Humanistic and transpersonal perspectives on love
Paul Miller Stephen, John Rowan
March 29, 2018 DOI: 10.4324/9780429476907-3 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key points | The authors argue that love is central to humanistic and transpersonal therapy and to human development, everyday living, the client–therapist encounter, and spiritual growth. They propose that all beings have an innate potential to grow and develop under the right conditions, and that transpersonal psychology emerged because humanistic psychology was limited in addressing development beyond the ego-self and non-ordinary states of consciousness. |
Abstract
In this chapter, the authors explore the place of love in both humanistic and transpersonal therapy. They consider its place in human development and everyday living, therapy and client–therapist encounter, and in spiritual growth. Transpersonal therapy focuses on the development of being, spirituality, and takes a holistic view of the individual. Humanistic and transpersonal therapies are founded on the premise that all beings have a built-in potential to grow and develop and, given the right conditions, will do so. A. H. Maslow and others later developed transpersonal psychology, as they realised the limitations of humanistic psychology in working with personal and spiritual development beyond the ego-self and with states of consciousness that are considered outside ordinary everyday experience. Love is central to all human relationships, although there are many different views on what "love" is and what it means to different people.