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Mentorship is a vibrant relationship that needs more exploration in psychology.

Early founders of humanistic psychology saw its importance.

They sought to differentiate growth-based mentoring from skill-training.

Research shows that both mentors and mentees gain from this mutual bond.

Have you ever been a mentor or been mentored by someone on your career path? If so, you're fortunate, as mentorship is a uniquely important human relationship spanning millennia and cultures. Even a casual perusal of art, music, literature, and science shows how mentorship has nurtured creativity and inspiration. Although many people go through life without ever experiencing this special bond, mounting evidence shows major psychological benefits for both participants.

Mentees gain greater self-esteem, career focus, well-being, and leadership capability. They may also find their sense of calling validated and strengthened. Evidence exists concerning financial and promotional benefits for recipients of mentoring in diverse fields. As for mentors, they experience gains in generativity and in many capacities and professional development. Yet, undoubtedly reflecting the individualistic bias of American psychology, mentorship has been largely ignored by researchers until relatively recently.

To be sure, the cofounders of humanistic psychology had a keen interest in this dyad. As Maslow's biographer, I discovered that his private journals and letters were filled with fond remembrances of mentors such as Alfred........

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