Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - Filling the Gaps

[Mondsee]

Hey guys, I was revisiting Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, and I started asking myself if similar to the spiral dynamics, it is necessary to go through all the stages, and have all aspects covered in other to ascend to higher levels.

Here are some examples to illustrate what I mean:

19 y/o who has:

• All of the physiological needs covered (breathing, food, water, sex, sleep, homeostasis, excretion)
• Most of the safety needs covered (security of: body, resources, morality, the family, health), but you're missing some of them (employment, property))
• All of the love/belonging needs covered (friendship, family, sexual intimacy)

26 y/o who has:

• Most of the physiological needs covered (breathing, food, water, sleep, homeostasis, excretion) but are missing one of them (sex)
• All of the safety needs covered (security of: body, employment, resources, morality, the family, health, property)
• Most of the love/belonging needs covered (friendship, family) but are missing one (sexual intimacy)

31 y/o who has:

• All of the needs from the first 3 stages covered
• Lacks confidence and self-esteem

Now, these are only examples, so I'm not asking for specific advice based on that, but how do you think having some gaps would affect the individuals? Do you think one person can reach self-transcendence levels lacking some of the needs? Or do you think every person who has reached self-transcendence have absolutely everything taken care of? What if for example you don't have a family, or your family is super disfunctional? You won't be able to cover that need, is it crucial?

I'm super curious about this so thanks for your insights!

[Widdle Puppy]

I don't think it's to be interpreted as an uncompromising or to the tiniest detail kind of checklist which keeps your development in a linear order. These concepts are fluid, dynamic, nuanced and have all sorts of shades to them. You can have gaps in them and depending on how you are framing your life or seeing things they might not be issues for you and you find work arounds. I'd say the first stage needs to be there since it's so foundational and then from there you can be dabbling in the ones above them, for instance you may be neck deep in filling in the second stage, knees for the third, but may only have your feet in the forth and your toes in the fifth one. 

Edited August 29, 2018 by Widdle Puppy

[Mondsee]

OK but take the 1st stage as an example... say an intimate relationship would take too much time and effort derailing your focus from Self Transcendence, but also having casual sex with random people would destabilize you too much. Therefore, you don't have the sex aspect covered. The only workaround I can think of, is finding a partner who is also focusing on Self Transcendence, but: would that be the only option??