Toward the Psychological Humanities

Mark Freeman is Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Society in the Department of Psychology at the College of the Holy Cross, USA. His writings include Rewriting the Self: History, Memory, Narrative; Hindsight: The Promise and Peril of Looking Backward; The Priority of the Other: Thinking and Living Beyond the Self; and Do I Look at You With Love? Reimagining the Story of Dementia.

"In this remarkable book, Mark Freeman makes a powerful case for reimagining psychology as an integral practice of the humanities. This is an elegant, passionate, and persuasive plea for a deeply humane approach to our understanding of the psyche - one more poetically and ethically attuned to what it means to be human. It is timely and bold."Richard Kearney, Charles B. Seelig Chair of Philosophy, Boston College, USA."At a time when despair rises Mark Freeman – a stunning writer, theorist and humanistic psychologist – offers a resurrection story for Psychology, inviting us to move forward toward uncertainty, curiosity, the poetic and the unknown. The world needs us to take up his challenge. Thanks, Mark, for pouring your heart, desire and radical love into a field that so needs to be watered by your light. Readers – Put down your power points, buy this book and teach it! In elite universities and even more so in community colleges where young people have desires, stories to tell, anxieties to express, wounds to heal and radical visions to narrate, if only we asked."Michelle Fine, Distinguished Professor of Critical Psychology, The Graduate Center, CUNY and Visiting Professor at University of South Africa.“The discipline of psychology has reached a negative-dialectical stage where another randomly chosen empirical study may contribute to normal science, and can be added to the millions of published articles, but fails to advance substantive knowledge about the mental being of persons. In contrast, Mark Freeman’s book invigorates theoretical streams of thinking and provides proof of the psychological humanities’ relevance and potential for an integrative understanding of the human condition. His ideas outline a humble framework for a new psychology that is onto-epistemically satisfying, ethical, as well as revolutionary.” Thomas Teo, Professor of Psychology, York University, Canada."In this work, Freeman sketches the contours of a psychological humanities, an alternative approach to psychological inquiry which remains faithful to ‘mystery’ and ‘messiness’ of human life. Freeman beautifully illustrates its potential with rich examples, the most potent of which come from his own life. If the goal is to understand humanity in all its rich texture and complexity, Freeman’s ‘poetic science’ speaks directly and compellingly to that goal. I believe this is an essential book for all students and researchers of psychology."Kathleen L. Slaney, Professor of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Canada.

• Introduction: Time for a Change1. Openness to the Mystery 2. Interpretive Humility 3. Reverence for the Real 4. Reaching for the Poetic 5. Thinking Otherwise 6. Fidelity to Other Persons 7. Fidelity to the Otherness Within8. A Space for the Ineffable 9. In the Service of Humanity (and Beyond) 10. Tear Down the Walls (in the Name of Love)