Iran Book News Agency (IBNA) - Maslow, a vanguard of humanism and positivism physiology

Iran Book News Agency - Maslow, a vanguard of humanism and positivism physiology
We don't often hear of literary and humanist discussions in reference to culture in Iran. Here is an interesting report of a literary discussion of Abraham Maslow's work, as translated into Persian.

A session was held Saturday evening Sept 25 in the House of Literati on assessing Abraham Maslow's "Farther Reaches of Human Nature" in which university physiology professor Dr. Farshad Bahari and expert Sepideh Bateni said that Maslow was a vanguard of humanism and positivism physiology.

Talking about the book, Dr. Farshad Bahari said: Farther Reaches of Human Nature by Abraham Maslow has been converted into Persian by Mahin Milani and the work is released by Fararavan. Maslow is a humanist physiologist with humanism tendencies. The movement of humanism became popular in Europe following Behavior Therapy which mechanized the humans. He introduced Maslow as a vanguard of humanism and positivism physiology and added: "The work is a collection of Maslow's articles, a result of his working years which were compiled by his colleagues following his death."

In addition Sepideh Bateni said: "Maslow was born in 1980 in New York's Manhattan to a depressed mother and father. He would pursue law, but he went to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin to study psychology." Talking about the book she said that his main aim wasn’t penning a book but presenting notes and articles which were compiled later as a book. The title's concept means living in the moment which is emphasized in mysticism as well. Maslow believes that anxiety is either derived form looking back and regretting the past opportunities or looking forward to an unknown future.

She added: "Living in the moment doesn’t mean ignoring the future, but it is about enjoying the moment we live in. Maslow believed that the present time makes a man a real man..." Talking about Freud and Maslow's similarities she went on to say both of them considered self-analysis. Freud discovered the layers of human's characters and mind via self-analysis then he discovered the mind's division, conscious and unconscious. Moreover his thoughts towards the unconscious part weren't so positive overall, but Maslow reached to positive points."

She added that Maslow says every human's prosperity is his flourishing, in the Iranian culture flourishing means prominence. A human's eminence is only experienced when he feels his humanity.