Phenomenological, Existential, and Humanistic Psychologies: a Historical Survey

The advent of this volume is itself welcome testimony to the increasingly substantive character of Third Force psychology. This testimony is all the more significant in view of the authors' established reputations as psychology historians. Misiak, who has taught history of psychology and psychological systems for almost 30 years, has closely followed the development of the Third Force psychology, and personally knew many of its representatives discussed in this volume. He regards this new orientation as an indispensable complement to American psychology. Although Sexton has worked in the areas of personality and therapy evaluation, her abiding concern has been history and systems, with a particular interest in philosophical issues. She teaches a seminar in Humanistic psychology, and regards the Third Force as a needed change of direction for a psychology excessively devoted to instrumental technology. Nevertheless, in this text the tone is that of unengaged observation, including systematic review of the prevailing criticisms against each of the three psychologies.

At present this is the only book of its kind, since Spiegelberg's Phenomenology in Psychiatry and Psychology is focused primarily on selected figures in the European psychiatric movement. The Misiak and Sexton book is an explicitly historical one. While not attempting a metabletic account, it presents

Fischer, C. T. (1974). Phenomenological, Existential, and Humanistic Psychologies: A Historical Survey (Book Review). Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 4(2), 491-493. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/156916274X00090