Human Potential Movement

{{newage}}
The '''human-potential movement''' (HPM), a loosely-confederated 
conspiracy
 mixture of [[secular]] and [[religious]] [[woo]], had a certain amount of popularity from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. It incorporated much of what was then fashionable in [[paranormal]] and motivational<ref>{{wpa | Motivational speaker}}</ref> circles, including earlier material from [[theosophy]] and other [[Western esotericism | "esoteric"]] philosophies. It drew heavily from (and in turn influenced) many [[self-help]] philosophies of the era. It also drew heavily from the then-mainstream [[humanistic psychology]] field, and fed directly into the [[New Age]] movement. Parapsychology 
evangelists
researchers at mainstream institutions, like {{wpl | J.B. Rhine}}, helped give the woo aspects of "evidence-based" credibility. The human-potential movement focused heavily on the nature and perceived capabilities of "[[consciousness]]" (still a common term in the writings of the movement's successors) and (like many other [[belief]]-systems of its type) was resolutely [[vitalism | vitalist]] in its view of [[life]].

Followers of the human-potential movement often took seriously the discredited idea that humans use only [[Ten percent myth | 10% of their brains]], and were often big fans of [[Uri Geller]] and other self-proclaimed [[psychic]]s. [[Quantum woo]] got its first big break in this era, with writers {{wpl | Fritjof Capra}} (''The Tao of Physics'') and {{wpl | Gary Zukav}} (''The Dancing Wu Li Masters'') taking the strangeness that was the [[Copenhagen interpretation]] of [[quantum mechanics]] and using it as a semi-plausible mechanism for [[mind-body woo | "mind-over-matter"]] thinking. In turn, writers associated with the movement wrote books such as {{wpl | Jonathan Livingston Seagull | ''Jonathan Livingston Seagull''}} and ''[[Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance]]'' and spawned somewhat less fluffy interest in real Eastern [[religion]]s such as [[Buddhism]], as well as in [[think tank]]s and self-help groups such as [[est]], [[Esalen]], [[Synanon]] and their spin-offs, many of which had [[authoritarian]] and even [[cult]]ish aspects.  A notable subset of the movement promoted new [[psychological]] therapies such as [[primal scream therapy | primal-scream therapy]], encounter-group therapy,<ref>{{wpa | Encounter group}}</ref> and [[rebirthing]], which mainstream psychologists initially regarded with open-minded interest, but which turned out to be useless [[quackery]].

Mainstream science quickly discredited much of the human-potential movement's maunderings.<ref>
Compare for example:
{{cite book
 | last1 = Gardner
 | first1 = Martin
 | author-link1 = Martin Gardner
 | orig-year = 2000
 | chapter = Jean Houston: New Age Guru
 | title = Did Adam and Eve Have Navels?: Debunking Pseudoscience
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=4GJcAgAAQBAJ
 | location = New York
 | publisher = W. W. Norton & Company
 | publication-date = 2001
 | page = 129
 | isbn = 9780393245035
 | access-date = 28 June 2019
 | quote = Houston is tireless in conducting workshops around the world in which she uses a bewildering variety of techniques designed to raise the “human potential” of her students.
}}
</ref><ref>
For example:
{{cite book
 |last1 = Fisher
 |first1 = Jeffrey D.
 |last2 = Cohen Silver
 |first2 = Roxane
 |last3 = Chinsky
 |first3 = Jack M.
 |last4 = Goff
 |first4 = Barry
 |last5 = Klar
 |first5 = Yechiel 
 |orig-year = 1990
 |title = Evaluating a Large Group Awareness Training: A Longitudinal Study of Psychosocial Effects
 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=WNjVBQAAQBAJ
 |series = Recent Research in Psychology
 |location = New York
 |publisher = Springer Science & Business Media
 |publication-date = 2012
 |isbn = 9781461234289
 |access-date = 28 June 2019
 |quote= Many of the potential favorable outcomes of the Forum were assessed on constructs represented in the multivariate analyses (i.e., Positive and Negative Affect, Health, Perceived Control, Social Functioning, Life Satisfaction, Self-Esteem, and Daily Coping). On seven of these eight dimensions, there were no significant short- or long-term multivariate treatment effects. On one, Perceived Control, the short- but not the long-term multivariate comparison with nominees revealed that Forum participants became more internally oriented.
}}
</ref>
For instance, Rhine's "groundbreaking" work on psychic abilities could not be reproduced, and his lab became disassociated from Duke University. Many Human-Potential advocates shifted into using a more religious and [[spirituality | spiritual]] tone, and the whole rotten mess got absorbed into the New Age movement of the 1980s, though still retaining a somewhat nebulous presence in the overall consciousness of [[society]]. As for consciousness, it remains a topic of considerable interest in psychology and [[artificial intelligence | artificial-intelligence]] circles, but the human-potential movement's contributions to the subject have been irrelevant at best.<ref>
Note for example:
{{cite book
| last1 = George
| first1 = James
| chapter = Search Further!
| editor1-last = Gandhi
| editor1-first = Kishor
| title = The Odyssey of Science, Culture, and Consciousness
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ryVZAlWbjy8C
| location = New Delhi
| publisher = Abhinav Publications
| publication-date = 1990
| page = 151
| isbn = 9788170172697
| access-date = 2017-09-10
| quote = The human potential movement in the West is only a new wave echo of a very old Eastern teaching: that there is a correspondence between the microcosm and the macrocosm — 'as above, so below'.
}}
</ref>

==See also==
{{columns-list|2|
*[[Alternative medicine]]
*[[Bhagwan Sree Rajneesh]]
*[[Buckminster Fuller]]
*[[Crank magnetism]]
*[[Enneagram]]
*[[Esalen Institute]] - the cradle of pseudo-modern woo
*[[Est]] - multi-level marketing for self-help junkies
*[[Hoffman Quadrinity Process]]
*[[New Games movement]]
*[[Reparenting]]
*[[Rolfing]]
*[[Transactional Analysis]]
}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Tom Wolfe, [http://nymag.com/news/features/45938/ The Me Decade and the Third Great Awakening], ''New York'' magazine, August 23, 1976
* Cyra McFadden, ''The Serial'', Knopf, 1977 (hilarious novel spoofing HPM)
* Richard Dean Rosen, ''Psychobabble'', Wildwood House Ltd, 1978
* Christopher Lasch, {{wpl|The Culture of Narcissism|''The Culture of Narcissism''}}, Norton, 1979

[[Category:Psychology]]
[[Category:New Age]]
[[Category:Pseudoscience]]

Categories: Psychology, New Age, Pseudoscience