Pathology Model In Humanistic Psychology

Regarding the primary model of pathology in the 3^rd force, Maslow (1954) enumerates two points about major impediments to self-actualization: deprivation, conflict, and threat.         

First, Maslow (1954) points out that being deprived of, for example, love, prestige, respect, or other basic needs will have a negative effect on human psyche. And these kinds of deprivations are almost the same as threat. However, Maslow raises an alarm over this point. In the Maslow’s view, the inevitable deprivations in childhood such as sexual deprivation are regarded as a kind of frustrations, and these are not necessarily pathological. In that sense, the clear distinction between the certain deprivations which are like threat and mere deprivations is important.

              Second, Maslow (1954) demonstrates some types of conflicts, but I’d like to choose one concept of them: “catastrophic conflict” (p. 159). It’s a well-known fact that we live with innumerable choices in daily lives, but “all the choices are equally catastrophic or threatening in their effects or else there is only one possibility and this is a catastrophic threat” (p. 159). Although this type of conflict is common in the animal world, human beings also suffer from it and it becomes a kind of pathology to prohibit self-actualization.

              According to Maslow, a certain threat in our lives becomes a factor to inhibit our psychological growth. Maslow (1954) explicates that “synonymizing ‘threat’ with ‘growth-inhibiting’ creates the difficult possibility of a situation being at this moment subjectively nonthreatening, but threatening or growth-inhibiting in the future” (p. 166). This sentence implies that a certain present event seems to be nonthreatening in that moment, but it may include a future risk of prohibiting self-actualization. With respect to this point, Maslow (1954) illustrates by an example that a child hopes for satisfaction which will please him, quiet him, reduce anxiety, etc., but which might have a possibility to inhibit his psychological growth. In terms of Maslow’s view, the above three concepts lead to pathology to restrain self-actualization.

Reference

Motivation and Personality