non-western history of psychology

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i'm looking for resources, data and opinion about non-western antecedents of psychology (e.g. chinese, Japannese, budhists etc.). browsing history of psychology sites and books, the attitude seems western-biased. this can be explained as long as we deal with the foundations of western psychology, that probably was ignorant of such contributions. but when dealing with antecedents, it seems hard to believe that these questions didn't interest these wise thinkers thank you

-- amos israel (aisrael@idc.ac.il), March 04, 2002

Answers

Undoubtedly you are correct that scholars in non-western civilizations have considered problems that we call "psychological" -- thought, emotion, social behavior, learning, madness, etc. (I once had a history of psychology teacher who included a great deal of material about the Indian philosophy called "Vedanta" in his course -- Anand Paranjape). The difference is that only in the west has this variety of problems come to be bundled together under a single general term -- "psychology". Other cultures divide up their knowledge according to different disciplinary schemes. (some similar to the west's way, some quite alien to it). So, in a sense there is a history of non-western psychology *if* one were to go and "cherry-pick" from the disciplinary schemes of one culture or another the problems that "westerners" regard as being "psychological" in nature. There is a problem here, however, because this process imposes the western disciplinary scheme on to other civilizations that have their own ways of doing things. In this sense, then, there is no history of non-western psychology because the very concept is a western construction.

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), March 04, 2002.

One can still frame the question as the history of psychology in non- western countries. There are a few good sources that come to mind:

Gilgen, Albert R.& Gilgen, Carol K. Handbook of International Psychology. New York: Greenwood, 1987

Tobach, Ethel. Historical Perspectives and the International Status of Comparative Psychology. Hillsdale, NJ: L. Erlbaum, 1987

Sexton,Virginia Staudt & Misiak, Henryk (Eds.) Psychology Around the World. Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole. 1976.

I think you may also want to approach the question from a different perspective. Rather than focus on history texts, ask a different kind of question. You can find books, for example, on Buddhist psychology. Or a sepcific topic such as cross-cultural perspectives on dream interpretation, where you'll find extensive discussion of the implicit psychologies in different cultures. I'll send you that bibliography as an example.

-- Hendrika Vande Kemp (hendrika@earthlink.net), March 04, 2002.


Stanislov Groff and Ken Wilbur found much of their inspiration (for what seems to have evolved as "Transpersonal Psychology") - in Asian and Buddhist teachings. I personally experience this movement as a cult, an admittedly prejudiced point of view.

While adopting similar Eastern resources however, Roberto Assagioli developed his more humanistic theory of Psychosynthesis, a reality-based psychology that beautifully integrates Eastern spiritual values with Western psychoanalysis.

-- visualize me (visualizeme@webtv.net), March 04, 2002.


Amos - sorry, forgot to give you this reference site: http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/health/Psychosynthesis/articles/pd1-1.htm

-- visualize me (visualizeme@webtv.net), March 04, 2002.

Hi Amos, look at the book "Naming the Mind" by Kurt Danziger. Chapter 1 addresses your question. Best, David

-- david clark (doclark@yorku.ca), March 05, 2002.


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