Introduction to the Tom Greening Tributes

In early May of this year, Louis Hoffman reached out to let me know that Tom Greening had passed away. Among Tom’s countless contributions to the field, he was the Editor of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology (JHP) from 1971 to 2005, for over three decades. There are stories of Tom, in the days before everything was computerized, carrying piles of paper manuscripts wherever he went. His dedication and love for humanistic scholarship has made the journal what it is today.

I had the honor of meeting Tom Greening 10 years ago, at the 2013 Society for Humanistic Psychology conference at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara. I remember being struck by the profound uniqueness of someone who so regularly speaks and expresses himself through poetry and how this encounter with Tom underscored my love for our humanistic community.

JHP was founded in 1961 by Abraham Maslow and Anthony Sutich, who edited the journal until 1968. Sutich was followed by Miles Vich, who edited the journal from 1968 to 1971. After Tom, Kirk Schneider edited the journal from 2005 to 2012, and Shawn Rubin served as the Editor from 2012 to 2019.

Although I only met Tom in person once, I feel as if I have been in his presence for over 3 years now, since starting to edit the JHP in 2020. His legacy is felt in every manuscript, in every page that is published. It is a humbling experience to follow in his footsteps. His vision for JHP and humanistic psychology more broadly was bold and vast, rigorously scientific while honoring creativity and scholarly freedom, and always attentive to the human soul and to love. Tom offers the following description of JHP on his own website:

Topics of special interest are authenticity, identity, personal growth, self-actualization, self-transcendence, I-Thou encounters, existential and humanistic psychotherapy, community-building, humanistic politics, synergy, creativity, holistic learning and healing, values and love. The journal is a forum for diverse statements about humanistic psychology, including criticisms.

Thanks to Tom, the breadth, diversity, and uniqueness of the journal holds true today.

When I sat down to write this introduction, I felt a sense of impossibility—the impossibility of doing justice to Tom’s contributions to the field and the impossibility of describing this legacy with anything akin to the creative flair and gumption with which he approached written expression. Perhaps it is better to let Tom speak for himself, through one of his poems (sent to the Society for Humanistic Psychology email listserv on May 2, 2018).

IN SEARCH OF BOREDOM

Instead of writing poems I’d like to sleep.

I want to be more shallow and not deep.

Each poem I write entails the dreaded threat

that I have not resigned from life just yet.

I won’t read books—I’ve banned them from my life.

I read one once, about a faithless wife.

A book contains the possibility

of waking up some dormant lust in me.

I’ve got to find a simpler boring way

to waste my waning elder days away.

Tom had no choice but to write poetry; it was his way of speaking and engaging with the world.

What follows are a series of tributes to Tom’s legacy. They are written by humanistic psychologists who knew Tom well and who speak to the depth of his impact, both individually and collectively. So without further ado, it is an honor to introduce these deeply meaningful and profound reflections on Tom’s life and work.