Humanistic psychology was the result of serious reflections of the American society, faced with the question of what the human being is all about, what is his potential and the ways of development. Of course, these questions were raised earlier and were considered by representatives of different schools. However, two world wars led to global changes in society, which entailed the importance of new ideas and understandings.
What does humanistic psychology study?
The main subject of studying humanistic direction in psychology is healthy, mature, creatively active individuals, striving for permanent development and occupying an active life position. Psychologists of the humanistic current did not oppose man and society. Unlike other areas, they believed that there was no conflict between society and the individual. On the contrary, in their view, it is social success that gives a person a sense of the fullness of human life.
Personality in humanistic psychology
The foundations of humanistic psychology originate in the philosophical traditions of the humanists of the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, German Romanticism, the teachings of Feuerbach, Nietzsche, Husserl, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, the doctrine of existentialism and eastern philosophical and religious systems.
The methodology of humanistic psychology is disclosed in the works of such authors:
- A. Maslow, K. Rogers, S. Jurard, F. Barron, who expressed their views on a mentally healthy, fully functioning personality;
- on the development of the personality in humanistic psychology, the problem of driving forces in the formation and development of the individual, about the needs and values written by A. Maslow, V. Frankl, S. Bühler;
- the problem of interpersonal relations and the disclosure of oneself in relationships are described by K. Rogers, S. Jurard, R. May;
- about the problems of freedom and responsibility, wrote F. Barron, R. May and V. Frankl.
In general, the personality of a person is considered in such aspects:
- man is not a set of constituents, but a whole person;
- each person is unique, so it is more appropriate to approach each specific case from the point of view of his individuality. Based on this representation, statistical generalizations do not make sense;
- human life is a single process of being and becoming a person;
- man is an active being who needs development;
- the main psychological reality is the experience of a person;
- a person can be guided by his principles and values, which helps him to be, to some extent, independent of external causes.
Methods of humanistic psychology
Humanistic psychology has become widespread, which has led to an expansion of the set of methods suitable for this direction. Among the most famous methods are:
- art therapy - self-awareness through drawing, music, movement;
- auto-training by the method of I.Shultz - immersion in yourself, communication with your inner self;
- visualization by C. Simonton - awareness of desires, building goals
through a visual representation; - eastern techniques, which includes meditation, yoga, hatha yoga, taijiquan, tantrism, etc.
- vegetotherapy for B. Reich, based on the idea that chronic diseases are the result of muscle clamps caused by stress ;
- Neuro-linguistic programming, whose founders are J. Grinder and R. Bandler. They paid special attention to verbal formulations that can influence the human psyche.
It would be inaccurate to call humanistic psychology a scientific theory. At the time of appearance, she took an important niche in the understanding that there is a person, and pretty quickly became a general cultural phenomenon.