third wave humanistic psychology

• “Third Wave” in psychology. Psychoanalysis (studied neurotic pathology) and Behaviorism (discard personal experience altogether) had held the stage since the 1920’s, but now there was a Humanistic Psychology, which took subjective experience seriously. Maslow proposed to study “peak experiences.” Friz Perls (the originator of Gestalt Therapy, and surely one of the parents of the Somatic Movement) demonstrated a precise method for observing consciousness which could suddenly, dramatically, explode into spontaneity and real Life, relentlessly directed attention to what was happening now, in the physical present, in order to bring a person into dramatic awareness of the living moment. Carl Rogers¹ was demonstrating a “people-centered” approach to therapy, education, and even corporate management which seemed to liberate energy and motivation.
• somatic movement founders, Esalen Workshops
• After the mechanics of behaviorism and the aloof interpretations of psychoanalysis, here was Plato and the psychology of Soul all over again, and with a little Nietzschean critique thrown in (by Perls).