Humanistic Psychology: Conversations with Abraham Maslow, Gardner Murphy and Carl Rogers

"I have often been asked by interested colleagues and friends", says Frick, "to explain the nature and meaning of humanistic psychology. This is no easy task, for the answer is not a simple one and the question cannot be answered in a doctrinaire fashion by resorting to the glib statement of some formula or methodology. Humanistic psychology, a vigorous 'third force' in psychology, has emerged as a passionate expression of protest against the limited and limiting images of man expounded by the two other major schools of psychology, viz., psychoanalysis and behaviorism. While not denying their important contributions, humanistic psychology holds to the position that the images of man presented by these two theoretical systems are, like pages torn from a book, only parts that contribute to a greater whole and are, therefore, incomplete. Humanistic psychology, however, also presents us with a more positive philosophical position and, in the final analysis, represents a psychology with certain characteristic commitments of its own as to the nature of the human person and the nature and scope of that science which is necessary to explore and acquire a broader, more profound understanding of personhood. Humanistic psychology is extremely sensitive and resistant to the seductive temptation to model humankind after a theory rather than fashion a theory that more fully reveals man and is in closer harmony with man and his nature. With the human person at the center and with no need to deny or distort his many characteristics and possibilities for the purpose of preserving a theoretical structure, humanistic psychology has retained a greater measure of freedom to concentrate on significant humanproblems and concerns that can take man's full range of inner experience into serious account".Frick, Willard B. is the author of 'Humanistic Psychology: Conversations with Abraham Maslow, Gardner Murphy and Carl Rogers' with ISBN 9781556051067 and ISBN 1556051069.