Mission and History
Mission
If psychology, which constitutes one of the largest areas of study in the modern university, is to reach its full potential as a means of not only informing our understanding of the human condition but also aiding in the development of the ethical and spiritual dimensions of character, then psychological education and training must be broadened to include more humanistic approaches to identity and personhood. Over the past century, the empirical and naturalistic side of psychology has risen in prominence and yielded major advances. Unfortunately, it has often done so by undervaluing and thus neglecting the humanistic and ethical dimensions of human life. With the generous support of Boston College, the Center for Psychological Humanities & Ethics hopes to stand at the forefront of this reimagining the discipline of psychology, opening its borders to other fields of knowing.
Located in the Woods College of Advancing Studies, the Center acts as a home for interdisciplinary engagement that seeks to enrich theory and practice related to human experience. It seeks to cultivate and nourish a significant international network of scholars and practitioners that assists in marshaling global resources and academic and clinical training opportunities. From its internal, institutional bridge-building across various disciplines to its outwardly-facing conferences and scholarship, the Center brings an ethically-infused foundation to academic inquiry, clinical sensibilities, curriculum development, and scholarly output.
History
The story of the Psychology & the Other Conference provides a useful context as a precursor to and foundation for the Center. With a small group of invested undergraduate students and several dedicated faculty, the first Psychology & the Other Conference took place in 2011. Driven by a shared passion to challenge some of the insularity of our concepts and creatively invite the possibility of more ethically dynamic means of understanding persons and health, this group found in the idea of the Other an important vehicle for bringing into meaningful dialogue disciplines and fields of inquiry within psychology that share something of a common purpose.
It was precisely with this dialogue in mind that in October 2011, the first Psychology & the Other Conference was convened in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Attended by some 300 clinicians, academic psychologists, philosophers, theologians, historians, poets, anthropologists, and cultural theorists, this conference served to bring together (under a single intellectual roof) perspectives that had heretofore been largely isolated from one another. In a very real sense, it therefore served to inaugurate, within psychology, a multi-disciplinary space for exploring this comparatively new set of ideas. One of the distinctive features of the conference is the intentional pairing of plenary speakers with persons from wholly other disciplines to create a type of catalytic engagement that upsets the insularity and jargon-laden fixtures that often come to determine the currency of exchange at discipline-specific conferences. The conference proved successful, due to both the outstanding scholars involved and the spirit of shared enterprise.
A little over a decade later, this interdisciplinary venture has expanded significantly in scope and activity. Hosting various lectures and public events, organizing publications and running its own book series, providing trainings, workshops, and continuing education offerings, the Psychology & the Other network has broadened to include over 20,000 academics, clinicians, and practitioners on its listserv – a vibrant and growing community. With the backing of Boston College’s administration, the Conference was officially transformed into the Psychological Humanities & Ethics initiative in June of 2021, with an eye to developing a Center in the years to come. And, just over a year later, that promise was realized with the announcement that the Center for Psychological Humanities & Ethics would officially launch at the 7th convening of the Psychology & the Other Conference in October 2023.