Transpersonal Psychology

“Transpersonal Psychology is concerned with the study of humanity’s highest potential…”
~Lahoje and Shapiro, 1992

Origins of Transpersonal Psychology

Psychology more than anything is a science of the soul!

The transpersonal path of psychology sprung out of the humanitarian approach, known as the third force mostly accredited to the work of Abraham Maslow. Maslow attempted to explain our motivation toward wellbeing in his upward pyramid, suggesting that as we meet our basic needs, we tend to search for purpose, deeper meaning and self-actualization. Beyond personality traits, thoughts and emotions, Maslow speculated that there is a state which transcends the duality of the ego – a transpersonal level of the universe larger than personal identity “providing meaning and significance to the individual and contributing to optimal health and wellbeing”( Moss, p. 193). As the American psychologist William James presents transpersonal psychology; “only five to seven percent of us are able to use the full range of our human potential” (Broad, 2011, p. 2). If this is the case, then two things are needed to unlock our potential: to strive toward our potential and to working to realize it (Bord, 2011). If this is so, then for us to access the kinds of powers and resources mentioned by James would require two things: that a greater number of us begin to attempt to access these, and that each of us might attempt to realize a much greater percentage of our own potential (Braud, 2011). Today, transpersonal psychology as the fourth force in the field of psychology, invites the nourishing of our highest potential, a deeper sense of awareness and responsibility, as well as a transformation, individually and in the world at large.

Through what methods do transpersonal psychologists work?

Transpersonal psychologists could apply many therapeutic methods derived from transpersonal experiences and practices. These can be any practices related to the unconscious such as dream work, myths, folklore, images and archetypes, as well as methods related to meditation, prayer, personal transformation, and many more. Creative practices carried out through music, theatre, singing, painting, dance, sculpture and any other types of art are also among the recommended methods of work aiding in personal development, bypassing some of the limitations of ego and language (Hastings, 1999).

History and Personalities who have contributed to the discipline:

William James

American psychologist William James (1842-1910) was the first person to use the English term “transpersonal” in a Harvard course syllabus in 1905 (Taylor, 1996a).

Richard M. Bucke

Canadian psychiatrist Richard M. Bucke (1837-1902) a friend and biographer of Walt Whitman, believed that cosmic consciousness provided direct experiential confirmation of Whitman’s conception of “My Soul” (the Oversoul or universal spirit of the American Transcendentalists) and that the origin of all religion lies in this universal experience. Bucke was therefore, an early advocate (as were the Theosophists) of the doctrine of the perennial philosophy (Huxley, 1947), that is, the belief that all religions share a common experiential and doctrinal deep structure that recognizes the essential divinity of the human soul.

Carl G. Jung

The spiritual and psychic experiences of Swiss analytical psychologist Carl G. Jung (1875-1961) as well as his dramatic encounter with mythologies profoundly influenced his psychological development and ways of thinking. As a result, he began to view the spiritual impulse as the manifestation and projection of robust archetypes (universal patterns of experience) that exist in the transpersonal (uberpersonlich) collective unconscious of humanity. Jung believed that the psyche has a natural tendency directed toward growth (a transcendent function) that creatively seeks to resolve oppositions or polarities and unify our unconscious and conscious aspects. The process of individuation could therefore be facilitated by encouraging the transcendent function through working creatively and imaginatively with dream images, symbols, and myths that represent the process of psychospiritual transformation (Daniels, 2013).

Roberto Assagioli

Roberto Assagioli (1888-1974). As with Jung, Assagioli had a lifelong interest in spirituality, mysticism and the occult. A student of raja yoga and also of the esoteric theosophist teacher Alice Bailey (Firman & Gila, 2002), Assagioli developed a theoretical and practical system of therapy and psychological development called psychosynthesis (Assagioli, 1993), which explicitly incorporates the spiritual dimensions of the human experience and attempts to integrate the discoveries of psychoanalysis with those of the spiritual traditions.

Abraham Maslow

In the late 1960s, Abraham Maslow, together with his colleagues Stan Grof, Anthony Sutich, Miles Vich, and others, proposed the term transpersonal psychology for the Fourth Force in Psychology. To help realize such a force, the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology was launched in 1969, and, in 1972, the parent Association for Transpersonal Psychology (ATP) was established, holding its first conferences the following year.