What Maslow Missed in his Hierarchy of Needs - The Native Self Actualization Model: An Interview with Dr. Sidney Stone Brown

What Maslow Missed in his Hierarchy of Needs - The Native Self Actualization Model: An Interview with Dr. Sidney Stone Brown

An Interview with Dr. Sidney Stone Brown, LPC

Sidney Stone Brown was born in Kalispell Montana, and is an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Indian Nation of Browning Montana. She was raised on / near her reservation until 1955, living in her great grandmother’s log house with her parents, great uncle, brother and older sisters. They had no running water or indoor toilets; the house was heated with oil and light by kerosene lanterns until 1950. Dr. Brown’s family relocated to Coos Bay Oregon when their reservation faced termination in 1955. Thereafter Dr. Brown attended west coast schools. She attended 30 different schools between first grade and graduation at Oregon State University in 1974.

Dr. Brown worked her way through college and was employed by her tribe as an employment counselor, where she met a resident psychologist working at the tribal Hospital and became interested in Psychology. Near completion of her master’s program she contracted with 1) the University of Minnesota developing community action teams for the Red Cliff Reservation, 2) a Lakota CAP agency in Rapid City South Dakota acting alcohol program director and 3) the University of Utah (Montana Wyoming) Alcohol Counselor Trainer and 4) became permanent employment as director of NARA 1974. The program was originally funded at $81,000 and in ten years was 1.2 million. NARA (1981) won a national recognition award for program excellence and it was noted at the presentation in New Orleans that the model (Native Self Actualization) she developed was the most innovative cross-cultural model ever submitted to the National Council on Alcoholism since the awards began in 1946.

She has served on many other non-profit boards, appointed a member of the (ADAMHA) Alcohol and Drug Abuse Mental Health Administration Minority Advisory Committee (1974-1976). She lobbied for Indian and minority services at the Oregon State Legislature subcommittees, and before the US Senate. she helped form the board and helped develop the certification criteria for NW Indian Alcohol Drug Counselor Certification Board.

In this podcast episode, we talk about The Native Self-Actualization Model

How has native teaching impacted psychology?

• Erickson and Jung studied with different tribes
• Maslow studied with the Blackfoot people before creating his Hierarchy of Needs
• Maslow did not publish or acknowledge the work of the Blackfoot tribe
• Maslow’s work was for corporations

What did Maslow find when studying Native people?

• Most people were secure (versus the high percentage of folks in poverty on the East Coast)
• He moved from behaviorist to humanist
• Learned the way of life with the Blackfoot Tribe

What is the Native Self-Actualization Model?

• Inverted Lodge or Teepee (turning Maslow’s hierarchy of needs upside down)
• The inherent purpose or promise babies come into the world with
• The philosophy of Indigenous People
• The importance of culture and altruism

What has impacted Native mental health?

• Clement Bear Chief’s concept of the holes torn through Native communities
• The sexualization and objectification of Native women
• The need for protection people, earth, animals
• The story of the Blackfoot relationship with the buffalo
• The commonality of the indigenous experience
• Everything that was taken from Native people creating holes
• How to incorporate indigenous practices and teachings to support mental health treatment

Important Takeaways

• The importance of intergenerational knowledge
• It is essential that indigenous wisdom and way of life survive
• The power of altruism and reciprocity
• We all are human beings and need to take care of each other