Textbook of Transpersonal Psychiatry and Psychology Hardcover - 1996 - 1st Edition

Taking a fresh, multidisciplinary perspective, this book summarizes and integrates the emerging fields of transpersonal psychiatry and psychology. After surveying the Western roots of transpersonal psychiatry and psychology in William James, Carl Jung, and Christian and Jewish mysticism, the book reviews the rich contributions of such differing cultures as shamanism, Hinduism, and Buddhism, illustrating the influence of these traditions on the therapeutic community. The authors then proceed to the latest scientific research on meditation, psychedelics, altered states, and parapsychology. Organizing human experience into a continuum - from a basic level dominated by biological factors to personal, psychological structures and on to complex, spiritual experiences - seasoned transpersonal clinicians discuss distinctive issues, problems, and treatments at each level. Through engaging, real-life cases, the contributors describe practical techniques, including the outcomes and risks of various interventions. With solid scholarship, wide scope, and accessible style, Textbook of Transpersonal Psychiatry and Psychology will become the standard work for students, researchers, clinicians, and lay readers interested in extending psychiatry and psychology into sciences that describe the full range of functioning of the human mind, thereby building bridges between those disciplines and spirituality.