Humanistic psychology

Pioneering creativity researcher Frank Barron developed a complex, systemic, ecological vision of creativity. In this book chapter in Barron's Festschrift, I explore the implications of Barron's vision, and connect it to recent developments in the systems sciences.

An introduction to the blind-spot in medicine: human existence is systematically left out of healthcare. Two stories are told that introduce this blind-spot. The first is that of Kurt Goldstein, the WWI German neuropsychiatrist who describes a crisis in modern medicine. The second is that of Médard Boss, a WWII Swiss neuropsychiatrist that finds that medicine has trained him poorly to treat problems of meaning and existence. Time is spent differentiating existential health psychology from health psychology and complementary or alternative medical models.

Pedagogy has been defined as the discipline that deals with theoretical concepts and practical educational approaches. A smart pedagogy for digital transformation, where artificial intelligence will provide smart educational agents, needs to consider how technologies affect perceptions of reality, cognition, and social interactions. In the second decade of the twenty-first century, several international organizations, including the OECD and UNESCO, are converging on natural learning principles for a new pedagogy focused on achieving the United Nations goals for sustainable development. At the same time, notions about learning space have evolved due to the input of specialists from many disciplines. Even the term “space” has been redefined, with the advent of personal computers and mobile devices as elements that offer a window to the world. Educators today are facing a major paradigm shift, in the form of the fourth industrial revolution, or Industry 4.0, that requires a rapid response through Information 4.0. New technologies and infrastructures enable learning to be personalized to each individual learner. Technological objects metamorphose from tools or environments into personified agents that help teachers evaluate the potential and progress of each learner and might eventually decide for them. Future challenges demand a humanistic approach to technological development in education.

Invited Commentary on:

Zahavi , D and Martiny, KM (2019 ) Phenomenology in Nursing Studies: New perspectives, International Journal of Nursing Studies In Press (production please update to cite in press with doi url – for IJNS-D-18-01380R1)

In Resituating Humanistic Psychology, Patrick Whitehead and Miles Groth urge psychologists to return to the aims and goals of the psychology as it first emerged. In the past 130 years, the field has veered greatly from its initial conception. To illustrate this, Whitehead and Groth trace the growth of the discipline from its conception in the late 1800s to the humanistic revolution of the 1960s to the current period of social unrest. They touch on Wilhelm Wundt’s and William James’s vision for the field; the lasting changes made to clinical psychology, methods of investigation, and psychology of learning in the 60s; and the effects of isolation, extreme connectivity, and social politics on psychology today. This book is recommended for scholars and students of psychology, history, and philosophy.

When function at its highest, human education helps each human being achieve his or her full potential.  When this occurs, learning is viewed in terms of personal growth and the development of each human’s full potential.  This occurs, not just on an intellectual level, but also on an emotional, psychological, creative, social, physical, and even spiritual or transcendent level.

This is submission for my talk at the EUROTAS Conference 2018, in Saint-Petersburg, Russia.
Transpersonal Psychology is more than just science. It is a human-potential movement, a space for self-exploration, a starting point on a spiritual path.
Any attempts to restrict transpersonal psychology by the limits of classical science lead to the inevitable loss of inspiration.
Spirit roams wherever it feels like.

A central assumption of humanism, according to Huitt (2001) is that people act with intentionality and values. This is in contrast to the behavioristnotion of operant conditioning (which argues that all behavior is the result of the application of consequences) and the cognitive psychologist belief that the discovering knowledge or constructing meaning is central to learning. Humanists, also believe that it is necessary to study the person as a whole, especially as an individual grows and develops over the lifespan. It follows that the study of the self, motivation and goals are areas of particular interest (Rogers &Freiberg, 1994). Key proponents of humanism include C. Rogers and A. Maslow. A primary purpose of humanism could be described as the development of self-actualized, autonomous people. In humanism, learning is student centered and personalized  and the educator’s role is that of a facilitator. Affective and cognitive needs are key and the goal is to develop self-actualized people in a cooperative, supportive environment (DeCarvalho, 1991).One of humanistic psychology’s early sources was the work of C. Rogers. Rogers’ focus was to ensure that the developmental processes led to healthier, if not more creative, personality functioning. The term “actualizing tendency” was also coined by Rogers and was a concept that eventually led Maslow to study self-actualization as one of the needs of humans (Kramer, Douglas& Vicky, 2009).

In “Soul and Soullessness” soul refers to the ability to be affected, i.e. to experience one’s affective states rather than defending or repressing one’s emotions.  This capacity of the soul to feel deeply is integral to the experience of being fully human.  Soullessness, on the other hand, refers the numbing of one’s affective experience.  The numbing process occurs most often in relation to experiences of trauma and shaming, which can be extremely intense and painful at an emotional level.



When numb places in the psyche are consciously revisited and re-experienced, including the intense affects associated with the original overwhelming experience, a person can recover feeling capacity that was previously lost.  However, when numb places in the psyche are not consciously revisited and re-experienced, a person instead tends to build up further layers of numbing, which then result in soullessness – behaviors that we would consider callous, indifferent, and even evil.  Thus the ability to be affected, to experience rather than defend against one’s emotions, is pivotal to embodying and expressing the sensitivities of the soul.

French Abstract --- Cet article illustre le travail clinique d’orientation humaniste en psycho-oncologie. Dans un premier temps, nous allons présenter les notions et les attitudes mobilisées par le clinicien dans l’écoute et la prise en charge de la souffrance du patient. La réintroduction d’un espace de réhumanisation, le travail sur la présence thérapeutique, le travail sur l’éprouvé corporel et sur les défenses psychocorporelles forment des axes particuliers à proposer au patient en fonction de sa demande. Dans un deuxième temps, le travail sur l’angoisse de mort à travers l’art sera abordé selon l’orientation humaniste (orientation transpersonnelle et existentielle) et selon une méthodologie d’analyse qualitative informatisée de la narration (logiciels Tropes et T-LAB). Ce « travail avec l’art » en psycho-oncologie sera illustré grâce à différents dispositifs (atelier de musique classique et de poésie) centrés sur les variations narratives des patients. Le « travail sur l’angoisse de mort » avec l’art peut non seulement éloigner le patient d’une narration somatique de la maladie (symptômes, plaintes, gênes et douleurs physiques), mais aussi générer des expériences corporelles agréables et une narration riche d’éléments symboliques et spirituels. --- English Abstract The aim of this article is to illustrate the clinical work using a humanistic approach in psycho-oncology. First, we will present the notions and attitudes moved by the clinician in listening to and treating the suffering of the patient: reintroduction of a space of rehumanization, work on the therapeutic presence, work on body awareness and on body defenses. Secondly, we will describe the work on death anxiety through art, according to the humanistic approach (transpersonal orientation) and according to a qualitative methodology using two software technologies (Tropes and T-LAB).We will show this work with art in psychooncology through the illustration of different devices (specific and structured protocol focused on classical music or Haiku poetry) centered on the narratives of patients. The “psychic work on death anxiety” with art, can not only distance the patient from a somatic narrative of the disease (symptoms, complaints, physical pains), but also generate pleasurable body experiences and a rich symbolic and spiritual narrative.

Toda decisión, por más racional que parezca, generalmente tiene un componente emocional (modelos aprendidos). Las decisiones asertivas, requieren una inteligencia emocional sustentada en habilidades psicológicas. Además contribuye a la mejora continua en la productividad y en el aprendizaje organizacional.