ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the history of Humanistic Psychology, the great gifts it has given us, but also on how Humanistic Psychology has been part of the culture that has created the world's challenges we and sister earth now face. Humanistic Psychology was, and is, a broad church, with many different approaches and schools, but all are involved in experientially exploring the further reaches and the fullness of what it means in being human. The work of the early pioneers led to the development of the so-called 'growth movement' and of growth centres such as Esalen in California, and Quaestor and Community in London. Humanistic Psychology has always focused on the importance of the individual taking responsibility for their own life and their own choices, but finds it much harder to step up to taking collective social responsibility.
