The Heart of Humanistic Psychology

Abstract

Through a philosophical analysis, guided by phenomenology, humanistic psychology is interpreted as a way of knowing that is guided by an interpretive stance of love. Hermeneutics, the study of interpretation, understands that interpretation is guided by certain moods or dispositions. Agape love, or a good will toward others, is an interpretive stance, or hermeneutic, by which others can be understood through an empathic attitude of charitability, which provides a safe space for the other person to disclose himself or herself. An approach to science and practice, when it is grounded in a hermeneutic of love, can be understood to be guided by a recognition that human beings have dignity, which calls us to an ethic of caring. As humanistic psychology is understood to be guided by a hermeneutics of love, its basic philosophical presuppositions are revealed with regard to its ontological, epistemological, and ethical foundations. Whereas dignity is a central concept of humanistic psychology, a hermeneutics of love may be a unique method of access for revealing concretely the reality of human dignity as a foundation for social ethics.