Humanistic Psychology: a Critical Counter Culture

There is an argument that humanistic psychology is the original critical psychology. It was founded in response to and as a critique of the first two dominant forces of psychoanalysis and behaviorism, hence its moniker ‘third force psychology’; it questions reductionism and atomism; it is heavily influenced by phenomenology and challenges the notion of ‘reality’; and it represents subjectivist as distinct from objectivist approaches to psychological and social science, that is, nominalist views of ontology or the essence of things, voluntaristic views of human nature, anti-positivistic epistemologies, and ideographic methodologies. It has also shaped and promoted new forms of critical psychological practice, including consciousness-raising and encounter groups, radical approaches to psychiatry, red therapy, and ecotherapy.

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