I. Introduction to Transpersonal Theory

CHAPTER 9 ? Transpersonality Theory

Chapter 9

TRANSPERSONALITY THEORY

Chapter Outline

I.

Introduction to Transpersonal Theory

A. Orienting Principles

1. Contemporary perspectives offer different answers to the question "What

is a person?"

2. Transpersonal psychology focuses on integration of contemporary

perspectives into a more comprehensive picture of the nature of human

personality.

3. Goals of transpersonal models of human personality

a. Expand each individual's understanding of the "unknown"

elements of the self and its greater world.

b. Broaden "official" concepts about the self to reveal the

multidimensional nature of the human psyche.

c. Enlarge the vision of modern psychology to include a new, wider

view of the co-participatory nature of personal and physical

reality.

d.

Develop a greater understanding of human potential and abilities.

e. Propose alternate views of human nature in order that the

individual and the species may achieve its greatest fulfillment.

4. There is no one agreed-upon transpersonal model of the personality, but

there is a "family resemblance" among them all.

B . Walsh & Vaughan's Transpersonal Model of the Person

1. Conditioning

a.

Conditioning and de-conditioning: Can we "wake up" in time?

2. Personality

a.

Traditional approaches to human personality.

b. Personality as traditionally defined is something to be

transcended in transpersonal psychology.

c. Transpersonality refers to the "unknown" zone of the self.

d. Transpersonality gives expression to exceptional experiences and

transformative behaviors.

3. Identity

a. The concept of self is a problematic but useful notion in

mainstream psychology.

b. Identity as a function of self-identifications.

c. Beyond identification.

II. Psychodynamic Models of Transpersonality

A. Frederick William Henry Myers (1843-1901)

1. Myers' positive contributions to transpersonal psychology

a. Addressed those psychological elements of the soul.

b.

Proposed a theory of the subliminal self and subliminal

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CHAPTER 9 ? Transpersonality Theory

consciousness.

2.

Psychology at a crossroads

a.

In an age that gave us both Myers and Freud, psychology

followed Freud.

b.

Evolutionary theory found a friend in Freudianism.

B. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) 1. Freud's positive contributions to transpersonal psychology a. View of mysticism as regressive infantile "oceanic feelings." b. Use of evenly suspended attention as a therapeutic tool. c. Recognition of pleasure principle as underlying cause of suffering. d. Popularization of the personal subconscious in American culture. e. The importance of the psychological ego f. The "lands of the psyche."

C. Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) 1. Disagreements with Freud. 2. Jung's positive contributions to transpersonal psychology. 1. Opening the subject of the spiritual reality of the psyche to scientific inquiry. 2. Described the objective nature of the human psyche. 3. Outspoken critic of the materialistic bias of modern experimental psychology. 4. Posited the existence of a collective or transpersonal unconscious. 5. Openly espoused of the cause of parapsychological research. 6. Made clear the expansive and flexible nature of the human ego 7. Highlighted the supportive nature of subconscious portions of the psyche 8. Explained the importance of the Self in the inner spiritual life of the individual 9. Clarified the role of symbols in psychic processes 10. Elucidated the influence of shadow-like elements of the psyche 11. Described the psychology and pathology of so-called "occult" phenomena 12. Developing methods for investigating the spiritual life of the mind.

D.

Roberto Assagioli (1888-1974)

1. What is Psychosynthesis?

2. Key contributions of Psychosynthesis to transpersonal psychology.

3. The structure of the human personality.

a. Field of consciousness

b. Conscious self or phenomenal "I"

c. Middle unconscious

d. Lower unconscious

e. Higher unconscious or superconscious

f. Collective unconscious

g. Higher (transpersonal) self

4. Contacting the Transpersonal Self

a. Superconscious experiences may take many different forms.

b. Superconscious experiences represent evidence about the nature of human

consciousness.

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CHAPTER 9 ? Transpersonality Theory

III. Trait Theories of Transpersonality

A. Key Ideas in Trait Theories of Transpersonality

1. What are traits?

2.

Psychological tests are designed to measure traits.

3.

Personality traits associated with transpersonal experience and behavior.

a. Example study -- "Personality factors in the frequency of reported

spontaneous praeternatural experiences" (Nelson, 1989).

b. People frightened of themselves.

B. Gordon W. Allport (1897-1967)

1. Traits of the healthy, mature personality

a. Extension of the self.

b. Warm relating of self to others

c. Self-acceptance and self-affirmation.

d. Realistic perception.

e. Meaningful work and service.

f. Self-insight.

g. Unifying philosophy of life, especially religious sentiment.

2.

The Proprium

3.

The concept of self is unnecessary.

C. Abhidhamma - An Eastern Trait Model of the Healthy Mature Personality

1.

Orienting principles

a.

The principle of "No self" and the cause of suffering.

b.

The Noble Four Truths and Eightfold Path.

2.

The Healthy Personality

a.

Healthy and unhealthy personality traits.

3.

Unhealthy personality traits

a.

Delusion and false view.

b.

Shamelessness, remorselessness,

egoism, perplexity.

c.

Agitation, worry, greed, avarice, envy,

aversion, contraction, stupor.

4.

Healthy personality traits

a.

Insight and Mindfulness

b. Modesty, discretion, rectitude, confidence.

c.

Nonattachment, non-aversion, impartiality, composure.

d. Buoyancy, pliancy, efficiency, proficiency.

5.

The mentally healthy and mature personality

a.

The Arahat: The ideal model of the healthy personality.

D. Personality - East and West 1. Healthy beyond belief? 2. There are many paths to healthy mature personality functioning. 3. Does exceptional well-being require an ego?

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CHAPTER 9 ? Transpersonality Theory

IV. Humanistic-Phenomenological Transpersonality Theories

A. Key ideas of humanistic-phenomenological personality theories.

B. Carl Rogers (1902-1987)

1.

The fully-functioning person.

C. Abraham H. Maslow (1908-1970)

1.

Basic healthy organismic and psychological functioning.

2.

Self-actualizing persons.

3.

Beyond self-actualization.

V. Transpersonal Transpersonality Theories

A. Humanistic psychology as transitional to a "higher" transpersonal psychology.

B. Ken Wilber's Spectrum of Consciousness

1.

No boundary consciousness: Original state of unity-identity-whole.

2.

Primary boundary underlying all others: Me/Not-Me primary boundary.

a.

Boundary #1 - Persona/Shadow boundary.

b.

Boundary #2 - Mind/Body boundary.

c.

Boundary #3 - Body/Environment boundary.

d.

"Transpersonal bands."

e.

Unity consciousness.

C. Jane Roberts' (1929 - 1984) Aspect Psychology 1. Focus personality 2. Source Self 3. Aspect Selves 4. Basic Source Aspects 5. Probable Selves and Probable Realities 6. Reincarnational Selves

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CHAPTER 9 ? Transpersonality Theory

Chapter 9 TRANSPERSONALITY THEORY AND ASSESSMENT

Learning Objectives

1. Explain why contemporary perspectives in psychology offer differing answers to the important question, "What is a person?"

2. Describe how a transpersonal approach to human personality differs from the approach taken by most contemporary perspectives in psychology.

3. List and discuss the goals of transpersonal models of human personality. 4. Explain why there is no one agreed-upon model of transpersonality, but how there is a "family

resemblance" among them all. 5. Identify the four important dimensions essential to understanding the transpersonal nature of the

human personality, according to Walsh & Vaughn's (1980) transpersonal model of the person. 6. Explain why a de-conditioning process is regarded as an important part of transpersonality

development. 7. Describe how personality is traditionally defined in most mainstream psychological theories. 8. Name the factors identified by personality theorists that shape the personality's sense of consistency

and uniqueness over time. 9. Identify the three aspects of personality that any comprehensive personality theory must address. 10. Explain why personality as traditionally defined is something to be transcended in transpersonal

psychology. 11. Describe how the Johari Window is relevant to understanding the transpersonal aspects or dimensions

of human personality. 12. Describe the contribution that transpersonal psychology can make to psychology's current

understanding of human personality structure, dynamics, and development. 13. Explain why the concept of self is a problematic but useful notion in mainstream psychology. 14. Explain how personal identity is a function of self-identifications. 15. Explain why dis-identification is regarded as an important part of transpersonality development. 16. Identify and discuss the two key ideas that all psychodynamic theories of personality have in

common. 17. Explain how ideas, emotions, and images are "action-events" from a psychodynamic point of view. 18. Explain why F. W. H. Myers 1903 classic Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death was

such an important book for its time. 19. Describe Myers's conception of the subliminal self and subliminal consciousness. 20. Explain why mainstream psychology chose to ally itself with Sigmund Freud's ego-id-superego

theory of personality instead of Myers's subliminal self theory at the threshold of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. 21. Identify and discuss Freud's six main contributions to transpersonal personality theory. 22. Describe the basic disagreements that existed between Freud and Carl Jung about the structure, dynamics, and development of human personality. 23. Discuss three of Jung's most important contributions to the conceptual and methodological development of modern transpersonal psychology. 24. Define the system of transpersonal psychology called Psychosynthesis and discuss how it differs from other transpersonally-oriented approaches to human personality. 25. Identify three key contributions of Psychosynthesis to psychology's understanding of the structure, states, function, and development of human personality. 26. Draw the "egg diagram" depicting the seven basic regions that constitute the basic elements and conditions of the human psyche, according to Psychosynthesis. 27. Describe the purpose and function of each of the seven basic regions that constitute the basic elements and conditions of the human psyche, according to Psychosynthesis.

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