What is Transpersonal Psychology?
A psychology that relates the “personal” to the “transpersonal”. The “personal” encompasses the personality, the mind, the ego, and the body. The “transpersonal” includes the “personal” and goes beyond it: soul, higher Self, the personal and collective unconscious, and Spirit (Tao, God, Source)
In relating the personal within the transpersonal, transpersonal psychology peers into the mystery of exceptional human experiences, creativity, intuition, and other important questions that give rise to, and make evolve, the human condition.
Transpersonal psychology investigates the shared insights of wisdom traditions and the world’s longest standing religions about human nature, the nature of consciousness, and the nature of the universe. Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and indigenous spirituality are surveyed in breadth and depth.
Transpersonal psychology is interested in the full spectrum of human experiences, valuing the pathological as well as transcendent experiences the same in their potential for individual as well as collective healing, transformation, and evolution.
Pioneers and notable persons recognized for their contribution to transpersonal psychology include William James, Roberto Assagioli, Carl Gustav Jung, Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers,, Stanislav Grof, Ken Wilber, Frances Vaughan, Angeles Arrien, James Fadiman, Robert Frager, Roger Walsh, Charles Tart, John Welwood, Robert A. Johnson, Joseph Campbell and still others.
Related Resources (Videos):
Science of the Soul: The Story of Transpersonal Psychology
Roberto Assagioli, The Scientist of the Spirit
The Way of the Psychonaut: Stanislav Grof’s journey of consciousness
Related Resources (Books):
The Farther Reaches of Human Nature, written by Abraham Maslow
Toward a Psychology of Being, written by Abraham Maslow
Psychosynthesis, written by Roberto Assagioli
Act of Will, written by Roberto Assagioli
Paths Beyond Ego, Edited by Roger Walsh & Frances Vaughan
Meeting the Shadow, Edited by Connie Zweig & Jeremiah Abrams
Nature and the Human Soul, written by Bill Plotkin
Pathways of the Soul, written by Hillevi Ruumet
Related Resources (Articles):
Contemporary Viewpoints on Transpersonal Psychology, by Mariana Caplan, Glenn Hartelius, & Mary Anne Rardin, The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 2003. Vol 35, No. 2.
Definitions of Transpersonal Psychology: The first twenty-three years, edited by D.H. Lajoie & S. Shapiro, The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 1992. Vol 24, No. 1.
On Transpersonal Definitions, by R. Walsh & F. Vaughan, The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 1993. Vol 25, No. 2.