There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
— Rumi
As I write this, I am contemplating the wonderful work of Donna Rockwell, PsyD, our former Div. 32 president, who did so much to remind us of humanistic psychology’s early historical embrace of that which is now commonly regarded as mindfulness. She re-awakened in us the sense of reverence for life and living as well as the cultivation of interpersonal presence through love, which so many of us felt was missing in the earliest iterations of behaviorism and psychoanalysis. I deeply honor her efforts to keep the thread of spirituality alive and vital in our work with clients and in our personal lives. I am humbled as well to be learning so much from the example and mentorship of Nathaniel Granger, PsyD, our current division president, who is showing us how, as humanistic psychologists, we can and must carry on the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. in his embrace of creative maladjustment as a means to stop the insidious, normalizing creep of social injustices. We must face with bravery and stand against racism and the extremes of hatred for anyone who we perceive as different from us, or “other.”
This year, the 12th Annual Conference of the Society for Humanistic Psychology in Corvallis, Oregon, weaves the thread of “one love” that was so prominent in Rockwell’s term with Granger’s embrace of creative maladjustment in its theme, “Embracing our Fear, Courage and Love in Pursuit of a Just Community.” Clearly, in humanistic psychology, it is no longer sufficient to settle for a concept of wholeness that rests on the privilege of mere self-expression as its benchmark of success. Being human also encompasses awareness of our inextricable embeddedness in communities. None of us can truly be whole while any portion of us languishes in the struggle for survival and fails even to be seen. Moreover, macrocosm mirrors microcosm. We must bravely confront within ourselves that which we are all too ready to attribute to being outside of ourselves, as preparation to work collectively to right the wrongs we loathe so deeply.
I am looking ahead to my coming term as president with a small measure of nervousness and a great measure of excitement. Rockwell and Granger followed and strengthened the thread of spirituality that is present in humanistic psychology, and I intend to do the same during my term of presidency as well. In the contemporary, expansive re-visioning of humanistic psychology that has been so evident in the past decade, I discern an invitation now to consider how the community that enriches and expands our authentic humanity is in fact the natural world and our connection with all the beings with whom we share the planet. How well we steward, beautify and enrich that world rather than dominate it will be a legacy that I deeply yearn to leave for our children, and I hope you will join me. I long to be an Ancestor worthy of the name.
It seems clear to me that we have come to a juncture in humanistic psychology where we are realizing that it is not — and was never supposed to be — only for those who look and think a certain way. We ought to be able to acknowledge with gratitude those places where our values, ideas and the love we have for the best of what it means to be a human being is sourced in much older traditions that pre-date psychology itself. Indigenous psychology reveals for us a deep and ancient wisdom which is vital for our endeavors to connect with passion and awe (with a tip of the hat to Kirk Schneider, PhD). Social justice also means stopping colonization in psychology and spirituality and misappropriation of indigenous wisdom and resources. Following Granger’s lead, we need to bravely face within ourselves the consequences of the historical harm we have perpetrated and that we continue to inflict on the world and on each other. Those consequences are manifest in our own disconnection from Beauty, what some indigenous contexts might even regard as soul loss. A humble and respectful relationship with this wisdom may well be what we need to re-ignite our sacred passion for ourselves, for each other, for being human, for the world, so that we do not drown in the throes of a technology-driven, environment-collapsing, contemporary wave of despair and meaninglessness. Meaning-making in the Anthropocene Epoch would therefore seem to necessitate the cultivation and deepening of an eco-psychological framework that is authentically informed by (and respectful of) ancient ancestral wisdom. We may be compelled to loosen and relinquish our attachment to self-development for its own sake as being the ultimate purpose of human endeavors. Accepting the death of that which no longer serves us may also be a part of that invitation, decay being necessary for the emergence of new life.
The seed becomes the tree, which yields the fruit, which is consumed or which falls and nurtures the germinating seed in its decay. Science fiction author Frank Herbert once said that every revolution carries within it the seeds of its own destruction. Yet seeds by their very nature embody hope that what is truly eternal will ultimately flourish.
Blessings,
Drake Spaeth, PsyD
President-elect (2019-20)
Div. 32 (The Society for Humanistic Psychology)
About the Author
Drake Spaeth, PsyD, president-elect of Div. 32, is chair of the Humanistic Psychology Program in the Humanistic and Clinical Psychology Department at Saybrook University and associate adjunct professor at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, where he has taught for 15 years. His scholarly and professional interests center around existential-humanistic psychology, ecospychology, indigenous cultures, trauma and spirituality.