Humanistic psychology

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Discussion:

Needle Fixation: Addiction Psychology
The advent of humanistic psychology

Behaviorismis a systematic approach to the study of human and animal behavior.
All behaviors consist of reflexes, reactions to certain stimuli in an environment.
Psychoanalysis is amethod of treatment of mental illness related to the identification and analysis of displaced, traumatizing experiences, unfulfilled desires from consciousness into unconscious.
By the beginning of 1960

Mechanistic approach
Behavior depends entirely on external stimuli
Mental life is completely defined by unrealized attraction and complexes
Focus on neuroses

Humanistic psychology is a direction in Western psychology that recognizes the personality as a unique holistic system.

Humanistic psychology is
a conglomerate of different schools and directions with a common strategic platform. Representatives of H. P. are eager to build a new, fundamentally different methodology of human cognition as a unique object of research.

The base of humanistic psychology is existentialism(lat.existentia'existence') — a direction in the philosophy of the 20th century, focusing its attentionon the uniqueness of human being, proclaiming its irrational.

Humanists were the first to pay their attention to healthy people.
Humanistic psychology gives priority to the person and his self-improvement.
Main subjects: higher values, self-actualization , creativity, freedom, love, responsibility, autonomy, mental health, interpersonal relations.
The object of humanistic psychology is not the prediction and control of human behavior, but the uniqueness and freedom of the person .
What's new?

Principles of Humanistic Psychology
The person as a holistic being exceeds the sum of his constituents.
Human being opens up in the human relationship context .
A person is self-aware and cannot be understood by psychology that fails to account for his continuous, multi-level self-awareness.
A person has a choice, he creates his own experience
5. The person is drawn to the future: he has a purpose, meaning and life values.

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Founders and Concepts of Humanistic Psychology

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The center of the direction was the USA,
and the leading founders were
Carl Rogers, Rollo Reece May, Abraham Maslow, Gordon Allport

Abraham Maslow (1908 —1970)

Born in Brooklyn in 1908
The firstborn, had 6 brothers and sisters
No warm relationship in his family
Grew up without friends among books in libraries
Was one of the best students at school
In 1926 he entered the College of Law
In 1928 he entered at the University of Wisconsin and got married with his cousin
Abraham Harold Maslow

Professional formation
First scientific paper: “The relationship of sexuality and social behavior of primates”
Became a candidate of psychological sciences, was a follower of behaviorism at the beginning of his career,
the Dean of the Psychological Department at the Brandeis University in1951.
The President of the American Psychological Association in 1967.
His separate direction was formed untill 1969, called humanistic psychology.
Died at the age of 62 in California because of a heart attack.

Pyramid of Needs

Pyramid of Needs

Self-actualization according to A. Maslow is the realization of all potential opportunities, abilities and talents, as accomplishment of his mission, or vocation, or fate, etc. as a more complete knowledge and acceptance of one's own primordial nature, as the relentless pursuit of unity, integration, or internal synergy of the personality.

Self-realization, self-actualization (development and realization of one's abilities) are the vernacial experience of the personality.
Self-transcendence is a transcending beyond self-esteem, when the person can feel his unity with anyone, or even with anything beyond his particular psyche.

Self-actualization is an
objective perception of reality
full perception of your body
passion and dedication
simplicity and a natural behavior
the independence need, the need to be alone
an intense, mystical and religious experience
the presence of the higher experience
benevolent and sympathetic treatment of people
self-thinking (reliance on yourself)
democratic personality type
creative approach to the personality and life
high level of social interest
humor that should be philosophical and not spiteful
freshness of perception (ability to see something new in familia)

Self-actualized personalities
Enstein
Spinoza
William James
Abraham Lincoln

Carl Rogers 1902-1987
Born in the suburban of Chicago
Was the fourth of six children in the prosperous and religious family
Was a shut down child and liked reading
Dreamed of becoming a farmer. He entered the university and studiedscientific farming
During training there appeared the ideas that would be the basis of his personality theory later:
Any person should rely on his own understanding of the situation, not on the opinion of others
Every man should work actively and consciously on his own improvement

In 1922 he took part in the conference
Christian Student Conference held in Beijing
His views became more loyal and liberal and he stopped having strong religious views at that period.

Professional formation
He became the Bachelor of History, the Master of Psychology and the Doctor of Clinical Psychology
1945 became the professor at the University of Chicago
1946 - the President of the American Psychological Association
In 1951 he completed his main work: “Client-centred-therapy: Its Current Practice, Implications and Theory”
“People are able to realize their actions and change them”

Man is intrinsically kind and seeks to realize himself
Man wants to bring his “I am Real” closer to “I am perfect” (I- concept)
It is important to understand that there is a human existence in all his immediacy
Rogers' personality theory

The main driver of development is the innate tendency towards self-actualization
“positive regard”
(the love and acceptance need) - a push for further growth of a psychologically healthy person.
Self-actualization is the highest level of mental health of the person.
“I-concept” is defined as a dynamic system of the human self-image.
Rogers' personality theory

For Rogers self-actualization
is the process of human realization of his potential with the goal of becoming a fully functioning person.

Self-actualized personality
is the openness to the experience of any type
to live the full life at any moment
to get the ability to listen more to your own instincts and intuition
to have a sense of freedom in thoughts and actions
to have a high level of creativity
Self-actualization - THIS PROCESS

Gordon Allport 1897 — 1967.
Born in Montezuma, Indiana
Entered the famous Harvard University, following his elder brother.
In 1919 he had a bachelor's degree of the sciences and started working as a lecturer of sociology and English at college.
In 1922 he had the Doctorate Degree of Psychology at the Harvard University.
In 1963 he was commemorated with the gold medal of the American Psychological Foundation.
In 1964 he was honored by the American Psychological Association, he was the president of it at that time.

Allport's Trait Theory of Personality
personality is an open, self-developing system
a man is, above all, a social being
Each person is the medium of a peculiar combination of qualities, needs; he called it trite (trait: basic/instrumental).
there are no two similar people, the traits are unique
He developed the “Study Test of Values”.

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Existential psychology

Existential psychology isa direction in psychology that comes from the uniqueness of a particular person's life, a unique experience, not reduced to general schemes.
"there's always something with people that goes beyond conditionality, predictability, because we're dealing with a high degree of uncertainty in the world....."

Rollo Reece May 1909 — 1994
an American psychologist and psychotherapist, a theorist of existential psychology.
He was the first to examine thoroughly the basic problems of human existence: good and evil, freedom, responsibility, destiny, creativity, guilt, anxiety, love and violence.
"A LOT OF PEOPLE DREAM TO BE TOLD THAT FREEDOM IS AN ILLUSION, AND THAT THERE IS NO NEED TO BURST YOUR HEAD OVER IT"

May's Personality Theory
A man lives in the present, what is happening here and nowis relevant to him.
A person affected by physical or mental illness should be an active participant in the treatment process.
Healthy people challenge their destiny, cherish their freedom, and live authentically with other people and with themselves.

Irvin David Yalom
an existential psychotherapist, the Professor of Psychiatry at the Stanford University.
He started his way as a psychoanalyst before he became an existential therapist, the author of many psychotherapy fiction works.

Viktor Emil Frankl(1905 — 1997)
an Austrian psychiatrist, psychologist and neurologist
The founder oflogotherapy - method of existential psychoanalysis.
He developed an interest in psychology at a young age. For his final exam, he wrote a paper on psychology of philosophical thinking.
1923 studied medicine at the University of Vienna (Psychiatry and Neurology)

Psychologist in the concentration camp
Developed the “autogenic training method” - the achievement of autonomic self-regulation by removing environmental distraction
the psychological group care prevented suicides
“Who knows the "why" for his existence... will be able to bear almost any "how"”.

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Logotherapy

It is a kind of psychotherapy based on the search and analyzis of the meaning of existence.

a freedom of meaning is a fundamental, motivational force in a person.
When a freedom of meaning is lost, there is:
apathy, boredom,existential vacuum

Three ways to comprehend life:
Creation
getting a new experience or meeting someone on a life way
finding meaning in life, including suffering

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Client-centered therapy

Congruence — openness, honesty.
A person is called congruent who takes and accepts his feelings, his senses, and he can call them, show them in behavior not traumatizing others.

Asking for help, a person is able to find a solution to his problem by himself.
our essence is positive, that potential is only in the form of a positive perceptance.
the therapist does not direct the client, lead him, force to do anything, give out answers and advice.
And the client starts to express his feelings more freely in such psychotherapy, he has a steady positive self-esteem that allows to trust the world more.

“If you want the flower to blossom, it is not worth touching the bud petals, you can only bring a harm.
You need to create the necessary conditions with water and sunlight, and then it openes. It is the same with the relationship of people.
The true help is not to manipulate the person or reform him, but to create conditions for human development, independent development of problems.” C. Rogers

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Gestalt means “shape, figure, form”.
Other more or less appropriate Russian analogues are organization, structure, model.

Gestalt therapy is an approach focused on supporting human development through inducing sensuality, sensitivity to the quality of one's presence in one's life.
The main goalis to increase awareness.
The challengeis to wake up and discover yourself. The energy of this impression is the basis of motivation for development (development, not adaptation)

Friedrich Perls (1893 - 1970)
a German psychiatrist, the founder of Gestalt Therapy.
In 1921 he had the Doctor of Medicine Degree, began to practice psychiatry with medicine, electrical equipment, hypnosis and speeches.
And in 1925 he spent seven years on psychoanalysis, firstly with Wilhelm Reich, then with Karen Horney. He called this period of life “ useless life on the couch”
he did not read a single textbook of Gestalt therapy☺

Gestalt Therapy arose in the middle of the 20th century
became very popular in Russia in the 80th
The therapist work is to restore the client's sensitivity to his impressionability and support sensitivity through deceleration.
Concept of dialogue (the client's and therapist's experience)
I and You, here and now
Presence, inclusion, liveliness and awareness

Phenomenological approach means that we work with current experience, we see here and now.
“We see what and how is going on right here and now between Me and You? And we correlate that with what you think is your problem.”

“I do my own thing and you do yours.
I don't live in this world to meet your expectations,
and you live in this world not to meet mine.
You are you. And I am I. If we happen to meet each other, that's fine. If not, that can't be helped.”
F. Perls