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Maslow’s Pyramid of Needs is undoubtedly one of the most iconic psychological images. Reprinted countless times, the pyramid depicts physiological needs such as breathing, food, and water at the base of the pyramid. The next layer is safety and security, then comes love and belonging, then self-esteem and respect, with self-actualization at the top. 马斯洛的需求金字塔无疑是最为经典的心理学图像之一。这幅被重印了无数次的金字塔中，底层是诸如呼吸、食物和水等生理需求，再往上是安全，之后，是爱和归属，然后，是自尊和尊敬，最高顶点是自我实现。 Once you’ve seen it, the idea of a pyramid of needs sticks with you. It is intuitive, it is memorable – and it is wrong. As an image of human needs, Maslow’s Pyramid of Needs is mistaken on two accounts: It’s not Maslow’s pyramid. And the needs don’t form a pyramid. 一旦你看过这张图，这一金字塔形状的需求理论就会牢牢印在你脑海中。它非常直观，它令人难忘，但同时，它也是错误的。作为人类需求图，马斯洛的需求金字塔在两个方面存在错误： 这并非马斯洛的金字塔， 而且人类需求也并非金字塔形状存在。 First, rather surprisingly, Abraham Maslow himself never created a pyramid of needs. Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1908, Maslow is still regarded as one of the most influential Twentieth-century psychologists who is indeed especially famous for his theory of human needs. Reacting to the atrocities of the WWII, Maslow wanted to develop a psychology of human potential, the good in each of us, and what humans ultimately need to flourish. 首先，非常出人意外的是，马斯洛本人从来没有创造过金字塔需求。他于1908年出生于纽约布鲁克林，至今，他依旧被视为最具影响力的20世纪心理学家之一，他因其所提出的人类需求理论而广为知名。 当初，面对第二次世界大战中的暴行，马斯洛希望提出一个关于人类潜力、每个人类个体之中都存在的美好，以及实现成功生活所需的终极需求的心理学理论。 However, the shape of a pyramid is nowhere to be found in Maslow’s writings. It was a bunch of management scholars who in the late 50s and early 60s drew the pyramid as a mnemonic for managers wanting “maximum motivation at lowest cost.” The pyramid, thus, does not have anything to do with Maslow himself but rather the iconic shape spread through management textbooks and business consultants eager to sell the pyramid as a tool to extract motivation from unsuspecting employees. 但在马斯洛著作中，金字塔形状并不存在。其实是上世纪50年代末和60年代初时的一帮管理学学者画出了这张金字塔图，帮助想要“以最低成本获得最大驱动力”的管理人员记忆这些需求。因此，这一金字塔与马斯洛本身并无关系，实际上，这一经典形状其实是通过管理学教科书和企业顾问而广为传播。这些企业顾问们急切想要将这一金字塔兜售为从毫无疑心的员工身上榨取驱动力的工具。 Second, the scientific community realized already decades ago that while humans certainly might have psychological needs, these needs don’t arrange themselves into a clear hierarchy. Furthermore, the list of needs provided by Maslow has been challenged by newer, more empirically supported theories. 其次，科学界早在数十年前就已经意识到，尽管人类肯定可能是有心理需求的，但这些需求并没有一个明确的层级。而且，马斯洛所列出的需求也受到了一些更新、更具有实证证据的理论的挑战。 In a bold new book, entitled 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. 在一本名为《超越——自我实现的新科学理论》的新书中，心理学家 Scott Barry Kaufman旨在让马斯洛理论更贴合实际，于是保留了马斯洛理论的健康核心部分，同时融入了马斯洛于1970年6月8日在加利福尼亚门洛帕克去世后五十年中经验心理学领域的最新进展。当时马斯洛正一腔热血修正他自己的理论，但一次致命的心脏病不幸导致这一修正过程戛然而止。 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 breath again. The more precarious a physical need becomes, the more it preoccupies our mind. Hunger is a powerful motivation. However, as long as my access to water, food, and shelter feels secured, I don’t think about them much. Deficit needs thus become activated mainly when we are lacking them. Kaufman认为，马斯洛理论中通过时间检验的部分，是他把需求分为了两类。首先，有匮乏型需求，这类需求主导着我们的驱动力，当极度缺乏时，会优于其他任何高层级需求。如果我在水下，开始缺氧，这时候我首先想到的并不是自我实现。我唯一在乎的，是能够再次呼吸。当一个生理需求却迫切，它就越主导占据我们的大脑。饥饿，是一种强大的驱动力，但只要我对水、食物和住所的需求得到满足，我并不会在很大程度上注意到这些需求。因此，匮乏型需求被激活，主要是在我们缺乏它们时。 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 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. 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 we don’t have to worry about mere survival. 但人类的存在并不只是对匮乏的被动反应。正如Solomon Northup在《为奴12年》中令人难忘的一句话：我不想要生存，我想要生活。 我们人类并不只是生存机器，而是主动的、以成长为目标的，迫切希望接受挑战，以此来展现我们的全部潜力。 人类有自我实现的倾向，如马斯洛所说，“实现自身潜能”。在追求自我实现的道路上，我们被马斯洛所说的“成长需求”所引导。匮乏型需求由恐惧、焦虑、消除匮乏所驱动，而成长型需求则会将我们引导至我们认为有趣、有价值的目标。这些目标，是当我们不用担心生存时，吸引我们前往的、我们自我实现感的来源。 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 for survival. Kaufman proposes three such needs: feeling safe, feeling of belonging and 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. 但金字塔需求论则未能描述匮乏型需求与成长型需求的这种区别。因此，Kaufman 提出了帆船形需求说。
人生并非一个项目或一项比赛，它是一段航程，一段航行在“充满着能够探寻意义与发现的全新机遇，同时也充满着危险和不确定性的浩瀚蓝色海洋”的航程。 船体部分，能够让我们漂浮在海面，避免波浪侵袭。它代表着对于生存至关重要的匮乏型需求。 Kaufman提出了三种此类需求：安全感、归属感和不被他人拒绝感、保护个人自尊。换言之，我们需要在生理领域、人际领域以及自己与自己的关系领域内都感到安全。 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 to embrace life and direct our efforts towards actualizing ourselves. 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. 但只是拥有稳固的船体，并不会让这艘船前行。Kaufman 引用 Seneca的话：“如果一个人不知道自己将驶向哪个港口，那么没有风是顺风。”我们需要做的，是打开船帆，大胆拥抱生活，全力驶向自我实现。 关于成长导向型需求，Kaufman提出了这三种：探索、爱、目标。 我们探索我们的环境，感受探索所带来的纯粹愉悦；我们想要与他人建立深层的连接感与爱；我们追求值得追求的目标，为我们的行动提供能量。 因此，成长型需求并没有被描述为一个需要攀爬的金字塔，它们的真谛，是张开双臂面对生活，敢于将人生视为一次追寻过程。 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 through 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, and whole societies. When designing and critically examining them, we should be asking are they helping 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. 当然，船体越坚固，就越易于大胆张开船帆。想要敢于去探索和成长，我们需要有稳固的基底。这也是为什么马斯洛希望通过移除种种障碍，如物质匮乏、情感冷漠、击碎我们梦想的社会机构，让每个人都能够拥有获得成长型人生的机遇。 这些需求，可以用来衡量我们当前的社会机构，如学校、工作场所以及整个社会。当设计与审视这些机构时，我们应该问，他们是否在帮助我们满足我们的需求，还是它们阻碍了我们的需求。如果是后者，那么它们就需要被修正。我们每个人都应该被给与平等的机遇去追求我们的自由，而只有当我们的体制机构能够给我们提供安全感与归属感时，这种追求才能成为可能。 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 through ensuring that as many as possible can grow up, live, and work in environments that support the satisfaction of our basic psychological needs. 这是马斯洛理论中值得为其而战的遗赠：构建能够支持每个人成长、让每个人能够成为最好的自己的文化与社会机构。要实现这一目标，我们需要确保尽可能多的人能够在可以满足我们基本心理需求的环境中长大、生活、工作。
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