Historical foundations of existential-humanistic developmental psychology.

Abstract

This article traces the early history of existential-humanistic developmental psychology. It is argued that this area of inquiry was built upon the pioneering work of a heterogeneous array of authors from numerous backgrounds, including American humanistic psychology, European existential and phenomenological psychology, social and self-styled psychoanalysis, personalistic psychology, comparative psychology, Gestalt psychology, education and pedagogy, philosophy, and anthropology. The conceptual yield of the historical overview was distilled down to a cluster of four broad themes: the whole developing person-in-context, lived time, the living body, and an enduring call to pedagogy. Public Significance StatementThis study found that existential-humanistic developmental psychology can be traced back to a distinct cluster of seminal figures from diverse backgrounds. These contributors could be classified as firstor second-wave depending on their historical period. Four conceptual themes were distilled from the analysis. This is important for existential-humanistic psychologists and the wider community of developmental psychologists, many of whom have yet to recognize existential-humanistic developmental psychology's theoretical orientation.