slave: “I don’t want to survive. I want to live.” We humans are
not mere survival-machines, but active and growth-oriented, eager to take on challenges through which to 15
manifest our full potential. A human being has a tendency for self-fulfillment, “to become actualized in
what he is potentially," as Maslow put it.

D. In this quest to realize ourselves, we are guided by what Maslow called growth needs. While deficit needs
are driven by fears, anxieties, and a push to quench what we are lacking, growth needs pull us towards what
we find intriguing and valuable. They are the sources of intrinsic fulfillment we are drawn towards when 20
we don’t have to worry about mere survival.

E. The pyramid fails to capture this fundamental distinction between deficit and growth needs. In its place,
Kaufman proposes a sailboat. Life isn’t a project or a competition; it is a journey to travel through “a vast
blue ocean, full of new opportunities for meaning and discovery but also danger and uncertainty.” The hull
of the boat is what keeps us afloat, offering security from the waves. It represents the deficit needs essential 25
for survival. Kaufman proposes three such needs: feeling safe, feeling that we belong and are not being
rejected by others, and protecting our self-esteem. In other words, we need to feel safe both in the physical
realm, in the interpersonal realm, and in our relation to ourselves.

F. But having a protective body is not enough for real movement. Kaufman quotes Seneca: “If one does not
know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.” What we need to do is to open our sail and dare 30
to embrace life and direct our efforts towards actualizing ourselves.

G. As for the growth-oriented needs, Kaufman again proposes three: exploration, love, and purpose. We
explore our environment for the sheer pleasure of it, we want to feel a deep sense of connection and love
with others, and we seek goals worth pursuing to energize our activities. The growth needs are thus not
depicted as a pyramid to climb; they are ultimately about opening up to life, daring to treat life as a quest. 35

H. Of course, the stronger the hull, the easier it is to boldly open up the sails. To dare to explore and grow, we
need to have a secure base. That’s why Maslow wanted to democratize the opportunity to live a growth-
oriented life by removing the obstacles for it, like material scarcity, emotional coldness, and institutions
crushing our dreams. The needs can be used to evaluate our current institutions like schools, workplaces,

Academic English in Psychology | Reading Material 8 | Nguyen Phuoc Cat Phuong

 and whole societies. When designing and critically examining them, we should be asking are they helping 40
us to satisfy our needs or rather the main reason our needs are thwarted. If the latter, they should be revised.
Each of us should be given an equal opportunity to pursue our liberty, and this happens only if our
institutions provide safety, security, and a sense of belonging.

I. This is the legacy of Maslow worth fighting for: to build a culture and institutions that support the ability
of each of us to grow and become the best versions of ourselves. This is done by ensuring that as many as 45
possible can grow up, live, and work in environments that support the satisfaction of our basic psychological
needs.

A new metaphor.
Kaufman, S. B. (2021). Transcend: The new science of self-actualization. Penguin. 50

Academic English in Psychology | Reading Material 8 | Nguyen Phuoc Cat Phuong