Humanistic psychology

The healthy half1

Maslow said Freud supplied "the sick half of psychology"; humanistic psychology set out to add the healthy half.

Whole persons1

People are understood as wholes greater than the sum of their parts.

Growth1

People have a drive toward personal growth and self-actualization.

Experience and choice1

Conscious experience, meaning, freedom to choose and responsibility come first, rather than the unconscious or conditioning.

The order of needs1

In Maslow's hierarchy, physiological needs come first, then safety, then love, before higher needs such as self-actualization.

A self-actualized person1

People who have met their self-actualization needs are described as "self-aware, caring, wise and their interests are problem centered."

Listening without interpreting1

Illustration: when a client describes a quarrel with their partner, a client-centred therapist does not interpret it as a replay of childhood; they listen actively and try to see it through the client's eyes.

Genuine self, ideal self1

Illustration: someone who presents as always cheerful while feeling lonely is working towards letting those two pictures of the self become congruent.

Choice and responsibility1

Illustration: rather than asking what made a client stay in a job they hate, the therapist explores what they are choosing now and what it means to them, since the ability to choose brings responsibility.

Role-play and the body1

Gestalt therapists use role-playing and watch non-verbal cues as signs of how the client may actually be feeling.

Person-centred1

Carl Rogers's Person-centered therapy.

Gestalt1

Gestalt therapy, with its focus on the here and now.

Existential1

Existential psychotherapy, associated with Rollo May and Medard Boss.

Focusing1

Eugene Gendlin's Focusing also grew from this tradition.

A methods argument1

Humanistic psychologists argued that research methods borrowed from physics are not enough to study how people make meaning, a stance that set them apart from mainstream research.