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Several foundational ideas of humanistic psychology have been largely integrated into mainstream psychotherapy, including unconditional positive regard, patient autonomy, the therapeutic alliance, and the privileging of lived experience, and have been shown to be crucial common factors for virtually all effective psychotherapies. However, following the crisis of the subject in the poststructuralist philosophy of the latter 20th century, many of these foundational assumptions have been problematized, and can no longer be taken for granted in a philosophically informed psychology. These questions should therefore be meaningfully engaged to bring humanistic psychology and existential therapy into an integration with poststructuralism, specifically on the topics of lived experience, alterity and intersubjectivity, human potential, formulations of the self, and therapeutic presence. This article aims to interrogate these notions through the works of Jacques Derrida, namely in Writing and Difference, Of Hospitality, and The Gift of Death, and to mutually enrich both humanistic and poststructuralist thinking. Public Significance Statement: Humanistic psychology has long championed principles now considered foundational to virtually all effective psychotherapies—principles such as patient autonomy, self-actualization, and therapeutic presence. However, the evolving landscape of psychological thought in the wake of poststructuralist ways of thinking in the latter part of the 20th century has incorporated the challenges to these notions to varying degrees. After the advent of the "crisis of the subject" in mid-20th century Western thought, which Derrida's work was and has remained pivotal to, our understanding of the self, intersubjectivity, and therapeutic presence must be engaged anew, so that they may likewise evolve in therapeutic discourse. It is crucial not to ignore the challenges this thought would present to humanistic psychotherapy; therefore, this article takes up such a call to bridge the gap between humanistic psychology and poststructuralism to explore topics such as lived experience, alterity, intersubjectivity, and the formulation of the self in light of Derrida's thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence-based practice in psychology (EBPP) is the current zeitgeist in mental health practice. How EBPP is defined, understood, and applied in the field of psychology at large and by insurance companies and regulatory agencies has an influence on the practice of psychotherapy. It can impact how and if humanistic and existential psychotherapy are practiced in some settings. Humanistic and existential psychologists have been critical of this movement but often have not recognized its potential. This article offers a definition rooted in the understanding of EBPP presented in the seminal article in the American Psychologist by the American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on Evidence-Based Practice (2006) and further informed by humanistic principles and values. Humanistic and existential psychologists are encouraged to join in the conversations about EBPP advocating for a broad, inclusive understanding of EBPP. Public Significance Statement: In additional to providing a path for humanistic psychologists to engage in dialogues about what is considered EBPP, this article provides recommendations on how humanistic and existential psychologists can use principles of EBPP to demonstrate support for their approach to psychotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "Stories of stories" project, using a humanistic approach, aims to (a) shed light on the impact of clowns' artistic work, in the hospital, as a play with consequences, rather than shallow entertainment and (b) contribute to the refinement and improvement of the clown artists' intervention quality, bringing hypotheses of reflection hardly within reach during their improvised performance. We are interested in the subjective experience of the artists. The present analysis was developed from the clown's written reports after visiting the pedopsychiatry ward in a Portuguese public hospital. The visit was performed by a clown's dyad, and the audience was young teenage girls with anorexia. Public Significance Statement: This article aims to unveil the meaning and deepness of Doctor Clowns' encounters with children, their caregivers, and hospital professionals. It also aims to contribute to the improvement and growing awareness of the artists, regarding their professional training when intervening in a context of vulnerability, such as the hospital, and an especially vulnerable audience, sick or injured children and adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the early history of existential-humanistic developmental psychology. It is argued that this area of inquiry was built upon the pioneering work of a heterogeneous array of authors from numerous backgrounds, including American humanistic psychology, European existential and phenomenological psychology, social and self-styled psychoanalysis, personalistic psychology, comparative psychology, Gestalt psychology, education and pedagogy, philosophy, and anthropology. The conceptual yield of the historical overview was distilled down to a cluster of four broad themes: the whole developing person-in-context, lived time, the living body, and an enduring call to pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is a book review of "A Wild and Sacred Call: Nature—Psyche—Spirit" by Will Adams. The book explores the field of ecopsychology and its potential significance in addressing the ecological crisis and healing the fractured relationship between humans and nature. Adams draws from various disciplines and spiritual traditions to present a holistic vision of human interconnectedness with nature. The book emphasizes the importance of embracing the natural world with love and highlights the role of ecopsychology in promoting human well-being and taking care of the natural world. The review praises the book for its complexity, depth, and comprehensive exploration of the subject matter. [Extracted from the article]

Previous studies have highlighted the centrality of the meaning-making process for people with serious mental illness (SMI) in their recovery process and potential gender differences. However, research is lacking to fully characterize how women with SMI construct meaning of their mental health challenges. Data analysis of a qualitative study of 20 women with SMI was conducted to address this gap in the literature. The present study involved content analysis of qualitative interviews of 20 women with SMI to identify themes pertaining to the meaning-making of this group. Data analysis led to the development of the following themes pertaining to meaning-making of women with SMI: persecuted personhood, protected personhood, defiant recovery, self-safeguarding, and creative transformation. Implications for humanistic practice and future research are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article summarizes the significance of the work of Marian Kinget, who was a professor, scholar, and practitioner of psychology in the United States during the last half of the twentieth century. It includes both a retrospective of her remarkable teaching by her former student and a documentation of the impact of her writing and teaching. Kinget contributed an important depth to the foundations of the humanistic psychology paradigm as it grewand flourished in American psychology at that time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article celebrates the life and work of G. Marian Kinget, an early pioneer, scholar, and teacher in humanistic psychology. While her written work stands on its own merits, it can be argued that it was underappreciated when it appeared for at least four interrelated reasons: (a) she did not write as an empirical researcher and gave liberal credit to the work of others whose ideas she herself was developing in original ways, (b) as a woman in a male-dominated field her contributions may have been overlooked for reasons that had nothing to do with the excellence of her thought, (c) her relative lack of personal ego and self-promotion, and (d) her real genius lay in her classroom teaching and in the calm, steady, authentic way she lived her life-considerations that are not usually credited or even known by the wider academic universe. Kinget's relationship to the emerging philosophy of feminism is also considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

G. Marian Kinget was one of the very few female humanistic psychologists teaching and writing about humanistic psychology as early as the 1950s. This European-educated, Americantrained, pioneering woman was a contemporary of Carl Rogers, published with him, and taught one of the first, if not the first, courses actually titled "Humanistic Psychology." The class was offered in the 1960s at Michigan State University, where she had a long, productive career in humanistic psychology. She wrote one of the field's earliest and most comprehensive books and trained several contemporary humanistic and phenomenological psychologists who have made significant contributions to Division 32, the Society of Humanistic Psychology. However, her work has not received the attention it merits for various reasons, perhaps some of which are associated with her gender. It is important to correct such a significant oversight as well as deepen the history of humanistic psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humanistic psychologists have made some of the earliest and most powerful critiques of the medical model. Rather than medicalize experience, the emphasis in our field is on authenticity, empathic seeing, and a relational and contextual approach to understanding emotional distress. As such, humanistic psychologists are typically cautious about the (over) use of psychotropic medications. Yet, all practicing psychologists are required to be knowledgeable about the efficacy and side effects of psychotropic medications, even if they do not have prescriptive authority. However, the prevalence of academic-industry relationships and financial conflicts of interest in psychiatry have eroded trust in the scientific literature because of inflated claims of efficacy and an underreporting of harms. Additionally, industry exerts undue influence on regulatory decisions, educational materials, and patient advocacy groups. Thus, clinicians must take extra steps to ensure they are fully educated about the risk/benefit ratio of psychotropic medications and are aware of, and can respond to, the distorting impact of commercial influence on psychiatric research and practice. In this paper, we use the normative and conceptual framework of institutional corruption to examine the economies of influence that create challenges for ethical practice. We take as our starting point the idea that enhancing the informed consent process for clients considering taking, tapering, or discontinuing psychotropic medication is a social justice issue-and one that aligns well with the core values of our field. Specific recommendations and independent (i.e., nonindustry funded) resources are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

President Biden has made uniting a divided nation a major theme of his presidency. Humanistic psychology is well-positioned to provide tools necessary to heal the divisions that plague us. Herein, two humanistic theories are combined in just such an effort: (a) using context-centered therapy to foster shifts from defensive and self-protective "mind"-based engagement to more accepting and appreciative "self"-based responding, and (b) employing person-centered therapy's core conditions for understanding the mind-based anger and upset of our fellow citizens. Combining these perspectives provides a basis for overcoming polarization and fostering the kinds of interpersonal relationships required to carry on together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anti-Black racism has plagued the United States since the birth of the nation. It is apparent in acts of violence, in individual interactions, and in the systems that create and maintain our society. Psychology has evolved from promoting racist theories to exploring implicit biases and the effects of racism on the physical and mental health of marginalized communities. In light of recent social unrest following the death of an unarmed Black man due to police brutality, psychology's organizations have published statements condemning racism. This article explores the connections between values espoused by the Black Lives Matter movement and humanistic psychology and argues that statements against racism are not sufficient. It is time for humanistic psychologists to take action and stand for social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internet gaming disorder (IGD), a condition warranting further study in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 5, has received considerable research attention in recent years (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Characterized by problematic and repetitive use of Internet-based games, research suggests a complex etiology and that frequent usage, in and of itself, is not necessarily always problematic. Common motivations for intense usage, such as feelings of isolation, distress, and boredom may, in part, reflect an individual's best attempts to navigate contact with the 'ultimate' anxieties identified by Yalom (1980). This article reviews the research pertaining to IGD, conceptualizes the disorder from an existential-humanistic therapy (E-H) perspective, and concludes with an explanation of how E-H can offer a unique treatment perspective from which to work with clients struggling with problematic online gaming concerns within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article gives tribute to Constance Fischer, PhD, ABPP. Constance Fischer has had an outstanding impact on the development of humanistic psychology. She pioneered individualized, collaborative assessment, an approach that privileges the client's lived experiences, agency, and contributions to the interpretation of test data. She brought these same values to qualitative research, another area of scholarship and training for which she is very well known. In both assessment and research, Constance Fischer has sought to understand and describe in everyday language the meaning that situations hold for people, to respect and engage clients and research participants as coparticipants, and to address the interpersonal and social contexts in which a presenting problem or phenomenon of research interest occurs and is coconstructed. This tribute centers on Constance Fischer's embodiment and appreciation, both professionally and personally, of several of the elements she identified as core to humanistic assessment--collaboration, intervention, and context or artful hospitality. This tribute also situates these elements as consistent with a feminist epistemology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The guest editors of this special issue, Drs. Donna Rockwell and Vanessa Brown, introduce this collection of articles with their personal Being and Becoming narratives. The editors highlight contributions from several women working in the humanistic psychologies who capture essential aspects of women's experiences in today's world. As an existential slice of our times, these articles from an international community of women help describe our collective lived worlds in unique and yet strikingly universal ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The life and challenges of a woman humanistic psychologist is told through the life story of one particular individual who lived through the founding and development of the field of humanistic psychology. In this article, she recounts her mentors and the feminist thinking that influenced her politics, her practice of psychotherapy, her writing style, and her view of mentorship and legacy throughout the developmental stages of women's development. Recurring themes in this narrative will be highlighted and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes a woman's personal and professional evolution within the context of the concepts and values of humanistic psychology. It reflects the impact of social and political change, creative transformation, and highlights the significance of inner courage and external validation. (PsycInfo Database Record. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We each have a life's mission, a purpose, and a path. This article is an exploration of one woman's path and how she came to do the things she did. As a humanistic psychologist she has a great appreciation for potential and she has a great desire to help others actualize their potential. The article includes the transformative effect of a near-death experience while swimming at age 15, her life commitment in her early 20s to the development of humankind, the role of meditation and yoga in her life and the creation of Somatic Yoga, her contributions to the field of EEG and peripheral biofeedback training, becoming the founding director of the Humanistic Psychology Institute (now Saybrook University, Pasadena), her contributions to transpersonal psychology and parapsychology, her contributions to Yoga Therapy, her involvement in the field of humanistic psychology, her relationship with Thomas Hanna and the founding of the Novato Institute for Research and Training, her longtime practice as a somatic educator and psychotherapist, and the creation Equine Hanna Somatics and Canine Hanna Somatics, and her desire to help decrease the amount of trauma and suffering in the world during the remainder of her life. She is a lifelong educator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reviews the book, The Birth of Relationship Therapy: Carl Rogers Meets Otto Rank by Robert Kramer (2019). According to the reviewer, anyone who is interested in the nature and development of existential-humanistic psychology in America should read this book--as well as Rank's germinal treatises of course. As Kramer makes clear, not only does Rank develop an existential-humanistic framework for practice, he anticipates what are now viewed as the key elements of effective therapy--the therapeutic relationship and the responsivity of the therapist to the needs of the client (Norcross & Wampold, 2019). In short, this is a revelatory work that both alters our understanding of history and sets the course for a revisioned future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anna Akhmatova is a Russian poetess who left a significant imprint on the 20th-century literary world. Her poem Requiem is a eulogy to the suffering victims of the Stalinist purges and their loved ones. She dedicated her work to the women who, like her, lined up for months in front of Leningrad Prison hoping to see their relatives before their executions. In this article, we show how a hermeneutical analysis of the poem Requiem relates to major existential issues and facilitates a better understanding of the experience of mourning. We highlight the themes of bereavement, the disruptions of lived time, the lived experience of suffering, and the challenges of transmission that unfold in this context. Our hermeneutic approach brings the existential description of these themes into dialogue with the thinking of anthropology, philosophy, and psychology scholars. Through her rich poetry, Akhmatova provided a lens through which we can develop an increased sensitivity to existential issues that are still contemporary to our time. We discuss how her work provides an opportunity for reflection that is rich for both research and clinical practice in humanistic psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that the meaning of the use of self in counseling psychology can be expressed by Buber's concept of "turning" (Buber, 1916/1996, p. 67). Counseling psychology in Britain has developed by placing emphasis on the person of the therapist through continuing personal development, supervision, and personal therapy. However, counseling psychology research on the use of self faces three main limitations: it undermines the identity of counseling psychology, it omits the clients' perspectives, and it neglects the ethical framework. Therefore, I propose "turning" as a threefold use of self to orient practitioners. First, "turning" as ethical use of self entails the actualization of the professional code of conduct in which practitioners can anchor their use of self. Second, as reflexive use of self, it implies the practitioners' critical awareness of empirical and psychological paradigms inasmuch as they might affect the understanding of otherness. Finally, as relational use of self, it can resonate with the relational humanistic philosophy underpinning counseling psychology practice as the I-Thou relationship. I suggest an interpretation of the use of self that seeks to inspire practitioners to reflect on their contribution to the profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Writing one's own obituary is a technique rooted in the theoretical/philosophical principles of existential-humanistic psychology that has long been endorsed by existential-humanistic psychologists for its value in promoting second-order change (existential liberation) and self-cultivation. These processes are pertinent for emerging adults, for whom a principal developmental task is self-authorship (transitioning out of uncritically following external formulas learned in childhood and toward making internally based decisions to meet the demands of complex work roles and interpersonal intimacy as adults). To date, literature on obituary writing has been limited to a half-dozen sources, none of which offer formal investigations of its process mechanisms/dynamics. This study provides research support for the technique's theoretical underpinnings and contextualizes its effectiveness as demonstrated in extant case studies in order to preserve its integrity in the current evidence-based practice zeitgeist. In this study, 22 emerging adults in a college course completed obituaries and reflections on the lived experience thereof. Thematic and summative content analyses were used to assess the thematic content included in the obituaries and the process by which the participants made sense of the act of writing them. Findings suggest that, in this sample, consistent with extant theorizing and informal observations, the experience of completing one's own obituary begins with emotional discomfort followed by a transformative shift in the direction of a greater sense of acceptance, appreciation, and awe toward the possibilities of living the life one envisions. Finally, connections with and contributions to the emerging adulthood literature and suggestions for further inquiry are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated Rogerian unconditional positive self-regard (UPSR) among young adults. Based on the findings of extant research in support of the Rogerian metatheoretcial model, variables were selected based on the fully functioning person to represent characteristics predictive of UPSR. Using hierarchical regression, UPSR was assessed with young adults aged 16 to 19 years (x = 16.87). Participants completed emotional self-assessments (Block 1: depression, anxiety, and self-esteem), humanistic/positive psychology construct assessments (Block 2: authenticity, life satisfaction, aspirations), and a measure of perceived parental conditional regard (Block 3: domain-specific perceptions of parental conditional regard [PPCR]). Analyses revealed that each block of variables significantly accounted for the variance in UPSR. All scores (except PPCR-Sport) had significant zero-order correlations with UPSR, however when considered together this was no longer the case due to the significant intercorrelations of the predictor variables. Overall, the following significant predictors of unconditional positive self-regard among young adults emerged: self-esteem, authentic living, accepting external influence, life satisfaction, importance of intrinsic motivations, and perceived parental conditional regard on academic success. Implications are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the coronavirus public health crisis continues to affect countries around the world, it has become increasingly evident that the burdens that are imposed by the pandemic are not shared equally. Those with fewer resources, immigrants, and members of marginalized and racialized groups are at a disproportionate risk of physical harm and emotional distress from coronavirus 2019. However, when responses to discrimination, social disadvantage, and racism are captured as depression, this may result in overmedicalization and overtreatment. Instead of focusing predominantly on increased access to mental health services, humanistic psychology has long recognized the need to address the structural and systemic obstacles that undermine well-being. Indeed, responses to wide-scale human suffering that focus exclusively on intraindividual interventions often keep the status quo intact and do not animate our political imagination. If mental health issues are embedded in inequality, which is a social and structural category, not a psychological category, then it is ignorance producing to suggest that one can solve mental health issues on an individual, psychological level. Finally, an important lesson can be learned from humanistic psychology's emphasis on empathic dwelling when bearing witness to human suffering. Empathic dwelling is not a cognitive or intellectual exercise that simply facilitates mental health treatment. Rather, it is a purposeful stance or comportment from which we try "to feel one's way into the other's experience [ein-fuhlen] . . . [what] Husserl described as 'trading places'". It is only in and through this type of comport ment, this deeply felt attunement, that we will be able to bring clinical and epistemic humility to fruition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to discuss the concept of posttraumatic growth (PTG) from the perspective of humanistic psychology. Research findings in PTG have posed what seem to be challenging theoretical questions. Questions that seem perplexing or paradoxical to mainstream research are: whether PTG is a normative process, if it is better described as personality change, what its relationship is with PTSD, if PTG is the same as resilience, if PTG is illusory, and finally, if PTG is actually adaptive. These six questions, I would argue, only seem perplexing or paradoxical when the lens through which they are being examined is the same as when studying illness. There are important differences in how the humanistic growth paradigm approaches the topic of PTG compared to the illness ideology. In this article, I discuss these questions from the perspective of Joseph and Linley's (2005) organismic valuing process (OVP) theory of growth following adversity. Seen from the humanistic psychology tradition of OVP theory, PTG represents a normative affective-cognitive process of real change toward constructive personality development that leads to resilience and adaptive functioning. I hope to position the topic of growth following adversity more clearly within the field of humanistic psychology and to set a new nonmedicalized research agenda for researchers and clinicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the relationship of contemporary approaches to mindfulness to the broader philosophical context from which they emerged, namely the context of Western Buddhist modernism. While initially an offshoot of Asian Buddhist modernism, Western Buddhist modernism has developed its own unique identity, shaped in part by the influences of Western philosophical assumptions, humanistic and transpersonal psychology, and parallel non-Buddhist spiritual traditions. This article examines how this foundational philosophical context, and various contexts in general, affects the outcomes of mindfulness practice. It specifically addresses (a) what happens when mindfulness is divorced from its Western Buddhist modernist context, (b) potential conflicts between that context and the goals of organizations and institutions that employ it, (c) the progressive critique of the political and economic implications of mindfulness training in corporations and the military, and (d) the degree to which tailoring mindfulness-based interventions to address specific behaviors may restrict its range of outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on the social experiences that have formed the backdrop to the pandemic, some of the relational dimensions that have come to the forefront today are described. The need for a new set of values in humanistic psychology is addressed, from support for individual potential to building a sense of "being-with" the other, embracing a more relational perspective. The author proposes looking to the paradigm of reciprocity, applied through an aesthetic approach and inspired by gestalt hermeneutics (phenomenological and field oriented), and presents aesthetic relational knowledge (Spagnuolo Lobb, 2018a) as a means of working through the suffering of the client in a contextualized way, considering the resonance of the therapist as part of the experiential field of the client. This new humanistic value can be realized by focusing on the "dance" of reciprocity between the therapist and the client (a model under research that considers mutual perceptions and reactions to the perceptions of the other, supported by the vitality that each one places in being-with the other). In this way, therapeutic change can include both figure and ground experiences. A consequence of this new value is a turn in the ethical position of the psychotherapist: from a narcissistic effort to be a "good therapist" to an aesthetic attitude that doesn't deny limits and puts the presence of the other in the foreground. An important consequence for therapists is to take care of themselves so that they are able to deal with the trauma of the pandemic, which is also strengthened through constant dialogue with the professional community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the approval of fluoxetine in 1987, there have been contentious debates about whether antidepressants "work." A recent meta-analysis on the efficacy and tolerability of antidepressants reinvigorated debates about their effectiveness—debates that have important implications for both research and practice in humanistic psychology. This article briefly discusses the findings and identifies the limitations of this meta-analysis, and we show that using psychopharmacology as a routine first response is not evidence based and incongruent with the basic principles of humanistic psychology. Additionally, we argue that the question "do antidepressants work?" is reductive and undermines our responsibility to individuals who are suffering from emotional distress. Responding to the Cipriani et al. (2018) study from a humanistic lens (a) deepens our appreciation for the lived experience of individuals diagnosed with depression and our responsibility to them, (b) complicates assumptions about the ontological status of "depression," and (c) enhances collaborative, client-centered decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some recent work in humanistic (Robbins, 2008) and positive (Martin, 2007) psychology speaks of a renewed focus in the discipline on values, happiness, and notions of the "good life." This renaissance is based on a philosophical concept of goodness that merits further exploration. This article elucidates an ancient concept of "the Good" offered by Plato and Aristotle that undergirds the humanistic (and positive) traditions. These thinkers speak of this Good as the fulfillment of all desire and spell it with a capital "G" to distinguish it from the many other kinds of good that fill our world. This classical understanding of the Good is often eclipsed by modern tendencies to see it as something to fear due to its tendency to cause argument and division. Given humanistic psychology's historical roots in this classical philosophical tradition, a firm conceptual grasp of the Good is vital for understanding many of humanistic psychology's own core ideas, such as inner nature, flourishing, freedom, and culture. I offer a set of propositions at the end of the article that delineate a humanistic psychology that is rooted in the Good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extending the humanistic cognitive science project as envisioned by Hovhannisyan (2018), this article proposed and tested an explanatory model of expressive writing, which has been found to increase self-distancing--a form of processing emotional information that is widely recognized to be beneficial to health. The key principle of our model is constraint, which refers to the far from equilibrium conditions (i.e., order) made possible by thermodynamic work that staves off the eventuality of entropy, in the thermodynamic equilibrium of which all things collapse to the most probable, least ordered states. Investigating self-distancing as a case of constraint generated by the intervention/work of expressive writing leads to novel and testable predictions and explains why the narrative-based writing condition that capitalizes on meaning making was found to be more effective than other writing conditions in buffering against the entropy of emotional disturbances. Richly informed by thermodynamics, Shannon information, and the semiotics of Charles Sanders Peirce, this explanatory model of expressive writing demonstrates the feasibility of drawing upon resources in cognitive science to ground and enrich the explanatory potential of humanistic psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to contextualize qualitative phenomenological psychological interviewing within the research tradition of psychology as a human science and how it relates to a phenomenological psychology. Qualitative interviewing is also historically contextualized within humanistic psychology and the qualitative research movement. A reply to a recent critique by Zahavi and Martiny (2019) is also included. In addition, some recent developments of qualitative phenomenological interviewing are accounted for and how these relate to the method of participant observation and Schutzian phenomenology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humanistic psychology has a long tradition of developmental thought. Yet, no place has been reserved for a specifically humanistic perspective in developmental psychology textbooks. This article presents a humanistic perspective to serve as a convenient guide for the potential creation of a textbook entry. A highly condensed account of Existential-Humanistic Self-Development Theory (EHSDT) is outlined and compared with the theories that most frequently garner coverage in developmental textbooks. Suggestions for further research on the major themes of EHSDT are also provided. These include the role of the imagination in shaping the trajectories of lifespan development, the intercorporeal and multicultural embeddedness of the narrative imagination, the self-cultivation process, cooperative culture creation, thriving amid paradox, and the ways in which motivational dynamics operate within diverse social contexts. Carefully planned rollout of such research should help prevent further marginalization of explicitly humanistic developmental theory on the basis that it challenges some of the fundamental assumptions of the established theories and, accordingly, tends to be met with resistance or, at best, indifference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this personal essay, I, a humanistic counseling psychologist, share what I learned from my experience being "on the other side" as a patient in a psychiatric hospital and throughout my career. I discuss how I used the lack of humanism I experienced in the hospital to make meaning out of suffering, allowing my suffering to inform my own future work and philosophy. I discuss my perception of the universality of the human condition and share my belief that with rising suicide rates, and the yearning for a sense of belonging, humanistic psychology may be experiencing a rebirth. I conclude with an invitation to the reader to join me in validating humanistic approaches amid a zeitgeist defined by prescriptive, manualized, evidence-based practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humanistic psychology is more than a method or an approach to psychology and psychotherapy. Humanistic ways of being comprise a philosophy, an approach to life and a way to understand and contextualize the existential thrownness in which we find ourselves. In other words, humanistic psychology helps clients discern healthy paths to a mindful engagement with their lives. Mindfulness looks at various ways to cultivate a more enlightened engagement between and among people, exemplified in the emphasis on such considerations as mindful speech, mindful action and mindful effort, among others. The self-help movement promotes improvement through an unrelenting attack on the self, a form of inner violence reinforcing the "I'm not good enough" mindset plaguing our society and ballooning advertising budgets. In contrast, I believe it is time for something more akin to a radical self-love movement and an appreciation of an evidenced-based science of love. Self-love is self-knowing; a humble conscientiousness that frees us from an ego that thinks everything is about "me," pointing instead to the part we play in the larger production; a capacity to connect to community, to touch and be touched emotionally, to be a part of both local and global healing; to be co-creators of a more expansive and inclusive "we." It may be wise to embrace the power of mindfulness as a highly effective tool in psychotherapy and earnestly promote love as a vital humanistic agent of change and elemental healing balm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the first moment I was introduced to humanistic psychology in graduate school, I fell in love with the idea that love really mattered, for my own personal growth as a mental health professional, and as a critical learning edge in psychotherapy, itself guiding the client toward love for and appreciation of him- or herself. We can be quite harsh with ourselves in our internal dialogue and that is not healthy. That is why as a key component of my presidential year, I've chosen to emphasize love and its various contributions to health, well-being and the skillset involved in thriving, or at least, attempting to thrive. When the rest of the world is telling us "no" in the multiple ways that it does, love for our very selves can propel us toward growth, learning, development and adopting self-actualization as a lifelong philosophy. Where Western society and mass media over the years have portrayed self-love and self-care as selfishness and self-indulgence, humanistic psychology and mindfulness interventions promoted in Eastern cultures instead encourage self-care, framing it as self-nourishment, where at the end of the day, we have more "good stuff" left over to give others, rather than less. Through humanistic psychology and mindfulness, we learn how to cultivate such inner reserves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In these times of great divide amid and amongst people, there is value in humanistic approaches to community and recognition of universal human considerations, like love and self-responsibility. With an awareness of the great suffering in the world, my emphasis this year will be on humanistic approaches of compassionate inclusion, where an integration of varied multicultural contributions to psychology and psychotherapy are promoted and nourished. Additionally, as the next technological step for our division, we should capitalize on the phenomenon of rapidly emerging media platforms through which to share our humanistic worldview, as the internet age invites us to do. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article commemorates the life and works of Dr. Myron Milford "Mike" Arons (1929-2008), recognized internationally as one of the founders of humanistic psychology. Although Arons contributed exhaustively to humanistic psychology and he presented extensively during his career, on the whole he published relatively little--and sometimes in publications of limited circulation. This article presents an annotated bibliography of as complete a collection of his writings as possible as both a tribute to his memory and a gateway to reflection and scholarship by future generations of humanistic psychologists who did not have the privilege to know Arons. Following an overview of his work and a biographical sketch, Arons' papers are presented thematically in 7 sections: (a) his inspiration and influences; (b) history and evolution of humanistic psychology; (c) humanistic education; (d) creativity; (e) research (experimental studies, the hermeneutic method, intuition, psi phenomena, and human science research in psychology); (f) humanistic ethics; and (g) Arons' final musings. The article concludes with a discussion about the relevance of Arons' works today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mothers habitually sing to their infants. Researchers in different areas of knowledge and through a variety of theoretical approaches have been more intensively investigating maternal singing since the late 1990s. The present article offers an overview of themes found in these studies about how mother-infant relationships may be mediated by maternal song, prioritizing articles that offer psychological insights into this phenomenon. These investigations assert that singing promotes intimacy between a mother and her infant, strengthening their bond and nurturing their relationship. We strive to contribute to this wealth of understanding with insights based on our research study about lived experience of mothers singing to their infants, and grounded in a humanistic perspective largely inspired by the work of Carl Rogers regarding the central role of social relationships in human development. We propose that a mother communicates genuineness and unconditional acceptance while singing, developing a musical ritual, facilitating intimacy and mutual understanding; she experiences being heard; she expresses herself, gives of herself, cultivating a healthy relationship through "hugging her child with song". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personal and professional development is a journey everyone takes in one way or another. Offered herein are some insights as to how to facilitate that process. The material is embedded within some phenomenological/first-person experiences of the author and includes a list of references to empirical and philosophical/theological sources for further enrichment after reading the article. A specific philosophy/spirituality known as the Salesian charism is introduced as well through some of the personal experiences and teachings of the "metaphysical mentors" who founded this approach to living. Like any work of merit, human development on both the helpee and helper side of the dynamic requires time, attention, and work, as does being a productive supervisor or patient. It is a humanistic project not to be passively experienced but rather an active journey with many crossroads and choices, every one of which can lead to new life flowing from the diminishment of prejudice and violence born of fear and personal blind spots, thus fostering the positive evolution of the individual and humanity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Introduction to this special issue on transpersonal psychology overviews the origins of the field as it emerged in the late 1960s, the challenges of the field in the current era, and how the field of transpersonal might revitalize the field by developing a professional culture that maintains support for the next generations of transpersonal scholars and researchers. Thereafter, the next generation of authors and book reviewers included in the special issue is introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A quantitatively oriented, research methodologist/philosopher of social sciences examines the history of methodology in psychology, and offers several likely methodological and statistical improvements for the coming decades. Quantitative and qualitative methods will continue their dominance in psychological research. However, some models (e.g., mixed models, arts-based models) that are currently used infrequently by psychologists will assume greater importance in the near future. Use of null hypothesis statistics will decline in favor of Bayesian, point estimation approaches in the future because searching for significance versus nonsignificance inevitably leads to the creation of badly flawed research literatures. Including self-determination in our experimental efforts will produce a science more like the one advocated by the founders of humanistic psychology. Finally, a new day is dawning for human science research as the barriers that have served to separate natural science research from human science approaches begin to crumble one after another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychological assessment is a complex process aimed at contributing to helping the client. The information gained about the person in his or her situational context should facilitate guiding intervention. The basic data are derived from the clinical interview, testing, and collateral information from third parties. Contemporary Paganism makes use of the ancient practice of divination for a similar process of assessment in the context of personal guidance. This article examines the parallels between the process of divination and psychological assessment. Both activities serve a similar purpose to facilitate better client decision-making of life choices. Script theory informs the process parallels between those 2 forms of assessment. The generic helping script finds grounding in principles of humanistic psychology. Divination can be seen as a psycho-spiritual technique for personal growth through gnosis. Assessment can take similar forms in both a secular and spiritual context. Thus, practitioners in both domains share the common ground of the assumptions of human science. Finally, in both domains, elements of the assessment are encoded in signs (implying semiotic theory) that need to be interpreted (implying a hermeneutic process) and then findings are communicated back to the client (implying a rhetoric of healing and growth). Those disciplines help guide the communication process between participants across any differences in world view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the University of Alberta's Center for Advanced Study in Theoretical Psychology (1965-1990) in the context of social science conducted during the Cold War. We begin by considering the center with respect to three important properties of social science at this time: an emphasis on interdisciplinarity, a focus on theory, and a preference for quantitative methods. Our analysis suggests that center activities also exhibited these characteristics. They were highly interdisciplinary, they were concerned with the development of psychological theory, and center members were experts in a variety of formal, mathematical, or statistical techniques. We then discuss the center in relation to a subdomain of research known as Cold War social science, which also was interdisciplinary, theoretical and quantitative, but in addition focused on research that contributed to national security against the rise of communism. Center members also believed that their research had social implications, but these were related to a humanistic psychology that served as a positive social force, and diverged from typical Cold War applications. We end by considering the center as an example of a different kind of Cold War science that emerged from a unique set of contextual influences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-determination theory (SDT) is a contemporary macrotheory of motivation, personality, and wellness that has accumulated a large empirical research base. Many of its basic principles are humanistic in character, but there is little literature on it from within the ranks of humanistic psychology. This article presents an overview of the theory designed specifically for a humanistic audience and considers SDT's potential as a contemporary variant of humanistic psychology. SDT's core concept of autonomy is compared with the humanistic notion of willing, which formally introduces paradox as a fundamental aspect of self-development. Paradox is then pursued as a theme that can be used to tap the humanistic potential of SDT. Subsequent analyses focus on various integrative strengths or virtues derived from Knowles's (1986) existential-phenomenological interpretation of Eriksonian (1963) developmental theory, certain optimal forms of experience, happiness, and well-being. We conclude with some exploratory remarks concerning motivation, personality, and the paradoxical bipolarity of human nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing body of research reflects the need to focus on fathers' involvement with their infants. For many years, this was assessed by such domains as cohabitation, financial contributions, and/or asking mothers to rate the quality and quantity of the father's interactions with their children. Current scholarship has designated father involvement as a multifaceted construct, reflective of changing gender roles of men and fathers in the United States. However, there exists no self-report instrument of father's involvement with their infants that adequately measures the multifaceted components of the construct. The current project aims to develop a psychometrically sound, theoretically grounded instrument of father involvement. The Paternal Involvement With Infants Scale (PIWIS) is a self-report instrument that assesses a variety of ways in which new fathers are involved with their infant. In Sample 1, fathers of infants (N = 456) completed the PIWIS. Exploratory factor analyses (n = 250) and confirmatory factor analyses (n = 206) supported a 5-factor solution including positive engagement, indirect care, frustration, warmth and attunement, and control and process subscales. Sample 2 (N = 57) participants completed the PIWIS 4 weeks apart in order to provide test-retest reliability scores (r's > .51). Concurrent evidence of validity was established via significant positive correlations with theoretically related measures of social support, paternal engagement, infant care self-efficacy, parental alliance, parental satisfaction, and overall life satisfaction as well as negative correlations with gender role conflict and depression. Clinical implications and implications for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adapted from an acceptance speech for the Abraham Maslow Heritage Award awarded in 2017 by Division 32, Society of Humanistic Psychology, of the American Psychological Association, this article acknowledges those who have contributed significantly to the epistemological and methodological development of transformative research methods and reviews the historical junctures in the development of the methods since their inception in 1998. From the point of view of philosophy of science, transformative research methods partake and contribute to a larger, 21st century paradigm shift taking place regarding what science is and might be within humanistic and transpersonal psychology and throughout the human and natural sciences. The article concludes with a discussion of the development of a sacred science as the next step forward in transformative approaches to research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]