Ken Wilber's Transpersonal Psychology.pdf
(
592 KB
)
Pobierz
Pastoral Psychology, Vol. 48, No. 2, 1999
Ken Wilber's Transpersonal Psychology:
An Introduction and Preliminary Critique
Duane R. Bidwell
Ken Wilber is unquestionably the leading figure in the developing field of Transper-
sonal Psychology, and his work deserves serious engagement by pastoral theolo-
gians and pastoral counselors who seek to find their place in today's postmodern,
post-Christian culture. This article summarizes the key concepts of Wilber's model
of Transpersonal Psychology, provides an elementary pastoral and theological
critique of his ideas, and suggests contributions that Wilber's thought can make
to the field of pastoral theology and pastoral counseling.
INTRODUCTION
Ken Wilber is unquestionably the leading figure in the developing field of
Transpersonal Psychology, a science possible only in the late twentieth-century as
ancient religious traditions began to meet and mingle with modern psychologies
and psychotherapies in an unprecedented way. Heralded by Kelly (1991) as "the
first of modern sciences to take human spirituality seriously", Transpersonal Psy-
chology attempts a synthesis that rethinks both spirituality and psychology. And as
the dust begins to settle about the newly constructed foundation of a postmodern,
post-Christian culture at the heart of the global village, Wilber's thought deserves
serious engagement by today's pastoral theologians and pastoral counselors.
Transpersonal Psychology grows from a certainty that "behind the happen-
stance drama [of life] is a deeper or higher or wider pattern, or order, or intelli-
gence" (Wilber, 1995, p. vii) that can be apprehended by human beings. Wilber
(1997) posits a "spectrum of consciousness" in which, "at the upper reaches of the
1
Duane R. Bidwell, M.Div., is a Ph.D. student at Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University, Fort
Worth, TX 76129. Duane received his M.Div. at Brite and also holds a licentiate in spiritual theology
and spiritual direction from the Anglican School of Theology at the University of Dallas.
81
&
1999 Human Sciences Press. Inc
82
Bidwell
spectrum of consciousness—in the higher states of consciousness—individuals
consistently report an awareness of being one with the all, or identical with spirit,
or whole in spirit, and so on" (p. 124). These levels of consciousness (which Wilber
contends are pathologized by "shallower psychologies, such as psychoanalysis"
(p. 124.)) are open to "experiential disclosure" and can be rationally reconstructed
but not rationally experienced. Wilber (1984) describes this experience as follows:
"in the mystical consciousness, Reality is apprehended directly and immediately,
meaning without any mediation, any symbolic elaboration, any conceptualization,
or any abstractions; subject and object become one in a timeless and spaceless act
that is beyond any and all forms of mediation" (Wilber, 1984, p. 7).
Reclusive and prolific, Wilber exhaustively documents his work and seeks
not to narrow the field but to achieve "vision logic," the goal of which is to "not
just reasonably decide the individual issues, but hold them all together at once in
mind, and judge how they fit together as a truth vision" (Wilber, 1995, p. 185).
Stating (1997) that the "contemplative sciences" (meditation, prayer, etc.) are
the "only domain of direct data", Wilber argues that contemplative introspection
and the communal verification of such experience prove that "higher domains of
awareness, embrace, love, identity, reality, self and truth" (p. 265) exist and can
be experienced by others.
Wilber (1997) writes poetically of the human quest for God, wrestling with
essential questions and looking for answers with passionate hope in the future
unfolding around us.
We are yet the bastard sons and daughters of an evolution not yet done with us, caught
always between the fragments of yesterday and the unions of tomorrow, unions apparently
destined to carry us far beyond anything we can possibly recognize today, and unions that,
like all such births, are exquisitely painful and unbearably ecstatic (p. 254).
This paper summarizes the key concepts of Wilber's model of Transpersonal
Psychology, provides an elementary pastoral and theological critique of his ideas,
and suggests contributions Wilber's thought can make to the field of pastoral
counseling.
KEY CONCEPTS OF WILBER'S INTEGRATIVE MODEL
The essence of Wilber's integrative model of Transpersonal Psychology is
this: "psychological growth or development in humans is simply a microcosmic
reflection of universal growth on the whole and has the same goal: the unfolding
of ever higher-order unities and integrations" (Wilber, 1983a, p. 83). Thus, his
thought transcends
psychology
to become a
cosmology
(Wilber, 1995, p. viii.)
organized by "orienting generalizations." These generalizations are principles that
"show us, with a great deal of agreement, where the important forests are located,
even if we can't agree on how many trees they contain" (p. ix.). There are five
major approaches to Transpersonal Psychology (systems theory, altered states
Ken Wilber's Transpersonal Psychology
83
of consciousness, Grof s holotropic model, Jungian psychology, and Wilber's
"spectrum" or "integral" approach) (Wilber, 1997, p. 139), and Wilber contends
that the key concepts of his model include and transcend the other approaches.
The Great Chain of Being
Transpersonal psychology understands
consciousness
to be the stuff of the
universe, the field in which all else manifests. The Great Chain of Being—ranging
from matter (the furthest from pure consciousness) to life, life to mind, mind to
soul, and soul to spirit (the closest to pure consciousness and the stuff of which
consciousness is made)—dictates the manifestation of reality, overflowing in a
fecundity that hides each stage from the ones below it.
At every stage of development, in fact, the next higher stage appears to be a completely
'other world,' an 'invisible world'—it has literally no existence for the individual, even
though the individual is in fact
saturated
with a reality that contains the 'other' world.
The individual's 'this worldly' existence simply cannot comprehend the 'other worldly'
characteristics lying all around it (Wilber, 1997, p. 267).
The Human Self
Human selfhood emanates from the Great Chain of Being, developing from
a pre-personal subconscious (characterized by an awareness of nature and body)
to self-consciousness (an awareness of mind and psychic realities) and finally
to transpersonal superconsciousness (an awareness of subtle, causal and ultimate
realities) (Wilber, 1981, p. 9). The evolving self has three components: a basic
structure (enduring characteristics such as linguistics, cognition, spatial coordina-
tion, etc.); transitional structures (characteristics that develop and dissolve such as
world-views, self needs, moral stages, etc.); and the self and its fulcrums (char-
acteristics that unite and integrate the other two components, such as identifica-
tion, organization, will, defense, and "digestion of experience") (Wilber, 1997,
p. 142-144).
Developmental Model
The human being is marked by quasi-independent development of "at least a
dozen developmental lines" (p. 215) through all levels of consciousness. These
developmental lines include the affective, cognitive, moral, spiritual, interper-
sonal, and object-relations components of the human creature. The "self jug-
gles these developmental lines, which are interdependent but advance at their own
paces. "Translation" is the process of integrating, stabilizing and equilibrating
the different developmental lines on a horizontal level. 'Transformation" is the
84
Bidwell
process of transcending one consciousness and advancing vertically to the next.
"Development" occurs in the tension between these horizontal and vertical dimen-
sions of human being.
In Wilber's understanding, the spiritual growth line (levels of consciousness
called psychic, or the experience of the universal Self; subtle, or interior marriage
with spirit; and causal, or non-dual experience beyond self and God) (Wilber, 1995,
p. 279-316) is the goal of human life and the heart of Transpersonal Psychology.
Wilber (1997) joins Tillich in "defining the spiritual line as that line of development
in which the subject holds its
ultimate concern"
(p. 221) regardless of content
(which itself ranges from pre-personal concerns [survival] to personal concerns
[belongingness] to transpersonal concerns). Spiritual growth (based on the esoteric
"perennial philosophy" at the core of the world religions) is measured in the
individual's ability to transcend a subjective point-of-view and move on to higher
perspectives. This transcendence is a hallmark of the "integrated self at the core
of Wilber's psychological model.
Advancing from personal to transpersonal concerns, Wilber (1995) writes,
is "the Kosmic evolutionary process, which is 'self development through self-
transcendence,' the same process at work in atoms and molecules and cells, a
process that, in human domains, continues naturally into the superconscious, with
precisely nothing occult or mysterious about it" (p. 258). Because awareness has
"differentiated
from (or disidentified from, or transcended) an
exclusive
identifi-
cation with body, persona, ego, and mind, it can now
integrate
them in a unified
fashion, in a new and higher holon with each of them as junior partners" (p 262).
Behold the Integrated Self.
Model of Pathology
Pathologies can occur, as well documented by traditional sciences, in all of
the developmental lines running through an individual and at all levels of con-
sciousness. Wilber contends that new and potential pathologies will be discovered
as evolution continues (p 197). The primary spiritual pathology, however, is ex-
istential anxiety born of the realization that "personal life is a brief spark in the
cosmic void" (p. 263). The separate self, Wilber (1983b) says, is "a contraction of
angst" (p. 51). "No matter how wonderful it all might be now, we are still going
to die:
dread
... is the authentic response... a dread that calls us back from self-
forgetting to self-presence, a dread that seizes not this or that part of me (body or
persona or ego or mind), but rather the totality of my being-in-the-world" (p. 263).
Transcendence is the only cure, but complete transcendence is unlikely: "the great
liberation finally takes place only at the sagely level of casual/ultimate adaptation.
All lesser stages, no matter how occasionally ecstatic or visionary, are still beset
with the primal mood of ego, which is sickness unto death" (p. 50).
85
Ken Wilber's Transpersonal Psychology
PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC APPLICATION
Wilber calls for an "integrative therapy" that takes a holistic approach—
investigating and addressing each of the developmental lines, prescribing treat-
ments that range from nutrition and exercise to cognitive restructuring or Jungian
individuation to specific spiritual disciplines, depending on the client's develop-
mental stage and pathologies. The transpersonal therapist must be ready to draw
from all traditions, both Eastern and Western. "A truly integrative and encompass-
ing psychology can and should make use of the complementary insights offered
by each school of psychology" (Wilber, 1977, p. 15), each of which, Wilber says,
is directed to a different level of his Spectrum of Consciousness. Thus, the ther-
apist must be an expert guiding the client through the maze of developmental
possibilities.
Elsewhere, Wilber presents psychotherapy as a task of hermeneutics. Psy-
chological symptoms are hidden texts and subtexts that indicate that some aspects
of consciousness have been split off during the developmental process. His ap-
proach seems similar to that of the narrative therapists, being more explicit about
what the therapist brings to the encounter: a knowledge of structural development
used to determine what aspects of consciousness need to be restructured. 'The
therapist helps the client to re-own those facets of self by re-authoring them and
thus re-authorizing them, that is, consciously assuming responsibility for their
existence— Overall therapy involves a critical self-reflection on past translations
and possible mistranslations (hidden texts)" (Wilber, 1983b, p. 129-132).
No matter what traditions are drawn on for treatment, transpersonal therapy
will always seek to send the client inward. "The more one can introspect and reflect
on one's self, then the more detached from that self one can become, the more one
can rise above that self's limited perspective, and so the less narcissistic or less ego-
centric one becomes (or the more
decentered
one becomes)" (Wilber, 1995, p. 256).
Therapy helps the client develop the "requisite cognitive tools" (p. 267) (through
meditation and contemplation) to experience and perceive the transpersonal levels
of consciousness. Doing so requires the therapist to assess the deep-structure of
the client's self to know what developmental level has been reached and thus what
spiritual practice is most appropriate. For example, "a pre-rational, borderline indi-
vidual, who needs desperately to create rational structures and ego strength, should
not be introduced to the more strenuous transrational meditative-yogic disciplines,
because they are designed to
loosen
the rational structure temporarily and thus will
dismantle what little structure the borderline has left" (Wilber, 1983b, p. 124).
Wilber recognizes that few individuals are ready to work at the transpersonal
levels he advocates. He (1997) writes that in America "a disproportionately large
number of people who are drawn to transpersonal spirituality are often at a pre-
conventional level of self development. This means that much of what American
[spiritual] teachers have to do is actually engage in supportive psychotherapy,
Plik z chomika:
AnnLea
Inne pliki z tego folderu:
R. Anderson W. Braud - Transforming self and others through research.pdf
(65528 KB)
Malcolm Godwin - The Lucid Dreamer, A Waking Guide for the Traveler Between Worlds.pdf
(120261 KB)
Timothy Leary - The Game Of Life.pdf
(123493 KB)
Charles T. Tart, Harold E. Puthoff, Russell Targ - Mind at large.pdf
(113155 KB)
Charles T. Tart - Body Mind Spirit.pdf
(76041 KB)
Inne foldery tego chomika:
Biological psychology
ERIC BERNE
Family Constellations
GABOR MATE
Inner influencing
Zgłoś jeśli
naruszono regulamin