Four Schools of Humanism: A Qualitative Synthesis of the Journal of Humanistic Counseling (2008–2023)

Abstract

This qualitative synthesis of articles published in The Journal of Humanistic Counseling from 2008 to 2023 identifies six primary areas of scholarly inquiry alongside four schools of humanistic thought: dialectical pragmatism, existential phenomenology, dialogical constructionism, and critical poststructuralism. Each philosophical position is described, and a Johari's window is used to identify relevant points of similarity and divergence among the four schools of humanism. Implications for collective discourse in the counseling field are reviewed, and it is further suggested that the revolutionary spark of humanistic thought can be rekindled via new debates about what it means to be a humanist in the modern era.