fourth force

The name given to a trans-personal psychology orientation toward understanding people and providing psycho-social services. It refers to the major orientations of psychological thought and therapy. The first force was the psychodynamic or analytical orientation that grew in the psychologically repressive Victorian era and focused on the psychopathology of inner-directed humans. The second force was the behaviorist orientation that focused on outer-directed human action and responses to the stresses faced in the environment. The third force was the humanistic, experiential, existential approach to therapy whose goal was self-actualization. The transpersonal fourth force goes beyond self-actualization toward a“trans-human”orientation centered in the connection of the soul and morality with the cosmos.