Buddhism and Transpersonal Psychology
International Journal of Transpersonal Studies February 20, 2024 Elías Capriles 2 citations
In the Freud-Rolland debate, Rolland argued that infants' oceanic feeling is healthier than adults' limited self-sense, and mystics can recover it without losing social learning. Freud countered that oceanic feeling involves shelterlessness and that derealization is psychotic. The text suggests shelterlessness arises from early separation, and while derealization is dangerous, if it proceeds unhindered it yields greater sanity. Buddhism and transpersonal psychology both value transpersonal and holotropic experiences, but transpersonal psychology must learn from Buddhism to distinguish among such experiences—such as formless realms of samsara, the neutral base-of-all, Awakening, and types of nirvana—and assign them different value.