An Integrative Approach to Counseling

Bridging Chinese Thought, Evolutionary Theory, and Stress Management

Robert G. Santee

• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN: 9781412939812, 9781412939805
• eBook ISBN: 9781452278827
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Psychotherapy
• Index: Psychology

An Integrative Approach to Counseling: Bridging Chinese Thought, Evolutionary Theory, and Stress Management offers a global and integrative approach to counseling that incorporates multiple concepts and techniques from both eastern and western perspectives. The book identifies commonalities rather than the differences between them. The book also compares and contrasts the underlying cultural assumptions of western counseling with those of the Chinese perspectives of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, relative to integrating and applying a more global approach to helping individuals functionally adapt to challenges in their environments. The book will be used by faculty and students in those advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in psychology, counseling, or social work that cover such areas as introduction to counseling, counseling skills and techniques, counseling theories, multi-cultural awareness and counseling, and stress management.

PART I

Fundamental Principles and Concepts

The chapters in Part I introduce the three components of the bamboo bridge. The first chapter explores evolutionary theory and psychology. The second chapter examines stress and the stress response. The third chapter investigates stress management.

Chapter 1 views behavior as occurring as the result of the interaction between the human being and the environment as the human attempts to solve an adaptive problem presented by the environment. In this light, behavior is seen as functional insofar as it is attempting to solve a problem occurring in an environmental context. The environment is observed to be an ongoing, continually changing, interdependent, integrated process.

Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism are all analyzed from the perspective of providing solutions for specific problems occurring in such an environment. This is the first commonality between Western counseling and psychotherapy and the teachings of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism.

Chapter 2 focuses on stress and the stress response. The issue of stress is viewed from the perspectives of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism. The stress response is examined as an adaptive tool developed during the evolutionary process that is fundamental for the survival and the reproduction of human beings.

Normal stress (allostasis) and chronic stress (allostatic load) are explored. Chronic stress is postulated as being the fundamental problem, albeit in different terms, addressed by Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism. It is argued that the problem of chronic stress is what is addressed by counseling or therapy. This is the second commonality between Western counseling and psychotherapy and the teachings of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism.

Chapter 3 looks at stress management and the solutions offered to address chronic stress relative to solving adaptive problems in the environment. This is the third commonality between Western counseling and psychotherapy and the teachings of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism. Particular focus is given in this chapter to the integrated approaches of Herbert Benson (relaxation response) and Jon Kabat-Zinn (mindfulness).

Given the three commonalities, a bamboo bridge is established, allowing for the teachings of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism to inform and enhance Western counseling and psychotherapy.

1

Evolutionary Theory and Evolutionary Psychology

Confucius said, “By their nature people are close
Through their practice they are distant.”¹

—Lun Yu, XVII-2

The perspective of evolutionary theory and evolutionary psychology provides a common ground for integrating Chinese thought into Western counseling and psychotherapy. Evolutionary theory was Darwin’s (1979/1859) attempt to explain the process of change relative to living entities adapting to their environment, surviving and reproducing. Evolutionary psychology is the application of the fundamental principles of evolutionary theory (such as adaptation to the environment, natural selection, variation, continual change, survival, reproduction, and so on) to how human beings think, feel, behave and interact. Evolutionary psychology focuses on the relationship between human beings and their environment relative to addressing and solving adaptive problems for the purpose of survival, reproduction, and maintaining and perpetuating their gene pool (known as “inclusive fitness”) (Buss, 2004; Hergenhahn, 1997). This focus eliminates artificially contrived boundaries both within the discipline of psychology and outside of the discipline, allowing for exploration, comparison, and integration from traditions long considered not relevant, such as Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism. (See Table 1.1.)

Table 1.1 Evolutionary Theory and Chinese Thought

Evolutionary Theory	Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism
Human organisms have essentially the same physical and psychological mechanisms at birth.	At birth, people are essentially the same.
Differences in behavior arise as people interact with their environments, attempting to address problems in adapting to their various environmental contexts.	Differences in behavior arise as people engage with and react to the environment, attempting to address fundamental human problems.
The environment, which the human organism is part of, is a continually changing process.	Continual change is the fundamental nature of existence.
Human organisms are involved in an ongoing challenge of adapting to their environment for the purposes of survival, reproduction, and the maintenance of their gene pool.	People are involved in an ongoing process of developing and maintaining a harmonious relationship with the environment.

Regarding the field of psychology, Buss (2004) feels that it is fragmented because of artificial boundaries. These artificial boundaries create barriers to the progress of understanding human behavior. Arguing for a common ground as the best way to explore human behavior, he notes:

From the perspective of evolutionary psychology, many traditional boundaries are not merely arbitrary but are misleading and detrimental to scientific progress. They imply boundaries that cleave mechanisms in arbitrary and unnatural ways. Studying human psychology via adaptive problems and their solutions provides a more natural means of “cleaving nature at its joints” and hence crossing current disciplinary boundaries. (Buss, 2004, p. 411)

Not only are disciplines in psychology divided from each other, there is division within the disciplines. McAdams and Pals (2006) argue that the field of personality psychology is fragmented and in need of a common ground for the purpose of developing a comprehensive, integrative framework for understanding personality. They argue:

We contend that an integrative science of persons should be built around a first principle that enjoys the imprimatur of biological sciences. Personality theory begins with human nature, and from the standpoint of the biological sciences, human nature is best couched in terms of human evolution. To the extent that the individual person is like all others, the deep similarity is likely to be a product of human evolution…. Over the course of human evolution, human beings have been designed by natural selection to engage in behaviors that ultimately make for the replication of the genes that determine their design. (McAdams & Pals, 2006, p. 206)

Confucius and Evolutionary Theory

The quote at the start of this chapter—from the Lun Yu (Discussions and Sayings), or as is it is more commonly known, the Analects of Confucius (551–479 BCE)—is clearly consistent with the Daoist focus regarding beginning points and endpoints, commonalities and differences, and simplicity and complexity. For Confucius, people at birth—their beginning points—are quite similar regarding their natural endowment. There is a definite, simple commonality here. Once individuals engage and react to their environment, they develop behaviors, some of which they continue to practice. The continual practice of these select behaviors leads to endpoints, differences, and complexity.

For Confucius, nature and practice (engaging and reacting to the environment) are not separate from each other. They are both part of the same contextual process. Hall and Ames (1987), discussing the quote presented at the beginning of the chapter, argue that, for Confucius, people’s nature must be understood in its relationship to the environment.

The Chinese character xing^a, which is translated in the quote as “nature,” consists of two radicals (a radical is the basic building block of Chinese characters; there are 214 radicals) or components. On the left-hand side is the radical xin^b, which is a drawing of a heart and means “heart/mind.” For the early Chinese, thinking and feeling were intimately intertwined. On the right-hand side of the character is the radical sheng^c, which is a picture of a plant or grass growing out of the earth and has the meaning, depending on the context, of birth, growth, or life. The combination refers to the potential growth of the heart/mind or one’s nature. For Confucius, this potential for the growth of thinking and feeling or one’s nature is quite similar in all people. Growth must occur, however, in an environmental context. It is in the engagement with and the reaction to the environmental context that people begin to differ.

The Chinese character xi^d, which is translated in the quote as “practice,” consists of two components. The top component of this character is the character yu^e, which is a picture of wings. The bottom part of the character is a modified version of the radical zi^f, which is a picture of a nose and has the meaning of self, origins, beginnings, and a starting point, as, for the Chinese, the nose sticks out and is a strong indicator of the beginning of the person.² The combination is suggestive of a baby bird beginning to flap its wings, and through the continual flapping or repetitive movement of its wings it eventually develops the behavior of flying.³ Thus the meaning of repeating, practicing, and an eventual extension into custom or habit. This behavior of practicing and repeating that leads into custom or habit must be seen, of course, as occurring as a result of the interaction between one’s nature and an environmental context.

The resulting behavior is explained in a 2nd-century BCE commentary to this quote. The Chinese intellectual tradition has been sustained, in part, through the tradition of commentaries on the classical texts. The Zheng Yi (Orthodox/Correct Meaning) commentary to this quotes states:

This chapter says that the fully integrated person [jun zi^g] must be cautious regarding what they practice. Nature [xing^a] is that which a person is endowed with at birth and it is still. Having not interacted with the environment all people are similar. This is near. Having interacted with the environment, their practice [habit, custom] is taken as their nature. If people practice [xi^d] what is appropriate they become a fully integrated person [jun zi^g]. If people practice what is not appropriate they become a fragmented person [xiao ren^h] becoming far apart from each other.

It is clear from this commentary that there are two levels of separation or difference. These two levels of separation or difference must not, however, be seen as categorically distinct. They are very much integrated and are a result of the interaction of one’s nature with the environment. One level is concerned with practice (habit or custom) in an environmental context, and the other level has to do with successful or unsuccessful adaptation to the environmental context.

The first level is when custom or habit tends to dominates over nature. Once people begin to interact with their environment, they focus on their habits or customs (practices) as their guiding principles. At this point their behaviors may or may not be different, due to their practices arising within their various environmental contexts.

The second level of difference refers to the integration or fragmentation of the person from his or her environmental context. People may differ as a result of their behavior (customs and habits), but as long as their behaviors are appropriate and thus allow them to successfully adapt to their environment, they will be considered fully integrated persons (jun zi^g). If the individual engages in inappropriate behavior, he or she will not be successful in the adaptation process and will clearly be separate from the environment. The commentary refers to this type of person as a “fragmented person” (xiao ren^h).

The Lun Yu and the Components of Evolutionary Theory

Nature and Behavior

It is interesting to point out that this quote and commentary are quite comparable to one of the components of evolutionary theory that indicates that people have a similar physical and psychological nature and that they behave differently or may behave differently as a result of the interaction between their nature and their different environmental contexts over the course of time. In fact, the quote is so close to evolutionary theory and scientific research that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) selected it along with only one other quote, from Darwin’s Descent of Man (2004/1871), out of all the literature available to them, as part of its 1950 statement on race.⁴ The UNESCO (1950) statement is clearly based in science, evolutionary theory in particular, and notes that the scientific evidence supports the approximately 2,500-year-old quote of Confucius that has been discussed in this chapter regarding the similarity (nature) and differences (practice) between the people of the world.

The Ongoing Process of Change

A second component of evolutionary theory is that everything in the environment or, maybe more appropriately, the environment itself, is a continual process of change. This includes the human beings that roam throughout the environment. Confucius was quite aware of this ongoing process of change.

The Master [Confucius], standing above a river, said, “Its passing away is like this. Not stopping day or night.” (Lun Yu, IX-17)

The nature of existence as an ongoing process of continual change is fundamental to classical Chinese thought. Confucius is not different regarding this point. This is one of the major areas, however, where mainstream Western thought and Chinese thought are clearly different. Mainstream Western thought finds change problematic and looks for an underlying, unchanging, eternal reality or truth behind the appearance. For the Chinese, reality is the process of change itself. As the preceding quote from Confucius did n...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Series Editor’s Foreword Paul Pederson
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• PART I: FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES AND CONCEPTS
• PART II: CULTURALLY DIVERSE APPROACHES TO MANAGING STRESS
• PART III: INTEGRATION AND APPLICATION OF CULTURALLY DIVERSE APPROACHES TO MANAGING STRESS
• Index
• About the Author