The Founders of Humanistic Psychology

by Roy José Decarvalho

This intellectual history narrates the institutionalization of the humanistic current in American psychology and places the thinking of five of its founders (Gordon Allport, Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, Rollo May, and James Bugental) in the context of twentieth century psychology. The Founders of Humanistic Psychology is the first historical and systematic presentation of humanistic psychology. It is also the only study that treats these five thinkers as a unit and places them in the context of history and systems of Western psychology. Roy Jose DeCarvalho begins with a discussion of the political institutions that brought this movement research facilities, grants, and intellectual stimulation via seminars, conferences, and journals. The text then introduces the biographies of Allport, Maslow, Rogers, May, and Bugental. Following chapters detail the shared views of these five founders with emphasis on the philosophical encounter of humanistic psychology with behaviorism, psychoanalysis, and existentialism. DeCarvalho also examines the impact that the neo-Freudians, Kurt Goldstein, and personality and Gestalt psychologies had on the conceptualization of their humanistic psychology. The methodology, views on human nature, and the ethics of humanistic psychology are also discussed. Ending with a chronological bibliography of each founder of the movement, this book is a valuable research tool for humanistic psychologists, as well as graduate and undergraduate students. Social workers and psychologists, as well as historians and philosophers of the social sciences, will also find this an indispensible source of information about the rise of the humanistic movement.

Genres: Psychology

232 pages, Hardcover

First published September 30, 1991