The Ego And The Dynamic Ground

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.

In Recentering the Self, Michael Washburn presents a new account of the ego, ego development, and the role of the ego in spiritual life. He starts by tracing the premodern antecedents of the notion of the ego in Greek philosophy and Christian theology and then explains the seventeenth-century emergence of the notion in Descartes's radically new account of the soul’s relation to the body. Reviewing subsequent criticisms of the notion, the author formulates a revised conception of the ego that highlights the ego's inherently two-sided nature, as a subject and agency that, although rooted within interior consciousness, lives originally and primarily in the material, social world. Washburn uses this revised conception of the ego to explain how the two sides of the ego develop in concert over major stages of the human lifespan and why the ego, despite widespread belief to the contrary, plays primarily a positive role in spiritual life. Recentering the Self makes important contributions to the history of philosophy, consciousness studies, phenomenology, developmental psychology, and spiritual or transpersonal psychology.

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.

The first concise overview of transpersonal psychotherapy.

An original theory of the development of consciousness that brings together research from neurology, new-paradigm studies, psychology, and mysticism.

A participatory alternative to the perennialism and experientialism dominant in transpersonal psychology.

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.

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

Gain solid empirical findings to understand your own spiritual development To significantly impact clients’ spirituality and use the spiritual strengths the client possesses to facilitate their move toward health, a counselor must be willing to explore his or her own spiritual development. Exploring the Spiritual: Paths for Counselors and Psychotherapists provides cognitive information grounded in the empirical findings of social science, as well as experiential material which encourages the counselors’ own spiritual quest. This invaluable source clarifies the interface between the counselor’s spirituality and the client’s, and allows the spiritual dimension to emerge appropriately in the counseling process. Exploring the Spiritual: Paths for Counselors and Psychotherapists provides challenging questions and exercises that lead the counselor or psychotherapist through a personal exploration to attain the maturity of development needed to facilitate the client’s spiritual growth. The text, written in an accessible narrative style, features helpful case studies and personal anecdotes to illustrate the concepts and processes described. Each chapter includes an overview of an issue, develops an argument or position, and presents a focused exploration of some relevant empirical research that is presented in a context that helps the reader see its personal implications. The final section leads the reader through exercises and experiments, helping them to focus on the counselor’s own inner experience or encouraging the counselor to experiment with new behaviors. This insightful resource encourages the counselor to work directly with the client’s spiritual experiences and conceptualizations without imposing on the client the beliefs of the counselor. Topics discussed in Exploring the Spiritual: Paths for Counselors and Psychotherapists include: models of spiritual development steps toward spiritual maturation the contribution of crises in belief and in values the physical-emotional self, and the contribution of passion and sexuality overcoming the divisiveness of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, and culture coping with suffering discovering one’s own paths to the spiritual Exploring the Spiritual: Paths for Counselors and Psychotherapists is a valuable resource for counselors, psychotherapists, counselor educators, and graduate students in psychology, counseling, psychotherapy, social work, and psychiatry.