Abstract
This issue opens with another eloquent application of the legacy of Rollo May by Michelle Merwin (see her earlier article in JHP, Volume 51(1), January 2011). In this fascinating inquiry, Merwin presents the life of Abraham Lincoln as an exemplar of Rollo May’s conceptualization of destiny. May employed the term destiny to refer to the talents and limitations fated to us. In Lincoln’s case these talents and limitations were formidable and he grappled with them throughout his short life. For example, find out how Lincoln’s depressions not only hampered him but actually spurred him to the greatness that we now commemorate.
Thomas Szasz has also graced our pages on numerous occasions; recently, John Breeding wrote a stirring tribute to him on the occasion of his 90th birthday (see JHP, Volume 51(1), January 2011). In this incisive essay, Szasz continues his relentless battle with organized psychiatry and the legal system. He argues that the age old maxim of “primum non coercere” or “first do no harm” is precisely the antidote to today’s “involuntary coercion” by mental health authorities. Drawing on diverse testimony, both historical and contemporary, Szasz makes the compelling point that coercion, no matter how well intentioned, is rarely if ever in the best interest of the coerced.
Expanding on the question of human dignity, Kathleen O’Dwyer looks to Albert Camus. In her superb reflection “Camus’s Challenge: The Question of Suicide,” O’Dwyer revisits the classics that contain Camus’s “answer”—not just to suicide but to life. Find out why Camus is one of our most important spiritual existentialists, and how meaning bestrides the abyss.
It is high time, suggests Robert Bageant, for humanistic psychology to take a closer look at the Hakomi method, and I must concur. I have been urged from time to time by both students and clients to consider the parallels between these respective disciplines, and Bageant’s article does just that. In a concise and lucid fashion, Bageant helps us learn how the Hakomi method and humanistic psychology can complement one another and, in so doing, enhance the effectiveness of both.
Thanks to Salvatore Maddi and his colleagues, JHP is becoming a “hardier” forum, and we are very pleased with the result. In their latest installment, “The Relationship of Hardiness and Some Other Relevant Variables to College Performance,” the researchers show that grade point average, sense of well-being, meaning in life, and hardiness are collectively intertwined. Although I am sure the researchers would make room for a few exceptions to their findings—for example, I found life richly meaningful since childhood, but did not blossom academically until graduate school—their points are nevertheless both timely and elucidating.
John Thomas Huber II and Douglas MacDonald have done us all a notable service with “An Investigation of the Relations Between Altruism, Empathy, and Spirituality.” This extraordinary article found that in a sample of 186 university students, nonreligious spiritual cognitions and spiritual experiences are the most potent predictors of empathy and altruism over and above both religiousness and existential well-being. There are many interesting nuances to this research, but taken as a whole it furthers our understanding of the complex relationship between transcendent consciousness and prosocial action.
In our final piece, Justin Coulson, Lindsay Oades, and Gerard Stoyles highlight a time-honored though little appreciated dimension of parenting: the experience of being “called.” Find out how the sense of being called to raise children may not only enhance the parent–child bond but also may foster a more fulfilled childhood.
As a final note, I would like to bring your attention to a few signal developments in the humanistic-existential community—the exciting initiatives and works being featured at the revamped Society for Humanistic Psychology website (see http://www.apadivisions.org/division-32/), the sparkling new website hosted by Saybrook University on the “New Existentialists” (see http://www.newexistentialists.com/), and the landmark article in the American Psychological Association Monitor on the growing interest of mainstream therapists in existential-humanistic bases of practice (see the November 2011 issue at http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/apa/monitor_201111/#/62).