In contrast with the two dominant systems, liberal capitalism and state socialism, liberal humanism is internally orientated. Emphasis on external achievement in human development is replaced by the ability (a) to experience the world in non-stereotyped, intense ways and (b) to be in contact with, recognize and deal non-defensively with deep feelings and drives. The former ability allows the world to be perceived without rubricizing it as occurs under liberal capitalism and state socialism. The latter ability may be looked on as the denied or largely underestimated ability to develop a holistic understanding of reality, without which the unity of the human being is destroyed, being dissociated into body and mind, present and future, reason and emotion. Humanism look on the ability to grasp meaningful wholes without analysing component parts as not only acceptable at the pre-scientific level but also needing to be integrated with analytical capabilities to allow the attainment of an extended awareness. Human development occurs in stages based on previous stages and emerging from them, self actualization only being expressed and satisfied after more basic needs are first satisfied.
Like liberal capitalism, liberal humanism emphasizes the individual as its central feature. The individual/internal approach partly explains why no viable human development model for a real complex society has come out of the system - humanists are interested in the micro-psychological level and do not relate it to the macro-social, they do not question the liberal social system as a whole.
However, some humanists really care about developing a comprehensive humanist social alternative, gradually disseminating from small groups and communities based on humanist ethics, although it is hard to see how this could succeed in bringing about social change without a simultaneous transformation of the power structures which penetrate everyday life-styles. A workable humanist alternative might emerge if liberal humanism were to be integrated with actual social forces like the green movement (socialist humanism).
One of four current models of human development, that described as individual internal.
