The Humanistic Psychodynamic Approach

psychologists like Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, Erik Erikson, Carl Jung, Erich Fromm, Karen Horney, Melanie Klein, Harry Stack Sullivan, and others.

In the late 1930s, psychologists, interested in the human issues, such as the self, self-actualization, health, hope, love, creativity, nature, being, becoming, individuality, and meaning understanding of human existence, included Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, and Clark Moustakas, who were interested in founding a professional association dedicated to a psychology focused on these features of human capital demanded by post-industrial society.

The humanistic psychology perspective is summarized by five core principles or postulates of humanistic psychology first articulated in an article written
Human beings have the ability to make choices and therefore have responsibility.

5. Human beings are intentional, aim at goals, are aware that they cause future events, and seek meaning, value, and creativity.

Carl Rogers introduced a new approach to psychotherapy, designed as a contrast to the behavioral and psychoanalytic theories dominant at the time. Unlike behavior therapy, the Rogers approach does not emphasize action over feeling and thinking, and unlike psychoanalysis, it is not concerned with unconscious wishes and drives. At first, he called his method nondirective therapy, later client-centered and person-centered therapy.

The method can be described by what Rogerian therapists don't do, most of the time they don't ask questions; make diagnoses; conduct psychological tests; provide interpretations, evaluations, and advice; offer reassurance, praise, or blame; agree or disagree with clients or express opinions of their own; point out contradictions; uncover unconscious wishes; or explore the client's feelings about the therapist.

The main purpose is letting clients tell their own stories at their own pace, using the therapeutic relationship in their own
Rogers popularized the use of the term "client" different than the patient to set the relationship on more equal terms, emphasizing that the person being treated is not passive and the therapist is not an authority but an agent.

Client-centered therapists have the aim to understand how the world looks from the point of view of their clients, checking their understanding with the client when in doubt by using the paraphrase.

The principle is that clients know more about themselves than the therapist can possibly know. They don't need the guidance or wisdom of an expert. Instead, the therapist must create an atmosphere in which clients can communicate their present thoughts and feelings with certainty that they are being understood rather than judged.

Client-centered therapists say that their clients have a natural tendency toward growth, healing, and self-actualization. They act self-destructively or feel bad because of an environment that distorts this tendency. But they can find their own answers to their problems if the right therapeutic environment is provided. Psychotherapy does not involve doing something to clients or getting them to do something about themselves, but rather freeing them for movement toward normal maturity, independence, and