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아래 글은 미국 심리학회 분과학회 중에 인본주의 심리학회 (Humanistic Psychology) 학회장을 역임한 Erik Craig 교수가 본인에게 보낸 편지내용 중에 <인본주의 심리학>의 탄생 배경과 강조하는 점을 간략하면서도 핵심적인 내용이 소개되어 여기에 전재합니다.
허 찬희

Dear Chan,

Thank you for your response and for your interest in humanistic psychology. I have edited the description of humanistic psychology that I sent to you as there were a number of omissions and typographical errors. If you provide some kind of hand out for your colleagues I would much prefer that it be in this sightly more substantive form. However, I of course respect your choice in this regard.

Cordially,
Erik



Humanistic Psychology: A Brief Introduction
by Erik Craig, Ed.D.


In the forties and fifties, American psychology was completely dominated by two general theoretical approaches to psychology: psychoanalysis and behaviorism. Both approaches were deterministic, reductionistic, and mechanistic, each in their own way. Further, both approaches in those days considered only certain kinds of topics relevant to psychological science and were not at all concerned with the whole, living, experiencing individual as such. All the journals and universities in America were dominated by these two approaches.

Abraham Maslow was very discouraged by the lack of alternative publishing possibilities for different kinds of topics, theories, and epistemological approaches, especially since he knew many fine scholars who had had their articles rejected by the reigning journals. So he got a mailing list together of these psychologists, philosophers, writers, sociologists, etc., who shared a larger view of what it meant to be human. They sent all their articles to him at Brandeis University, just outside Boston, and he made copies and mailed them off to the approximately 200 well-known scholars on the list.

Maslow and my first teacher Clark Moustakas then got a small, exclusive group of these alienated and boycotted scholars together at Moustakas's institution in Detroit, Merrill-Palmer Institute, and they began to plan for an association that eventually became the Association for Humanistic Psychology and a journal, The Journal of Humanistic Psychology. These two venues provided a forum for these disparate, radical voices in psychology and also unexpectedly spawned a huge popular cultural coalition known as the "The human potential movement." Nevertheless, it was primarily the scholarly vehicles of the association and the journal that offered the foundation for what became known as humanistic psychology, both in America and eventually in the world.

Importantly, humanistic psychology was not an exclusive approach to psychology but was intellectually open to multiple perspectives both within and outside the field of psychology. For example, this new approach drew heavily on the thought of such neo-Freudians as Karen Horney, Otto Rank, Alfred Adler, Erich Fromm, Harry Stack Sullivan, Frieda Fromm-Reichman, and Carl Jung. It also, particularly through the influence of Rollo May and Charlotte Buhler, incorporated the philosophical wisdom and methodology of continental thought, especially existentialism and phenomenology. In addition, there was, from the beginning, a profound regard for Eastern thought, especially as this was brought to the West by Alan Watts, D. T. Suzuki, J. Krishnamurti, and others. Finally, humanistic psychology was also radically interdisciplinary, including among its early leaders such internationally renowned scholars as Dorothy Lee, Jaques Barzun, Rene Dubos, S. I. Hayakawa, Lewis Mumford, Aldous Huxley, and Floyd Matson.

From it's earliest, formative years this approach to psychology was often called "The Third Force," the other two forces being behaviorism and psychoanalysis. The movement had grown so strong within psychology with such eminent scholars as Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, Gordon Allport, Henry Murray, Charlotte Buhler, Gardner Murphy, Robert Holt, Rollo May, James Bugental, Clark Moustakas, Virginia Satire, etc., that, in 1971, it became a Division of the American Psychological Association (APA Division 32). However, it was another twelve years before a second humanistic journal, The Humanistic Psychologist, was founded by Division 32 of the American Psychological Association.

In general, today I use the term humanistic to refer to this "human-centering" approach to psychology, the attempt made by these psychologists, historically, and by all their successors today to reclaim the "distinctively human" for psychology. I should add, however, that for me the "distinctively human" does not refer only to the individual, nor even to the "exclusively human." For me the reclamation of the distinctively human refers not only to the individual but also to the collective in all its magnificent and manifold diversity and, beyond this, to the human being's possibility for developing and maintaining a conscious and conscientious relationship of respect and loving-kindness for the entire planet and all the beings who also know it as their home.

It should be noted that it was also Abe Maslow who came to believe that even humanistic psychology was not enough to tell the whole story of what it means to be human. He thought the psychology he started, humanistic psychology, too exclusively emphasized the individual and so-called ordinary experience. Maslow thought that the "all human" or "unitive" experience (as opposed to strictly individual and personal), as well as extraordinary states such as paranormal or transcendent experiences were also important to study. Thus, in the last years before he died in 1970, he initiated what he thought of as a genuine "transpersonal psychology," what some people then called "The Fourth Force" in psychology. However, again, defining the "distinctively human" as I do above, there is no need for a so-called fourth force. The human is already both unitary and transcendental in its very own way of being. These qualities are not something added on to the human but, in fact are the human, properly (ontologically or Taoistically) understood.

Today, humanistic psychology, at least in the United States, is still primarily represented by the American Psychological Association's Division 32, the Division for Humanistic Psychology and it's publication, The Humanistic Psychologist, and The Association for Humanistic Psychology and it's publication, the Journal for Humanistic Psychology. There are a number of other journals and associations that are also closely linked to humanistic psychology as well as a number of universities and graduate institutes who provide degree granting Master's and Doctoral programs with a focus on humanistic psychology, broadly understood. However, I should add that much of the influence of humanistic psychology has been incorporated into other schools of thought so that today behaviorism and psychoanalysis are actually much more "humanistic" than they were in the middle of the last century. Indeed, today, American psychology has developed a huge movement toward what is called "positive psychology" which owes its theoretical and philosophical roots to the founders of humanistic psychology. In addition to these more scholarly developments there remains a vast network of more popular institutions and educational centers and programs that continue to provide educational and psychological services of a humanistic nature for the general public, the most famous of which is Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California.

Finally, are a couple of web pages that give a little more detail for those are interested. The first one is more thorough and detailed but also may have more organizational information than is of general interest. Still, there is a good deal of worthwhile material to be found there. The second one is written in a somewhat more popular voice.

http://www.apa.org/divisions/div32/pdfs/history.pdf

http://www.ahpweb.org/aboutahp/whatis.html


Dr. Erik Craig, Founder and Director
Center for Existential Studies
113 Camino Escondido, #3
Santa Fe, NM 87501-2761

505-995-9955
DrErikCraig@aol.com