Categories
Posts tagged with the category Existential Training
How Do I Grade This?
This is an appeal to all those psychometricians who ramble through the forest of A, B, C, D, E, All of the Above, None of the Above—all those who worship at the hem of Bloom’s Taxonomy, how can you best score the following test?
It may seem strange that a Humanist/Existentialist would find an assessment from the behaviorist B. F....
The Future of Existential Psychology: Facing Maturity?
When confronted with the invitation to share some thoughts about the future of existential psychology, the first question that came into mind was whether existential-phenomenological psychology (as I prefer to call it) is in fact constituted and well-established as a science, with an outlined object of study, research methodologies and with...
The Future of Existential Psychology: Introductory Psychology Textbooks and the Commitment to Essentialism
When I think back to my college education, I consider it a small wonder that I ever found my way to existential psychology. My undergraduate psychology department as a whole was hostile to the threat of philosophy encroaching upon their discipline. One professor even announced to my cohort that psychologists do what philosophers merely think about...
The “Pop”
The Division 32/Society for Humanistic Psychology Conference at Pacifica Graduate Institute at the end of February reminded me of a conference catch phrase from the previous conference in Pittsburgh in 2012. A talk on community concluded with the idea that humanistic psychology seems to have all the right ingredients that can lead individuals to a...
Beacons of Humanistic Psychology: Dr. Fred Wertz, Fordham University, Part 2
Interviewing the Students of Dr. Wertz
Richard Bargdill was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to interview three graduate students working with Dr. Wertz at Fordham University in New York. Sarah Kamens, Rachel Levine, and Miraj Desai were all interviewed at the very raucous Division 32 Hospitality Suite at the APA conference. Realizing...
Eugene Taylor - The Most Interesting Man in Psychology
Last Wednesday, I received a text from a dear friend, Sarah Kass, informing me of the passing of Dr. Eugene Taylor. I'd called her after my last session and she was in the bar toasting Eugene with a Dos Equis. The meaning immediately hit me. "Ah yes! Eugene really was the most interesting man alive." We both chuckled in an odd,...
Beacons of Humanistic Psychology: Dr. Fred Wertz
Many of our humanistic psychologists in academia are working in departments where they are the only person holding these values. At times, the myriad of other faculty may seem to be hostile toward the humanistic paradigm and surviving seems more important than thriving. This interview—and hopefully others to follow—acknowledges a...
Existential Lessons from My Father
My father, Clarence Hoffman, grew up the fifth child in family of eight in rural South Dakota. He went to college to become an agriculture teacher who sold insurance on the side. One of his friends once told me that at one point he debated between going back to school to become a minister or going into insurance. He decided he could more...
A Tribute to the Students of Humanistic Psychology
Some of my greatest teachers and greatest inspirations as an existential psychologist and professor have been my students. Although it has become cliché to say that teachers learn from their students, I hope to speak to this as a personal experience that comes alive beyond the cliché. When I speak of students, particular students come to mind,...
“Do I Really Need to Read All This Philosophy?”
The students who put this question to me are usually taking their first course in phenomenological or hermeneutic (narrative) research. And in a way, I feel for them, because many of them didn’t expect to be facing something called “epistemology,” and bumping into any number of arcane Greek terms that seem to bear no relationship to the...
The Lived Encounter
I have just walked out of the most transformative three days of my life. I find myself grappling to find the words to capture the beauty and power of this encounter without diluting the essence. I find that I suddenly understand Heidegger’s use of the hyphen in his writings as the English language suddenly falls far short of a single word, or even...
Existential Psychology With a Chinese Face
Wang Xuefu was the first psychologist I met in China in 2003 with a commitment to an indigenous psychology. It was he who introduced me to the Chinese novelist, Lu Xun, and to the notion of Zhi-mian (the courage to face the future), and I have been reading both Wang and Lu Xun ever since. Over the years, Wang has been in conversation with Western...
Featured Topics
All Categories
Most Recent Posts
- Posted by on June 18, 2013 - 10:00am
- Posted by on June 17, 2013 - 10:00am
- Posted by on June 14, 2013 - 10:00am
- Posted by on June 13, 2013 - 10:00am
- Posted by on June 12, 2013 - 10:00am
Recently Added Media
-
Added on June 4, 2012
-
Added on May 25, 2012
-
Added on May 8, 2012
-
Added on March 6, 2012
-
Added on January 6, 2012
-
Added on November 1, 2011
