Psychologist Abraham Maslow
This is an excerpt from the paper...
Abraham Maslow (1908-1970), American-born theorist in the field of psychology, was a founding figure in the branch of that discipline known as Humanistic Psychology - aka "Third Force Psychology" (Goble, 1970, pp. 10-13). His work gained enormous popularity in the decade preceding his unexpected death by heart attack; it spawned what has since been referred to as the "human potential movement" that bloomed in the 1970s and through today under the guise of various "New Age" aliases (Hoffman, 1988, pp. 335-336). Popularity and its oversimplifications aside, Maslow's work in psychology represented a distinct and optimistic alternative to the other mainstreams of opinion that were established during his lifetime. As befits scientific disciplines developed on the cusp of modern technology and its associate 20th century thought, the history of psychology is both young and rife with division. Unlike other sciences, having replaced (or at least become serious competition to) religion as the mode of understanding the human "soul," psychology has been forced to shoulder a quasi-mystical burden. Followers of one stream of thought disagree with their heretic brethren with a fervor recollecting the intolerance of past centuries' religious wars - to the disservice of the discipline itself. By mid-century two main strains of thought had divided psychologists: Freudianism and Behaviorism (Fine, 1979, p. 112). Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), the father of modern psychoanalysis, focused
. . .
ial change in every social institution, in every one of the "fields" of intellectual endeavor, and in every one of the professions. ... Humanistic Psychology is developing a new image of man (and) is the work of many men (Maslow, 1970, p. vii-viii).
As can be seen, Maslow's approach to human psychology, his "third force," was contrary to the previous "first" and "second" forces of Freudianism and Behaviorism. He considered the movement he fathered "a serious and rapidly growing movement that is challenging the most basic precepts on which the study of man has been based for a century" (Maslow, 1970, p. viii). It rejects Freud's "dictatorship of the subconscious" and the "mechanistic world" of the Behaviorists. In their stead, Maslow's theory of Humanistic Psychology proposes "a new philosophy of man, an optimistic awareness that sets man free to be man, to create and grow, to control his choice and goals" (Maslow, 1970, p. viii).
Born in Brooklyn, educated at the City College of New York, Cornell University and the University of Wisconsin, Abraham Maslow stayed within the research world of academia; when Brandeis University was founded in 1948, he established its Psychology Department and became chairman, a position he held
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Humanistic Psychology, Psychology Department, Psychology Goble, Freudians Behaviorists, Abraham Maslow, Whereas Freud's, Freudianism Behaviorism, World-View Zeitgeist, Sigmund Freud, Behaviorism Pavlov's, humanistic psychology, abraham maslow, goble 1970, third force, force psychology, maslow 1970, third force psychology, freudians behaviorists, human potential, force psychology abraham, hoffman 1988, maslow 1970 viii, york grossman, goble 1970 pp, psychology abraham maslow,
Approximate Word count = 1527
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
More Essays on Psychologist Abraham Maslow
|