The methods - 1
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The aim of much humanistic therapy is to give a holistic description of the person. By using
phenomenological, intersubjective and first-person categories, the humanistic psychologist hopes to
get a glimpse of the whole person and not just the fragmented parts of the personality (Rowan, 2001).
This aspect of holism links up with another aim of humanistic psychology, which is to seek an
integration of the whole person, also called self-actualization. According to humanistic thinking each
individual person already has inbuilt potentials and resources that might help them to build a stronger
personality and self-concept. The mission of the humanistic psychologist is to point the individual in
the direction of these resources. The therapist is, in some circumstances, closer to a guide, than to a
clinician. However, in order to actualize hidden potentials the person might have to give up the safety
of a particular stage of the personality in order to embrace a new, and more integrated stage. This is,
by no accounts, a trivial process, and it might include confrontations with new life-choices, or
existential concerns. Humanistic psychology views psychological instability and anxiety as normal
parts of human life, and human development, which can be addressed in therapy (Rowan, 2001).
Although much of Humanistic psychology tends to have a positive outlook on life and human nature,
as reflected in the works of Maslow and Rogers, the discipline is not exclusively optimistic. It also
includes such thinkers as Schneider, May, and Bugental, who are not particularly optimistic (Rowan,
2001).
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