Human Potential Movement Summary Roots Relationship To Other

The Human Potential Movement is premised on the belief that through the development of largely untapped potential for extraordinary capabilities, humans can experience an exceptional quality of life filled with happiness, creativity, and fulfuillment. A corollary belief is that those who begin to unleash this potential will find their actions within society to be directed towards helping others release their potential. The belief is that the net effect of individuals cultivating their potential will bring about positive social change at large.

2 Roots

3 Relationship to other Fields

The movement is sometimes considered to be under the broader umbrella of the New Age movement. It is distinguished ideologically from other New Age trends by an emphasis on the individual development of secular human capabilities as opposed to the more spiritual views within the movement. However, participants rarely make this distinction and it is common to find that most who embrace the ideas of the human potential movement also tend to embrace the other more spiritual ideas within the New Age movement.

It is in many ways the progenitor of the contemporary industry surrounding Personal growth and self-helpThough the term self-help can refer to any case whereby an individual or a group betters themselves economically, intellectually or emotionally, the connotations of the phrase have come to apply particularly to psychological or psychotherapeutic nostrums,.

4 Esalen

The Esalen InstituteThe Esalen Institute is a workshop and retreat center in Big Sur, California. It is considered to be the center of the Human potential movement. Their website states :The Esalen Institute was founded by Michael Murphy and Richard Price not the minister in was formed by Michael MurphyMichael Murphy is the co-founder of the Esalen Institute, a key figure in the Human Potential Movement and author of both fiction and non-fiction books on topics related to extraordinary human potential. Biography Michael Murphy was born in 1930 to an Iri and Dick Price primarily as a center for the study and development of human potential, and is considered to be the geographical center of the movement today. Aldous HuxleyAldous Leonard Huxley ( July 26, 1894 November 22, 1963) was a British writer. Best known for his novels and wide-ranging output of essays, he also published short stories, poetry and travel writing. Biography Early years Huxley was born in Godalming, Sur gave lectures on the "Human Potential" at Esalen in the early 1960s and his ideas are also considered foundational to the movement.

5 Criticism

The movement has received criticism in two forms. The first is from researchers in psychology, medicine, and science who often dismiss the movement as being grounded in pseudoscienceA pseudoscience is any body of knowledge purported to be scientific or supported by science but which fails to comply with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is a kind of counterfeit or masquerade of science which makes use of some of the superficial tr, overusing Psycho-babbleThe term psycho-babble disparagingly refers to grandiloquent but allegedly empty jargon or buzzwords with a psychological tinge. As with any self-respecting jargon, practitioners find the usages normal and useful shorthand, referring to valid concepts; th, and whose efficacy can be explained entirely by placeboFor alternative meanings, see Placebo (disambiguation A placebo is a medical treatment (operation, therapy, chemical solution, pill, etc. which is administered as if it were a therapy, but which has no therapeutic value other than the placebo effect.. This criticism was expressed by Richard Feynman's response to his visit at Esalen.

Refuting part of this criticism one should, however, separate the pseudoscientific or religious background from the mental techniques, which may, or may not (depending on the individual character of each person) be useful and beneficial. Talking about the techniques, one should not employ the "one-size-fits-all" way of thinking, because human beings are so complicated and diverse, that there can be no panacea that works for everyone.

The second criticism comes from those often considered sympathetic to the movement, but who believe that the movement has not succeeded in its goals, but has instead created an environment that actually inhibits personal development. The claim is that it encourages childish narcissism by re-inforcing the behavior of focusing on one's problems and expressing how one feels, rather than encouraging behaviors to overcome these problems. This criticism is best viewed in the terms of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. In this analysis, the failure is characterized as an exclusive focus on helping individuals fulfill their Deficit Needs, without moving individuals up the hierarchy to Being Needs, i.e., self actualization.

A more serious extension of this criticism claims that this problem is due to a flawed foundation of the movement altogether--the focus on the individual's own development as supreme to the detriment of the consideration of others and society.

Refuting this criticism, one can say that the stronger an individual is, the more he (or she) may help others; and thus, self-development may give more power to one who wants to help others.

6 See also

7 Notable Figures

8 External links

New Age

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