A European Perspective on the Position Papers

Abstract

Our comments begin with a short review of some of the differences in narratives concerning the history and the origin of humanistic psychology (HP) between the United States portrayed in several of the position papers and Europe. Second, we discuss the effectiveness and conceptual understanding of HP and its implication for training. Third, we make reference to humanistic therapeutic goals and the humanistic background of multicultural modalities. Our proposition is that the term ``humanism,'' as it is used in some of the articles, needs significant clarification for it to be a viable working concept within this modality and other modes of practice. Finally, although appreciating the focus given to common aspects in both ``contextual cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)'' and HP, we claim that some methodological stances, which might be seen as leading to a ``dead end'' from the perspective of cognitive behavioral therapy research, are essential for HP and, moreover, connect HP to the modern interdisciplinary discourses of systems science.