Definition[edit]

Maslow defined self-actualization to be "self-fulfillment, namely the tendency for him [the individual] to become actualized in what he is potentially. This tendency might be phrased as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming."^[3] He used the term to describe a desire, not a driving force, that could lead to realizing one's capabilities. He did not feel that self-actualization determined one's life; rather, he felt that it gave the individual a desire, or motivation to achieve budding ambitions.^[4] Maslow's idea of self-actualization has been commonly interpreted as "the full realization of one's potential" and of one's "true self."^[4]


A more explicit definition of self-actualization according to Maslow is "intrinsic growth of what is already in the organism, or more accurately of what is the organism itself ... self-actualization is growth-motivated rather than deficiency-motivated."^[5]: 66 This explanation emphasizes the fact that self-actualization cannot normally be reached until other lower order necessities of Maslow's hierarchy of needs are satisfied. While Goldstein defined self-actualization as a driving force, Maslow uses the term to describe personal growth that takes place once lower order needs have essentially been met, one corollary being that, in his opinion, "self-actualisation ... rarely happens ... certainly in less than 1% of the adult population."^[6] The fact that "most of us function most of the time on a level lower than that of self-actualization" he called the psychopathology of normality.^[7]


Maslow's usage of the term is now popular in modern psychology when discussing personality from the humanistic approach.