self-actualisation

The psychologist Abraham Maslow coined the term ‘self-actualisation’ to describe what he saw as the highest of all human ‘needs’.Those from a culture less focussed on individualistic striving may see belonging to a community, and taking collective action, as equally valid. Here the term covers and equates creative self-expression, such as in the arts, with individuality (as in: ‘I did it my way’) and living life to the full ( see also ‘recovery’).