The ‘creation’ of the word TRANSPERSONAL

The ‘creation’ of the word Transpersonal is duo to William James in 1905. William James created a new construction of five expressions with the prefix “trans”: “trans–personal”, “trans–corporeal”, “trans–cerebral”, “trans–visible”, and “trans–mental”. He thought of these new constructions when writing about phenomenalism and idealism. This “creation” of new concepts turned out of his creative, systematic and innovate thinking.

The origin of the concept TRANSPERSONAL

The concept “transpersonal”, was first used in 1967, by Abraham Maslow, in a communication to Sutich (Sutich, 1969). In Maslow’s perspective, the word “transpersonal” fitted well in what he was trying to say, explaining perfectly the idea he wanted to transmit, the idea of “beyond the individuality”. Sutich, read the word and liked the word itself as well as its context, agreeing that the word “transpersonal” expressed perfectly the idea he was trying to achieve; the idea of “the experiencing individual” (Sutich, 1969).

Indeed, Maslow and Sutich, have both contributed to the birth of transpersonal psychology. Though, Maslow, made his point stating that psychology should consider “the farther reaches of human nature” (Maslow, 1971).

However, Dane Rudhyar (1983), writer and philosopher, had a different perspective. He defended that he had been the first using the term “transpersonal” and he had used it since 1930, but with the meaning of “to represent action which takes place through a person, but which originates in a centre for activity existing beyond the level of personhood”.

Nevertheless, Rudhyan admitted that CarlGustavJung might already have used the term before him, when wrote the word “ueberpersonlich” in 1917 which was later translated officially as “transpersonal” (Vich,1988).

Transpersonal Psychology as the ‘fourth force’

Nowadays, Transpersonal psychology is considered the “fourth force” in the field of psychology, considering the “first force” the positivist or behaviourist theory, the “second force” the classical psychoanalysis theory and the “third force” the humanistic psychology.

Accordingly to the transpersonal perspective, the others schools of psychology have failed when they did not give weight to the transpersonal element of human existence, namely to consciousness, peak experiences, ecstasy, awe, being, cosmic awareness, and others, which are the concern of transpersonal psychology.

However, transpersonal psychology strives to join insights from modern psychology and from the world’s contemplative tradition, East and West. The transpersonal and spiritual dimensions of the psyche have traditionally not been a focus of interest for western psychology, which has mainly focused on the pre-personal and personal aspects of the human psyche.

With the aim of reach a definition of transpersonal psychology that would provide a good understanding of the field and help to produce a precise definition of the term, Lajoie & Shapiro (1992) have revised forty definitions of transpersonal psychology for the most prominent authors in the field, that had appeared in literature over the period between 1969 and 1991. Lajoie & Shapiro, trying to find points in common between those definitions, have summarised the themes that appeared more frequently, and have listed them in five key themes. The themes that appeared more were: States of consciousness; Highest or ultimate potential; Beyond ego or personal self; Transcendence and Spiritual.

Based on their own research they have defined transpersonal psychology as a field “concerned with the study of humanity’s highest potential, and with the recognition, understanding, and realisation of unitive, spiritual, and transcendent states of consciousness” (Lajoie & Shapiro, 1992).

References:

Lajoie & Shapiro (1992). Definitions of transpersonal psychology: the first twenty-three years. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 24 (1), 79-98.

Rudhyar, D. (1983) Rhythm of wholeness. Wheaton, IL: The philosophical Publishing.

Sutich, A.J. (1969). Some considerations regarding transpersonal psychology. 1(1), 11-20.

Vich, A.M. (1988) Some historical sources of the term tranpersonal. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 2 (2)