The Third Force in Psychology

LAST week, thinking about our meeting here, I was reminded of a kind of peak-experience of the previous winter. Then, I had a fresh look at the familiar scene of professional psychology. As may happen when one catches a new perspective on his usual environment, I recognized with a quickening of feeling that something was importantly different in that scene. I remember years ago climbing a mountain, endlessly following the trail through forest, through rocky channels. Each point was interesting and had its own beauty, but all sense of where on the path I was in relation to the peak gradually faded as the altitude pulled at my lungs and the demands of each new stretch of hiking pulled at my muscles and mind. Then suddenly- startlingly- I emerged above the timber line on a narrow shoulder and saw ahead of me the summit, and all around the vista spread out for miles. The sense of discovery restored perspective, was as breathtaking as were the altitude and the view. It