The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Transpersonal Psychology

Harris L. Friedman, Glenn Hartelius, Harris L. Friedman, Glenn Hartelius

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781119050292, 9781119967552
• eBook ISBN: 9781118591314
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

THE WILEY-BLACKWELL HANDBOOK OF Transpersonal Psychology

"The new Handbook of Transpersonal Psychology is a necessity today. Many transpersonal psychologists and psychotherapists have been waiting for such a comprehensive work. Congratulations to Harris Friedman and Glenn Hartelius. May this book contribute to an increasingly adventurous, creative, and vibrant universe."
—Ingo B. Jahrsetz, President, The European Transpersonal Association

"The Handbook of Transpersonal Psychology is an outstanding, comprehensive overview of the field. It is a valuable resource for professional transpersonal practitioners, and an excellent introduction for those who are new to this wide-ranging discipline."
—Frances Vaughan, PhD. Psychologist, author of Shadows of the Sacred: Seeing Through Spiritual Illusions

"Finally, the vast literature on transpersonal psychology has been collected in what is clearly the essential handbook for psychologists and others who have either too apologetically endorsed or too critically rejected what undoubtedly will define psychology in the future. If you are not a transpersonal psychologist now, you will be after exploring this handbook. No longer can one dismiss the range of topics confronted by transpersonal psychologists nor demand methodological restraints that refuse to confront the realities transpersonal psychologists explore. This is a marvelous handbook—critical, expansive, and like much of what transpersonal psychologists study, sublime."
—Ralph W. Hood Jr., University of Tennessee, Chattanooga

With contributions from more than fifty scholars, this is the most inclusive resource yet published on transpersonal psychology, which advocates a rounded approach to human well-being, integrating ancient beliefs and modern knowledge. Proponents view the field as encompassing Jungian principles, psychotherapeutic techniques such as Holotropic Breathwork, and the meditative practices found in Hinduism and Buddhism.

Alongside the core commentary on transpersonal theories—including holotropic states; science, with chapters on neurobiology and psychometrics; and relevance to feminism or concepts of social justice—the volume includes sections describing transpersonal experiences, accounts of differing approaches to healing, wellness, and personal development, and material addressing the emerging field of transpersonal studies. Chapters on shamanism and psychedelic therapies evoke the multifarious interests of the transpersonal psychology community. The result is a richly flavored distillation of the underlying principles and active ingredients in the field.

Part I

Introduction to Transpersonal Psychology

1

A Brand from the Burning

Defining Transpersonal Psychology

Glenn Hartelius, Geffen Rothe and Paul J. Roy

Transpersonal psychology stands to benefit from simple definitions that can serve efforts to create a practical, durable, worldwide awareness of the field. Although it is perhaps the most developed academic discipline still aligned with the cultural forces that inspired the personal growth industry, the alternative health field, the popular spirituality movement, and the vision of ecological sustainability, transpersonal psychology has little name recognition within these circles. Further refinement of the field's identity might support a process of rebranding the field, so that it can serve as a more effective and recognized participant in the vast cultural momentum it has helped to precipitate.

There are few disciplines in which the very nature and definition of the field of study are in question. Biology is the study of living organisms, while literature is the scholarly examination of written works deemed worthy of deeper consideration. In most cases, the name of the field provides an easily understood synopsis of its content area: economics, law, engineering, astrophysics. Even within psychology, subdisciplines are readily identifiable by their names: counseling psychology, military psychology, experimental psychology. Transpersonal psychology has not had the luxury of a readily understood name or area of study, and has struggled to define itself in clear and articulate ways.

This situation has come about because the transpersonal project, of which transpersonal psychology is a part, is no simple undertaking, and no modest effort merely to add to psychology by including human spirituality. Rather, it is an ambitious effort to redefine ourselves as humans and the world as we know it. It is a project that sets out to understand the cosmos in ways that are not constrained by either the sometimes-heavy hand of religious tradition or the objectifying eye of science. Instead, the transpersonal approach seeks a new vision, one in which both human science and human spirituality can be honored. For this reason, any satisfying definition of the field of transpersonal psychology needs to do more than describe its topic area: it must also convey the shifted vision within which this subject matter is considered.

The literature of transpersonal psychology contains scores of efforts to define the field, including, during the past 20 years, several systematic efforts to review published definitions with the goal of arriving at a more comprehensive synopsis (Hartelius, Caplan, & Rardin, 2007; Lajoie & Shapiro, 1992; Shapiro, Lee, & Gross, 2002). Yet even the most recent and detailed of these failures to produce a definition that approaches the succinct clarity with which most other fields of psychology are named. In this chapter, we argue that the results of earlier studies need to be further distilled into a concise, easily understood descriptor of transpersonal psychology, and we offer three characterizing terms—psychology of self-expansiveness, whole-person psychology, and psychology of transformative process—as well as a short-phrase definition that combines facets of these into what may be a somewhat comprehensive overview of the stance of field.

In addition to the characterizations of the field we have listed, evidence will be presented for several positive trends within transpersonal psychology that support its viability as a global discipline. Based on analyses of the primary journals within the field, it appears that there are long-term trends toward greater use of empirical studies and quantitative research methods, increased inclusion of academic voices from beyond North America, and expanded representation of women scholars.

Defining the Field

The first formal definition of transpersonal psychology was published by Sutich in 1968, and served as the basis for the Statement of Purpose that appeared in various iterations in the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology from 1969 until 1983 (Lajoie, Shapiro, & Roberts, 1991). This definition focused mainly on higher human needs, values, states, and potentials. Lajoie and Shapiro (1992) presented 40 definitions of transpersonal psychology published between 1968 and 1991. Based on thematic analysis, the authors suggested that transpersonal psychology studied “humanity's highest potential,” and “unitive, spiritual, and transcendent states of consciousness” (p. 91). Shapiro et al. (2002) offered an additional 80 definitions published between 1991 and 2002, and concluded that the most frequent themes pertained to ego transcendence and spirituality, in line with the Lajoie and Shapiro definition of a decade earlier. Based on this work, transpersonal psychology appeared to be concerned primarily with a human potential to go beyond the ego and achieve higher states of consciousness.

A careful reanalysis of 160 definitions of transpersonal psychology published from 1968 to 2003, including most of those cited above, found that this focus on self-transcendence through elevated states of mind was only one of three themes present in descriptions of the field (Hartelius et al., 2007). Rather than counting themes within the definitions, which risks that the themes recognized by the researchers will be biased toward those already formulated, this reappraisal divided the corpus of definitions into meaning units, and then allowed themes to emerge in patterns of relationship discovered through repeated engagement with those units. These findings pointed to a wider understanding of the field than had been offered by previous analyses of definitions, a view that was found to be in significant harmony with a 1980 effort by Boucouvalas to compile a comprehensive outline of the field from leading scholars.

According to Hartelius et al. (2007), the definitions studied could be classified into three themes: transpersonal psychology as a beyond-ego psychology, as an integrative/holistic psychology, and as a psychology of transformation. As a beyond-ego psychology, it focuses on experiences that are transpersonal in content. It includes exceptional human experiences stemming from intentional practices such as shamanism and meditation, as well as occurrences that arise from various forms of mysticism, psi phenomena, near-death, and out-of-body experiences, which do not necessarily require intentional practices. These can lead to various experiences, such as transcendent, peak, and unitive, and also to a variety of stages or qualities that can be seen as beyond-ego, such as compassion and altruism. These latter are related to developmental levels of optimal human potential, including higher consciousness, advanced ego maturity, and elevated values, meaning, and purpose reflecting such a potential. At the inception of transpersonal psychology, this beyond-ego aspect was a dominant focus of the field, as reflected in the fact that a thematic analysis of the articles in the first five volumes of the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology (JTP; 1969-1973; n = 40) showed that 100% contained elements related to this theme. Some decades later (1999-2003; n = 46), 93% of articles in the JTP still reflected this aspect of the field.

As an integrative/holistic pursuit, transpersonal psychology examines the phenomena of psyche as elements that belong not merely to the ego, but to larger contexts as well: the living body in its entirety, the therapeutic relationship, the social and ecological situation, or the greater-than-human matrix of existence (Hartelius et al., 2007). It also refers to transpersonal as a psychology that embraces wider contexts through holistic, multicultural, integrative, or integral approaches. This theme appeared in only 25% of articles in JTP during its early years (1969-1973), but was included in fully 78% of articles published 1999-2003. The significantly increased frequency of this aspect within papers published by JTP suggests that this way of defining and using transpersonal psychology has become significantly more common as the field has matured.

As an approach to transformation, transpersonal psychology studies psychospiritual development beyond conventional sexual and cognitive maturity, self-actualization, and other forms of transformative growth (Hartelius et al., 2007). Here the transpersonal is not merely the content of a beyond-ego psychology, nor just the widened context of a whole-person psychology, but also the force or catalyst that drives human development toward its greater potentials. In addition, from this vantage transpersonal psychology considers how its findings might apply to ethical thinking and behavior, compassionate social action, service to humanity, or the transformation of such areas as psychotherapy, education, business, and so on. This facet developed much as the prior theme, growing from a presence in only 28% of JTP articles between 1969 and 1973 to representation in 74% of articles during the years 1999-2003.

These three themes were found to represent 91% of the total meaning units identified in the corpus of 160 definitions (n = 1395), and 100% of the meaning units with content related to the topic area of transpersonal psychology (n = 1270; Hartelius et al., 2007). Based on this analysis, Hartelius et al. offered the following definition of the field:

Transpersonal psychology: An approach to psychology that 1) studies phenomena beyond the ego as context for 2) an integrative/holistic psychology; this provides a framework for 3) understanding and cultivating human transformation. (p. 145)

As perhaps the most succinct and comprehensive empirically based definition of the field to that date, this effort demonstrated that the field is in fact a coherent enterprise, and offered substantive response to critics who suggested that the field was dead due in part to its inability to define itself (e.g., Wilber, 2000).

Although this definition and the analysis that informed it seem to have achieved a step forward in the refinement of the identity of transpersonal psychology, the result is still slightly unwieldy and obscure in comparison with more lucid descriptions that can be articulated in other subdisciplines of psychology (such as educational psychology or psychology of religion). Of course, these also have their own significant inconsistencies and discord, but to most observers the general thrust of such subdisciplines is less confusing than that of transpersonal psychology. To refer to the field in terms of three separate aspects, each requiring its own explanation, does not provide a readily grasped sense of transpersonal psychology. An efficient descriptor should ideally capture a more central component of vision, so that the three definitional themes can be understood as facets of this element, expressed in simple, clear language.

Rebranding Transpersonal Psychology

Branding is the process of creating a name that identifies and differentiates a product in the mind of the public, and brand equity (here referred to as brand) is the reputation that the product develops (Clifton et al., 2009). Building a brand involves not only creating awareness of a particular product, but also presenting it in terms that demonstrate its relevance to people's lives and is resonant with their personal values and aspirations (Bedbury & Fenichell, 2002). While branding is more commonly associated with commercial than academic enterprises, it is also coming to be recognized as an aspect of successful scholarly disciplines (Moore, 2010).

As an example, the brand of paleoanthropology—the once rather obscure discipline that studies prehistoric humans—has benefitted significantly from the popular fictional works written by Jean M. Auel (Ruddick, 2009). Although criticized by some as factually inadequate (Fagan, 1987) and described by others as romanticist (Stableford, 1995) or controversial extensions of fact (Ruddick, 2009), Auel has succeeded in transforming the genre of prehistoric fiction by weaving the scientific findings of paleoanthropology into prehistoric tales to which contemporary readers—especially women, the main readers of fiction—could relate. In this way, Auel increased the field's “brand relevance and brand resonance” (Bedbury & Fenichell, 2002, p. 3). Now with more than 45 million copies of her books in print (Collett-White, 2011), Auel has arguably made the discipline of paleoanthropology vastly more visible and comprehensible within many parts of Western culture.

In contrast, transpersonal psychology is an example of a field with a branding challenge. The approach has been criticized for being unscientific (Kurtz, 1991; Shermer, 2002), antiscientific, unrealistic, asocial, authoritarian, absolutist, dogmatic, dangerous (Ellis, 1986, 1989), psychologically unsound (Ellis & Yeager, 1989; May, 1986), and unable to a...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Notes on Contributors
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Editors' Introduction: The Promise (and Some Perils) of Transpersonal Psychology
• Part I: Introduction to Transpersonal Psychology
• Part II: Transpersonal Theory
• Part III: Transpersonal Methodologies
• Part IV: Transpersonal Experiences
• Part V: Transpersonal Approaches to Transformation, Healing and Wellness
• Part VI: Transpersonal Studies
• Appendix
• Index