BC Receives $4.3 Million Grant To Integrate Humanities Into Psychotherapy Training

September 27, 2026 - 19:28

Boston College has secured a $4.3 million grant from the Kern Family Foundation to support a three-year initiative called "Awakening Psychology's Moral Imagination." The project will be run by the Center for the Psychological Humanities and Ethics, which plans to weave works of literature into the education of psychotherapists.

The funding will pay for psychology conferences, humanities publications, and public workshops designed to help clinicians engage with fiction, poetry, and essays as part of their professional development. Organizers argue that reading great books can sharpen a therapist's sense of empathy, judgment, and moral reasoning in ways that standard clinical manuals often fail to capture.

The effort reflects a growing push to reconnect psychology with the humanities, a bond that has weakened as the field has leaned more heavily on data driven methods and quick diagnostic tools. By placing serious literary study alongside clinical training, the center hopes to produce therapists who listen more carefully and understand the messy human stories behind every diagnosis. The program will also publish research on how literary engagement shapes therapeutic practice. Supporters say the grant offers a rare chance to test whether deep reading can make mental health care more humane. The project begins this fall and will run through 2027.