Human Potential Movement

The cultural and psychological movement centered at Esalen Institute and rooted in humanistic psychology — advocating for expanded human potential through encounter groups, body therapies, transpersonal psychology, and altered states.

Third Force psychology: the Human Potential Movement built on Maslow's 'third force' (beyond behaviorism and psychoanalysis) — humanistic and transpersonal psychology focused on growth rather than pathology. The Esalen ecology: encounter groups (Carl Rogers), Gestalt therapy (Fritz Perls), body therapies, psychedelic research, meditation, and Eastern religion all intersected at Esalen. Cultural products: the encounter group, the weekend workshop, personal growth as a secular practice. Contradictions: the movement was both genuinely countercultural and easily co-opted by self-help commercialism.