Journal of Humanistic Psychology recent issues

Editor's Commentary

2008-06-19

The Person-Centered Approach Meets Neuroscience: Mutual Support for C. R. Rogers's and A. Damasio's Theories

Motschnig-Pitrik, R., Lux, M. — 2008-06-19

Neuroscience offers new ways and levels to look into the functioning of our organisms. It thus can be used as a means to confirm or question psychological phenomena. In this article, the authors aim to view Carl Rogers's theory of personality and behavior in light of Antonio Damasio's theories and hypotheses concerning emotions, feelings, and conscious thought. The results indicate a tight correspondence of basic concepts and hypotheses such as the actualizing tendency and the vital role of feelings in thought. Furthermore, several ways accrue in which neuroscience and psychology complement one another in producing a more complete and, hence, reliable image of human functioning.

Therapeutic Neuropsychological Assessment: A Humanistic Model and Case Example

Gorske, T. T. — 2008-06-19

One of the challenges the field of clinical neuropsychology faces is to develop an assessment process that is relevant to the needs of patients and referral sources and responsive to those needs. One method for meeting this need is for psychologists and neuropsychologists to extend their services to develop clinical interventions that serve to enhance patients' cognitive and emotional well-being. Feedback to patients from the results of neuropsychological tests is an intervention that is considered an important part of the assessment process, and there is evidence that direct feedback has positive therapeutic effects for patients. Although many authors have provided suggestions and principles for conducting neuropsychological test feedback, there is no agreed-on conceptual framework for doing so. The following article presents a humanistic model for providing feedback from the results of neuropsychological tests and a case example of its application with a young woman suffering from a brain tumor.

The Humanistic Psychology of Human Evil: Ernest Becker and Arthur Koestler

Bartlett, S. J. — 2008-06-19

Little effort has been made in psychology and psychiatry to study pathologies that afflict, not the aberrant neurotic or psychotic individual or social group, but the greater population of the psychologically normal. A study of such "universal pathologies" requires a focus on the "evil of banality," and not the more restricted "banality of evil." Where the latter phrase was used by Hannah Arendt to refer to the psychological normality of delimited groups of individuals who perpetrate evil (specifically, Nazi leaders during the Holocaust), the "evil of banality" refers to pathologies of normality—to the psychological constitution of the average person that predisposes him or her to participate in aggression and destruction. The article begins by summarizing conclusions reached in the author's The Pathology of Man: A Study of Human Evil (Charles C. Thomas, 2005). This study provides an up-to-date frame of reference within which are discussed the complementary and insightful observations concerning human evil made by two psychologically oriented humanists, Ernest Becker and Arthur Koestler.

Wilber's Integral Philosophy: A Summary and Critique

Paulson, D. S. — 2008-06-19

An integral philosophy, such as that promoted by Ken Wilber, can be very useful in providing an individual with a wide-scope theory to serve as an orienting worldview and container enabling them to develop their spiritual practices. Wilber's view is particularly useful in that it covers objective, intersubjective, and subjective world spaces at once. Used too rigidly, it can become an overly mechanical process of merely downloading a canned integral program into one's internal operating system. Authentic spirituality, although using theory, argues for developing one's own spiritual practice. In developing one's own practice, the pragmatic writings of Dewey, Peirce, and James can serve as a guide, in that the practice is practiced, is pluralistic, requires participation with others, and is provisional.

Viewing Resistance as Ambivalence: Integrative Strategies for Working With Resistant Ambivalence

Engle, D., Arkowitz, H. — 2008-06-19

Resistance to change is a problem that has long evaded easy solutions. In this article, the authors suggest the value of understanding and working with some forms of resistance as ambivalence. They describe resistant ambivalence in the context of an integrative and multivoiced understanding. A person who is ambivalent possesses a voice that moves toward change and a voice that struggles against change. The authors sought therapy methods that were consistent with the multivoiced integrative understanding of ambivalence and that could be useful in its resolution. Motivational interviewing and the two-chair method are described in this article, along with illustrative case material. These methods share a common spirit and therapist style that is accepting of the client's worldview and creates a strong partnership between the therapist and client. These methods can be used in conjunction with other therapy approaches and have a research base supporting their use.

Short-Term, Linear Approaches To Psychotherapy: What We Now Know

Elkins, D. N. — 2008-06-19

This article critiques short-term, linear approaches to psychotherapy and raises fundamental questions about the claims for their effectiveness. The article delineates the inherent weaknesses of short-term, linear approaches; summarizes a recent meta-analysis that challenges their effectiveness; and summarizes research showing they are less effective than longer-term, traditional psychotherapy. The author suggests that psychologists who are drawn to short-term, linear approaches embed these in a broader, more complex theoretical framework such as that which humanistic-existential psychology provides.

Editor's Commentary

2008-03-11

Recovery and the Good Life: How Psychiatric Survivors Are Revisioning the Healing Process

Adame, A. L., Knudson, R. M. — 2008-03-11

The recovery literature in clinical psychology often focuses on abstract outcome measures of mental health and wellness that in turn serve to shape the process and goals of psychotherapy. However, there is often an experiential disconnect between these conceptualizations of recovery and the lived experience of psychological suffering and healing. In the current article, the authors present alternative views of what recovery or, more accurately, what living a good life means for a group of people who identify themselves as psychiatric survivors. Like the feminist paradigm, the psychiatric survivor movement does not separate the personal and political, and thus this counterculture facilitates the telling of alternative narratives of recovery that more closely represent people's lived experiences. The authors discuss how these alternative discourses of the movement conceptualize the good life in terms of creating countercultural communities, engaging in political activism, and working for social justice and human rights in the mental health system.

Eupsychia Revisited: the Role of Spiritual Leaders

Rego, A., Pina E Cunha, M., Oliveira, M. — 2008-03-11

This study builds on the workplace spirituality and spiritual leadership literatures to revisit the Maslowian notion of eupsychian management, showing that leaders' behavior has an impact on how people perceive the organization at the higher levels of self-actualization: the spiritual ones. A total of 105 employees reported 175 critical incidents, 120 antieupsychian events, and 55 eupsychian ones. The most frequent antieupsychian behaviors were power abuse and bossiness, ruthlessness or unkindness, disrespect for personal and inner life of employees, and laziness and cowardice. The more frequent reactions to those behaviors were expressing protest and/or disapproval against leader behavior, negative emotions and feelings, neglect and passivity, retaliation or disobedience, and performance decrease. The most cited eupsychian behaviors were the promotion of self-determination, employee personal development, and respect for the personal and inner life of employees. The most frequent reactions to these behaviors were higher levels of psychological well-being, higher commitment, and stronger sense of calling.

Meaning in Psychologists' Personal and Professional Lives

Kernes, J. L., Kinnier, R. T. — 2008-03-11

In this study, the authors examine psychologists' beliefs about meaning in their own lives. Psychologists completed the Personal Meaning Profile and Meaning in Life Questionnaire to assess their beliefs about the cosmic and terrestrial meaning of life. Psychologists also completed an existential career exercise to assess those aspects of their professional lives they found most meaningful. Overall, psychologists rejected the notion that there is no cosmic meaning to life and instead generally supported the belief that the meaning of life is to love, help, or show compassion for others. Psychologists also rejected statements indicating that nothing was personally meaningful to them and generally reported that intimate relationships, family, and friendships brought the most personal meaning to their lives. Finally, as a group, psychologists indicated that helping others live more satisfying lives was the most important aspect of their professional work.

Reclaiming Humanistic Psychology From Modernity: Problems and Solutions

Dillon, J. J. — 2008-03-11

This article begins as a lamentation over the historical demise of humanistic psychology programs in the United States and considers the critiques and alternatives to the humanistic tradition proposed during such transitions. The article isolates the core elements of the premodern humanistic tradition, outlines the central features of the cultural trend referred to as modernity, and shows how modernity has provided the fuel for most of the major critiques of and alternatives to the humanistic tradition. The article then shows how modernity has even influenced the way that humanistic psychology has appropriated its own premodern tradition. The article concludes with six concrete suggestions for reclaiming humanistic psychology from modernity hopefully setting it on a sounder, more valid, and potentially more effective course for the future.

The Plot Thickens--or Not: Protonarratives of Emotions and the Chinese Principle of Savoring

Sundararajan, L. — 2008-03-11

What are emotions good for? This article makes the radical claim that the primary function of emotion is not merely to serve the purpose of coping and adaptation, but to foster an expansion of experience and consciousness that contribute importantly to a subjective self, without which biological survival would be meaningless. This argument is inspired by the Chinese notion of aesthetic savoring, which is explicated by a phenomenological account of "protonarratives" of emotions. Protonarratives are "small stories" that are more creative than full fledged narratives, partly because of their successful resistance against the latter's telos. By keeping the narrative impulses to the minimum, and by resisting the temptation of the plot to "thicken," protonarratives reduce our risk of submitting to compulsory outcomes—such as action and problem solving—of the emotion narrative. This phenomenological analysis of savoring concludes with a discussion of its implications for the psychology of emotion.

Building a Home in Nature: an Innovative Framework for Practice

Berger, R. — 2008-03-11

This article presents an innovative framework that uses the natural environment as a partner in a creative and nonverbal therapeutic process. Integrating examples from practice, this article illustrates the ways in which the concepts and methods of "nature therapy" can be implemented with different clients and different settings.

Editor's Commentary

Schneider, K. J. — 2008-01-14

Carl Rogers and the CIA

Demanchick, S. P., Kirschenbaum, H. — 2008-01-14

Carl Rogers was a pioneer and leader in the humanistic psychology movement. Although his many professional activities and accomplishments are well known, the story of his association with the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology—a front organization for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)—is barely known and has never been explored in any depth. This article attempts to tell that story in the context of America during the 1950s, Rogers's academic career, and the mission of the CIA.

Students Evaluate Carl Rogers and His Relationship With Gloria: A Brief Report

Reilly, J., Jacobus, V. — 2008-01-14

The Three Approaches to Psychotherapy (TAP) video series introduces students, both undergraduate and graduate, to three major schools of psychotherapy: client-centered therapy, Gestalt therapy, and rational-emotive therapy. A sample of students were asked to watch the TAP video series and were then surveyed on their perceptions of the therapists' practice of psychotherapy and explanation of his theory, and the relationship between the client and therapist, including the therapists interest in and treatment of the client. This article focuses on findings based on Carl Rogers's session with the client, Gloria. Results were consistent in that students were pleased with Rogers's theory, practice, and interaction with Gloria.

Psychiatry as Hermeneutics: Laing's Argument With Natural Science

Miller, G. — 2008-01-14

R. D. Laing's work on the origins of schizophrenia in family contexts has often been dismissed as unscientific because it failed to show any reliable correlation between disordered communication and schizoid breakdown. However, Laing's method is closer to that of sociological or historical investigation and is therefore largely independent of questions of natural-scientific etiology. His work must use two kinds of understanding: first, the actual understanding that allows him to render intelligible the words and behavior of the schizophrenic and, second, the explanatory or genetic understanding that allows him to appreciate madness as a possible (but not necessary or even prevalent) response to a particular social context. Both of these varieties of understanding are methodologically distinct from (and yet potentially complemented by) natural-scientific investigation and verification.

Art and Mental Disturbance

Benjamin, E. — 2008-01-14

This article presents a psychological study of the "successful creative artist" and the relationship between art and mental disturbance. To elaborate, this article emphasizes what the author considers to be "natural" (i.e., self-motivated) creative self-expression in comparison to "normal" (i.e., socially approved) patterns of behavior. Although what is natural may overlap with what is considered normal in society, rarely are the two placed on equal footing. To illustrate this problem, the author introduces a new theory, "the artistic theory of psychology," that casts a new light on the "successful" creative artist. Along the lines of Thomas Szasz and R. D. Laing, that which is referred to as "mental illness" is viewed from a nonjudgmental perspective but with the distinctive feature of suggesting that some people who are considered to be mentally ill may have significant creative artistic potential that can be highly therapeutic, both for them and for society at large.

The Nature of Epiphanic Experience

McDonald, M. G. — 2008-01-14

The purpose of this inquiry is to investigate positive change and transformation that is sudden and abrupt, as defined by the term epiphany. Due to the disparate nature of the epiphanic literature, a thorough and wide-ranging review was undertaken, producing a set of six core characteristics, which were tested and interpreted from a self-identity existential perspective. A narrative inquiry approach to methodology was employed to collect and analyze participants' epiphanies, from which three main interpretations were drawn. Firstly, the participants' life-stories illustrate that an epiphany is a valid experience as indicated by support for the set of six core characteristics developed from the literature. Secondly, an epiphany is a profound illumination of the inauthentic and authentic modes of self-identity, which provide the impetus for a more honest and courageous encounter with the conditions of existence. Lastly, an epiphany is an intentional experience made significant and enduring by the ascription of personal meaning.

The Ubuntu Paradigm: Psychology's Next Force?

Hanks, T. L. — 2008-01-14

This article examines the need for the development of new paradigms within humanistic psychology that are less ethnocentric and individualistic. The underlying, yet often unacknowledged, commitment of humanistic psychology to the importance of "self in relation to others" is explored, along with a comparison of Western individualistic worldviews and those rooted in African humanism. This article advocates for the adoption of a new humanistic psychological paradigm based on the principles and values of the African collectivistic philosophy of Ubuntu. Finally, practical applications for the adoption of Ubuntu programming within treatment milieus, particularly child and adolescent residential treatment facilities, are presented as promising alternatives to presently utilized therapeutic modalities.

Erratum

2007-10-29

Editor's Commentary

2007-09-17

The Journals of Ernest Becker, 1964-1969

Kramer, R. — 2007-09-17

Written from 1964 until 1969, the year in which Ernest Becker rediscovered the writings of Otto Rank, these journals offer a poignant answer to Becker's call to all of us, and most of all to himself, in his Pulitzer Prize—winning The Denial of Death (1973)— becoming "conscious of what one is doing to earn [one's] feeling of heroism is the main self-analytic problem of life." Reflecting on what he was doing to earn his own feeling of heroism, Becker offers in these journals glimmers of hope for the future impact of his work as well as a riveting self-analysis of his dreams and nightmares.

Empirically Supported Treatments: the Deconstruction of a Myth

Elkins, D. N. — 2007-09-17

This article summarizes recent findings from analyses and meta-analyses of psychotherapy research that show that so-called empirically supported treatments (ESTs) are no more effective than are traditional psychotherapies. In addition, the findings show that specific modalities and techniques have little, if anything at all, to do with therapeutic benefits and that client improvement and therapeutic outcome are instead the result of other factors in the therapeutic situation such as the alliance, the therapist, the relationship, and other contextual factors. The article shows how these findings deconstruct the whole notion of ESTs and make the current debate about them meaningless. Finally, the article discusses implications of the findings and urges humanistic psychologists and other proponents of traditional psychotherapies to shift the debate away from modalities and techniques and to focus on the factors that are actually responsible for therapeutic benefits.

Different Conceptualizations of Optimum Development

Pfaffenberger, A. — 2007-10-29

This article discusses different conceptualizations of optimum development in adulthood. The existential perspective of Rollo May is compared to the self-actualization theory of Abraham Maslow and to transpersonal psychology. The paradigms and value assumptions underlying the different theories of personality are explicated, and social constructionism is used as an organizing frame of reference. The principal argument is that in addition to repeating viewpoints in a philosophical debate about values, we need to substantiate our claims with evidence from the existing research and explore how well-designed empirical studies can help us answer lingering questions of what is desirable and possible in regard to optimal development. The author examines the existing research literature in regard to how the disagreements of the above-named schools of thought could be clarified. Suggestions for future directions in humanistic research are presented.

Peak-Experiences Among Japanese Youth

Hoffman, E., Muramoto, S. — 2007-10-29

In the 35 years since Abraham Maslow's death in 1970, his concept of the peak-experience has remained a lynchpin of humanistic personality theory and has exerted a significant influence on applied fields. In late career, Maslow became interested in the topic of childhood peak-experiences but never explored it empirically. Although it is important for sharpening our understanding of healthy personality development, research on childhood peak-experience has remained dormant. In this study, the authors analyzed 56 retrospective peak-experiences reported by a sample comprising mainly master's-level Japanese students at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto. The results affirmed previous findings: (a) Childhood peak-experiences exist among both Westerners and Easterners, and (b) these can be meaningfully categorized into specific types. Also consistent with previous research, Japanese adults retrospectively described three types of childhood peak-experiences unreported by their Western counterparts. The cross-cultural implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Tribute to Duncan Blewett

Schor, L., Arons, M. — 2007-10-29