Term Paper on "Humanistic Transpersonal"

Term Paper 4 pages (1357 words) Sources: 7 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychologies

Existential-Humanistic Psychology Compared with Transpersonal Psychologies

There are fundamental differences between Existential-Humanistic Psychologies and Transpersonal Psychologies. First of all, the Existential-Humanistic Psychologies do not agree on basic questions having to do with human personality and change as a result from their widely different origins. Significantly different programs of application and therapy are used by these psychologies. And they do not agree on the final goal for the human psyche. But they do agree on their basic approaches.

The Transpersonal Psychologies find their similarities in their approach to the body-mind relationships and transformation. Essentially they believe that the mind controls the body and if you can put your mind at peace, the body will respond. Based on the work of Carl Jung, who first coined the term "transpersonal" (uberpersonlich) in the phrase "transpersonal unconscious" which he used as a synonym for his well-known "collective unconscious," it refers to the human condition as essentially healthy and full of potential, not as ill and diseased (Schneider,2004).

The mind is everything to the Transpersonal psychologies. The body is just the "crust" covering the transpersonal essence, that is, the mind and soul and spirit that navigates the body through the world. The psychotic and unstable are seen as not having developed and achieved object constancy or ego identity, as the normal mind has. Yet the "normal" mind still has not reached its full potential and it is believed that there are several steps upward from the normal into disidentification from one's personality or personal identity, with recognition of object impermanence or transiency. This stage is typified by the states of consciousness obtained by advanced meditators. A further step in development may be obtained when the person realizes the Supreme Identity (i.e., enlightenment or connection with God), and the relative state of normal reality, as seen in saints and mystics. (Cortright, 1997)

Similar to the mystics' Transcendental Meditation," the Transpersonal psychologies study the different states of consciousness, recognizing certain states in attaining them, such as dreaming, hypnotic trance, "waking" consciousness and all their sub-levels. Transpersonal psychologies believe that there is a mystical experience that becomes permanent, and through development of one's states or stations of consciousness, one can come to live in superconscious state continually. (Daniels, 2005)

An offspring of Freud and his successors, Jung, Rank, and Reich. Roberto Assagioli, who believed in a superconscious, as well as a subconscious, the therapeutic stream integrated transpersonal and depth psychology, based on the beliefs of Carl Jung. The transpersonal psychologists like to say that they may be most simply defined as spiritual psychologists, recognizing that humanity has both drives toward sex and aggression and drives toward wholeness, toward connecting with and experiencing the divine. They believe one cannot separate the spiritual and the psychological, as the mainstream psychologies have up to this time. Originally, the texts of ancient India, China and Greece did not distinguish between the psyche or spirit and practices associated with religion. But in the 18th and 19th centuries formalized psychology sometimes denied the existence of spiritual experiences altogether. In the 1960's, Zen, Yoga, Vpassana, Transpersonal Meditation began to be practiced and studied in the West. Practitioners found that these meditational practices reaped various beneficial effects, including reduced anxiety, increased creativity, cardiac health and decreased dysfunctional behaviors. Biofeedback therapies utilized Eastern techniques of psychosomatic control. Often prescribed by mainstream physicians as "complementary therapies" are meditation, stress-management and mindfulness practices. Twenty million people now practice Yoga and meditation within the U.S., and millions more do, worldwide. (Transpersonal, 2006)

The Indian philosophies of "being-here" is used by both Existential and Transpersonal psychologies, and psychoanalytic "evenly-suspended tension" borrows from Eastern meditation. "First-person empiricism" and "different ways of knowing" are phrases applied to and borrowed from shamanist and native religions, and incorporated into the scientific studies of renowned psychologists. There is a growing interest in the techniques of narrative, visualization that occur within traditional Eastern religions, and incorporated into therapies, while spiritual concerns with basic character, faith and resilience are spoken of. Gandhian, Buddhist and Christian nonviolent activism and unity of perspective are… READ MORE

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