Kierkegaard's Concept of Subjectivity and Implications for Humanistic Psychology

Abstract

To clarify the implications of existential thought for humanistic psychology an analysis is made of the writings of Soren Kierkegaard, primarily his major work, Concluding Unscientific Postscript. A study of the basic concepts of humanistic psychology as presented by Buhler, Rogers, May, and Bugental reveals significant similarities with Kierkegaard regarding their focus on subjectivity. Their respective interpretations of time differ, however. The humanist position, focusing upon the "here and now," bears little resemblance to Kierkegaard's radical dialectical analysis of subjectivity in which the future is the dominant mode of time. Drawing from Kierkegaard's interpretation of existence as future oriented, the author presents a framework for an alternative approach to the single case study: the future case In this model, emphasis is upon imaginative involvement with one's future "history."