From its inception, the field of psychology and almost all of its practitioners have focused on mental pathologies—that is, an individual’s psychological problems. For decades, many psychologists have believed that the point of psychology should be to focus on a person’s—to use the parlance of Freud—“neurosis,” in other words, to focus on one’s “mental problems.” […]
Abraham Maslow remains a pivotal figure in contemporary psychology. Known for his “Hierarchy of Needs,” Maslow helped to distinguish himself and his ideas from the dominant trends in mid-twentieth century psychology: Freudian psychoanalysis and behaviorism. Tom Butler-Bowdon, a popular psychology writer, put it this way: “Maslow originated a ‘third force,’ humanistic psychology, which refused to […]