Humanistic Political Psychology
by Elliot Benjamin, Ph.D., Ph.D., March 28, 2026
I believe that the essential humanistic psychology values of empathy and authenticity need to persist, but that the adjustment of a significant extension of humanistic psychology to politics needs to be made in order for humanistic psychology to be relevant to current and future generations.
In 2022 I published two short articles describing how I believed that the future of humanistic psychology was directly connected to both the future of democracy and the preservation of the human species (Benjamin, 2022a, 2022b). My articles were spurred on by the experience of having lived through 4 years of Donald Trump being President of the United States, and were written from the relatively optimistic perspective of Trump no longer being the U.S. president.
- Fast forward 2 years later, to the middle of 2024 when Trump was once again a serious candidate for the United States presidency, even though he was a
twice impeached Presidential candidate with 88 felony charges - who is now a convicted felon. . . .
- was found guilty on 34 of those charges. . . .
- this does not even include a jury finding of liability for sexual abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996. . .
- and the January 6 [2021] insurrection event, inspired by this candidate. (Ferguson, 2024, p. 9)
In his article that included the above quote, Association of Humanistic Psychology (AHP) president Carroy U. (Cuf) Ferguson (2024) gave us the stark warning that “if humanity continues to make unwise political choices, humanity may ‘unconsciously,’ unknowingly, and mindlessly stumble into its own demise” (p. 2). I certainly agree with Ferguson in this regard, as I conveyed in my two 2022 articles as described above. But Ferguson went on to give us some specific suggestions for what he referred as an “authentic politics of Truth and Accountability” as “an approach to governance whereby politicians ‘authentically’ practice transparency, based on verifiable facts, not so-called ‘alternative facts,’ and tell the Truth as a norm. . . . (p. 4, capital first letters and italics as used by author in all quotes).” Furthermore Ferguson (2024) emphasized that “It is incumbent on all citizens in the United States and across the globe to become and to be ‘vigilant, verifiable fact checkers’ for Truth and to hold so-called political leaders accountable” (p. 10). And bringing back this extension into the political realm, to the world of humanistic psychology that celebrates individuality and intimacy, Ferguson (2024) went on to convey the following:
Basic obstacles to an “authentic politics of Truth and Accountability” are the mechanistic tendency to reduce people to objects and to engage fear—fear of differences (otherness), of intimacy (closeness), of the unknown (unfamiliar or new things), and of vulnerability(death or annihilation). (p. 11)
Let’s now fast forward again—this time 21 months later, to the present time when Trump is in the 15th month of his second presidency. Suffice it to say that the warnings that I gave in my two 2022 articles and that Ferguson gave in his 2024 article have grown enormously in both their dangers and their day-to-day death and destruction. We can focus on the threat of nuclear war stemming from the Russia/Ukraine war or the Israel/Gaza war, but instead I will just focus here on the death and destruction stemming from the second United States presidency of Donald Trump. From ICE agents without search warrants terrorizing and arresting and killing immigrants and United States citizens, to massive firings and elimination of basic environmental safety precautions, to stimulating worldwide economic chaos through tariffs, to illegal attacks on Venezuela and war with Iran, to threats to engage in war with various other countries, to the attempt to cancel or control the 2026 midterm elections, I believe that in the United States we are most certainly living in what has been described as “competitive authoritarianism.” (Benjamin, 2026). Consequently, reinforcing what a number of psychologists have urged [1], I recommend that to remain relevant to current and future generations that we significantly extend our humanistic psychology to include the realm of politics, as there is currently an enormous danger of the termination of democracy in the United States (Benjamin, 2026).
And what is the possible remedy to preserve our democracy? By all means I think that we need to preserve the core humanistic psychology values of intimacy and authenticity, but at the same time I think that we need to significantly humanistically extend our political actions. And when I say “humanistically extend our political actions” what I mean is to actively be engaged in political rallies and demonstrations, meeting with our Members of Congress in humanistically engaged dialogue, giving humanistic/political talks at conferences, and humanistically facilitating political discussion/action/support groups. I have been actively involved in all these humanistic/political ways, and I have accelerated my actions since the second Trump presidency (Benjamin, 2026).
I thought about a simple term to describe what I am recommending here: humanistic political psychology, and out of curiosity I tried searching to see if this term has been used before. What came up was a paragraph describing “humanistic political psychology” with a reference to the Association for Humanistic Psychology and then very similar phrases to what is in the above article by Ferguson. However, I am guessing that this description is just an AI formulation without an actual person formulating it, and I have asked AHP and a number of leaders in humanistic psychology, including Cuf Ferguson [2], about this and apparently no one has heard of this term having been used before. But one concrete part of the above formulation I did find particularly meaningful: “Humanistic political psychology advocates for a more empathetic and caring approach to politics, where the focus is on personal growth, relationships, and the promotion of a more just and equitable society.”
Ferguson (2026) has updated his related thoughts in a February, 2026 blog posting that makes mention of some of the horrendous actions of the second Trump presidency, and I think my suggested humanistic/political actions complement Ferguson’s thoughts. Consequently I recommend that to remain relevant to current and future generations, humanistic psychology adopt and promote a concrete meaningful definition and context for “humanistic political psychology.” And I will end on an optimistic note that we have the potential to overcome the competitive authoritarianism dangers to democracy in the United States: “Based upon my own experiences, it is my belief that through these various kinds of resistance activities that the dangers of both psychological collapse and competitive authoritarianism to democracy in the United States can be significantly reduced” (Benjamin, 2026, p. 17).
Notes
1) See Benjamin (2025) and the references therein for some previous work in regard to extending humanistic psychology into the world of politics. And see my facebook page: Humanistic Psychology and Progressive Politics in the Trump Era at https://www.facebook.com/groups/176341345387538 for a concrete indication of my efforts in this regard.
2) Cuff Ferguson has reinforced my hypotheses that this paragraph description was an AI formulation that was based upon his article that I referred to.
References
Benjamin, E. (2022a). The future of humanistic psychology goes hand-in-hand with the future of democracy. AHPb: Association for Humanistic Psychology in Britain, 50(1-2), 8–12.
Benjamin, E. (2022b). The future of humanistic psychology and the preservation of the human species. Society for Humanistic Psychology Newsletter, August, 2022, 10–12.
Benjamin, E. (2025). Creative maladjustment, progressive politics, and humanistic psychology. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 65(3), 689-720.
Benjamin, E. (2026). Competitive authoritarianism, strategic non-cooperation, resisting Trump, and maintaining academic freedom in U.S. colleges and universities: A personal experiential account.
Ferguson, C. (2024, June 22). A humanistic approach to politics: AHP’s call for an ”authentic” politics of truth and accountability.
Ferguson, C. (2026). What is happening in the world today and why: Humanity’s evolving consciousness and the role of archetypal energies as guides during an unfolding weeding out and alignment process. Journal of Conscious Evolution, 22, 1–12.
