(excerpt form a speech by Sandy Freidman, AHP Past President, given in 1994)

In the early sixties, Humanistic Psychology arose essentially as a protest against the fragmented and reductionist view of the person which prevailed both in academia and in practice, where the human being was viewed as machine - a bundle of uncontrollable instincts and a simple stimulus/response organism. But the founders and keepers of this new and radical approach to psychology from Abe Maslow and Rollo May to Carl Rogers, Virginia Satir and Jonas Salk knew that the person is more than the sum of his or her parts, and dared to study and validate that mysterious "more".

It is an affirmative approach to psychology and life which addressed the art and science of human possibilities, and deemed capacities for joy, love, trust hope, love and courage worthy topics for study. This was not only something new in psychology, it was, and still is something profoundly subversive ...and tricky; to find a legitimate place for the missing "humane" being in a highly mechanistic, technocratic and commercial society.

The humanistic shift can be thought of something like this:
...from determinism to self-determination, from causality to purpose, from manipulation to self-responsibility, from analysis to synthesis, from diagnosis to dialogue, from solution-oriented models to process, from degradation of human life to celebration of the human spirit. The goal of this third force in psychology was not scientific prediction and control, but empathy, understanding and liberation. Today, to be humanistic means among other things to see ourselves and each other as whole, multidimensional and unique, not a simple bundle of instincts to be probed and dissected, but as a choiceful unity of heart, mind and spirit, will, and even spleen...to be seen, heard, felt and honored.

Now hope in human possibilities is a scarce resource these days. Yet without it, we stand on ground constructed and maintained by fear - fragile, depleted ground - hardly the soil to nourish full human beings and healthy societies. However, there is a place that holds both the many adversities that confront us and the potential for creative responses - and we stand on that edge. This community event is to let you know that you are not out there alone, and to remind you that the world needs your images and actions for a more conscious and whole humanity more than ever. There are 1,000 of us here today at exactly the right time. A time in which the human spirit is called to new heights. Collectively, we will engage in an exploration into a rapidly growing vision of our capacities for hope and healing, and together we will learn how to remain fully human in an often inhumane world.