Another point of criticism is that Maslow poses that one must take care of the lower needs before self-actualization can come to the forefront, yet, we can find many examples of people who exhibit self-actualization that are far from having their lower needs met. Many of our best artists and authors, for example, suffered from poverty, bad upbring, neuroses, and depression. Some could even be called psychotic. If you think about it, Galileo, who prayed for ideas that would sell, or Rembrandt who could barely keep food on the table. Or Toulouse Lautrec, whose body tormented him, or Van Gogh who besides poor, wasn't quite right in the head. Weren't these people engaged in some form of self-actualization? The idea of artist and poets and philosopher
