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A NEW PSYCHOLOGY AND A NEW IMAGE OF MAN

In my opinion, the 21st century needs a new approach to psychology. This must unite what is true and clear from both the material and spiritual worlds and lead us into a real humanism that helps us to understand ourselves.8

My therapeutic work has helped me to develop a new and, I believe, realistic image of man. It is not based on religious or spiritual wishful thinking (‘God will save us’, ‘We are all immortal spiritual beings full of love.’), apocalyptic pessimism (‘We are sinful and bad and will sooner or later be punished for it with the end of the world’), social Darwinist negativism (‘Man is a wolf to man’, ‘Everyone is just out to maximise his own advantage.’), or scientific determinism (‘Everything is genetically predetermined’, ‘There is no free will’). When I speak of this new image of man, what I mean is: Depending on how our identity develops and how severely we have been traumatised, we humans can be loving and constructive beings or become unfeeling monsters. And because of our inner