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Review by Dr Pravin Thevathasan



Psychological Seduction
The Failure of Modern Psychology
William Kirk Kilpatrick
Thomas Nelson Publishers



How does humanistic psychology help us in our day to day decisions? Very little, says the author of this excellent book. But having read the book, I think he is referring specifically to the humanistic psychology popularised by Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow and others. The book was published thirty years ago and psychology has moved on. I am certain that psychology has something to offer certain people within its own limits. Problems arise when psychology is not confined within its boundaries.

Unfortunately humanistic psychologists attempted to tell us how to lead our moral lives: whatever makes you feel good about yourself is the right choice...and there is ultimately no such thing as right and wrong. As Kilpatrick notes, this project has been a catastrophic failure.

As I have said, psychology has moved on. But humanistic psychology is very much present in the media, the schools and in religion. So we have religious educators telling us not to talk about sin, make the children attending Confirmation programmes feel good about themselves, etc.

Humanistic psychology, with its emphasis on the self, is anti-social. Ultimately, we lose our sense of self in the very pursuit of the self because we are called to see ourselves as not rooted in society. Where, in the claustrophobic world of humanistic psychology, is the sense of the human person as mystery? Where is the sense of the sacred?

Humanistic psychology has become a religion with an Eastern flavour. This is not surprising as it has no place for the doctrine of original sin. It has no place for self-denial, just self affirmation.
This book is rightly regarded as a classic.




Copyright ©; Dr Pravin Thevathasan 2016

Version: 18th June 2016



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