Humanist psychology

(humanist: see etymology at human being; psychology: from psyche: Gr. psyche, life, spirit, soul, self; and -logy: der. Gk. legein, to gather, speak, der. Gr. logos, word, discourse, study, reason).

As Fernand-Lucien Mueller has written, “The influence of Husserlian phenomenology and the philosophy of Heidegger, which is derived from it, has been substantial in the psychological sciences; it is an influence both direct and distinct, of which we can give no more than a brief glimpse. Phenomenology has given the lie in a most singular fashion to the promoters of the “new” psychology, who have sought to relegate philosophy to the museum of antiquities.”

Many authors belong to the current of h.p. Almost all have been influenced by Brentano and by Husserl’s phenomenological method. The works of Jaspers, Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, and Binswanger are universally known. Frankl’s “Third School of Vienna” may be placed in this movement as well as a branch of psychiatry. There are also methods of psychological work such as those formulated by L. Ammann in his work Self Liberation. Many works of h.p. are oriented toward social psychology.