Re: failure of transpersonal psychology -- Transpersonal Psychology Discussion Forum

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3 ]

Subject: Re: failure of transpersonal psychology

Author:
Alasdair

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 04:01:34 07/18/01 Wed
In reply to: peter macleod 's message, "failure of transpersonal psychology" on 16:10:20 04/26/01 Thu

Transpersonal psychology per se is not supposed to answer these questions, as I see it. It is, after all, a psychology, and not a 'religion'. There are of course attempts to address these ontological and soteriological concerns in most psychologies.

Why are we here? Humanism says, "to fulfill our innate potentials", though it does not address the issue of causation (few do). Analytic psychology maintains that we must individuate, existential psychologists often maintain that there is no purpose or meaning beyond our experience.

Maybe we should integrate these soteriological and ontological and ask "how should we best be here?" given ideas about why we are here and what goals existence has, be it a redemption or a more pedestrian sense of personal development. Again, transpersonal psychology doesn't have a clear answer - given the differences of opinion within the field this is hardly surprising. Obviously the implication is that whatever goals or prescriptions there might be, they will lie beyond the personal ambitions and meaning constructions of 'egoic' thought.

The whole gamut of transpersonal opinion is arrayed for our study, though, and given that we are expected to develop ourselves it is clear that through our study and practice we address these questions over time. The fact that there is no clear consensus only shows how difficult the task is that lies ahead for the individual, and that it may not be possible to answer any of these questions.

Tranp psych has not failed to answer the questions, it seems to have succeeded only too well in uncovering a variety of approaches and answers. These need to be evaluated carefully, and herein lies the ongoing task.

Just some thoughts.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

Subject	Author	Date
Re: failure of transpersonal psychology	victor Visvamurti	23:48:49 09/03/01 Mon