humanistic psychology

hu·man·is·tic psy·chol·o·gy

an existential approach to psychology that emphasizes human uniqueness, subjectivity, and capacity for psychological growth.

humanistic psychology

Alternative psychology
A philosophy of psychotherapy which is based on a belief in a person’s intrinsic potential for personal growth and development. Central to humanistic psychology is the posit that a person is subject to multiple negative genetic, familial, environmental and social factors, which can be altered by attaining a positive attitude. Humanistic psychology eschews the “medical sickness” model and embraces one of mental growth and emancipation; humanistic psychotherpies are distinguished from both Freudian psychoanalysis and behaviourism (championed by BF Skinner).

Humanistic Psychotherapies  
• Client-oriented;  
• Constructivist;  
• Ericksonian;  
• Ethno-cultural;  
• Existential;  
• Experiential/Focusing;  
• Expressive arts;  
• Family process;  
• Feminist;  
• Gestalt;  
• Jungian/mythopoetic;  
• Narrative;  
• Primal integration;  
• Psychodrama;  
• Reichian/bioenergetics;  
• Self-in-relation; 
• Self-psychology; 
• Transactional analysis; 
• Transpersonal.

humanistic psychology

A school of psychology that views people as individuals responsible for, and in control of, their destinies and that emphasizes experience as the source of knowledge. It suggests that we can acquire insight into the inner life of another person by trying to see things from that person's own point of view.