Association for Humanistic Psychology


The Association for Humanistic Psychology is a professional organization in the field of humanistic psychology, founded in 1963. Among the founders of the organization is the late psychologist Rollo May.

History

The organization was originally founded as the American Association for Humanistic Psychology in 1961, sponsored by Brandeis University.
The official history of the association starts with the inaugural meeting, in Philadelphia, in 1963. It was now renamed as the Association for Humanistic Psychology. Key players in this event was James Bugental, the first president of the association, and Gordon Allport, who arranged a grant to help with the founding.
In 1964 the association sponsored the "First Invitational Conference on Humanistic Psychology", also called the "Old Saybrook Conference", in order to develop the field of humanistic psychology. The conference was held in Connecticut and was visited by academic profiles in the field of humanistic psychology, Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers and Rollo May, who presented papers. The men and women meeting at Old Saybrook in 1964 wanted to change the direction of psychology by introducing a more complete image of the human being than the image presented by Behaviorism or Freudianism. Their purpose was to restore the "whole person". They also wanted to develop research methods for this purpose. The "Association for Humanistic Psychology" was the primary forum for the humanistic movement in the USA during the 1960s.
In 1970 The New York Times reported from the eight annual meeting of the association, which was held in Miami Beach, Florida. The meeting was dedicated to the late Abraham Maslow, and vas visited by Rollo May, who gave a speech. By this time Floyd Matson had taken over as president of the association. In 1971, the association launched the Humanistic Psychology Institute, later known as Saybrook Graduate School.
In 1985 the Chicago Tribune reported on the organizations annual conference, held at the American Congress Hotel in Chicago. This year the conference featured a variety of alternative therapies. By the early 1990s Maureen O'Hara had taken over as president of the association.

Publications

The Association publishes the Journal of Humanistic Psychology.