ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the challenges for humanistic and existential–humanistic psychology in the age of multiculturalism. With the revolution in theory, research, and clinical practice that has accompanied psychology’s recognition of, and adaptation to, the increasing diversity in contemporary societies, multicultural psychology has demonstrated itself to be the true fourth wave in the field (e.g., Pedersen, 1999). For humanistic psychology, considered by many to be the third wave (Benjamin, 2010), to remain relevant, it must reconcile itself with the paradigm shift presented by the perspective of multiculturalism. The essential question of what it means to be human changes significantly when cultural differences are considered. A revisioning of humanistic psychology is proposed in which its culture-specific values, assumptions, and constructs are addressed and its theories and practices are adjusted for the multicultural complexities in the human condition and the dramatically changing demographic realities in the world today (e.g., U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2011). Humanistic psychology can reclaim its relevance to humankind as it embraces and adjusts for the diversity and multiculturalism inherent in it.
