President-elect statement 2017-18

When faced with the degradation of humankind as exemplified in misogyny, Islamophobia, homophobia, racism, militarism, capitalism and political systems that deride democracy, humanistic psychology ameliorates the impact of these conditions by placing a premium on human dignity, creativity, free will and human potential. Thus, humanistic psychologists advocate a call for all to be concerned about others and to take action in the service of others.

For three years, I served Div. 32 (Society for Humanistic Psychology) as board secretary, Diversity Task Force chair Bylaws Committee chair and Hospitality Suite co-chair, and I represented the Society at APA Psychology at the Public Interest Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C., in Nov. 2015, an initiative to fulfill part of APA's mission on “communication and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve people's lives.”

As Div. 32 president-elect, I will support President Donna Rockwell while I continue advancing new projects like our  Experiential Democracy Project envisioned by former President Kirk Schneider and the Humanizing Homelessness Project, idealized by former President Louis Hoffman.

Additionally, I will use social media and other platforms to promote issues important to the Society, including those of past-presidents like Brent Robbins on human dignity, Krishna Kumar on contemporary humanistic psychology and Shawn Rubin on social justice.

My presidential theme would include advocating for social justice and nullifying environmental and systemic indignities that communicate hostile, derogatory or negative racial, gender, sexual orientation, and religious slights and insults to target persons or groups, on which my research is based, reclaiming humanistic psychology as a humanistic science that values all humans.

Cowardice to confront social injustices has become fashionable. My goal has been and continue to be make the invisible visible as related to microaggressions and hope to re-invigorate within the Society for Humanistic Psychology a sense of resolute bravery to advocate for all who find themselves disenfranchised.

And in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., when he addressed APA in 1967, “I can only say that I am not a consensus leader. I do not seek to determine what is right and wrong by taking a Gallop Poll to determine majority opinion. And it is again my deep conviction that ultimately a genuine leader is not a searcher of consensus but a molder of consensus. On some positions cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But conscience must ask the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a stand that is neither safe nor politic nor popular. But one must take it because it is right. And that is where I find myself today.”

Nathaniel Granger, Jr., PsyD
President-elect, Div. 32
Society for Humanistic Psychology