HUMANISM

•
• Prepared By:
• Aakriti Khanal
• Ashim Sharma
• Dibas Ulak
• Ekta Shrestha
• Kriti Dwa
Contents:
Contents:
 Introduction
 Introduction
 Development
 Development
Existential Analysis
Existential Analysis
Client-Centered Therapy
Client-Centered Therapy
 Key- Assumptions
 Key- Assumptions
Assumptions of Existential
Assumptions Analyst
of Existential Analyst
Assumptions of ClientofCentered
Assumptions Therapist
Client Centered Therapist
 Influences on Clinical
 Influences Psychology
on Clinical Psychology
Case Illustration
Case Illustration
 Current  Current Status
Status
 INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
• The humanistic model is strongly tied to psychotherapy approaches that emphasize
people’s inborn potential for positive and healthy development.
• The humanistic model is strongly tied to psychotherapy approaches that emphasize
• Humanistic
people’s inborn
approaches
potential
to psychotherapy
for positive andemphasizes
healthy development.
conscious awareness rather
than unconscious conflict.
• Humanistic approaches to psychotherapy emphasizes conscious awareness rather
• These approaches also
than unconscious stress the need for the therapist to
conflict.
o understand the experiential worlds of their clients and
o communicate that understanding as a way of creating a favorable climate for
psychotherapy.
Humanistic Concept

• Picture a small plant, just sprouting from the

soil.
• First, we assume that the plant has an innate
tendency to grow. In other words, given the
proper environment, healthy growth will
naturally occur.
• Second, we assume that the plant’s growth
utterly depends on sunlight—without it, it
simply won’t thrive.
• Third, we assume that if sunlight is available only from certain
directions, the plant will bend, twist, or even contort its growth to
reach it.

• There are compelling parallels between this plant and human beings,
according to the humanistic approach.

• Humanists assume that people, like plants, arrive with an inborn

tendency to grow “self-actualization”.

• They presume that if the person’s environment fosters it, self-

actualization proceeds without interference.

• Just as plants need sunlight, people need positive regard.

 • Humanism is usually discussed in connection with experiential
Themes/Goals
therapies that emphasize the process, rather than the content, of
psychotherapy sessions.
• Humanistic therapists assume that their clients’ lives can be understood
•only
Experiential
from the therapy is aofkind
viewpoint ofclients.
those therapeutic technique used to allow
clients to re-enact and re-experience emotional situations from their
• They view human beings not as instinct-driven creatures but as naturally
past or their relationships. (For Instance: role-playing or acting, props,
good people who are able to make choices about their lives and
arts and crafts, music, guided imagery)
determine their own destinies.
• They focus on amplifying clients’ strengths rather than just addressing
•their
Humanistic
problems.therapists
(PositivedoPsychology)
not structure their interventions around
techniques or control the content of therapy sessions, because central
• They see the therapeutic relationship as the primary vehicle by which
to the model is the ideal of making our own choices.
treatment achieves its benefits.
 Themes/Goals
DEVELOPMENT
• Humanistic
• The primary goal versions of psychotherapy
of humanistic beganistotoarise
psychotherapy as self-
foster rivals to
psychoanalysis in the United States and Europe in the 1940s.
actualization.
• Humanistic therapists assume that their clients’ lives can be understood
only from the viewpoint
• Humanistic psychologyofemerged
those clients.
as a reaction to the two
prevalent
• They focus onforces (psychoanalysis
amplifying and behaviorism).
clients’ strengths rather than just addressing
their problems. (Positive Psychology)
• They
• Thisseebecame
the therapeutic relationship
the 3rd Force as the primary vehicle by which
in Psychology.
treatment achieves its benefits.
DEVELOPMENT
• Humanistic versions of psychotherapy began to arise as rivals to
psychoanalysis in the United States and Europe in the 1940s.

• Humanistic psychology emerged as a reaction to the two

prevalent forces (psychoanalysis and behaviorism).

• This became the 3rd Force in Psychology.

Difference with psychoanalysis:
• Focuses only on negative aspects and emotionally disturbed people.
• Focuses more on past experiences, rather than present, and belief that
problems are due to past experiences.

Difference with Behaviorism:

• Behaviorism is mechanistic (i.e. behavior is due to S-R principle)
• Behaviorism is deterministic, and doesn’t believe in the concept of free-
will
• Behaviorism doesn’t consider the uniqueness of each human
• Behaviorism uses animal research to understand humans
(Humans treated as robots, computers, and animals)
• The development of the humanistic model in mental health work began
with a group of European existential analysts who broke away from
Freudian psychoanalysis in the 1940s and 1950s.

• They included psychiatrists who had been trained in psychoanalysis,

yet resisted its central assumption that human experience and behavior
are governed and determined by internal forces foreign to our
conscious experience.

• Instead, they embraced existentialism and stressed the importance of

our direct, conscious experience of the world at the present moment.
Existential Analysis
Ashim Sharma
Focuses on
concepts such as Meaning, Emptiness, Suffering, Value,
Freedom, Isolation, Authenticity, Death, Worldview.

Authentic Decisions to bring about truly responsible way of dealing with the world.
Existential analysts
believe that neuroses or mental disorders result from
negative or narrowly conceived worldviews or designs.

reject the idea that we are largely controlled by biological,

intrapsychic, and social forces, stressing instead our innate
freedom to choose and act.

being intensely aware of, the present moment, as opposed to

worrying about the future or ruminating about past mistakes.
Humanists and existentialists focus upon:

Our direct, conscious experience of the world as it seems to us as

individuals.
The need for each individual to confront the inevitability of death
and thus to live more fully in the present.
The fact that making choices and taking responsibility for them are
inescapable.
The ultimate importance of personal freedom and our search, as
individuals, for meaning in life.
Assumptions of Existential Analysts
stressful life events that force us to confront our inaccurate or unworkable
assumptions can lead to panic, depression, or spiritual crises.
The emphasis in existential analysis is on understanding the person’s life history
in terms of his or her world design, rather than explaining it in terms of general
theories of development.
If there are “areas of incompleteness” in the personality, the therapist helps the
person to experience this, rather than trying to tell the person what is wrong.
Assumptions of Existential Analysts
Therapist and client are seen as equals, and the focus is on their shared “plane
of common existence”
When clients describe their dreams, they are taken seriously as an important
aspect of life and a specific way of existing, not as a trivial byproduct of “real”
existence.
Client Centered Therapy
Client Centered Therapy
Diwas Ulak
 Client centered therapy
Person centered therapy
Carl Ransom Rogers(1940)
His central hypothesis about psychotherapy is that ‘a self directed growth process would
follow the reception of particular kind of relationship characterized by genuineness,
non-judgmental caring, and empathy.
Pioneers
Alfred Adler
Abraham Maslow
Carl Rogers:
Studied testing measurement diagnostic interviewing and interpretative treatment
Learned projective testing and detailed history taking.
Some newer concepts in psychotherapy(11th December 1940)
Client move toward independence and insight when the counselor avoids and advice
and interpretation and instead consistently recognizes and accepts client’s feeling.
In 1957, he argued that genuineness, unconditional positive regard and empathy are
the 3 essential therapist offered condition for psychotherapeutic change.
Assumptions
Importance of phenomenological world person centered therapy i.e.
We safely can rely upon us for guiding us towards optimal development.
The actualizing tendency
The organismic valuing process
Conditions of worth
Therapeutic principles(keys to guiding patients towards healthy direction)
The actualizing tendency (guiding principle in life)
An automatic constructive progression towards realizing ones full potential. Innate
formative process. Development of order out of chaos.
The organismic valuing process
Individual differences (plant analogy)
Personality, our sense of self develops as we interact with others. Healthy
development involves symbolizing, perceiving and organizing our experiences in
relation to self but maladjustment occurs when significant experiences are ignored,
denied, or distorted.
Living according to ones true inner feelings is healthier than using standards and
judgements of others as the guide.
Conditions of worth(love, warmth sympathy and acceptance).
The value of others can replace the OVP as a guide to living and distortion
that arise are responsible for the mental disorders and incomplete personality
development.(Hergenhahn, 1992)
therapeutic principles
Carl Rogers central idea was that” people have vast inner resources for self-
understanding and self directed solutions if they heard and understood in the
facilitative process of warmth and acceptance.
A client centered therapist does not seek to give advice or tell client what to
do because the client inbuilt OVP and self-actualizing tendencies are key to
guiding the client in the healthy direction. The therapist task is to help client
tune into his/her inner resources.
The initial focus was entirely on client but later the importance of relationship was
recognized. Essential qualities the client centered therapist provide are
Genuineness(congruencies)
Unconditional positive regard(accept client regardless the choices about what to
talk about and how to talk about it)
Empathy(attitude of profound interest in clients’ world of meanings and feelings )
Basic concepts of client side of the process include
Self concept especially, self regard
Locus of evaluation
Experiencing(abandoning rigidity and become more flexible, open and creative )
Humanistic Model in
Clinical Psychology Kriti Dwa
Influences on Clinical Psychology
• The humanistic model inspired the development of existential analysis, client-
centered therapy, and related schools of counseling and psychotherapy.
• Most clinical psychologists describe themselves as diverse in their choice of
therapeutic methods, the humanistic model influences many practicing clinicians.
Even therapists whose primary allegiance is to psychodynamic or cognitive-
behavioral models will occasionally draw from the humanistic model when the
occasion demands.
• For example, not every client presents focused problems or has a diagnosable
mental disorder. In such cases, a structured treatment of choice drawn from the
professional research literature may not be available. It may be more to the point
to help the client explore certain problems, issues, or preoccupations in a less
structure way.
• A variety of contemporary approaches, including motivational
interviewing, positive interventions/strength-based counseling, and
emotionally focused therapy are strongly influenced by humanistic
principles.
• Motivational interviewing has achieved high status among
psychotherapy practitioners and researchers due in large part to an
extensive, growing body of empirical research supporting its benefits
for psychological and physical problems.
 Current Status of
Humanistic Approach
Thank You Ekta Shrestha
Introduction to Clinical Psychology III Sem
• Treatment approach of humanistic model is considered as third force
in psychotherapy.
• Emphasizes phenomenology, here and now experiencing and world
according to client’s perception rather than objective internal reality.
• Humanistic psychotherapists have not made a priority of conducting
controlled research on specific therapeutic techniques.
• Interest of contemporary psychologists in systematic
research on process of therapy including formidable
amount of work in this tradition.
• Carl Roger favored research on therapeutic process and
conducted challenging quantitative studies including
Wisconsin project.
• Roger and his colleagues made progress in solving
methodological problems in such kind of research.
• Many psychologists accept humanistic approach less for their
demonstrated scientific standing than for their intuitive appeal as
suitable interventions for client with generalized distress or unfocused
malaise.
• Process experiential therapy; contemporary example; draws from
humanistic model and from current research on emotion and
cognition.
• PET carries importance of innate self-actualization,
here and now, nurturing of more “more adaptive
functioning by continuously focusing on client on
his/her experiencing.”
• Therapy facilitates “conscious choice reasoned action
through increased access to and awareness of inner
experiences and feeling.”, therapist accepts the
client’s reference and guide their attention for their
betterment based on their circumstances.
• Therapist formulate “process diagnoses” to identify
the ways people interfering with their own
experiences.
• Maladaptive “emotion schemes” underlie
psychopathology.
• Determinants of emotional disturbance:
i. Problem in symbolizing feelings.
ii. Activating emotion schemes that produce negative
feelings.
iii. Inability to integrate certain emotion schemes.
• Therapist go beyond what is apparent on surface and restructure core
maladaptive emotion schemes.
• Therapeutic tasks include empty-chair techniques which helps client
to create a more unified and harmonious sense of self.
• Process experiential therapy and other various psychotherapies were
introduced.
References
Hecker, Jeffrey E., Thorpe, Geoffrey L., Introduction to Clinical
Psychology Science, Practice, and Ethics
 Thank you!

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