By: Marcia J. Wood
The stereotype of the humanistic practitioner typically conjures a warm and supportive individual
who does not provide any direct advice or suggestions to his patients. The
stereotype of the humanistic psychologist involves an individual who, although
friendly, says little more than, “uhmm” and benign comments such as “I hear
you” or “I feel your pain.” Images of encounter groups or T-groups from the 1960s might emerge. Again, like the behavioral and psychodynamic orientations,
stereotypes about the humanistic approach are also outdated and inaccurate.
The humanistic approach has its roots in European philosophy as
well as in the psychotherapeutic work of Victor Frankl, Carl Rogers, Abraham
Maslow, Rollo May, Fritz Perls, and other mental health professionals.
In rejecting the basic assumptions of the psychodynamic and
behavioral theories, the humanistic theorists assume a phenomenological approach
that emphasizes each individual’s perception and experience of his or her
world. The humanistic perspective tends to view people as being active, thinking,
creative, and growth oriented. Helping others is partially accomplished through
understanding concerns, feelings, and behavior through the eyes of the patient.
Humanistic professionals tend to assume that people are
basically well-intentioned and that they naturally strive toward growth, love,
creativity, and self-actualization. Self-actualization helps to produce the
forward movement in life toward greater growth, peace, and acceptance of self and
others.
Rather than focusing on the influences of the past, humanistic
theorists focus on the “here and now” or present. The client centered approach
of Carl Rogers, the humanistic approach of Abraham Maslow, and the Gestalt approach
of Fritz Perls will be briefly reviewed next. Of course, there are many additional
perspectives and variations of these approaches. However, the contributions of
Rogers, Maslow, and Perls have been the most influential within the humanistic perspective.
The Client-Centered Perspective:
The client-centered perspective of Carl Rogers stands out as the most classic
example of the humanistic approach. Rogers used nondirective techniques such as
active listening, empathy , congruence, and unconditional positive regard to understand and
help others. Rogers felt that sincere empathy was needed in order for people to feel accepted and
understood, and ultimately to enable growth to occur.
Unconditional positive regard refers
to the belief that no one should be negatively judged or evaluated in the therapy experience or elsewhere. Rather, respect and acceptance
should prevail. Unconditional positive regard can be a challenge for
professionals working with individuals who have attitudes or behaviors that one
finds offensive (e.g., sexual abuse of children, stealing, racist comments).
Unconditional positive regard does not mean that these behaviors or attitudes
are accepted as being okay. Rather, it is the person who is fully accepted.
Therefore, respect and a nonjudgmental attitude are advocated.
Congruence, or genuineness, refers
to harmony between one’s feelings and actions. Thus, the professional should
strive toward emotional honesty in his or her relationship with others. Genuineness
also implies that the professional will not try to hide his or her feelings
from others, yet still present a professional attitude and demeanor.
Rogers was also instrumental in developing ways to assess
treatment process and outcome. This included an individualized assessment technique
such as the Q-sort (sorting a variety of cards with descriptive feelings into
several categories) to assess functioning and outcome.
The client-centered approach maintains that people have an
innate drive toward growth. Because the development of the self and attempts at
growth are often met with various social consequences (such as praise or punishment),
individuals may develop patterns of behavior that are inconsistent with growth.
For example, a parent may wish that his child will eventually
take over the family accounting business. However, the child may be very
creative and prefer to pursue interests in music and dance. The parents may
exert pressure on the child through conditioned love to pursue education and
skills in accounting and business rather than the creative arts. The child, wishing
to please his parents may do so, but at a high price in terms of incongruence
with their self-actualizing motive and potential.
Mary, for example, may feel “boxed in” to her role as house-wife
and mother. She actually had harbored a strong interest in joining religious
life as a nun. However, her parents more highly valued family life and encouraged
her to get married and have children, thus discouraging her call to religious life.
This conflict with her family resulted in incongruence, causing her to feel
trapped, out of control in her life, and possibly, more prone to anxiety.
Maslow’s Humanistic Perspective:
Abraham Maslow (Maslow, 1954, 1971) originated a further variation
of the humanistic approach.
He emphasized the importance of self-actualization that refers to the impulse and desire to develop fully one’s potential. His focus on self-actualization highlighted the role of unmet needs. He felt that humans have a hierarchy of needs beginning with basic biological requirements for food, water, and warmth. Once these needs are met, one is free to focus on higher level needs such as safety and security. Again, as these higher level needs are met, one can then focus on needs for love, belonging, and acceptance.
Finally, at the top of the hierarchy is self-actualization. Maslow believed that people who experienced self-actualization were characterized by an acceptance of themselves and others, efficient perceptions of reality, social interests, creativeness, mystical or “peak” experiences, as well as other qualities (Maslow, 1971).
Although Maslow believed that everyone has
the potential to achieve self-actualization, few were thought to succeed because
of unmet needs at lower levels. Maslow felt that less than 1% of the population
ever reach self-actualization. Therefore, problems in feelings, thoughts, behavior,
and relationships emerge because many people are deficiency-motivated in that they
are trying to fulfill unmet needs.
Maslow referred to those moments when self-actualization is
actually reached as peak experiences. Although Maslow’s theories have received
a great deal of attention and acceptance, he offered little in terms of
specific techniques to use in psychological assessment or treatment.
The Gestalt Perspective:
The gestalt perspective within the humanistic approach originated with the
work of Fritz Perls (Perls, 1947, 1969). Assumptions of the gestalt approach include the notion that problems
occur due to our inability to be truly aware of our current feelings, thoughts,
and behavior and to our inordinate focus on the past and future rather than the
present.
The gestalt approach focuses on being keenly aware of one’s here and now or present
experience. The gestalt approach seeks to help people live in the immediate
moment by frequently requesting that people work toward an awareness of current
thoughts and feelings. Taking personal responsibility for one’s feelings, thoughts,
behavior, and choices is also of paramount importance for those using the gestalt perspective.
Techniques include making believe that an important someone such
as a spouse, boss, or mother is in the room with you sitting in an empty chair.
Talking to the person as if they were there helps someone become better in
touch with feelings and behavior.
For example, Mary might be asked to pretend that her mother is
in the room with her. The gestalt therapist might encourage Mary to talk with
her mother as if she was sitting in an empty chair in the office. Mary would be
asked about her immediate feelings and thoughts as she spoke with her mother in the room.
An example of a more contemporary approach to humanistic models
includes self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2002; Sheldon et al.,
2003). The approach focuses on three fundamental psychological needs of humans
that include competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Nurturing these three needs
tends to result in more psychological wellbeing moving a person toward self
actualization (Sheldon et al., 2003). The theory is used to provide autonomy
support with clients.
This suggests that the therapist fully respects the selfhood of
the client taking his perspective and allowing for maximum freedom. The
therapist is encouraged to see the world through the eyes or worldview of
clients and ensure that their autonomy and choices are respected so that the
therapist is not telling them what to do and how to do it. Although it is not a
directive approach, it encourages therapists to give clients a variety of
informed and reasonable options to choose from with respect to their desires to move in directions that support their freedom to choose.
References
Contemporary clinical psychology / Thomas
G. Plante — 2nd ed. Copyright © 2005 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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