Exactly, except that I digenous cultures realized that self actualization is a circle, something you are inherently born with, it's a birth right, not something you have to earn, there's no beginning and no end. Also ,either you all (the whole tribe) have it or none of you have it.

Maslow presented his philosophy to a tribe and they laughed at him. He walked away from that encounter knowing g his pyramid scheme was a folly.

It was his higher up that convinced him to publish anyway. And he did.

So there we are. A century or so later and the population at large has bought into this idea and invested our culture heavily into it, when he knew early on that it was nonsense.

But he still published it, for fame and prestige. And we've all been had by a fraud. We put our self esteem and sense of self worth into thr hands of a hack. And then we have run wild with it. It went where it was inevitably going to go. Massive rates of depression and loneliness in both men and women. Women are doing better because we're starting to snap out of it and reconnect earnestly with ourselves and each other. But let's not forget that one generation ago, something like 70% of middle age women were either self medicating or were on antidepressants. 70%, when I was a teenager. And it all tracks back to Maslow's goddamned idiotic pyramid.

Also don't have references at hand so I might be a little fuzzy on the exact details, but that's the gist.