TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOLOGY: what it is and what it is for

Can psychology deal with spirituality? Without a doubt, as long as the two things are not confused: they are different subjects that, however, can be intertwined to help us feel good and reconnect with our most authentic nature. And this is precisely the goal of transpersonal psychology, to bring the individual to the realization of the Self, and then help him to awaken his spiritual nature.

In this Psychology-Online article we will address this issue, precisely to understand what is transpersonal psychology and what is it for this discipline, also called the fourth force of psychology (after Freudian psychoanalysis, behaviorism and humanistic psychology). In addition, we will also see where transpersonal psychology is born and how it helps people.

Index

1. What is transpersonal psychology
2. Where transpersonal psychology is born
3. What is transpersonal psychology for?
4. How Transpersonal Psychology Helps

Transpersonal psychology is characterized as the contribution of scientific environments to the study and understanding of the inner experience of a transcendent order. According to the definition of charles tart (1994), transpersonal psychology works for the self-realization, for the awakening of the spiritual nature of each individual and of the most genuinely human qualities of him.

Experience that throughout the centuries has received, from the various traditions, numerous denominations: mystical ecstasy, experience cosmic, cosmic consciousness, ocean experience, peak experience, nirvana, satori, samadhi, kingdom of heaven, dream body, nagual etc.

Next, we list different characteristics of transpersonal psychology:

• The transpersonal psychology approach considers that the inner experiences of mystical and ecstatic order, as well as the longing for transcendence of the self, constitute a significant aspect of human experience and, therefore, worthy of study by psychology.
• In its search, transpersonal therapy integrates the experience of western psychology, especially from gestalt movement, existential, humanist, with the Eastern mystical traditions based on meditation such as yoga, Zen, Sufism and shamans based on ecstasy and direct contact with the forces of nature.
• Transpersonal therapy is strongly influenced by the most recent acquisitions of modern physics and biophysics; and also, it is in close relationship with other sciences such as sophrology, sociology, anthropology and parapsychology.

The term transpersonal applied to psychology seems to have been first used by Roberto Assagioli, the creator of psychosynthesis, and then by Gustav Jung, who indicates those areas of psychic reality that extend beyond identification with the individual personality.

Transpersonal psychology, therefore, indicates the psychological approach that deals with the study and culture of spirituality and spiritual experiences in a psychological context. This approach that began to assert itself in the field of psychology around the sixties, from the Abraham Maslow's work, which defends:

• Consideration of the development of potentialities.
• Study of the gradual satisfaction of needs.
• Establishment of the relationship between "person and person" in the therapeutic relationship.
• Foundation of the mystical experience as foundational moments of a journey of self-realization.

Now, the first association of transpersonal psychology was founded in the United States in 1969 by personalities such as Charlotte Buhler, Abraham Maslow, Allan Watts, Arthur Koestler, Victor Frankl.

Transpersonal psychology aims expand the field of traditional research of psychology, of psychiatry and psychotherapy, go beyond the ordinary dimension, the self and the space-time limits of the Newtonian Cartesian scientific paradigm. The reasons that support the usefulness and transcendence of transpersonal therapy are listed below:

• The ultimate goal of transpersonal psychology is, in effect, to investigate and experiencing non-ordinary states of consciousness, transbiographical, transpersonal to access mystical and spiritual dimensions.
• Indeed, for the first time in the history of psychology, transpersonal psychology is in dialogue with spirituality in its various expressions and becomes a bridge to traditional spiritual paths, until recognize the spiritual dimension as central to the understanding, resolution and healing of the psyche.
• Transpersonal psychology is thus the orientation of psychology that deals with those behaviors and experiences that are perceived as being beyond the realm of personal concerns and social roles of the individual.
• The attention of transpersonal psychology is directed to something that goes beyond the self, to the perception of the life and the universe, basic and common to sentient beings, such as the feelings that express deep interconnection of everything that exists, and ideas that transcend selfish considerations.

The techniques that the transpersonal psychotherapist puts into practice have the objective of leading man into a transformer tour that allows you to access deeper dimensions of yourself. That is, transpersonal psychology traces a path self oriented, to that deepest part of ourselves from which the deepest inspirations and demands of our soul emerge.

It is possible to explore the meaning of our life and understand why, here and now, we face what is happening, managing to insert it into a larger design. Therefore, the role of transpersonal psychology is thus not only integrate instinctive, cognitive and emotional components different, but also spiritual emergencies, the subtlest perception that actually conditions our lives extensively.

If you liked this article, we recommend you consult our post Psychology and spirituality: relationship, difference and benefits Y What is the soul in psychology, to expand your knowledge on the subject.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Transpersonal psychology: what it is and what it is for, we recommend that you enter our category of Clinical psychology.

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