Return to Graduate Program    Return to Main Page

Department Orientation
The State University of West Georgia Psychology Department is unique in that our theoretical roots are in the humanistic psychology and transpersonal psychology traditions.  Our courses move from the expression of such classically humanistic concerns as the centrality of human, subjective experience in psychology, a wholistic approach toward psychological life toward human growth and development and the extension of human potential all the way to its transpersonal and spiritual horizons, toward the meaning of genuine community and sociality, the coming to know and the acceptance of one's own authentic individuality, and the myriad ways through which growth, development, and self-actualization are shown, are limited, and are transformed.
 

Curriculum

You will find many courses that focus on particular existential themes and issues which we all share in our psychological lives - i.e., courses in the nature and structure of consciousness, of perception, of psychological development throughout our life span, of the body in its lived and physical dimensions, of affective life and feeling, of dreaming, of loving, of human gender and sex roles including feminist psychology and women's spirituality, of our marital and family relationships, of sporting relationships, of our social and cultural relations, of spirituality, of transpersonal and paranormal experiences, of disaster and evil, the meanings and forms of psychological disorder, and of the nature and transformative power of psychotherapeutic relationships.

Courses also center on intensive studies of some of the great psychologists.  In the history of this program we have had whole courses on the depth psychological work of Freud, Jung, Sullivan, Horney, Lacan, Kohut, Bowlby, pioneers within the English Object Relations tradition, R. D. Laing, Harold Searles, Fritz Perls, Michael Eigen, and important figures within the marital and family therapy tradition.  Whole courses have also centered on the continental, phenomenological thought of Edmund Husserl, Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Henri Ey, Helmut Plessner, Rosenstock-Hussey, Alfred Schutz, Erwin Straus, Stephen Strasser, Paul Ricoeur, J. H. van den Berg, and the names of other important figures within the existential-phenomenological tradition are regularly interwoven throughout other classes.  The important work of such pioneering American third-force psychologists is also regularly discussed - the writings of such people as William James, Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, Arthur Combs, Virginia Satir, Sidney Jourard, M. Scott Peck, Rollo May, Amedeo Giorgi - as these and other people help us to illuminate psychological life in the service of clarifying both a truly human psychology and understanding of the lives we live.  Finally, the perennial philosophy, spiritual traditions, and fourth-force psychology are explored through the writings of Aldous Huxley, Ken Wilber, Frances Vaughan, Michael Washburn, Krishnamurti, Tarthang Tulku, and the classics of Hinduism and Buddhism.

We also believe that to fully appreciate the positive transformations fostered by a truly human psychology, students should be exposed to a critical examination of how traditional psychology approaches psychological life.  Historically, humanistic, phenomenological, and transpersonal psychology are reactions to problems in the traditional accounts of the human psychological condition. Knowing what those problems are, by direct examination and explication of them, can enrich your appreciation of the contributions being made through the human science tradition, and show you the sense of its viable alternatives.  Put differently, in jazz you have to thoroughly know the standard in order to appreciate the artistry of the played out variation.  Hence, you will find many traditional area courses in our program and discussions of the traditional in psychology within other classes.  Personality and Motivation, History and Development of Psychology, Perceptual Psychology, Research Methods, Advanced Social Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Advanced Abnormal Psychology, Psychotherapy, and Psychological Assessment are some of the recognizable offerings in our curriculum which pull from, then often reformulate, traditional accounts within psychology.  Here, our intention is for you to know what the tradition is, to disengage its sense from its nonsense, and to see the value of possible alternatives to it.

Finally, this program has always reached to consider other cultural contexts besides American life, for the value that these situations may have in helping us to understand and flesh out more holistic portraits of psychological life.  For example, from the onset of this program, Oriental and Indian forms of thought and practice have been utilized as they have helped us clarify psychology and our own personal growth and development.  Native traditions of healing and spirituality, shamanism, the psychology and meditative disciplines of the Hindu and Buddhist traditions are other contexts which inform many of our regularly offered classes.  Considerations have also been shown toward the rich cultural traditions in Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, Canada, South Africa, and Alaska.  All this is in tune with a cardinal value in our approach to psychology - to provide a holistic, contextual appreciation of the spectrum of psychological life, including the ensemble of situations through which it is both contingent and ultimately known.