Humanistic psychology is short and clear. Representatives

The field of psychology includes disciplines with different approaches that have emerged over centuries of scientific development. One of them is the humanistic movement, which arose at the dawn of the 60s in the USA as an alternative to psychoanalysis and behaviorism, which occupied dominant positions at that time. A short and clear explanation of the humanistic approach is to work with the emotional, creative and moral aspects of a person.

The individual is considered as a complex and unique system with variable behavior endowed with free will. This contradicts the views of adherents of behaviorism and psychoanalysis, who generalize the interpretation of human behavior by impulses of the unconscious and equate the reflexes of people with animals.

What is humanistic psychology in simple words

Humanistic psychology, briefly and clearly characterized as focused on the characteristics and aspirations of the human personality, describes it as a unique structure whose exclusive property is self-actualization. According to this discipline, a person independently creates himself throughout his entire existence, which is why he cannot be considered complete at any specific point in time.

This branch of psychology is also called the 3rd force in relation to psychoanalysis and behaviorism.

She works with sublime manifestations of personality, which include:

• autonomy;
• Liberty;
• self-realization;
• moral principles;
• creation;
• personal growth;
• Love;
• responsibility;
• meaning of life;
• sound thinking;
• communication.

The principle of becoming

One of the most important principles of humanistic psychology is that a person is constantly in the process of becoming. For example, a final year university student will be different from a giggling, hip freshman. After a few more years, a young specialist in his field will also differ from a graduate. He will be able to master new life paths related to his career or, for example, family life.

Those people who consciously refuse their development actually refuse personal growth. They deny the fact that they have the potential for a full-fledged existence. According to humanistic psychology, a big mistake is to refuse opportunities to make every moment of your life as rich as possible. For a psychologist of this direction, such a view is nothing more than a perversion of what a person could potentially be. Life is an immutable value, and therefore a person must fill every moment of existence with meaning.

What does humanistic psychology study?

This scientific movement, of which popular positive psychology is one subtype, defines people as active independent subjects. According to this teaching, they differ from each other due to unique sets of qualities that, while ensuring human individuality, integrity and freedom of choice, do not interfere with the existence of society.

Humanistic psychology has a specific research process, one of the main differences of which is an individual approach. It can be briefly described as scientific work that focuses on the aspects of a person that make him unique. For a superficial understanding of therapy, it is enough to understand that one of its main tasks is to overcome possible alienation due to discrepancies between these aspects and the norms of society.

Supporters of the humanistic movement describe a person as an individual who makes choices independently, in accordance with his personal principles and assessment of the situation, and not as a result of receiving external impulses.

Humanistic psychology

The main subjects of research are:

• stages of personality degradation;
• mental health and harmony;
• need for a sense of security;
• basic physical and social needs;
• stages of development and success;
• self-esteem;
• giving life meaning;
• embodiment of oneself.

Abraham Maslow

One of the main representatives of humanistic psychology, who is also its founder, is Abraham Maslow. It was they who proposed the concept of a holistic personality. Maslow's theory was opposed to the then dominant teachings of behaviorism and psychoanalysis. Maslow assumed that the essence of every person is exclusively positive and strives for continuous development. In this case, the goal of psychology is to help the individual find in himself what is already inherent in him. These features, according to Maslow’s humanistic psychology, exist in the form of innate capabilities. They can be updated by external factors. Maslow's ideas served as the foundation for the further development of the humanistic direction.

Maslow made great contributions to the development of psychological science. It was he who switched attention from working on neuroses to studying the characteristics of the psychology of a healthy person.

Basic provisions and tasks of science

The main theses of this area of ​​mental health care were compiled in 1963 by James Bugental, Ph.D. and psychotherapist, who at that time served as the first president of the AHP - Association for Humanistic Psychology (in the original AHP - Association for Humanistic Psychology).

The postulates he formulated and individual statements of his colleagues remain relevant to this day and are key for this branch of psychology:

• It is impossible to describe a person by examining only his particular functions. The individual must be studied completely, since he, being a holistic being, exceeds the totality of the components of his personality.
• A person’s life is an indivisible flow of his being and becoming.
• Humans are creative and active creatures who can set intentions, think and act on them. It is important for them to be significant, to represent benefit, authority, and to express themselves creatively.
• Human existence is conditioned by the unique human environment.
• Individuals are open to the world by default. Their sense of the world and themselves in it is a basic psychological reality.
• People can be responsible and have freedom of choice.
• One’s own moral principles and meaning, which determine a person’s choice, to some extent free one from external determination.
• Statistics are not absolute truth. Because each person is unique, individual precedents are also useful for research.
• Awareness of oneself in relation to other individuals is part of human consciousness.
• A person has a need to endlessly realize himself and develop; the potential for this is inherent in human nature.
• Observation of animals cannot be used in the study of humans.

Interesting Facts

Let's look at some interesting facts about the humanistic movement.

• The ideas proposed by Maslow were criticized by the founder of psychoanalysis, S. Freud.
• Frankl invented the concept of “Sunday neurosis,” which characterizes the depressed psycho-emotional state that a person may experience at the end of the work week.
• Carl Rogers, one of the founders of the humanistic movement, planned to become a farmer in his youth.
• The school of positive psychology also belongs to the humanistic direction.
• Humanistic psychology relies on existentialism as its philosophical basis.
• This direction in psychology opposes the construction of psychological knowledge on the principle of natural sciences.

Founders and followers of the direction

One of the fathers of the humanistic approach is Abraham Maslow, best known for creating a pyramid-shaped hierarchy of human needs. The idea of ​​human integrity also belongs to Maslow, who viewed people as initially positive beings with a desire for development, and psychology as primarily an auxiliary means in achieving the level they need.

In his work, Maslow was guided by considerations of existentialism, which are manifested to one degree or another in all facets of his teaching.

Psychologist-neurologist Viktor Frankl from Austria, who created logotherapy, brought the ideas of his methodology to humanistic psychology. Logotherapy names the search and evaluation of life meanings as what motivates a person. According to Frankl's therapy, during this search a person develops and realizes himself.

The author of the concept of personality traits, psychotherapist Gordon Allport, described a person as a self-developing personality, open to interpersonal and social interaction. Having changed the direction of research in favor of healthy people, Allport cited the theses and tasks of the humanistic study of the integral personality as an alternative to the methods of psychoanalysis and behaviorism.

According to the psychologist, collecting and describing facts are insufficient survey measures; in addition, they need to be connected with each other and interpreted in a systematic manner. Allport also disputed the explanation of interaction as coming into harmony with the environment, since he did not consider development as adaptation to it.

Experienced psychotherapist Carl Rogers, who identified the “self-concept” as the basis of personality construction and the main regulator of behavior, preached revolutionary personality-oriented therapy. “Self-concept” consists of an independent awareness of oneself and the perception of oneself in the context of other people.

According to Rogers, people's behavior originates from their internal motivation, and they are free to act in accordance with their desires, thereby shaping their own lives. He also popularized the definition of “self-actualization,” meaning development and success.

The psychologist viewed people as kind by nature, and their main goal was social self-realization. Rogers characterized negative thoughts and manifestations of an individual as a distortion of a person’s personality, which conflicts with his original essence.

Among the other most significant adherents of humanistic psychology, the following people are named who influenced it:

• Everett Shostrom;
• Frederick Perls;
• Charlotte Buehler;
• Frank Barron;
• Rollo May;
• James Bugental;
• Sydney Jurard;
• Erich Fromm;
• Hans-Werner Gessmann.

Personality congruence according to K. Rogers

K. Rogers considers the individual to be the center of a constantly changing world, which he calls phenomenal. These are not objects and objects, but human emotions and feelings. The body immediately after birth learns to perceive its environment. Over the years, he accumulates experience and habits. A person reacts not to reality, but to his perception of reality.

Rogers was a representative of the phenomenological school. Its main principles:

• independent choice of fate;
• the ability to understand a person only from his point of view;
• The pursuit of excellence.

Since a person makes his own choice, he determines his destiny. But you can understand him only from his position. It is necessary to understand the subjective perception of reality from the point of view of the individual. The third principle says that every person is good by nature. He always subconsciously strives for perfection.

The concept of reality in psychology is separate : it is an individual’s personal perceptions of the world. A person evaluates any experience in his own way. Some satisfy his needs and are therefore remembered as an experience. And others are discarded and are not realized.

Psychotherapy, according to Rogers, should help a person reveal his emotions and potential. He believes that a specialist should support the client through empathy. It is necessary to positively accept the individual and create an optimal atmosphere for him. The consultant must ensure that the client himself understands his problems.

This focus in work will help him rethink the situation and independently find a way out of it.

History of the formation and development of science

Seminars that brought together specialists attracted by the first theses of the humanistic approach began to be held in 1957. The subjects of discussion were the tasks and difficulties of psychology of that time. In 1959, Rollo May wrote the book Existential Psychology, which became the manifesto of the movement.

The direction took shape and began to gain strength in the 60s. In 1961, a magazine dedicated to revolutionary teaching was created. As the number of supporters of the new discipline increased, in 1970 the Association for Humanistic Psychology went international.

The main concept of this branch of science, which took a position contrary to psychoanalysis and behaviorism in relation to tasks and work with subjects, was the study of the individual and his psyche through live communication, and not through dry and generalizing psychological techniques. According to experts such as Allport, Maslow, Rogers and other significant participants in the movement, direct contact with the patient contributed to a better awareness of himself and personal self-determination of the latter.

One of the founders of the teaching, Abraham Maslow, spoke critically of the psychological templates and techniques popular in his time, considering them negative and superficial. According to him, psychology was more focused on working with personal weaknesses and vulnerabilities than on interacting with a person's strengths.

The psychologist called for paying no less attention to mental health and positive emotions in research than to diseases, disorders and other pathological mental states. Thanks to the work of Abraham Maslow and his associates, a new unique method of psychological research and therapy was formed.

Current development of science

Humanistic psychology, briefly and clearly identified as an advanced teaching of Western society, is now actively developing in Russia, which was visited by delegations of AGP scientists back in Soviet times to exchange experiences. The principles and methods of the discipline can now be found not only in positive, transpersonal and other ideologically similar types of psychology, but also in modern psychoanalysis and behaviorism.

Despite the criticism of these directions by Maslow, who characterized his teaching as a “third force” in relation to these 2 directions, they are not competing. The branches of psychology complement each other to better understand and interact with people. The approach focused on the personality of the individual contributed to a holistic vision of people and became popular not only within science, but was used in politics, education, medicine and other social spheres.

At the same time, the humanistic movement is still not characterized by orderliness, which is why it is not combined with natural disciplines and is rather in the humanitarian camp of sciences.

The goals of the teaching, which originates in existentialism, German romanticism, the worldview of Eastern teachings, the French Enlightenment, and philosophy, have not changed either:

• Dostoevsky.
• Nietzsche.
• Tolstoy.
• Feuerbach.
• Husserl.
• humanists of the Renaissance.

According to Maureen O'Hara, who served as president of the AGP in the 90s, people everywhere have the same need for self-understanding and freedom, and therefore exploring ways for different groups of people to coexist peacefully is of great importance. According to O'Hara, mutual support and understanding of independent communities could change the course of human history and expand the consciousness of the masses.

Basic principles and methods of research

The success of a session of humanistic psychology is mainly due to the interlocutor of the subject, whose role is played by a psychologist. An appointment with a specialist takes place as a dialogue between the patient and the therapist, who listens to the person without judgment and with understanding, without criticizing the information received. The subject thus opens up and begins to express feelings more freely. This allows him to more fully understand himself, his environment and find a way out of the situation that worries him.

The goals of such sessions are also to create and affirm in the client a positive vision of himself and a realistic perception of his environment.

According to the ideas of Carl Rogers, who stands at the origins of the practical application of the humanistic approach, the psychotherapist should be guided by the principles:

• The specialist should adhere to congruence in his behavior, speaking freely and directly. This manner of communication, which is based on honesty, openness and self-expression without fear, should be gradually adopted by the subject.
• The psychologist needs to understand the feelings of the interlocutor, putting himself in his place through empathy.
• The conversation during a humanistic therapy session takes place on equal terms and should contribute to the establishment of a strong psychological connection between the participants.
• The therapist should be responsive and accept all information, but not make any judgments about it or the subject, allowing him to behave naturally.

Wellness therapy sessions founded by Rogers are conducted by psychologists all over the world, and to this day are one of the most common means of examination and psychological assistance. First of all, they are prescribed in cases of loneliness, lack of understanding and empathy.

Victor Frankl

Another prominent representative of humanistic psychology is Viktor Emil Frankl, a psychologist and psychiatrist from Austria. It was Frankl who created the concept of logotherapy. According to her, the driving force behind personal development is the desire to find meaning in life. A person may not ask this question directly, but answer it with his own real deeds and actions. The role of meaning for each individual person is played by values. Viktor Frankl in his writings describes three categories of such values:

• The value of creativity (labor is of primary importance).
• Experiences (for example, love).
• Life attitude (a position consciously chosen and developed by the individual, which he adheres to in critical life circumstances).

In the process of realizing meaning, a person comes to self-realization, self-realization. Conscience is that internal authority that helps a person determine which of the potential meanings is true.

In one of his major works, Man's Search for Meaning, Frankl writes about his personal experience of surviving the terrible conditions of a concentration camp. In the same book, he outlines his experience of finding the value of life, its meaning, even in such a terrifying environment. Researchers classify Frankl's method as existential therapy. His works became a source of inspiration for many representatives of the humanistic movement. Frankl himself came to the conclusion that the main stressor for a person is the lack of meaning in life. According to the psychologist, existential neurosis is essentially identical to the crisis of a meaningless existence.

Methods and directions

Humanistic psychology, briefly and clearly defined as a set of metaphysical theses, identifies psychological problems through existential experience. It is formed in the course of therapy research, allowing the individual to take a sober look at himself and his environment. It also gives a person a basis for certain actions and thoughts.

In the practical application of the humanistic approach, many techniques and technologies of self-penetration are used, conditionally divided into 4 types. The following are some of the basic techniques for each group.

Sensual methods

Sense technologies include:

• empathy;
• psychodrama;
• establishing a psychological connection;
• holistic vision of yourself.

Bodily methods

The humanistic approach uses the following techniques of bodily interaction:

• Alexander therapy;
• holistic medicine practices;
• Reich technology;
• Rolfing and Feldenkrais maneuver;
• sensory consciousness.

Spiritual Methods

Technologies in this group include techniques such as:

• sand games;
• transpersonal therapy;
• active educational activities;
• dynamic meditation;
• interpretation of dreams;
• psychoanalysis.

Mental Methods

The thinking techniques of the humanistic approach include:

• neurolinguistic programming;
• transactional research;
• family psychology;
• development of individual constructs using the Kelly method.

Concepts of humanistic psychology. Bases

Humanistic psychology, briefly and clearly called life-affirming, is primarily distinguished by co-research therapy, carried out not only by a specialist, but also by the subject in relation to himself. Thanks to this, the client becomes able to self-determinate, systematize the process of self-exploration and evaluate the work performed.

According to the founders of the humanistic approach, such practices increase the effectiveness of working with the individual due to his direct participation. In the process of developing and testing the co-research methodology, specific terminology arose.

The real self

This term is found in the works of many scientists who influenced psychology, including Jung, Maslow, Freud and Rogers. It denotes a bridge between a person’s consciousness and unconsciousness, highlighting his personality. Bringing the subject together with his true individuality, which resides under the masks of social roles, is a method of improving the patient’s mood. It is used, for example, in cases of depression caused by a conflict between social norms and gender incongruity.

Sub-personalities

The definition of subpersonal is the presence of additional communication manners and images in each person, the manifestation of which occurs depending on the circumstances. For example, people's behavior in their work environment is usually different from their family time. The author of the term “subpersonality” is the Italian psychologist Roberto Assangioli.

Validity, richness of motivation (Abundance motivation)

According to many experts, an individual’s actions are determined by his internal needs and desires. According to the humanistic concept of validity, some of them may be imaginary and serve as a barrier to reunification with one's real self. To prevent moving down the wrong path, you should think about your motives and the conditions that accompany them.

Self-concept

Over time, part of a person’s personal world, his perceptions begin to be realized and formed into a separate structure - the Self-concept. The self is a symbolized part of experience, resulting from the fact that certain feelings about oneself have been designated and isolated into a separate entity. “The self-concept is an individual’s perceived “I” or what a person means when he says “I” or “me.” At the initial stage, the Self-concept is usually formed largely on the basis of personal experience, events occurring in the phenomenal sphere and identified by the individual as “I” or “himself”, at least at the pre-verbal level... Individuals also develop the Self-concept during interaction with others who matter to them and treat them as separate selves.

The structure of the Self includes different values: 1) directly experienced by the body (“I perceive my parents as people dissatisfied with my behavior”) and 2) introjected from others, but in their distortion perceived as their own, immediate (“I perceive my behavior as unsatisfactory "). A healthy personality structure develops in a child who is not forced by his parents to distort his experiences.

Every experience and experience in the life of an individual is subject to various evaluations: some of them are adequately symbolized in relation to the self, some are ignored, not realized, having no relation to the satisfaction of needs, some are distorted in symbolization as incompatible with the structure of the self, others are denied, having a direct relation to satisfying the need.

The self-concept is characterized by:

• content area, i.e. those areas that are reflected in the self-concept (physical, social, sexual, feelings and emotions, tastes and preferences, professional interests, recreation, values ​​and moral traits);
• the structure or type of connections between individual parts of the self-concept and the nature of relations with the environment;
• congruence-incongruence, i.e. the presence of correspondence/inconsistency of the self-concept with the real experiences of people;
• protection, or force, which protects against assessments that do not correspond to the self-concept;
• tension, i.e. the state that arises as a result of a fixed defensive position;
• level of self-esteem, or the ability to accept oneself in all the diversity of one’s characteristics;
• reality, or the ability to evaluate oneself based on current information.

The basis of neurosis is a mismatch, incongruence between the true content of a person (experience) and his “I-concept”, self. Overcoming this mismatch occurs through integration, when all sensory and internal experiences can be recognized through clear symbolization and organized into a single system internally compatible with and related to the structure of the self.

In the process of psychotherapeutic work, the therapist strives to help a person open up and realize himself as much as possible. The psychotherapeutic techniques used by K. Rogers are called instructive psychotherapy, or “client-centered” psychotherapy. Later, the term “client-centered psychotherapy” was replaced by the more appropriate concept of “person-centered therapy.” Rogers believed that the new name would be better suited to describe the human values ​​and mutual dependence that underlay his approach, and that the name could be applied to other areas of knowledge besides counseling and psychotherapy. It is this emphasis on the subjective, perceptual view of clients that led to the adoption of the term. Perception is seen as their version of reality.

The main conditions of a person-centered approach are empathy, congruence and unconditional positive acceptance of the client.

Words used to define congruence include authenticity, reality, openness, transparency, presence. Congruence is the correspondence between self-concept and experience, or self-concept and organismic ego.

Pros and cons of the humanistic direction. We weigh the pros and cons

Due to the lack of a strict organization, the humanistic branch of psychology, which is protest in nature, did not take shape as an independent direction, but became an important and sought-after element of this science. The basis for the differences between the humanistic approach and its predecessors was the consideration of man as a holistic being and the rejection of analogies with animals or anything else when conducting psychological research.

The attractive aspects of the discipline are:

• differentiation of psychosomatic type illnesses;
• thesis about managing one’s own psyche;
• the ability to independently search for and detect mental disorders;
• exploring individual potential.

Among the disadvantages of the direction are:

• personalism of research and conclusions;
• increased emphasis on individualism;
• lack of a scientifically verified method for assessing the personal characteristics of the subject;
• neglect of rational methods of inspection;
• exclusion of provisions on the depravity of the individual.

Practical use. Levers and keys

The principles and methods of the “third force” of psychology are most widespread in other areas of this science. Professionals from all over the globe successfully use them both in psychiatry and in prevention or therapy sessions.

Other areas where humanistic developments are involved to one degree or another are:

Maslow, Rogers and other specialists who influenced the formation of the humanistic approach continue to gain followers, which helps to increase the number of its supporters in a variety of fields. Among the complex scientific concepts of this discipline, there are also brief, understandable provisions that ensure its relevance in all layers of society.

This attractive branch of psychology is focused on positive personality traits, emotions, spontaneity and creativity, but the lack of systematics and strict justification of its methods did not allow this largely experimental teaching to take a place among independent directions. Despite this, the humanistic approach has become firmly entrenched in various aspects of psychology, significantly complementing and enriching it.

Author: Cash Diver