Maslow and Mensa

by Mark S. Hutchenreuther

The Premise

Around March of 1994, Janice Johnson asked me if I would give a talk for her Local Officer Training sessions at the New England Annual Gathering. Because of my frequent creative involvement in Mensa, she suggested a topic of "How to Bring Out the Creativity in Your Members." I immediately accepted, then set out to figure out what I would talk about.

I had been working on another topic at the time, called "The Singles Curmudgeon." In that talk, I briefly covered Maslow's hierarchy and my own "Hutch's Hierarchy of Relationships." I quickly realized that much of my talk should be about Maslow and his famous hierarchy.

Maslow's hierarchy is variously described as having five, six, or seven layers. Fortunately, the lower four layers and the top layer are common to all three schemes. If a sixth layer is included, it is placed between Self-Esteem Needs and Self-Actualization Needs, and it is called Self-Fulfillment Needs. In the seven layer scheme, Self-Fulfillment is divided into two layers, Cognitive Needs, and Aesthetic Needs. I will discuss the five-layer hierarchy for a number of reasons: it is simpler, it is sufficient, and it is what Maslow himself used in his last book.

Maslow's Hierarchy

Maslow believed that an individual must substantially satisfy the needs at the lowest level before he or she could begin to satisfy the needs at the next higher level. Only when the needs of all lower levels were satisfied could Self-Actualization Needs begin to be satisfied. Self-actualization is the fulfillment of one's human potential, and is often the point at which an individual becomes truly creative.

The Context of Society

Physiological Needs

This includes food, water, and sex as procreation (but not sex as love). Were Maslow alive today, I believe he would have added drugs to this layer, and more specifically, addiction. Picture the homeless person standing on the corner with a sign that says, "Will work for food." Or picture the criminal that will steal anything to support his drug habit. These people are trapped at the lowest level, unable to fulfill their physiological needs. Do they have feelings of self-esteem or belongingness? Not likely. On the other hand, they may appear creative in their means for satisfaction of these needs, but this is an aberration and is probably caused by extreme desperation.

Security and Safety Needs

This is probably where the homeless problem belongs. These people are unable to maintain a home and are forced to live in the wild, such as the local river bottoms. They have no roof over their heads, no door they can lock. They may keep all their possessions in a shopping cart, rolling it with them wherever they go. Any problems with unemployment and poverty probably belong here as well.

Belongingness Needs

This includes the need to be loved and the other part of sex as lovemaking. Children of single parents, who are left alone or in the care of someone else while their parent works, fit in here. They lack the family their friends and peers may have. They feel unloved because their overworked parent does not have the time to devote to them. Gangs and cults prey upon these people, as they do the people at the next level.

Self-Esteem Needs

It has been said that today's youth lack self-esteem. Schools and other institutions provide special training in self-esteem to counter this. Gangs and cults prey upon these people, and participation in those groups can provide self-esteem for these people.

Self Actualization Needs

Once a person has substantially satisfied the lower four levels of needs, he or she is able to perform or live at his or her full potential. Now they can work on their curiosity and need to understand. Now they can be creative.

What Does This Mean for Mensa?

First of all, I will assume that the Physiological and Security/Safety Needs of our members are sufficiently satisfied. I will assume they have enough to eat, that they are healthy, and that they have a home and steady employment.

However, the Belongingness and Self-Esteem Needs of our members and potential members may not be fully satisfied. They may be truly gifted, or merely very intelligent. They may have grown up feeling different, and perhaps even shunned for being different. They may be considered eggheads, nerds, or worse. They may not have a lot of friends, and may not be welcomed by their co-workers. They are intelligent people trapped in a very stupid world.

What if these people could find an organization of people like them? An extended family? A group of their peers? An organization that values intelligence? And more importantly, what if that organization could help satisfy their Belongingness Needs, and Self-Esteem Needs? If they could join such an organization, they could then begin to satisfy their Self-Actualization Needs.

Mensa is that organization. I do not believe we have a traditional product to offer these people. I'm not even sure we provide a traditional or alternative service. What we can provide them is an opportunity. We can provide them an opportunity to satisfy their self-esteem, to feel loved, to feel like they belong. We can provide them with an opportunity to become self-actualizing. And I believe this is what we should be advertising and "selling" to our target audience. We are sort of like an HMO for the mind, or an extended family.

Some may become what I call our "reclusive participants," members we never see, but members who renew each year. (I do not personally like the term "closet Mensan," this is my suggested replacement.) Perhaps the membership card and monthly newsletters are enough. Having that card in their pocket shows that they belong to a group. Once a month they get local and national newsletters that reinforce this, and in it they read about others who are just like them. That's all it takes to satisfy them and let them know they are OK, and that they are not merely nerds, or worse. Their $45 yearly dues are like a renewable insurance policy, or cheap therapy.

Some may remain isolated Ms for whatever reason. Some may participate in SIGs as members or coordinators, others may only attend the AG or RGs. They may even contribute articles or artwork to various newsletters, but not attend local meetings. And this may be enough, in their minds.

At some point we hope they will want more, that they will want to become active participants. They may have an initial fear of attending a local meeting. In our newsletters we need to project a feeling of "Wilkommen." We want to encourage them to come to our events, but we don't want to berate them for not doing so. We need to appeal to their need to be self-actualizing, to be creative. It's what Maslow would do.

Mensa -- An Opportunity For Self- Actualization.

Who He Was

Abraham Maslow was an American psychologist and leading exponent of humanistic psychology. He is best known for his hierarchy of needs. Born April 1, 1908, his IQ was once determined to be 195, the second highest at the time it was measured. He died in 1970. His books include:

Toward a Psychology of Being (1962)
Religions, Values, and Peak-Experiences (1964)
Motivation and Personality, 3rd Ed. (1970) highly recommended
The Farther Reaches of Human Nature (1971)

I welcome your comments.

Mark S. Hutchenreuther, better known as Hutch, is hutch@rain.org.

He is NOT a psychologist, he is actually an engineer who likes to paint, write, and attend Mensa gatherings. He learned about Maslow in 1970 and Mensa in 1982, but he didn't put the two together until 1994.

Visit his home page, or the home page of his Creative Mischief SIG.