A BRIEF HISTORY OF TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOLOGY
In the middle of the 20th century, American psychology was dominated by two major schools – behaviorism in Freudian psychology. Increasing dissatisfaction with these two orientations is adequate approaches to the human psyche led to the development of humanistic psychology. The main spokesman and most articulate representative of this new field was the world known American psychologist Abraham Maslow. He offered an incisive critique of the limitations of behaviorism and psychoanalysis, or the first and the second force in psychology as he called them, and formulated the principles of a new perspective in psychology (Maslow 1969).
Maslow’s main objection against behaviorism was that the study of animals, such as rats and pigeons, can only clarify aspects of human functioning that we share with these animals. It had no relevance for the understanding of higher, specifically human qualities that are unique to human life, such as love, self-consciousness, self-determination, personal freedom, morality, art, philosophy, religion, and science. It was also largely useless in regard to some specific human negative characteristics, such as greed, lust for power, cruelty, and tendency to “malignant aggression,” He also criticized the behaviorist disregard for consciousness and introspection and the elusive focus on the study of behavior.
By contrast, the primary interest of humanistic psychology, Maslow’s third force, was in human subjects, and this discipline honored the interest in consciousness and introspection as important complements to the objective approach to research. The behaviorist exclusive emphasis on the environment, stimulus/response, and reward/punishment were replaced by the emphasis of the capacity of human beings to be internally directed and motivated to achieve self-realization and fulfill their human potential.
In his criticism of psychoanalysis, Maslow pointed out that Freud and his followers drew conclusions about the human psyche mainly from the study of psychopathology and he disagreed with their biological reductionism and their tendency to explain all psychological processes in terms of base instincts. By comparison, humanistic psychology focused on healthy population and even individuals who showed supernormal functioning in various areas (Maslow’s “growing tip of the population“), on human growth and potential, and on higher functions of the psyche. It also emphasized that psychology has to be sensitive to practical human needs and serve important interests in objectives of the human society.
Within a few years after Abraham Maslow and Anthony Sutich launched the Association for Humanistic Psychology and it’s journal, the new movement became extremely popular among American Mental Health professionals and even with the general public. The multidimensional perspective of Humanistic Psychology and its emphasis on the whole person provided a broad umbrella for the development of a rich spectrum of new effective therapeutic approaches that greatly expanded the range of possibilities of dealing with emotional, psychosomatic, interpersonal, and psychosocial problems.
This therapeutic revolution emphasized the interconnectedness of the psyche (mind) and the body and helped in overcoming the taboo against touching, previously dominating the field of psychology. Various forms of bodywork thus formed as an integral part of new treatment strategies.
In spite of the popularity of humanistic psychology, its founders grew dissatisfied with the conceptual framework they had originally created. They became increasingly aware that they left out an extremely important element – – the spiritual dimension of the human psyche (Sutich 1967). The renaissance of interest in Eastern spiritual philosophies, various mystical traditions, meditation, ancient and aboriginal wisdom, as well as the widespread psychedelic experimentation doing the stormy 1960s made it absolutely clear that a comprehensive and cross-cultural valid psychology had to include observations from such areas as mystical states; cosmic consciousness; psychedelic experiences; trance phenomena; creativity; and religious, artistic, and scientific inspiration.
So in 1967, a small working group, including Abraham Maslow, Anthony Sutich, Stanislav Grof, James Fadiman, Miles Vich, and Sonya Margulies met in Menlo Park, California, with the purpose of creating a new psychology that will honor the entire spectrum of human experience, including various non–ordinary states of consciousness. During these discussions, Maslow and Sutich accepted Grof’s suggestion and named the new discipline “Transpersonal Psychology.”
Transpersonal Psychology, or the Fourth Force in psychology, addresses some major misconceptions of mainstream psychiatry and psychology concerning spirituality and religion. It also responds to important observations from modern consciousness research and several other fields for which the existing sciences have no adequate explanations.
Stanislav Grof, MD
