Abraham Maslow is most known for his contribution to humanistic psychology, as he is one of the main founders. Born the 1st of April 1908 in Brooklyn New York, Maslow was the first of seven children. Maslow spoke of how he had an unhappy and lonely childhood and put it down to being the only Jewish family in the neighbourhood. His parents were uneducated but still insisted that he pursued a future in law. He spent three semesters studying in the City College of New York before he transferred.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He married at a tender age of twenty in 1928 to Bertha Goodman, an artist which he knew from childhood. Subsequent to the marriage Maslow fathered two daughters Ellen and Ann. Together they moved to Wisconsin where he studied and received his B.A., M.A and finally PHD (1934) in psychology. After obtaining his PHD Maslow went back to New York to work with fellow Psychologist Edward Thorndike at Columbia University where he was offered a postdoctoral research fellowship.

 

 

Maslow then began lecturing full time in Brooklyn College. It was here where he met many leading European psychologists such as Alfred Adler and Erich Fromm. Maslow found psychoanalysis to be interesting but he disagreed with Freud’s negative view of humanity that arose from his work. Maslow was insistent that human beings were capable of more. He began a study into people who have achieved and that were content with their lives. In 1970 he published a major study of these ‘self-actualised people’ and later passed away due to a heart attack that same year