Reviews
What a find! A gem of a book about a rough diamond of genius/ provocateur/creative philosopher and, ultimately, a true conquistador of humanistic challenges. The deeply engaging writings of Dr. Mike Arons leap off the page and wrestle playfully with your more obedient thoughts, resulting in a chaotic symphony of profound realizations about the very essence of life. Tracking the inner linings of humanistic ideas with his bright lantern, shedding light where none have ever trodden before, Mike reveals an entire universe of new concepts, hardly stopping to take a breath before venturing off to the next idea, always brilliant, insightful, and ultimately satisfying the soul of the reader. Hop into the depths of this magic realm. You’ll never be the same.
David Ryback, PhD, co-author (with Carl Rogers) of
One Alternative to Nuclear Planetary Suicide
This finely edited book is a treasure for anyone interested in humanistic psychology. Mike Arons was a towering figure as the founder of the humanistic psychology program at West Georgia and as a compelling and erudite presenter at conferences around the world. This book brings together some of his most significant writings, covering topics ranging from his extraordinary life journey to the value of creativity. Each chapter demonstrates the depth of his philosophical understanding as well as his passion for developing a psychology that provided a holistic view of persons and society. The editors have done an exceptional job of introducing Mike Arons as a person and a scholar, providing the context for his work, and constructing a comprehensive index.
Steen Halling, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Seattle University; author of Intimacy, Transcendence, and Psychology
Reading the various chapters in The New-Old: Recollections, Reflections, and Reconnoiterings of Mike Arons is like taking a stroll with Mike as he tells the story of his own developmental journey, while at the same time continually inviting you to do the same. Though most of these papers I am reading for the first time, the tone is familiar. Mike was a teacher—my teacher—and these papers reflect the power of his pedagogy. For those who knew Mike or who had the opportunity to study with him, he became the doors to the recognition he alludes to in the first sentence of this collection. As we walk with Mike through this story, our own start to resonate as well.
David Polizzi, PhD, MA, LCAC, Professor, School of Criminology and Security Studies,
Indiana State University; editor of the Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Criminology
From the founding of West Georgia’s renowned psychology program to courses on hermeneutics and creativity, students and colleagues of Mike Arons know intimately his pedagogical genius. The collected essays in this volume equally testify to Mike’s brilliance as a philosophical and psychological thinker. This book is a necessary and fitting tribute to a pioneer of humanistic psychology in America.
Peter J. Columbus, PhD, co-editor of Alan Watts in the Academy and Alan Watts: Here and Now
This work goes well beyond an important tribute to a path breaker in existential, humanistic, and transpersonal psychologies; at this time of unprecedented challenge, these chapters put consciousness, creativity, and culture at center stage. Mike’s writings harness a whirlwind of energy and perspective—historical, personal, philosophical, psychological, and more—into a generous, incisive, and humane argument, one that stimulates and invites, like the conversations with Mike always seemed to do. There is vital creative force in this, an evolutionary current that he tapped, lived, and transmitted. This wonderfully curated collection is fresh, important, and touching.
Tobin Hart, PhD, Professor, Department of Psychology, University of West Georgia
This book is a festschrift for one of the great unsung forebears of humanistic psychology; it is also a history of the field itself. Page after page teems with gems by and about Mike Arons, but the book also brims with insights into the humanistic movement as a whole and Mike’s critical part in nourishing it. As a former student and close colleague of Mike’s, I was deeply moved by the many memories the book evoked—from Mike’s trailblazing ideas about teaching to his reflections on creativity to his rich metaphors for the flow and complexity of life. Mike was persistently grappling and perpetually venturing wherever his soul and spirit beckoned, and for this we are grateful. For, as Andrew Bland suggests in the closing chapter, Mike anticipated—and in many ways helped to shape—the present configuration of our field, and that gift, that hope, is our future.
Kirk Schneider, PhD, author of The Spirituality of Awe, The Polarized Mind, and Existential–Humanistic Therapy; co-editor of the Wiley World Handbook of Existential Therapy
Mike Arons was alive, present, open and fearless, abundantly creative, while deeply connected to those he encountered, their complexities, and ongoing positive potential. And—alas!—to the challenges of our often beleaguered world. A student of Maslow, he was founder of two humanistic programs, including at the U of West Georgia. His students adored him. Complex, subtle, scholarly, master of paradox, and integrator of diverse traditions and systems, he also stood as beacon of truth and champion of inquiry through the immediacy of lived personal experience and the wisdom of dialogue. Not to mention the boons of fun, humor, caring, the gifts of human creativity, and even a cartoon or two. This book has it all. It shows Mike’s humanity and range, his prescient intuition and insight, his unique intention to draw others into a dynamic process of growth toward our higher possibilities and profound interconnection.
Ruth Richards, MD, PhD, author of Everyday Creativity and the Healthy Mind (Silver Nautilus Award); editor of Everyday Creativity and New Views of Human Nature
Mike Arons was a Western Zen Master who told stories that helped repair this world of duality and complexity by pointing to a shared center where the soul of things exists. He held the world open for those more sensitive souls to enter and belong. Mike was an educator in the truest sense of the word—and helped bring out those subtle and latent potentials in those he touched within his extended global community. To truly connect with another, you must have a keen sense of where they reside in their understanding—and it is from this exact place of intimacy that he was so impeccable in walking with others into the reality of the Unknown, thereby making the process of education a true initiation and expression of a sublime and rare Art.
Howard S. Whitehouse, PhD
Mike Arons was a force of nature, a man who was truly larger than life. He traversed continents, created academic programs, and taught untold numbers of students. Some people are happy that he touched their lives; others are grateful that he changed their lives. When the history of humanistic psychology is written, every thread will have passed through the eye of Mike Arons’ needle.
Stanley Krippner, PhD, co-author of Personal Mythology
Mike Arons artfully wove together existential, phenomenological, hermeneutic, humanistic, and transpersonal approaches to psychology to disclose a powerfully transformative vision of the potentialities of full human living. It is a vision of the person being intuitively and creatively in tune with the upsurging of improvisational possibilities—opportunities that we can engage when we are free to be available to whatever comes to us. Not only was he able to articulate this vision so well, he also lived it with inspiring authenticity. In so doing, he incited literally thousands of students, as well as many colleagues, friends, and other fellow travelers to become our truest selves, for which we are forever grateful.
Chris Aanstoos, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology, University of West Georgia
I came to West Georgia in 1983 to study psychology with Mike Arons. I was his student, friend, and unindicted co-conspirator for the next twenty-five years. He shared himself, his life, and his ways of being with me, always with unwavering encouragement to find my own way. Just before he died, when he saw the tears in my eyes, he squeezed my hand, smiled, and said, “Life doesn’t owe me anything.” When I met Sandrine, she was a child, perhaps naïve to the uniqueness of her family. Andrew honed his bright and curious intellect and heart in our program. Together, they have conveyed authentically and beautifully this reflection of his life and enduring contribution to human understanding, for which we owe much.
Larry Schor, PhD, Professor, Department of Psychology, University of West Georgia
I first met Mike Arons in 1971 at the second international conference on Humanistic Psychology, which was held at the University of Wurzburg, Wurzburg, Germany. That fortuitous meeting led to a deep personal and professional relationship that lasted until his death in 2018. This current volume by Bland and Arons, in an uncanny way, creates an almost virtual reality of who Mike Arons was as a person, psychologist, educator, and cultural influencer. It clearly is a major contribution to our understanding of the development and trajectory of humanistic psychology post Maslow. It also gives us a unique glimpse into the life of Mike Arons, who, once he discovered his path in life, never veered but went forth with the full force of nature behind him.
Donadrian L. Rice, PhD, Professor and Chair Emeritus, Department of Psychology, University of West Georgia
A wonderful and moving tribute to one of the great visionaries in the history of humanistic psychology. Mike Arons continued to be a guiding light and a formidable force throughout his career, right up into his last years where he contributed substantively to international conferences in the human sciences, while continuing to involve himself in the leadership and governance of humanistic organizations. Beginning with his daughter Sandrine’s loving remembrances of her father, and his devoted student Andrew’s heartfelt and fascinating account of Mike’s biography both personal and intellectual, this volume introduces the reader to an engaging collection of the work of this unfaltering figure in the history of American psychology who was one of the true luminaries of our time. His writings continue to inspire, and with the help of this collection, future generations of truth seekers can be edified by his poignant reflections. Friend, colleague, teacher, and Renaissance man, Mike Arons was a true philosopher in the deepest sense of that word—one whose own “love of wisdom” became incarnated as a lifelong practice of “wise loving.”
Scott D. Churchill, PhD, editor, The Humanistic Psychologist
