HUMANISTIC SCHOOLSPRESENTER – Dr.Sriram.R, 2nd year MD Psychiatry

CHAIRPERSON – Dr.Sivabalan.E, Assistant Prof of Psychiatry

ORGANISATION• WHAT IS HUMANISM?

• HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

• ORIGINS OF HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

• PRINCIPLES OF HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

• ASPECTS OF HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

• ABRAHAM MASLOW

• THEORY OF SELF-ACTUALIZATION

• CARL ROGERS

• ROGER’S SELF THEORY

• HUMANISTIC THERAPIES IN BRIEF

• REFERENCES

WHAT IS HUMANISM?

• Humanism is a philosophical and ethical stance that emphasizes the value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively, and generally prefers critical thinking and evidence (rationalism, empiricism) over established doctrine or faith (fideism). The meaning of the term humanism has fluctuated, according to the successive intellectual movements which have identified with it. (Walter,1997)

• It typically holds that people are inherently good.

• It adopts a holistic approach to human existence and pays special attention to such phenomena as creativity, free will, and human potential.

• A central assumption of humanism, is that human beings behave out of intentionality and values (Kurtz, 2000).

• This is in contrast to the beliefs of operant conditioning theorists, who believe that all behavior is the result of the application of consequences or to the beliefs of cognitive psychologists, who hold that the discovery of concepts or processing of information is a primary factor in human learning.

“HAPPY HUMAN” symbol

• The Happy Human is an icon that has been adopted as an international symbol of secular humanism.

• Created by Dennis Barrington, the figure was the winning design in a competition arranged by The British Humanist Association (BHA) in 1965.

HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

• Humanistic psychology is a psychological perspective which rose to prominence in the mid-20th century in response to the limitations of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory and B.F. Skinner's behaviorism.

• In the 20th century humanistic psychology was referred to as the "third force" in psychology, distinct from earlier, even less humanistic approaches of psychoanalysis and behaviorism.

• Its principal professional organizations in the U.S. are the Association for Humanistic Psychology and the Society for Humanistic Psychology (Division 32 of the American Psychological Association). In Britain there is the UK Association for Humanistic Psychology Practitioners.

ORIGINS OF HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

CONCEPTUAL ORIGINS

• The humanistic approach has its roots in phenomenological and existentialist thought.

• Eastern philosophy and psychology also play a central role in humanistic psychology.

• Historically "the first force" were psychologists like Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, Erik Erikson, Carl Jung, Erich Fromm, Karen Horney, Melanie Klein, Harry Stack Sullivan, and others.

CONCEPTUAL ORIGINS

• As behaviorism grew out of Ivan Pavlov's work with the conditioned reflex, and laid the foundations for academic psychology in the United States associated with the names of John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner, Abraham Maslow gave behaviorism the name "the second force".

• In the late 1930s, psychologists started to get interested in the uniquely human issues, such as the self, self-actualization, health, hope, love, creativity, nature, being, becoming, individuality, and meaning.

PRACTICAL ORIGINS

• WW II created practical pressures on military psychologists, they had more patients to see and care for than time or resources permitted. The origins of group therapy are here.

• Eric Berne's progression of books shows this transition out of what we might call pragmatic psychology of WW II into his later innovation, Transactional Analysis.

PRINCIPLES OF HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

• The humanistic psychology perspective is summarized by five core principles or postulates of humanistic psychology first articulated in an article written by James Bugental in 1964, and adapted by Tom Greening, Psychologist and long-time editor of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology.

• The five basic principles of humanistic psychology are:

Human beings, as human, supersede the sum of their parts. They cannot be reduced to components.

Human beings have their existence in a uniquely human context, as well as in a cosmic ecology.

Human beings are aware and are aware of being aware - i.e., they are conscious. Human consciousness always includes an awareness of oneself in the context of other people.

Human beings have some choice and, with that, responsibility.

Human beings are intentional, aim at goals, are aware that they cause future events, and seek meaning, value, and creativity.

ASPECTS OF HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

THE IDEAL SELF

• The term self has two distinct set of meanings.

• One set has to do with people’s attitude about themselves, i.e. self-concept and self-image.

• The second set of meanings relates to processes by which the individual manages, copes, thinks, remembers, perceives and plans (Morgan and King)

THE IDEAL SELF

• The ideal self and real self involve understanding the issues that arise from having an idea of what you wish you were as a person, and having that not match with who you actually are as a person (incongruence).

• The ideal self is what a person believes should be done, as well as what their core values are. The real self is what is actually played out in life.

EMPATHY AND SELF-HELP

• Empathy is one of the most important aspects of humanistic therapy. This idea focuses on the therapist’s ability to see the world through the eyes of the client.

• Without this, therapists can be forced to apply an external frame of reference where the therapist is no longer understanding the actions and thoughts of the client as the client would, but strictly as a therapist which defeats the purpose of humanistic therapy.

EMPATHY AND SELF-HELP

• Included in empathizing, unconditional positive regard is one of the key elements of humanistic psychology. Unconditional positive regard refers to the care that the therapist needs to have for the client.

• Self-help is also part of humanistic psychology: Sheila Ernst and Lucy Goodison have described using some of the main humanistic approaches in self-help groups.

NON-PATHOLOGICAL VIEW

• Humanistic psychology tends to look beyond the medical model of psychology in order to open up a nonpathologizing view of the person (Clay, 2002)

• This usually implies that the therapist downplays the pathological aspects of a person's life in favour of the healthy aspects.

• The therapist does not analyze or interpret the client’s behavior or any information the client shares.

ABRAHAM MASLOW (April 1, 1908 – June 8, 1970)

• Maslow was a psychology professor at Brandeis University, Brooklyn College, New School for Social Research and Columbia University.

• He stressed the importance of focusing on the positive qualities in people, as opposed to treating them as a "bag of symptoms”

• Best known for creating Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a theory of psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human needs in priority, culminating in self-actualization.

• In 1967, Maslow was named Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association.

THEORY OF SELF-ACTUALIZATION

• Maslow rejected mainstream psychology & scientific method.

• Believed science was too limited for studying human nature.

• ‘Scientific attitude’ pathological (eg. Skinner’s)

• Began psychology career studying ‘dominance’ in monkeys.

• To prove that humans are not blindly reacting to situations, but trying to accomplish something greater, Maslow studied mentally healthy individuals instead of people with serious psychological issues.

“Certainly it seems more & more clear that what we call “normal” in psychology is really a psychopathology of the average, so undramatic

& so widely spread that we don’t even notice it ordinarily”

(Maslow, 1968, p. 21)

• Identified colleagues & historical figures that he considered psychologically healthy (reaching ‘full potential’) eg. George Washington, Albert Einstein, Henry Thoreau (Carlson, 2000)

• Looked for common elements & identified self-actualising qualities.

• Maslow argued, the way in which essential needs are fulfilled is just as important as the needs themselves. Together, these define the human experience.

• Self-actualisation:“… to become everything that one is capable of becoming” (Maslow, 1968, p.46).

QUALITIES OF SELF-ACTUALIZING PEOPLE

• He realized that all the individuals he studied had similar personality traits. All were "reality centered," able to differentiate what was fraudulent from what was genuine.

• They were also "problem centered," meaning that those treated life's difficulties as problems that demanded solutions.

• These individuals also were comfortable being alone and had healthy personal relationships. They had only a few close friends and family rather than a large number of shallow relationships.

QUALITIES OF SELF-ACTUALIZING PEOPLE

HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

• Maslow described human needs as ordered in a hierarchy—a pressing need would need to be mostly satisfied before someone would give their attention to the next highest need.

• According to Maslow's theory, when a human being ascends the levels of the hierarchy having fulfilled the needs in the hierarchy, one may eventually achieve self-actualization.

• The pyramidal diagram illustrating the Maslow needs hierarchy may have been created by a psychology textbook publisher as an illustrative device.

HIERARCHY OF NEEDS• Human needs as identified by Maslow:

• At the bottom of the hierarchy are the "Basic needs or Physiological needs" of a human being: food, water, sleep and sex.

• The next level is "Safety Needs: Security, Order, and Stability". These two steps are important to the physical survival of the person. Once individuals have basic nutrition, shelter and safety, they attempt to accomplish more.

• The third level of need is "Love and Belonging", which are psychological needs; when individuals have taken care of themselves physically, they are ready to share themselves with others, such as with family and friends.

• The fourth level is achieved when individuals feel comfortable with what they have accomplished. This is the "Esteem" level, the need to be competent and recognized, such as through status and level of success.

• Then there is the "Cognitive" level, where individuals intellectually stimulate themselves and explore.

• After that is the "Aesthetic" level, which is the need for harmony, order and beauty.• At the top of the pyramid, "Need for Self-actualization" occurs when individuals reach a state of

harmony and understanding because they are engaged in achieving their full potential. Once a person has reached the self-actualization state they focus on themselves and try to build their own image. They may look at this in terms of feelings such as self-confidence or by accomplishing a set goal.

An interpretation of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, represented as a pyramid with the more basic needs at the bottom

• The first four levels are known as Deficit needs or D-needs. This means that if you do not have enough of one of those four needs, you will have the feeling that you need to get it. But when you do get them, then you feel content. These needs alone are not motivating(Boeree, 2006)

• Maslow wrote that there are certain conditions that must be fulfilled in order for the basic needs to be satisfied. For example, freedom of speech, freedom to express oneself, and freedom to seek new information are a few of the prerequisites.

• Beyond the routine of needs fulfillment, Maslow envisioned moments of extraordinary experience, known as Peak experiences, which are profound moments of love, understanding, happiness, or rapture, during which a person feels more whole, alive, self-sufficient and yet a part of the world.

• Maslow used the term metamotivation to describe self-actualized people who are driven by innate forces beyond their basic needs.

• In studying accounts of peak experiences, Maslow identified a manner of thought he called "Being-cognition" (or "B-cognition"), which is holistic and accepting, as opposed to the evaluative "Deficiency-cognition" (or "D-cognition").

CRITICISM OF MASLOW’S THEORY• Maslow's ideas have been criticized for their lack of scientific rigor. He

was criticized as too soft scientifically by American empiricists.

• Hierarchy of Needs has been accused of having a cultural bias—mainly reflecting Western values and ideologies. From the perspective of many cultural psychologists, this concept is considered relative to each culture and society and cannot be universally applied (Rice, 2012)

CARL ROGERS (January 8, 1902 – February 4, 1987)

• American psychologist and among the founders of the humanistic approach (or client-centered approach) to psychology.

• Rogers is widely considered to be one of the founding fathers of psychotherapy research and was honored for his pioneering research with the Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions by the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1956.

• The person-centered approach, his own unique approach to understanding personality and human relationships, found wide application in various domains such as psychotherapy and counseling (client-centered therapy), education (student-centered learning), organizations, and other group settings.

ROGER’S SELF THEORY

• Rogers' theory of the self is considered to be humanistic, existential, and phenomenological.

• His theory is based directly on the "phenomenal field" personality theory of Combs and Snygg (1949)

• Rogers' elaboration of his own theory is extensive. He wrote 16 books and many more journal articles describing it.

• In the development of the self-concept, he saw conditional and unconditional positive regard as key.

• Those raised in an environment of unconditional positive regard have the opportunity to fully actualize themselves, defined as accepting a person "without negative judgment of .... [a person's] basic worth(Barry, 2002)

• Those raised in an environment of conditional positive regard feel worthy only if they match conditions (what Rogers describes as conditions of worth) that have been laid down for them by others.

• His theory (as of 1951) was based on 19 propositions.

• Optimal development, as referred to in proposition 14, results in a certain process rather than static state. The characteristics of a fully functioning person are –

• A growing openness to experience

• An increasingly existential lifestyle i.e. living each moment fully – not distorting the moment to fit personality or self-concept

• Increasing organismic trust – they trust their own judgment and their ability to choose behavior

• Freedom of choice – not being shackled by the restrictions that influence an incongruent individual

• Creativity

• Reliability and constructiveness – they can be trusted to act constructively

• A rich full life

• Rogers described the concepts of congruence and incongruence as important ideas in his theory. The gap between the real self and the ideal self, the "I am" and the "I should" is called incongruity.

• In proposition #6, he refers to the actualizing tendency. At the same time, he recognized the need for positive regard.

• Rogers suggested that the incongruent individual, who is always on the defensive and cannot be open to all experiences, is not functioning ideally and may even be malfunctioning.

• He describes two mechanisms: distortion and denial. Distortion occurs when the individual perceives a threat to their self-concept. This defensive behavior reduces the consciousness of the threat but not the threat itself.

HUMANISTIC THERAPIES IN BRIEF

PERSON-CENTERED THERAPY

• Person-centered therapy (PCT) is also known as person-centered psychotherapy, person-centered counseling, client-centered therapy and Rogerian psychotherapy.

• PCT is a form of talk-psychotherapy developed by psychologist Carl Rogers in the 1940s and 1950s.

• The goal of PCT is to provide clients with an opportunity to develop a sense of self where they can realize how their attitudes, feelings and behavior are being negatively affected (Cepeda and Davenport, 2006)

PERSON-CENTERED THERAPY• The Necessary and Sufficient Conditions Rogers (1957; 1959) stated six necessary and

sufficient conditions required for therapeutic change:

• Therapist–client psychological contact: a relationship between client and therapist must exist, and it must be a relationship in which each person's perception of the other is important.

• Client incongruence: that incongruence exists between the client's experience and awareness.• Therapist congruence, or genuineness: the therapist is congruent within the therapeutic

relationship. The therapist is deeply involved him or herself — they are not "acting" — and they can draw on their own experiences (self-disclosure) to facilitate the relationship.

• Therapist unconditional positive regard (UPR): the therapist accepts the client unconditionally, without judgment, disapproval or approval. This facilitates increased self-regard in the client, as they can begin to become aware of experiences in which their view of self-worth was distorted by others.

• Therapist empathic understanding: the therapist experiences an empathic understanding of the client's internal frame of reference. Accurate empathy on the part of the therapist helps the client believe the therapist's unconditional love for them.

• Client perception: that the client perceives, to at least a minimal degree, the therapist's UPR and empathic understanding.

• Three of these conditions have become known as the 'Core Conditions' 3, 4 and 5 (above).

PERSON-CENTERED THERAPY

• Rogers asserted that the most important factor in successful therapy is the relational climate created by the therapist's attitude to their client. He specified three interrelated core conditions:

• Congruence - the willingness to transparently relate to clients without hiding behind a professional or personal facade.

• Unconditional positive regard - the therapist offers an acceptance and prizing for their client for who he or she is without conveying disapproving feelings, actions or characteristics and demonstrating a willingness to attentively listen without interruption, judgement or giving advice.

• Empathy - the therapist communicates their desire to understand and appreciate their clients perspective.

EXISTENTIAL THERAPY

• Existential psychotherapy is a philosophical method of therapy that operates on the belief that inner conflict within a person is due to that individual's confrontation with the givens of existence (Yalom, 1980).

• These 4 givens, as noted by Irvin D. Yalom, are: the inevitability of death, freedom and its attendant responsibility, existential isolation (referring to phenomenology), and finally meaninglessness.

EXISTENTIAL THERAPY

• Existentialism suggests that it is possible for people to face the anxieties of life head-on and embrace the human condition of aloneness, to revel in the freedom to choose and take full responsibility for their choices.

• Existential thinkers seek to avoid restrictive models that categorize or label people. Instead they look for the universals that can be observed cross-culturally.

EXISTENTIAL THERAPY

• One can distinguish four basic dimensions of human existence: the physical, the social, the psychological, and the spiritual.

• On each of these dimensions, people encounter the world and shape their attitude out of their particular take on their experience.• Physical dimension On the physical dimension (Umwelt), individuals relate to their

environment and to the givens of the natural world around them.• Social dimension On the social dimension (Mitwelt), individuals relate to others as

they interact with the public world around them.• Psychological dimension On the psychological dimension (Eigenwelt), individuals

relate to themselves and in this way create a personal world.• Spiritual dimension On the spiritual dimension (Überwelt) (van Deurzen, 1984),

individuals relate to the unknown and thus create a sense of an ideal world, an ideology, and a philosophical outlook.

GESTALT THERAPY

• Gestalt therapy is an existential/experiential form of psychotherapy that emphasizes personal responsibility, and that focuses upon the individual's experience in the present moment, the therapist–client relationship, the environmental and social contexts of a person's life, and the self-regulating adjustments people make as a result of their overall situation.

• Gestalt therapy was developed by Fritz Perls, Laura Perls and Paul Goodman in the 1940s and 1950s.

GESTALT THERAPY

• Gestalt therapy is not identical with Gestalt Psychology but Gestalt Psychology influenced the development of Gestalt therapy to a large extent.

• Gestalt therapy focuses on process (what is actually happening) over content (what is being talked about) (Flanagan, 2012)

• The emphasis is on what is being done, thought, and felt at the present moment (the phenomenality of both client and therapist), rather than on what was, might be, could be, or should have been.

GESTALT THERAPY

• Gestalt therapy is a method of awareness practice (also called "mindfulness" in other clinical domains), by which perceiving, feeling, and acting are understood to be conducive to interpreting, explaining, and conceptualizing (the hermeneutics of experience) (Brownell, 2010)

• This distinction between direct experience versus indirect or secondary interpretation is developed in the process of therapy. The client learns to become aware of what he or she is doing and that triggers the ability to risk a shift or change (Beisser, 1970)

REFERENCES

• Humanism – What's in the Word (London: Rationalist Press Association, 1997 ISBN 0-301-97001-7).

• Kurtz, P. (2000). Humanist manifesto 2000: A call for a new planetary humanism. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books.

• Humanistic Psychology, APA

• Bugental, J. (1964). The third force in psychology. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 4(1), 19-26. doi:10.1177/002216786400400102

• Greening, T. (2006). Five basic postulates of humanistic psychology. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 46(3), 239-239. doi:10.1177/002216780604600301

• Ernst, Sheila & Goodison, Lucy (1981). In our own hands: A book of self help therapy. London: The Women's Press. ISBN 0-7043-3841-6

• Clay, Rebecca A. (September 2002). "A renaissance for humanistic psychology. The field explores new niches while building on its past." American Psychological Association Monitor, 33 (8).

• Carlson, N. R. (19992000). Memory. Psychology: the science of behaviour (Canandian ed., p. 461). Scarborough, Ont.: Allyn and Bacon Canada.

REFERENCES

• Boeree, C. (2006). "Abraham Maslow". Webspace.ship.edu. Retrieved 2012-10-21.

• Keith E Rice,"Hierarchy of Needs", Integrated Sociopsychology, 9/12/12

• Dagmar Pescitelli, An Analysis of Carl Rogers' Theory of Personality

• Snygg, Donald and Combs, Arthur W. (1949), Individual Behavior: A New Frame of Reference for Psychology. New York, Harper & Brothers. Article on Snygg and Combs' "Phenomenal Field" Theory

• Barry, P. (2002). Mental Health and Mental Illness. (7th ed.) New York: Lippincott.

• Cepeda, Lisa M.; Davenport, Donna S. (2006). "Person-Centered Therapy and Solution-Focused Brief Therapy: An Integration of Present and Future Awareness". Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training (Educational Publishing Foundation) 43 (1): 1–12. doi:10.1037/0033-3204.43.1.1.

• Prochaska, J.O & Norcross, J.C. 2007. Systems of Psychotherapy: A Trans-theoretical Analysis. Thompson Books/Cole:New York, p. 142-143

• Yalom, I (1980). Existential psychotherapy. New York: Basic Books. p. 9.

• Henle, M. (1978): Gestalt psychology and Gestalt therapy, in: Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 14 (1), pg. 23-32.

THANK YOU