Humanist contributions to mental health

Raising awareness

From early efforts to humanise the treatment of the mentally ill, to improving discourse and education around mental health, humanists have played a role. In 1834, Harriet Martineau described the state of most asylums as ‘the most deplorable spectacle which society presents’, urging rational, compassionate care, and efforts to address the stigma and fear around mental illness. More than a century later another humanist, developmental biologist and Vice President of the British Humanist Association (now Humanists UK) Lewis Wolpert, published Malignant Sadness: The Anatomy of Depression, doing much to bring conversations around mental health into the public sphere. In 2021, Humanists UK and its patrons Eddie Marsan and Janet Ellis partnered with the NHS (itself spearheaded by a humanist) to promote mental wellbeing and reflect on the mental health impacts of lockdown. Marsan reflected: ‘What lockdown – as a humanist – has made me realise, is the importance of people in our lives, how interconnected we are and how we all need each other’.

Non-religious pastoral support

The development of the Humanist Counselling Service was one step in a long line of humanist mental health support, offered both by individuals and through the organised humanist movement. Another key provision was the Non-Religious Pastoral Support Network (NRPSN), providing ‘chaplaincy’ services for non-religious people in prisons, hospitals, and the armed forces. Another strand of NRPSN provision is Faith to Faithless, offering support to people who have left high control religions – many of whose mental health is significantly affected. Today, the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling offers a master’s degree in Pastoral Care: Existential and Humanist Practice, the first MA of its kind in the UK, developed in close collaboration with Humanists UK and the NRPSN.

Outside of the organised humanist movement, individual humanists have set about providing tailored mental health support in specific areas, such as David Ibry – founder of the Humanist Bereavement Service – and founders of non-religious alternatives to addiction services such as SOS (Secular Organisations for Sobriety).

Pioneers and famous names

Many of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century were non-religious. One of the key figures in the development of cognitive therapy, Albert Ellis, was a lifelong humanist, and the writer or co-author of nearly 80 books, including How to Make Yourself Happy and Remarkably Less Disturbable, and How to Stubbornly Refuse to Make Yourself Miserable About Anything, Yes, Anything! Carl Rogers, a founder of humanistic psychology (which emphasises the individuality of each human being) was atheist, as were other prominent psychologists and psychoanalysts like Abraham Maslow (best known for his hierarchy of needs), B. F. Skinner (a noted exponent of behaviourism), Sigmund Freud (father of psychoanalysis), Jaques Lacan (sometimes called ‘the French Freud), and Melanie Klein and Susan Isaacs (both influential thinkers on child development). Other humanists helped to pioneer specific treatments for mental ill health and disability, such as Clive Robbins and Juliette Alvin – two pioneers in music therapy. Another humanist, Kay McDougall, was a psychiatric social worker, who shaped and led the London School of Economics’ mental health and social work courses.