Maslow on Management

Foreword to the New Edition

37 YEARS LATER

It’s amazing, isn’t it, that a book out-of-print for almost 37 years, a book that just barely sold its first printing and then virtually vanished from view—into oblivion really, without even a whimper—has suddenly burst upon the scene, piquing just about everybody’s interest. Intriguing thousands of Maslow fans and thousands of others who mistily remember his name from their undergraduate classes or when phrases like self-actualization or peak experiences or hierarchy of needs come to mind or scroll across their computer screens.

Why the book disappeared still bedevils me. Maybe it was the title. I had implored Abe to use a more reader-friendly title but who was I to challenge the maze of phrases and seductive writing. The original publishers, though, went ballistic but Abe stubbornly held out for, yes, Eupsychian Management.

But more likely, it was the times. A rather complacent industrial America, famously supreme since World War II, was not particularly interested in business books, especially by a psychologist who had no business experience to speak of. In addition to that daunting title, Abe writes in a discursive manner—thought pieces, nuggets thrown about, rough drafts, like artists’ sketches or finger exercises for the violin.

The entries in this book were transcribed word-for-word from his journals. When Abe first showed his journals to me, I said very forcefully, “you must publish them.” He resisted for months, said they were ...