This book presents a transpersonal theory of human development. Using a broad range of both Western and Eastern sources, Washburn answers the challenge of Carl Jung. He shows how modern humans can integrate themselves and attain self-realization rather than self-destruction.
Anyone seeking a deeper understanding of human spirituality will find something of value in Michael Washburn's new book. Drawing on a rich variety of psychoanalytic, Jungian, and existential-phenomenological sources and on both Western and Asian spiritual texts, Embodied Spirituality in a Sacred World provides a theoretical foundation for the idea that human development follows a spiral path. Washburn shows that ego development early in life requires us to turn our backs on original sources of our existence and, therefore, that spiritual development later in life requires us to spiral back to these sources on the way to whole-psyche integration. He elucidates the underlying causes and pivotal events that set development on its spiral course and traces six major dimensions of experience as they unfold along the spiral path: the unconscious, the energy system, the ego system, the perceived other, the experiential body, and the life-world. In providing a theoretical foundation for the idea of the spiral path, Washburn defends the idea against its critics and helps explain why the idea has been compelling to so many people in diverse traditions.
In this book, Michael Washburn provides a psychoanalytic foundation for transpersonal psychology. Using psychoanalytic theory, Washburn explains how ego development both prepares for and creates obstacles to ego transcendence. Spiritual development, he proposes, can be properly understood only in terms of the ego development that precedes it. For example, many difficulties encountered in spiritual development can be traced to repressive underpinnings of ego development, and significant gender differences in spiritual development can be traced to corresponding gender differences that emerge during ego development. Washburn draws on a wide range of psychoanalytic perspectives in discussing ego development and uses both Eastern and Western sources in discussing spiritual development. In rethinking transpersonal psychology in psychoanalytic terms, he explains how essential elements of Jungian thought can be grounded in psychoanalytic theory.
We're used to thinking about the self as an independent entity, something that we either have or are. In The Ego Tunnel, philosopher Thomas Metzinger claims otherwise: No such thing as a self exists. The conscious self is the content of a model created by our brain - an internal image, but one we cannot experience as an image. Everything we experience is ''a virtual self in a virtual reality.'' But if the self is not ''real,'' why and how did it evolve? How does the brain construct it? Do we still have souls, free will, personal autonomy, or moral accountability? In a time when the science of cognition is becoming as controversial as evolution, The Ego Tunnel provides a stunningly original take on the mystery of the mind.
One of Sigmund Freud's most insightful works on the topic of the subconscious, this ground-breaking volume explores the complicated interactions of three elements of the psyche: id, ego, and superego.
The Integration of Psyche and Spirit presents an interactive model of a new genre of psychology: Integral Psychology. In this genre, all schools and systems of psychology are unified within a single, all-inclusive framework. Psychoanalysis, Behaviorism, Cognitive Psychology, Existentialism, and Transpersonal Psychology all find their rightful place as members in a new "democracy of mind". Building on the pioneering work of Freud, Jung, Kohut, Maslow, and Wilber-as aligned to the spiritual revelation of the Ruchira Avatar, Adi Da Samraj-Burton Daniels has developed a comprehensive theory of psychic structure, personality development, and clinical practice. It is the intent of this work to usher in a new era within professional psychology, where all schools and systems can benefit from a common language and theoretical framework. This breakthrough is made possible by a conception of the psyche that includes every aspect of structure and development within a single, comprehensive theory: The "Apex" Paradox. "The author integrates the Avatar Adi Da's teaching on psychology and spirituality into this analysis, providing a compelling argument for the inclusion of spirituality into psychological theory and a strong argument for the truth of the Avatar Adi Da's teaching." - iUniverse