Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataMaslow, Abraham Harold.Toward a psychology of being.Bibliography: p.1.Personality. 2. Motivation (Psychology)3. Humanistic psychology. I. Title. II. Series.BF698M338 19821552982-2071ISBN 0-442-05152-2ISBN 0-442-038Q~l~J.AACR2J. Preface to the Second EditionMuch has happened to the world of Psychology since this book was first published.Humanistic Psychology—that’s what it’s being called most frequently—is now quitesolidly established as a viable third alternative to objectivistic behavioristic(mechanomorphic) psychology and to orthodox Freudianism. Its literature is largeand is rapidly growing. Furtiičrihóre, i~ is beginning to be used, especially ineducation, industry, religion, organization and management, therapy and self-improvement, and by various other “Eupsychian” organizations, journals, andindividuals (see the Eupsychian Network, pages 237—240).1 must confess that I have to come to think of this humanist trend in psychologyas a revolution in the truest, oldest sense of the word, the sense in whichGalileo, Darwin, Einstein, Freud, and Marx made revolutions, i.e., new ways ofperceiving and thinking, new images of man and of society, new conceptions ofethics and of values, new directions in which to move.This Third Psychology is now one facet of a general Weltanschauung, a newphilosophy of life, a new conception of man, the beginning of a new century ofwork (that is, of course, if we can meanwhile manage to hold off a holocaust). Forany man of good will, any pro-life man, there is work to be done here, effective,virtuous, satisfying work which can give rich meaning to one’s own life and toothers.This psychology is not purely descriptive or academic; it suggests action andimplies consequences. It helps to generate a way of life, not only for the personhimself within his own private psyche, but also for the same person as a socialbeing, a member of society. As a matter of fact, it helps us to realize howinterrelated these two aspects of life really are. Ultimately, the best “helper”is the “good person.” So often the sick or inadequate person, trying to help, doesharm instead.I should say also that I consider Humanistic, Third Force Psychology to betransitional, a preparation for a still “higher” Fourth Psychology, transpersonal,transhuman, centered in the cosmos rather than in human needs and interest, goingbeyond humanness, identity, self-actualization, and the like. There will soon(1968) be a Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, organized by the same Tony Sutichwho founded the Journal of Humanistic Psychology. These new developments may verywell offer a tangible, usable, effective satisfaction of the “frustrated idealism”of many quietly desperate people, especially young people. These psychologies givepromise of developing into the life-philosophy, the religion-surrogate, the value-system, the life-program that these people have been missing. Without thetranscendent and the transpersonal, we get sick, violent, and nihilistic, or elsehopeless and apathetic. We need something “bigger than we are” to be awed by andto commit ourselves to in a new, naturalistic, empirical, non-churchly sense,perhaps as Thoreau and Whitman, William James and John Dewey did.I believe that another task which needs doing before we can have a good world isthe development of a humanistic and transpersonal psychology of evil, one writtenout of compassion and love for human nature rather than out of disgust with it orout of hopelessness. The corrections I have made in this new edition are primarilyin this area. Wherever I could, without expensive rewriting, 1 have clarified my
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