Review Of Tony Schwartz's Article 'The Enduring Hunt For Personal Value'

Tony Schwartz wrote an article called, “The Enduring Hunt for Personal Value,” he talks about what people will do and what they have done to make themselves feel fuller and better about themselves. Although, Schwartz makes a lot of claims in his article, there were a few that stuck out to me that I really agree with. The first was when Schwartz first stated that even with all the differences people have, they all have the shared core hunger and he says, that it is for value. Schwartz also states, that it’s when we achieve our basic needs that we crave value over everything else. I agreed with both of Schwartz claims because of the things I see every day.

Schwartz first claim was about hunger for value, and I really agree with him. I feel like humans will do things whether good or bad to feel better about themselves. Schwartz used studies done by James Gilligan to support these claims. Gilligan wrote a book called, Violence: Reflections on a National Epidemic, and in this book, Gilligan had encounters with different kinds of people, such as mental health patients and prisoners. He had generally the same …show more content…
According to Maslow and his hierarchy of needs, humans achieve their physiological needs and safety before they start to go up the pyramid to the other basic needs such as love and belonging, esteem and finally at the top, self-actualization. Schwartz’s claim relates to the top levels of the Hierarchy. Most people will have achieved their basic needs before attempting to gain self-value. I can personally relate to this claim as well, after I’m aware that I’m safe and taken care of, I will go bigger and try to accomplish other things. Moving to college is a great example. I’ve had to make sure I’m taken care of and all my needs are met before I can focus on other levels of my