Transpersonal Psychology: What It Is And What It Is For

Transpersonal psychology is characterized as the contribution of scientific environments to the study and understanding of inner experience of transcendent order. According to the definition of Charles Tart (1994), transpersonal psychology works by realization of the Self by the awakening of the spiritual nature of each individual and their most genuinely human qualities.

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

Below we list different characteristics of transpersonal psychology :

• The transpersonal psychology approach considers that inner experiences of a 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 the gestalt, existential, humanist movement, with eastern mystical traditions based on meditation such as yoga, Zen, Sufism and shamanism 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, which began to take hold in the field of psychology around the sixties, from the work of Abraham Maslow 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, Viktor Frankl.

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

• The ultimate objective of transpersonal psychology is, in fact, to investigate and experience 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 put into dialogue with spirituality in its various expressions and becomes a bridge to traditional spiritual paths, even recognize the spiritual dimension as central to knowledge, 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 beyond the field 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 life and the universe, basic and common to sensitive beings, such as the feelings that express the 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 broader design. Therefore, the role of transpersonal psychology is, therefore, not only integrate instinctive, cognitive and emotional components different, but also spiritual emergencies, the most subtle perception that actually largely conditions our lives.

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

This article is merely informative, at PsychologyFor 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.

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