Abraham Maslow is best known for his hierarchy of needs. The American psychologist divided human motivation into five categories: safety, self-esteem, belonging, status and identification.
Maslow organised human needs in a logical order on the principle that the most basic needs have to be fulfilled before you’re able to satisfactorily attain higher levels of the pyramid.
For example, the most basic of survival needs include food, air, water and shelter. Beyond that, you feel physically and financially safe when you have some job stability, and you’re in good physical health.
Next up on the rung is to feel a sense of belonging, which supports your self-esteem, which is the next attainment goal. At the top tier are self-actualisation and transcendence.
Maslow breaks down his concept into two broad categories: deficiency needs and growth needs.
He called deficiency needs “D-needs” and growth needs “B-love”. The latter is described as “beyond the shadow of a doubt, a richer, higher, more valuable subjective experience than D-love.” Maslow, p.44 (1962)
D-needs, or deficiency needs, Maslow says, invite neurosis.
“What makes people neurotic?” My answer (a modification of and, I think, an improvement upon the analytical one) was, in brief, that neurosis seemed at its core and in its beginning, to be a deficiency disease; that it was born out of being deprived of certain satisfaction which I called needs in the same sentence that water and amino acids and calcium are needs, namely that their absence produces illness. Most neuroses involved, along with other complex determinants, ungratified wishes for safety, for belongingness and identification, for close relationships and for respect and prestige. (p.26, Kindle Loc 436)… when these deficiencies were eliminated, sickness tended to disappear.”
~ Abraham Maslow, Toward A Psychology Of Being (1962)
Understanding what Maslow means by deficiency needs is essential to understanding his entire theory of human motivation.
The Basic Premise of Maslow’s Deficiency Needs
Deficiency needs arise from a lack of something.
Maslow argued that deficiency needs operate on a logic of absence: you feel them because something is missing.
Hunger arises because you lack food. Anxiety arises because you lack safety. Loneliness arises because you lack connection.
Once the deficiency is corrected, the need subsides. Personal growth is attainable once the most basic human needs are satisfied.
The Drive to Restore Balance
Maslow believed deficiency needs function homeostatically, meaning the body and mind are constantly working to restore a baseline state of equilibrium.
When a deficiency need goes unmet, it creates tension, discomfort, or anxiety that pushes a person to act until balance is restored.
Importantly, Maslow argued that unmet deficiency needs don’t just cause discomfort in isolation — they actively interfere with a person’s ability to function well in other areas of life.
If you feel unsafe, isolated, or chronically disrespected, it is difficult to feel good. When you feel low, you seek forms of comfort, joy and pleasure, many of which are destructive.
Until the emotional wounds that make you feel unsafe, isolated and disrespected are healed, your deficiency needs are not met.
In other words, there is no emotional input that supports personal growth. Subsequently, life becomes a struggle because you are always wanting something to fulfil a need.
Deficiency Needs vs. Growth Needs
The contrast Maslow drew was with what he called B-love or “being needs”.
Personal growth starts with emotional safety, i.e self-worth, self-acceptance, self-love etc.
Deficiency needs imply you are lacking emotional fortitude; a lack of self-worth, a lack of self-acceptance, a lack of self-love.
Whereas deficiency needs motivate you towards relief, comfort or pleasure, growth needs motivate you to fulfil your potential.
A person pursuing growth needs isn’t trying to fix a deficit; it provides you with the energy and the effort to strive and thrive.
Why Deficiency Needs Mattered to Maslow
This distinction between deficiency needs and growth needs was central to Maslow’s broader argument about psychological health.
He proposed that deficiency needs generally have to be reasonably satisfied before a person can meaningfully engage with growth needs.
Growth needs are a constructive force which encourages and enables you to attain worthwhile goals.
Emotional wounds that cause lack can be a degenerative force. A survival mindset tends to cling to the safety of what it knows. You think the same, behave the same, feel the same.
Deficiency needs emerge when split-off parts of the personality are not consciously accessible to you. In other words, you lack the archetypal quality that would otherwise enable you to adapt to situations that you encounter.
Abraham Maslow described this state of consciousness as D-love, meaning there is a deficiency of love, which allows the force of fear to emerge.
Fear keeps you rooted to your bubble of comfort. To be happy, fulfilled, and abundant in life, it’s necessary to step beyond the comfort zone and pursue worthwhile goals that give your life meaning.
In the pursuit of personal growth, you become more independent, autonomous, and altruistic. You become less jealous, threatened and disinterested.
Maslow ends his description of B-love by saying:
“…that B-love, in a profound but testable sense, creates the partner. It gives him a self-image; it gives him self-acceptance, a feeling of love-worthiness and respect-worthiness, all of which permit him to grow. It is a real question with a beautiful development of the human being as possible without it.”
~ Abraham Maslow, Toward A Psychology Of Being. p.44 (1962)
Identifying Deficiency Needs
Maslow identified D-Needs with neuroses. Neurotic disorders are classified as excessive and maladaptive patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving.
Anxiety, depression and OCD are the most common forms of neuroticism today, but you can also identify deficiency needs in addictions and other forms of compulsive behaviours.
These behaviours are a coping strategy that attempts to satisfy a deficiency need. For example, the need to feel loved is satisfied through promiscuity. If you can’t find relief in sex, the need is satisfied by comfort food.
Maslow also noted that deficiency needs are a “distorted version of an impulse toward growth, toward perfection of development, toward fulfilment of the person’s possibilities.” Maslow, p.26 (1962)
“He who belies his talent, the born painter who sells stockings instead, the intelligent man who lives a stupid life, the man who sees the truth and keeps his mouth shut, the coward who gives up his manliness, all these people perceive in a deep way that they have done wrong to themselves and despise themselves for it. Out of this self punishment may come only neurosis, but there may equally well come renewed courage, righteous indignation, increased self-respect, because of thereafter doing the right thing; in the word, growth and improvement can come through pain and conflict.”
~ Abraham Maslow, Toward A Psychology Of Being, pp.16-17 (1962)
The more you move towards self-actualisation, the more archetypal qualities you integrate into conscious awareness, and by proxy, the automated programs activated by your subconscious.
As you upgrade subconscious programs with helpful, positive and constructive behaviours, you expand conscious awareness and adapt to life. In short, you’re better equipped to handle everything life throws at you.
Life Coaching Program
Libera Mente has designed a life coaching program using an archetypes model.
The archetypes tool illustrates why you are encountering challenges in your life, the emotional wound causing your problems and how you can heal, grow and thrive.
You can also work on adopting attitudes, beliefs, perceptions and philosophies which are helpful, constructive and positive.
The key factor is listening to the parts of your nature that you have ignored. When you connect with your emotions, it paves the way to realise and integrate latent qualities that lie dormant in the Superconscious.
If you feel as though something in your life is lacking, and you struggle to change bad habits or control destructive behaviours, take a look at our archetypes model in Beyond The Comfort Zone.
It’s a life-changer.
