Transpersonal psychology (English) is a branch of psychology, which specializes in the study of the mind that transcends the self, the psychology that transcends the personal field, and the spiritual aspect of human nature. Transpersonal psychology discusses the relationship between psychology and Buddhism, Christianity, economics, philosophy, sociology and biology. It spans many fields and studies human psychology and spirituality. Is it considered to be in addition to psychoanalysis, behaviorism and humanism? The fourth force? .
1, Introduction
Anthony sutich (1907? 1976) wrote an article in the journal of humanistic psychology 1968, which he edited, declaring: The fourth force in psychology, that is, transpersonal psychology, is taking shape. ? When humanistic psychology appeared, behaviorism was considered as the first force of psychology, psychoanalysis as the second force and humanism as the third force. With the recognition of humanistic psychology by mainstream psychology, by the mid-1960s, some leading figures in humanistic psychology, including Abraham Maslow (1908? 1970) and sutic and others often discuss the problem of transcending humanism. They are increasingly dissatisfied that humanistic psychology only pays attention to the individual's self and its realization, and realize that the self should be related to the world and meaning outside the individual, which belongs to the spiritual life beyond the realm of self or self-care. So they began to brew a kind of psychology that pays attention to this field, claiming that this kind of psychology is the fourth force psychology, or transpersonal psychology, and its representatives all think that they should learn from the eastern culture. Chinese-American psychologist Li advocates translating it into? Psychopsychology? Since the 1970s, psychologists in Taiwan Province Province of China have also advocated? Psychopsychology? Not a name? Transpersonal psychology? , so? Transpersonal psychology? Also known as? Psychopsychology? .
2. Definition
If defined from methodology and academic origin, transpersonal psychology can be understood as a school that tries to integrate the wisdom of the world spiritual tradition into the knowledge system of modern psychology. World spiritual tradition and modern psychology are two kinds of knowledge systems about people themselves. The former refers to the traditional religion and philosophy of the cultures of all nationalities in the world, which contains people's understanding, practice and spiritual life, but it does not exist in modern scientific methods and systematic expressions. The latter includes scientific research on human body and psychology, but this research has largely cut off the connection with the world spiritual tradition. Transcendental psychology holds equal respect for the world spiritual tradition and modern psychology, trying to combine them and creatively synthesize them, thus providing a psychology that includes body, mind and spirit. Mind? Spiritual) structure to fully understand ourselves.
In short, transpersonal psychology is about the individual and its transcendence, and it is a school that tries to integrate the wisdom of the world spiritual tradition into the knowledge system of modern psychology.
Transpersonal psychology (or transpersonal psychotherapy) is considered as the fourth force of psychology. Rise in the late 1960s. At present, it is still developing and perfecting, and has not yet formed a complete system. His theory is based on humanism, and is greatly influenced by the following subjects and things: Buddhist theory (meditation), China's traditional philosophy, Taoism, Qigong and so on. Brahma, yoga and other philosophical thoughts and meditation in ancient India; Sufi tantra; Witchcraft, etc. The purpose is only for human beings to develop their potential, know the truth, know themselves, surpass themselves, return to their original heart, be ready to help others, gain transcendental experience, and even point out the direction for people's hearts.
3. Research content
Change the state of consciousness
The theoretical core of transpersonal psychology research is consciousness theory, but it is different from the traditional western consciousness theory, but it is a hierarchical consciousness theory including consciousness and subconscious, with high and low levels. Generally speaking, human consciousness can be divided into normal consciousness state and transformed consciousness state. The former is a low-level and differentiated state of consciousness, while the latter is an advanced and self-surpassing state of consciousness. Tarter defines it as? Individuals obviously feel that the mode of their psychological function has undergone qualitative change, that is, they feel not only quantitative change, but also the quality of psychological activities is different? . Kripner specifically divided 20 different states of consciousness, of which the first 65,438+09 is the state of consciousness transformation, and the last one is the consciousness of normal awakening.
(1) dreaming state. It is characterized by rapid eye movement and fast waves on EEG.
(2) Sleep state. There is no rapid eye movement period, and the brain waves are slow and high amplitude.
(3) fall asleep. It is characterized by a vivid appearance when there is a sleep cycle.
(4) hazy state. The state that occurs at the end of a sleep cycle.
(5) excessive vigilance. It is characterized by high concentration and vigilance, usually when life is threatened or as a response to certain drugs.
(6) sleepy state. It shows that the speed of psychological activities is obviously slow down, such as being in a state of intense depression, or a state caused by hypoglycemia and fatigue.
(7) Ecstasy. Behavior has strong initiative or shows ecstasy, sometimes caused by carnival ceremony.
(8) hysteria. Show strong negative and destructive emotions, such as subjective violence, fear or anger.
(9) Split state. The main components of personality can't be integrated, such as abnormal psychology and multiple personalities.
(10) Degeneracy. A state of consciousness that is obviously inconsistent with the actual age, such as the behavior of the hypnotized person when the hypnotist gives the instruction of age regression in some hypnotic States.
(1 1) Meditation state. It is a transformed and expanded perceptual form with a strong sense of self-transcendence. The improvement of perceptual ability and strong emotional experience are usually caused by special meditation training.
(12) fuzzy state. Showing a high degree of suggestibility, alertness and attention to stimuli, such as in some hypnotic States.
(13) daydreaming state.
(14) daydreaming state. Immersed in some kind of illusion
(15) internal scanning. Reflect on the inner psychological activities.
(16) Stiffness caused by alcohol and drugs. The performance is that the ability to accept new stimuli is greatly reduced.
(17) coma. It means you can't accept new stimuli.
(18) Memory status of storage. It shows that past experiences are vividly reproduced or recalled.
(19) Extended state of consciousness. This is caused by drugs such as hallucinogens, and it is usually a way of perception that is not controlled by the subject.
(20) Normal waking state.
At present, transpersonal psychology is seriously studying these transformed consciousness States, and a considerable number of achievements have appeared.
Consciousness spectrum theory
Kenneth Earl Wilber is the main representative of contemporary transpersonal psychology. He put forward the model of human psychological development in 1977 and 1986? Consciousness spectrum? (consistency spectrum) theory. This theory divides human consciousness into four levels, namely, mental level, existence level, self level and shadow level, and each level represents a different understanding of individual ontology.
The spiritual layer is a state of consciousness in which the deepest consciousness of human beings and the ultimate reality of the universe recognize each other at the same time. It is the only true state of consciousness, so it is also called the cosmic consciousness layer and the highest ontological layer of human beings. Here, the boundary between self and non-self is broken, that is, the realm of harmony between man and nature in eastern philosophy is reached.
Existentialism shows that people agree with the psychosomatic body with time and space, that is, I am separated from the non-ego, and the body is separated from the environment. At this time, people's rational thinking began to play a role, and self-awareness and will began to develop. At the same time, other factors also have an impact on people, making everyone's sense of existence and experience appear individual differences.
Self-level shows that people only agree with their own self-image. Man's organism is divided into two parts, one is the body as a slave to himself, and the other is the self separated from the body. People's ontological consciousness is gradually shrinking at this level.
The shadow layer is the narrowest level of consciousness. At this time, people only agree with some parts of self-awareness (or its personality mask), while other tendencies of self are excluded from the painful and inappropriate shadow.
Of these four levels, only the mental level is the only real one, and the other levels are illusory consciousness levels. Welber believes that western psychology advocates the dichotomy of subject and object, thus artificially separating body and mind, ego and non-ego, mind and universe. Transcendental psychology tries to overcome this dichotomy of subject and object, transforming the illusory division of mind into the unity of ontological consciousness, and connecting people's childhood, adulthood and spiritual development into a continuum.
measure
Meditation, also known as meditation, is one of the oldest treatments for human beings. As early as 4000 years ago, there was this image of sitting in a meditation posture in Indian sculpture. In the past 30 years, transpersonal psychology has made great progress in promoting the research and training of meditation. According to the survey, by the early 1990s, more than 6 million people in the United States had tried meditation therapy or training. At present, meditation has become a popular method to study the change of consciousness. As long as people go through strict meditation training, they can go deep into the inner world for spiritual dialogue. This psychological training technique, which originated in the ancient East, has been combined with scientific evidence in the modern West and has become a special skill for psychologists to broaden their horizons and explore the mysteries of the soul.
religion
Transpersonal psychology pays great attention to religious phenomena and mysterious experiences, but it does not blindly believe from the viewpoint of religious superstitions, but tries to explore transcendental wisdom and psychological functions through the study of religious experiences. Wilbur identified three stages when he studied the stages of transpersonal psychological development. The first is the stage of producing subtle inner experience. When people calm their noisy hearts in meditation, prayer or yoga training, they will realize a softer and more subtle intention, emotion and feeling. The second is the causality stage, in which all the experienced objects are decomposed, leaving only pure consciousness. The third is the pure stage, in which the object of experience reappears in consciousness, but this is the consciousness of pure change and a thorough understanding of the soul. Therefore, the so-called mysterious religious experience is to train the mind to go through different stages of psychological development and produce a state of self-transcendence.
When studying religious phenomena, Walsh pointed out that there are so many disputes between religious sects and doctrines in history because the founders of different sects have produced different states of consciousness. If special training methods can be used to make people have the same inner experience, they can communicate with each other in an abnormal state of transcendence, so as to fully understand the profound connotation of the original religious information. Walsh believes that to make people have this experience, they need to pass, which includes three processes. The first is to absorb wisdom or become a wise person. This wisdom is different from knowledge. Wisdom is something that can transform us, while knowledge is something we have, and it may not be able to transform our things on our own initiative. The second is to learn and master the language and conceptual system of a culture with which one wishes to communicate. The third is translation, that is, translating personal understanding into languages and concepts suitable for the culture, and finally producing a kind of? Aha? (Aha, just an epiphany) Experience.
4. Research characteristics
Study very healthy people
Transpersonal psychological adoption? Superman? This word is used to study those who are beyond normal health and those who are in different states of consciousness. It thinks that we may underestimate the potential of human psychological growth and health. For example, in the state of peak experience, meditation and consciousness transformation, people will have some profound inner experiences. These experiences are very important for people's physical and mental health. It is found that using special training methods to make people have these experiences can not only effectively eliminate diseases, but also prolong life. Many studies have shown that there are indeed many untapped potentials in the human brain.
The method of scientific demonstration
Transpersonal psychology does not oppose the scientific empirical method of mainstream psychology. At present, some evidences have been found in the fields of psychology, physiology, physics and chemistry. For example, through conscious training to control the autonomic nervous system and somatic processes, improve heart rate, blood pressure, gastrointestinal activity and hormone secretion; Using meditation training can reduce anxiety, reduce drug use and increase perceptual sensitivity. In biochemical research, it is found that meditation training can also cause changes in adrenaline and adrenocortical hormones, thus changing people's stress response. In a word, transpersonal psychology tries to verify the authenticity and scientificity of these psychological phenomena by various scientific methods, and explore its scientific mechanism to improve people's physical and mental health.
Integration of psychological theories
Transpersonal psychology holds that human psychology is quite complex, and there is no reason for anyone to assume that all the complexities of human psychology can be completely covered by a simple psychological theory. Therefore, different psychological theoretical systems should be integrated with each other to achieve a comprehensive understanding of human nature. Walsh believes that this integration should include three aspects: first, scientific argumentation and rational thinking, that is, experimental research on various subjective and objective psychological phenomena by using sensory observation, data analysis and measurement; Second, introspection, phenomenological analysis and dynamic psychology research, that is, using descriptive analysis, psychotherapy, reflective research and other methods to explore those psychological phenomena that can not be empirically studied for the time being; Third, the integration of eastern and western psychological research, that is, through the study of psychological phenomena in eastern Buddhism, yoga, Taoism and Veda, combined with the training methods of western science, the study of transpersonal psychological phenomena. Although there are still objections to the integration of these three aspects, it basically reflects the current trend of transpersonal psychology research. As Walsh said. Schools of psychology or the field of knowledge that pays attention to one of these three ways often denies the importance and effectiveness of the other ways, but these three ways may be necessary for psychology that seeks to include all human experience, natural potential and development. ?
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