Abstracts A29: Buddhism and Psychology

1999 Meeting Abstracts A29: Buddhism and Psychology

A29 Psychoanalysis and Social Virtuosity: Jung and Ch'an Buddhism
John Ryan Haule, C. G. Jung Institute-Boston

The close similarity between Ch'an practice according to Peter Hershock and Jung's therapeutic methods as described by his patients and students, as well as his own scattered references to synchronicity as a therapeutic principle suggests (a) a psychology of "dharma combat" and (b) analysis as an initiatory ritual. It gives us a far more dynamic image of Jung's "Self than the endless photos of mandalas he had printed in his books. On the other hand, the relentless exteriority of Ch'an and Zen stories is "interiorized' in a peculiar way. One no longer speaks of "my" self and "your" self. Analyst and patient, master and disciple, have entered the condition of "no self.' "Self" emerges between them. If analysis is a form of what Hershock calls "social virtuosity," it needs a psychological language which describes the "inferiority' of us rather than of "me."

A29 On the Limits of the Self: A Consideration of Buddhist and Psychological Notions of Wholeness and Health
David Need, University of Virginia

The focus of the paper is twofold: it considers the different discursive contexts of each tradition as a critical preamble to any comparative discussion, and then discusses the ways in which each tradition uses notions of wholeness to promise an answer to the human longing for freedom and actualization. As part of this latter point, a question is raised as to whether or not such notions are in fact consistent with the findings of these traditions concerning the self and its articulation. In particular, notions of wholeness or perfection are critiqued as ideological formations which sustain a notion of self as separate from or apart from life. The paper concludes with a discussion of the relationship of illness and/of damage to creativity and "self-actualization" and proposes a search for new metaphors for "health."

A29 Emotional Healing in Buddhism
Lynken Ghose, McGill University, Montreal.

What is it exactly that brings about healing in Buddhist meditation? Is there a certain attitude that one can take towards internal phenomena which will cause them to heal? If so, what is that attitude, and, according to the tradition, how would one know when one has attained it? Is this attitude something cognitive, affective, or rather, something which is distant or separate from cognitive and affective processes? In this presentation, amongst the various internal phenomena such as cognitive judgments, physiological sensations, affective processes etc., I will focus upon the healing of negative emotions or rigid emotional patterns. And, in regards to Buddhist meditation, I will focus upon what is often said to be the correct meditative attitude in Buddhist mindfulness (smrti) meditation: detachment.

A29 Buddhist Practice Through the Lens of Psychology: An Example
Michael C. Mitchell, Boston Umversity

This paper will offer an example of examining Buddhist experience by way of psychological theory. The basic hypothesis is that sustained concentration, or a focusing of energy, away from the "self allows internal representations to be decathected of their psychic energy and as a result enables one to engage reality in a more direct and uninhibited fashion. According to object relations theory, our acquisition of psychological structure and functioning involves an intemalization of our primary relational patterns and that these form the psychological matrix from which all subsequent interactions will spring. It will be argued that these internal representations, while necessary for formation, also distort and limit our experience of reality. A parallel will be drawn between the Buddhist idea of detachment and the psychological mechanism of decathecting internal objects of their libidinal energy. It is believed that this decathecting of internal objects plays a part in the freeing experience of meditation.