Humanistic Psychology Timeline

4873 Words20 Pages
I. INTRODUCTION The origins of humanistic psychology can be traced as far back as the middle ages when the philosophy of humanism was born. The basic belief of this philosophy is that every person has worth and the right to achieve self-realization through reason and rational thought. The early humanism movement began in 15th century Europe as a protest against the closed-minded religious dogma of the church's scholars and philosophers. Modern humanistic psychology emerged in about the mid-1950s as a reaction by clinical psychologists, social workers, and counselors against behaviorism and psychoanalysis. Humanistic psychology is a psychological perspective that emphasizes the study of the whole person. Humanistic psychologists look at…show more content…
He was an outspoken critic of his contemporaries, and was largely responsible for integrating the humanistic and existential traditions. He was born in Ohio, and after graduating from Oberlin College in 1930 he worked and travelled in Europe, where he met and studied with Alfred Adler. Returning to the USA he worked as a counsellor at Michigan State University, and studied theology at the Union Theological Seminary. In 1939 he published The Art of Counselling, notable as both a present-day classic in the field and the very first text on counselling to be published in America. Turning away from the ministry, he studied at Columbia, but contracted tuberculosis. After his struggle with the illness, during convalescence he had the opportunity to study the work of Kierkegaard and others. On recovery, he completed his Ph.D. thesis on counselling psychology under the supervision of Paul Tillich. Influenced by his own experience of fighting the illness, and his study of European philosophy, he argued that human nature can only be understood by focusing on the individual's subjective experience. He felt that anxiety was the key to selfhood, since it sets us in search of ourselves. He emphasized the central role of freedom, choice and responsibility in human existence, and proposed that the authentic self was only experienced when we assert…show more content…
This school of psychology gives people more credit in controlling and determining their state of mental health. * It also takes environmental influences into account. Rather than focusing solely on our internal thoughts and desires, humanistic psychology also credits the environment's influence on our experiences. * Humanistic psychology continues to influence therapy, education, healthcare, and other areas. * Humanistic psychology helped remove some of the stigma attached to therapy and made it more acceptable for normal, healthy individuals to explore their abilities and potential through therapy * One of the greatest strengths of humanistic psychology is that it emphasizes individual choice and responsibility. Humanistic psychology satisfies most people's idea of what being human means because it values personal ideals and self-fulfillment. Finally, humanistic psychology provides researchers with a flexible framework for observing human behavior because it considers a person in the context of his environment and in conjunction with his personal perceptions and feelings. IV.
Open Document