The History of Black Psychology and Humanistic Psychology

Humanistic psychology and Black psychology independently emerged in the 1960s in response to critiques of the dominant paradigm of psychology. This chapter delineates the parallel processes of these psychologies with specific attention to the contributions of Black psychology and recommendations for humanistic psychology as it embraces tenets of multiculturalism, social justice, and cultural equity. Humanistic psychology historically has failed to adequately embrace Black psychology, despite the parallel critiques of mainstream psychology and concurrent emergence from the cultural context of the 1960s. Given the convergence of critiques of mainstream psychology, there is much that can be benefited from deepening the dialogues between Black psychology and humanistic psychology. In alignment with humanistic principles and use of self, the story is told in the context of the journey of one Black humanistic psychologist and it is hoped that this modeling will be of benefit to the next generation of humanistic scholars and practitioners.