A Reconceptualisation of the Self in Humanistic Psychology: Heidegger, Foucault and the Sociocultural Turn

Abstract

Since the early 1970s humanistic psychology has struggled to remain a relevant force in the social and psychological sciences, we attribute this in part to a conceptualisation of the self rooted in theoretically outmoded thinking. In response to the issue of relevancy a sociocultural turn has been called for within humanistic psychology, which draws directly and indirectly on the conceptual insights of Michel Foucault. However, this growing body of research lacks a unifying conceptual base that is able to encompass its new perspectives (its call for a sociocultural turn) and the movement's theoretical antecedents (the actualising tendency). This analysis suggests a way forward by offering a potential reconceptualisation of the self in humanistic psychology through the existential-phenomenology of Martin Heidegger. We argue that Heidegger's conception of the self takes account of subjectivities produced in discourse and institutional practice, while acknowledging the human capacity for actualisation in his concept of the authentic-self.

Western Individualism and Psychotherapy: Exploring the Edges of Ecological Being

“…The models of therapeutic practice sketched in this article offer distinct possibilities for a reconfiguration of the current atomized, alienated self at the heart of much psychological work. Each shares in a vision, as the existential-phenomenological foundations of humanistic psychology has classically advocated, of a human being who is not apart from the world, but is ecologically situated and always already involved in cultural practices extending beyond its immediate, bounded personhood (McDonald & Wearing, 2013).…”

“…Remembering the classic humanistic imperative of holism, and seeing a commonplace mission of broadening consciousness and daily life practices to include nonegoic factors in the understanding of selfhood, this article will seek to establish dialogue between critical and humanistic-transpersonal-ecological approaches to subjectivity and therapeutic practice. Within humanistic psychology, the work of Martin Heidegger has been suggested for a project of reconceptualizing the self and aligning humanistic psychology with theoretical developments associated with the “sociocultural turn” of the poststructuralists (McDonald & Wearing, 2013). Although the current article does not take significant direct influence from existential-phenomenology, it does recognize the contributions of Heidegger’s work toward a more ecologically embedded understanding of subjectivity and views this as an important and parallel disciplinary thread.…”

Rogers and Heidegger: Is a gathering for a new view of the self possible?

“…With regard to this, we have stated our opinion, in agreement with Pagès, that Rogers is a phenomenologist. Unfortunately, this question cannot be addressed in depth in this paper, but it has been addressed by other scholars in the field (Klein & Westcott, 1994;McDonald & Wearing, 2013).…”

“…The self was developed in clinical practice and considered by Rogers as having an eminently phenomenological nature, supported by the organismic theories of personality, which is best represented by Kurt Goldstein, supported by the ideas of Snygg and Combs (1949), by phenomenology and by current authors of humanistic and Phenomenological Psychology (Feijoo, 2011;McDonald & Wearing, 2013).…”

On the Digital Age from Humanistic Psychology

“…In addition, the emphasis on people's environment and experience has shifted psychology to more and more social perspectives and tried to integrate all these components that make people a whole [16] . We can observe more recent efforts in the work of McDonald and Wearing [17] , who combine the perspectives of Maslow and Rogers together with the philosophical concepts of Heidegger, mainly the concept of Dasein, and the idea of the individual that constantly challenges the systems of power, and seeks to create new opportunities for Foucault action to highlight the importance of Foucault constant decisions of the individual in the world. Therefore, man is no longer just his experience, values and efforts, but the sum of historical, cultural, social, economic, political, spiritual and other variables.…”