In 1943 Abraham Maslow, an American behavioural scientist, published an article entitled "A Theory of Human Motivation" in which he argued that people everywhere are subject to what he called a "hierarchy of needs". At the bottom are food and shelter, sex and sleep: elementary physiological needs. Next come the basic needs for safety and security. As long as these things are lacking-as they are for billions of the world's poor-the search for them dominates every aspect of life.rnBut once basic needs are met, people move up "Maslow's pyramid" to look for other things: what he called "belonging needs" (love, acceptance, affiliation), "esteem needs" (self-respect, social status, the approval of others) and at the top "self-ac-tualisation" (as he put it, "a musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself").
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