Abraham Harold Maslow (1908-1970) was an American psychologist known for creating Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a theory of psychological health based on the fulfillment of innate human needs, the culmination of which is self-actualization.
Maslow was a professor of psychology at Alliant International University, Brandeis University, Brooklyn College, New School for Social Research, and at Columbia University. He stressed the importance of focusing on the positive qualities of people, rather than treating them as a "set of symptoms."
A General Psychology poll, published in 2002, ranked Maslow the 10th most cited psychologist of the 20th century.
Maslow's beginnings
Childhood
Coming from a Russian family of Jewish immigrants, Abraham Maslow was born on April 1, 1908 in Brooklyn, New York. It is in this neighborhood where he would begin his career and his first personal experiences.