Scott Barrry Kaufman. Ph.D.

As a health care professional, I studied Maslow in my numerous psychology classes and found comfort in his hierarchy of needs theory. Everything about myself, my patients and my friends fit nicely in the levels he espoused. Then I read Scott Barry Kaufman's book Transcend.

Kaufman takes the hierarchy of needs to the next level, morphing Maslow's pyramid - which Maslow did not create - into a boat that is sailing through the ocean of life experiences with others, exploring our world and the people around us. The cruise eventually reaches a place called Transcendence.

Kaufman places Maslow's hierarchy of needs in the bow of the boat, assigning exploration, love, and the need for a purpose to the sail. He revisits and expands strivings that result in security and the elements that help us grow, leading to peak experiences that trigger brief periods of pure being, which offer boundless perfect truth.

In an unpublished book, The Possibilities of Human Nature, Maslow mentions that humans have a higher nature that is part of the human essence. To me, this is a simple but revealing summary of it all.

The biographical glimpses of Maslow are enjoyable. One in particular, is Maslow's note after he had a heart attack that he didn't feel up to writing all the things that ought to be included in his legacy so he would save his memos in his journals for the right person to come along and take it to the next stage. I believe Scott Barry Kaufman is that person.… (mehr)