MULTILEVELNESS OF INNER WORLD OF PERSONALITY: PSYCHOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS ON THE BASIS OF DOMESTIC SPIRITUAL TRADITION
Andrey Gostev, Andrey Fomin
Cognition and Experience 2023 DOI: 10.51217/cogexp_2023_04_02_05 (opens in new tab)
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AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
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| Key points | Argues that the history of psychology and historical psychology, informed by the Russian philosophical and religious tradition and Orthodox-Christian patristic thought, can illuminate the spiritual and moral sphere and religious experience, and proposes a model of the inner world as a core "spiritual self" surrounded by six "shells" ranging from social reflection to mystical experience. The authors contend this model can support psychological correction and call for research correlating it with other multilevel models of personality and collective consciousness. |
Abstract
The article deals with theoretical and methodological problem – the contribution of history of psychology and historical psychology to studying of spiritual/moral sphere of human existence and religious experience. Such knowledge introduces the psychological science to ontology of human psyche, which presupposes its transcendent dimension and «metaphysical/universal» foundations. The importance of the Russian philosophical and religious tradition is emphasized. Based on the Orthodox-Christian heritage, in particular, on patristic anthropological and psychological ideas, the description of multilayered inner world of human being is proposed. Such description includes the following «layers» around the core – the «spiritual self». Shell-1» – reflection of the macro-social world by personality. «Shell-2» – product of scenario programming in the primary family and immediate environment outside it. «Shell-3» is associated with images of a person’s physical physicality and its pneumo-psycho-somatic connections. «Shell-4» consists of a human being ideas about himself, the world and place in the Universe; it includes a pronounced ideological aspect. The main characteristic of the «shell-5» is a person’s experience (vague or clear) of some «invisible spiritual and metaphysical forces of the soul» presence. «Shell-6» expresses religious/mystical experience of people. The «core» of the «shells» system is integral indivisible human soul associated with the «spiritual self». The proposed description of inner world of a personality helps psychological correction, contributes to form a holistic perception of uniqueness of inner world, with its connections with group consciousness of various levels and the Universe. Some research tasks are set for future studying. Particularly correlating the proposed model with ideas about the multilevel structure of inner world of personality in psychological science and human knowledge in general. The importance of correlating the individual «layers-shells» system with the multilevelness of collective consciousness is emphasized.