Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs

I've heard other writers talk about "the basic human needs", and it occured to me that this was a BRILLIANT tool for writing!

Because writing -- particularly screenwriting -- is about emotions: the emotions that the characters feel (because they motivate the characters' actions) and the emotions the audience feels.

And the best way to evoke emotional response is to jeopardize the basic human needs. You tell a story about a woman who is starving and unable to buy food and something primal stirs inside the person who hears the story. We've all experienced a lack of food. We've all experienced a lack of money. So we can relate comprehend what it might be like to be broke and hungry.

It seems to me that having a prioritized list of human needs would be EXTREMELY useful for a writer.

A Note: I'm not a Psyche student, so I'm not going to attempt in-depth explainations of this. A Google search can give you more info if you're interested. (I got this info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs.)

So here's Abarham Maslow's hierarchy of human needs.

Deficiency Needs:
If we don't have this stuff our quality of life is deficient.

Physiological - food, drink, air, sleep, comfy temperature. This is the First Level of human Necessity. If we lack one of these, THAT'S our priority. When our physiological needs are met we seek to fulfill the needs of the next level.

Safety - We need to feel safe and secure. If we don't, THIS becomes our priority. Once we're well-fed and well rested and feel safe and secure, we move up to the next level.

Love/Belonging - family, platonic companionship, sexual companionship, acceptence by others. When we're safe and healthy, emotion-based relationships becomes our priority. When we're good there, we feel the need for the next level of fulfillment.

Esteem - respect of others, recognition by others, self-respect.

Being Needs:
Maslow describes the above needs as "basic" and sees the following needs as motivators of growth.

self-actualization - "The instinctual need of a human to make the most of their unique abilities."

self-transcendence - "Connecting to something beyond the ego or to help others find self-fulfillment and realize their potential."

Sounds right to me. And this guy came up with this theory in 1943!

It's interesting to note that starting in 1976 some bozos argued that the Being Needs were just psycho babble and that humans don't "need" to make the most of their unique abilities or to transcend beyond themeselves.

I think that's interesting because in this country people regularly deny themselves sleep and nutritious food, we watch news media and comercials that are constantly telling us the sky is falling and that we should buy this or that to make ourselves better, and with all this stuff we have to buy we constantly feel like we don't have enough money, and we're encouraged to be "humble" so we don't respect or love ourselves, so naturally we don't have any respect or meaningful love for anyone else.

Generally, we live in a deficite society, most of us, and so NATURALLY there aren't many of us who
who CAN begin to feel the needs -- yes, I said NEEDS -- to self-actualize and self-transcend!

Hmm. Actually, this fact alone could probably drive a whole career of screenplays...

However, one way this list could be really useful in a screenplay is figuring out how to raise the stakes of a character's situation. Let's say the character has been striving to get another character to help him out (Level 3, Esteem). The way to dramatically raise the stakes would be to take away a Level 2 (Safety) or Level 1 (Physiology) need! If he just acquired an ally, then take his oxygen away, or drop a safe on his leg.

You know?

Anyway, here's the list! May it help you to make the most out of your unique abilities!