MANSLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEED

A substantial section to my theory surrounding the field of addictions is dependent upon what drives people to do what they do. There are many theories out there today which provide explanations as to why people to an eclectic assortment; this is also true in terms of addictions. I will be discussing my thoughts and belief concerning existing theories in my next entry, however, I think it’s important to touch upon what I believe motivates individuals and communities to function in the way that they do.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need is based on a pyramid shaped (see picture below) which begins with the foundations of human need and works its way up to the ideals of human need. This begins with the bare essentials which are categorized as our psychological needs; this includes food, water, clothes, air etc. Once these needs are fulfilled, the next stage in based on our safety needs which is identified by security of body, employment, resources, morality, family, health and property. Then it moves up to our loving and belonging needs (relationships), to esteem (confidence, respect), and finally reaching the top, actualization which involves acceptance, morality, creativity, problem solving, spontaneity and a variety of other highly developed skills. It  is assumed that individuals strive to attain the lowest source of need (psychological) and are unable to move on to achieve the next level until they have fulfilled they initial stages.

A way in which this theory relates to my idea of substance use and abuse is in terms of how individuals rate their drug desire on their scale of need. For people who are harmfully involved or substance depend, I think that their drug of choice becomes integrated into their psychological needs. Like predicted, I think that all individuals strive to achieve the initial levels of needs before moving on to the additional levels. For drug users, I think they lose sight of the other possible levels of need and become stuck continuously fulfilling their psychological needs to stay alive. We see every day, individuals who sacrifice their homes, employment, relationships and their developed personal skill to maintain their substance use; they begin to focus on only obtaining their drug, food, water and the other bare essentials.

 Obviously, not all substances have this effect; coffee will not have an extensive an effect as cocaine. However, I think the basis of how Manslow’s hierarchy integrates with substance dependence lies within drugs or substances becoming a psychological need. This entails the preferred substance to become a main priority within an individual’s life; furthermore, this means that higher levels of achievement are likely not to be attained unless the drug is present. I think this factor is more related to psychological rather than biology as we know that recovery is possible, meaning it is possible for substance dependent individuals to eventually reach self-actualization.