A Theory of Human Motivation by Abraham Maslow (Review)

You can find the book being reviewed on Amazon for $0.99.  This is the kindle version, but if you do not have a kindle amazon has a free computer app which allows you to read kindle books on your computer.

Why we do what we do has been a question from our beginning.  This book covers what Maslow believes to be the main motivations of human behavior.  This is not a book, but a paper.  In your kindle it will be around 100 pages quite small, but packed full of good information.  This is perfect for those wondering what gives them drive and why at times their motivations change.  The theories presented in this paper are put forward very clearly and in a way which is easy to understand.

The writing is at a college level so this is not for those new to reading.  I found it not as difficult as many psychology books I have read, but still somewhat advanced.  I feel that anyone who has passed high school and has read regularly will probably not struggle much with this paper.

Over all I would give the book 7/10.  The translation and editing shows a few mistakes which should have been caught before publishing.  If this was a free version of the book I would have been much more lenient, but since they are charging a dollar I expect the book without any mistakes.  Another issue I had with  this piece is the length.  The ideas discussed in this paper deserve much more time and consideration they are in fact human motivation and therefore cover a great deal.

I did really like the way Maslow left himself wiggle room.  After reading the works of Freud who would not even consider his theories as off Maslow allowed for error.  He discussed in detail that there are many contributing factors for human motivation and his theories are only the groundwork for a more extensive research.  As with most books of academic field the writing is quite bland relying completely on the subject matter for interest.  This is a book you read for the information rather than a book read for the enjoyment of reading.

I do highly recommend this book for anyone with an interest in philosophy or psychology.  This book will bring you into the field slowly not overwhelming you will ideas or jargon.

In the future:
Right now I am in the middle of reading Crime and Punishment which you can pick up for a dollar here.  Also I may be writing some short stories which I will be selling here on my blog.