Justice as a Basic Human Need

Book excerpt: Psychologists in different tributaries of the discipline have long been preoccupied with aspects of 'Justice', but none previously has addressed the essential question raised in this book - namely of justice being as vital to the essentials of life and to the flowering of the human spirit as other basic needs. The same can be said for academics and practitioners in other disciplines in social science, as well as those in mental health and psychiatry. Although lawyers might come close to accepting the proposition, it seems to me that in the main their professional expertise is directed to the superficial maintenance of systems of justice rather than to the underlying reasons for doing so. This book, arising from academic, clinical, empirical, and theoretical studies, goes the further mile by giving justice its proper place in the hierarchy of basic human needs. It is designed in accord with a general systems theory in which contributions are welcomed from international scholars and researchers in different domains of knowledge. Above all, it is written in the hope of inducing others to share a commitment to justice and do their utmost to prevent injustice.