"- A ctualization \"What a man can be, he must be.\" [ This quotation forms the basis of the perceived need for self - actualization. This level of need refers to w hat a person's full potential is and the realization of that potential. Maslow describes this level as the desire to accomplish everything that one can, to become the most that one can be. Individuals may perceive or focus on this need very specifically. F or example, one individual may have the strong desire to become an ideal parent. In another, the desire may be expressed athletically. For others, it may be expressed in paintings, pictures, or inventions. As previously mentioned, Maslow believed that to u nderstand this level of need, the person must not only achieve the previous needs, but master them.\n\n22 Section 2.6 Self - T ranscendence In his later years, Abraham Maslow explored a further dimension of needs, while criticizing his own vision on self - actualiz ation. The self only finds its actualization in giving itself to some higher goal outside oneself, in altruism and spirituality, which is essentially the desire to reach infinite. \"Transcendence refers to the very highest and most inclusive or holistic lev els of human consciousness, behaving and relating, as ends rather than means, to oneself, to significant others, to human beings in general, to other species, to nature, and to the cosmos \" (Farther Re aches of Human Nature, New York 1971, p. 269). Section"