What is humanistic psychology and how is it useful

What is Humanistic Psychology

This is a direction in psychology that recognizes a person as unique for his ability to develop and studies the qualities inherent only in people. For example, the desire for higher meanings and freedom, responsibility, the ability to love and creativity.

Humanistic psychology brings together many schools and approaches. Their common goal is to understand the unique nature of human cognition and help reveal it through self-realization.

Until the 1970s, humanists were one of the leading forces in psychology, along with behaviorists and psychoanalysts. Primarily due to the practical approach: humanists were actively involved in 1.

2. psychotherapy and pedagogy, where they achieved considerable success. They also explained in detail the motivation of people and offered a clear path to self-improvement.

Today, the direction is no longer so widespread, but we still have a lot to learn from it.

What attitudes of humanistic psychology will be useful now

Humanistic psychologists considered personality not as a given, but as an opportunity for realizing a person's potential. People have complete freedom to develop continuously. To start revealing yourself, it is enough to follow a few basic guidelines. Moreover, this can be done completely independently.

1. Start living in the present

The key idea that humanist psychologists have come to is the possibility of revealing one's personality “here and now”. They believed that a person is able to develop regardless of the limitations of the past and the uncertainty of the future.

Look back at everything that stops you: prejudice, dependence on other people's opinions, artificially created responsibilities. Determine which of these is really important to you. Then take action: set goals, do what you enjoy, and focus on the experience.

2. Realize that your life is in your hands

Humanistic psychology has been closely associated with existentialism. From this philosophical trend, humanist psychologists borrowed the idea of unlimited freedom: people are fully responsible for their choices.

To help a person cultivate a sense of their own maturity, to overcome the "childish" and "parental" aspects of behavior, humanist psychologist Eric Berne created a technique of transactional analysis. It is often done with a therapist or in groups, but you can do this exercise yourself. The goal is to understand what determined your actions at any given moment. The stimuli can be old childhood experiences, remembered advice from parents and an objective perception of reality. By analyzing our actions, we can reduce the influence of the first two factors and more and more often act objectively, based on our own desires.

3. Find someone to support you

According to humanistic psychologists, the environment is inseparable from the person. Acquaintances, friends and relatives can either contribute to our development, or hinder it. Feeling understood can help you get rid of your fear of disapproval and believe in yourself.

Therefore, it is very important to find someone who will listen to you, understand and support you. Humanistic psychologists themselves recommend attending social and psychological trainings - meeting groups.

4. Concentrate on the positive

According to humanistic psychology, self-realization is impossible without optimism. Initially, a person is open to the world, and all people want to become better and help others. But mutual criticism and misunderstanding distort our assessments and desires and hinder development.

To cope with negativity, you need to learn to love yourself and stop taking unreasonable criticism and disapproval to heart. And also respect those who are not like you.