"As America's most populous city ushers in the new mayorship of African-born Zohran Mamdani, the time seems opportune to highlight Abraham Maslow's own viewpoint on optimal urban life. He warmly recalled to a California business group, "My father was an immigrant. I was brought up in the slums of New York City. I am a sidewalk boy who has gone on to a marvelous location. I got to exactly the spot for which I was born.""
"But New York City not only evoked nostalgia for Maslow late in life, but also spurred his thoughts on what urban life should ideally be like. In this regard, two important aspects are vital to understanding Maslow's outlook: his lofty regard for the work of writer Lewis Mumford (1895-1990) and an unpublished letter to philanthropist John D. Rockefeller III, which Maslow wrote a month before his sudden death."
Abraham Maslow's formative experiences in New York City informed his view that urban environments shape human potentials. He associated bustling neighborhoods, aesthetic landmarks, and community life with psychological growth and well-being. Maslow respected Lewis Mumford's analyses of city life and connected Mumford's ideas to his own sense of how cities foster human flourishing. Maslow recalled institutions and places—from libraries and universities to seminar sites—that stimulated his intellectual and aesthetic development. He valued aesthetics as central to human well-being and referenced an unpublished letter to John D. Rockefeller III written shortly before his death as part of his urban reflections.
Read at Psychology Today
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