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What is Transpersonal Psychology? 

As Featured on Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (ITP) website

Transpersonal Psychology is the extension of psychological studies into consciousness studies, spiritual inquiry, body-mind relationships and transformation. Carl Jung first coined the term transpersonal (uberpersonlich) when he used the phrase "transpersonal unconscious" as a synonym for "collective unconscious."

A key stimulus for the establishment of transpersonal psychology as a distinct field of inquiry was Abraham H. Maslow's research on self-actualizing persons. Maslow's work addressed not only psychological wounding and personal development, but the study of peak experiences, inspired creativity, altruistic ideals, and personal actions that transcend "ordinary" personality as well.

Refined by the work of scholars such as Roger Walsh, Frances Vaughan, Stanislav Grof, Arthur J. Deikman, Ken Wilber and Charles T. Tart, transpersonal psychology now encompasses the study of the full range of human experience, from abnormal behavior to healthy normal functioning, to spiritually embodied, and transcendent consciousness.

The exact nature and boundaries of Transpersonal Psychology is still being debated among academics, although there has been much written on the topic. Generally, the field can be said to encompass three major areas: Beyond-Ego Psychology, Integrative/Holistic Psychology, and Transformative Psychology. This model of the field is discussed in depth by Glenn Hartelius, Mariana Caplan, and Mary Anne Rardin in their work, Transpersonal Psychology: Defining the Past, Divining the Future, which you can download in PDF format (688kb) here.

The following compilation by Robert Hutchins, Ph.D., offers ten simple ways to explain transpersonal psychology:

1. Transpersonal Psychology is a psychology of health and human potential. While recognizing and addressing human psychopathology, transpersonal psychology does not derive its model of the human psyche from the ill or diseased. Transpersonal psychology looks to saints, prophets, great artists, heroes, and heroines for models of full human development and of the growth-oriented nature of the normal human psyche. Instead of defining ourselves as all essentially neurotic (if not worse), transpersonal psychology makes it possible to perceive the individual as one engaged in the process of development toward full humanity, as exemplified by the words and deeds of great men and women.

2. Transpersonal psychology and transpersonal psychotherapy, in particular, does not see the human personality as an end in itself. Our personal history and the resulting personality traits, tendencies, and attributes are seen as the crust or skin covering our transpersonal essence. Another way of putting this is that the personality is, by design, the vessel or vehicle which enables the soul and spirit to navigate through the world. Thus, the proper role of the personality is to be a translucent window, a servant to divinity within.

3. Transpersonal psychology is a psychology of human development. As developmental psychologists, we agree with the object relations theorists that there is a continuum of development, in the sense of self and its stability. This continuum begins with individuals who have not achieved object constancy and strong ego identity, people who might be called psychotic. Up the next step of the development ladder are those with "borderline personality disorder," in whom an unstable sense of self and object constancy have developed. Another step up toward full functionality are those with a strong sense of ego identity and clear object relations, the so-called "normals." Transpersonal psychology, at this point, extends object relations theory by pointing to the next stages of human development, wherein there is disidentification from one's personality or personal identity and recognition of object impermanence or transiency. This stage is typified by the states of consciousness obtained by advanced meditators. A further step in development is posited wherein the person realizes the Supreme Identity (i.e., enlightenment or connection with God), and the relative nature of normal reality, as seen in saints and mystics.

4. Transpersonal psychology is an approach to the whole person. It seeks a balanced development of the intellectual, emotional, spiritual, physical, social, and creative expression aspects of a person's life. Thus, all six areas are addressed scholastically and therapeutically, and integration or balance is sought.

5. Transpersonal psychology is a psychology that goes through the personal to the transpersonal. Far from just transcending our humanity, it is a process of working through our humanity, in an inclusive way, to reach the recognition of divinity within. Thus, transpersonal psychology emerges out of personal psychology, as a result of the individual's growth and maturation.

6. Transpersonal psychology is the future norm in psychology, as yet unrecognized by the mainstream. Transpersonal psychology is largely inclusive of and builds on the psychoanalytic, behavioral/experimental, and humanistic psychologies that preceded it. It provides both an extension of and a different perspective from these previous psychologies. It is in no way a denial of the validity of their theories and techniques. It simply places them in a new context. Transpersonal psychology asserts that religious and mystical experiences and the perspectives that derive from them are valid approaches to reality and can be studied scientifically. It is the beginning attempt of science to understand these most meaningful of human experiences.

7. Transpersonal psychology recognizes and studies the different states and stations of consciousness. It recognizes that such different states as dreaming, hypnotic trance, and "waking" consciousness all have sub-levels within themselves and possess their own state-specific systems, their own realities. Further, transpersonal psychology recognizes that not only are there different states of consciousness that one may move into and out of during the course of a day but that there are also stages or stations of consciousness that, through development, one can come to live in relatively permanently.

8. Rather than being a recent innovation, transpersonal psychology is largely a return to the perennial philosophy identified by Aldous Huxley. Mystical experience and shamanistic healing practices, which have been central concerns of humankind for millennia, are also a focus of transpersonal psychology.

9. Transpersonal psychology is depth psychology. It is part of the therapeutic stream started by Freud and his successors, Jung, Rank, and Reich. Roberto Assagioli, who posited a superconscious, as well as a subconscious, integrated transpersonal and depth psychology, as did Carl Jung.

10. The simplest definition is that transpersonal psychology is spiritual psychology. It recognizes that humanity has both drives toward sex and aggression and drives toward wholeness, toward connecting with and experiencing the divine.