Expanding the Category "Human"

Book excerpt: The climate within the discipline of psychology has changed considerably since the middle of the twentieth century. More specifically, what it means to be a human has changed. In Expanding the Category “Human”: Nonhumanism, Posthumanism, and Humanistic Psychology, Patrick M. Whitehead argues that the metaphysical problems that psychologists faced sixty years ago are not the same ones they face today. Humanistic psychologists could once choose to protect the integrity of human beings as well as to engage in open inquiry and accept all human beings, but Whitehead contends that a choice between the two must now be made. This book is recommended for scholars and practitioners of psychology and philosophy.