Self, Free Will and Compassion: Shared Constructs in Neuroscience and Buddhism

The authors, a neuroscientist and a Buddhist monastic who met through the Emory Tibet Science Initiative, highlight similarities in the understanding of mental activities found in both traditions. An important principle discovered is the parallel processing of multiple mental activities, which reveals the existence of a unitary self and free will as illusions. These insights provide the rationale in Buddhism to develop a culture of compassion. Meanwhile western psychology and neuroscience have found brain circuits that have evolved to support social and even altruistic behaviors, giving compassion a physical basis in our brains as well. These insights then set the stage for a shared interest in an altruistic compassionate society.

Hinduism

Ancient Hindu scriptures such as the Upanishads and the Bhagavad-Gita (the Gita) offer important insights to the mind and mental health in ways that are complementary to those derived from Western psychology. In the Gita, the mind and body are viewed in non-dualistic terms; mental health is defined not merely as the absence of ill health, but by the positive attributes of happiness independent of external gratification. Psychopathology is viewed as resulting from too much or misplaced attachment and a faulty concept of self leading to an excessive focus on the self. The prescription for such affliction includes unattached actions, accurate awareness of self and awakening mindfulness. Many parallels may be drawn between the Gita and the principles of Western psychotherapeutic models such as cognitive and metacognitive therapies. However, apart from insights into psychopathology and its treatment, the Gita sheds light on enhancing positive mental health as well. The Gita embodies several modern concepts from positive psychology, such as flow, intrinsic motivation, reappraisal of the self-concept, and the development of compassion. It is proposed that psychotherapeutic insights from the Gita and other traditional Hindu scriptures offer a comprehensive step-wise psychobiological meta-cognitive approach to prevention, intervention, and promotion of well-being. Comprehensive and culturally compatible psychotherapeutic models integrating Eastern and Western psychotherapeutic models merit attention.

Creating Subjects

Self-creation has been held up as the fundamental task of modern man. We are repeatedly encouraged to discover our authentic selves or cultivate our individuality in order to win health, happiness, romantic fulfillment, or career success. It is a task that psychologists have been eager to take on, offering up competing pathways toward self-realization. At the same time, however, critical historians and sociologists have accused the discipline of psychology of fostering the creation of particular kinds of self. This article outlines debates about self-creation among psychologists and their readers from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 21st. It takes as its focus Western psychology and the ideas developed by its academic practitioners in laboratories and universities across Europe and North America, but it acknowledges that these ideas were often developed in dialogue with, or in reaction to, versions of the self articulated in other cultures and traditions across the globe. The opening section, “Creating Subjects and Making Selves,” discusses the ways that conventional ideas of selfhood have been challenged by developments in anthropology, philosophy, and the history of psychology, before going on to look at the ways that new religious movements and globalization challenged familiar ideas of the self in the 19th century. The first generation of professional psychologists (notably William James; see Section 2, “William James and Late 19th-Century Self Making”) recognized this challenge and used it to ground new theories of self-improvement and self-creation. These projects were deepened by the “discovery” of the subliminal or subconscious mind, which was portrayed to the public as a source of hidden potential (see Section 3, “The Subliminal: New Sources of Self-Creation”) or unconscious restrictions (see Section 4, “The New Psychology and the Discovery of Constraint”) to be unleashed or overcome. By the early 20th century, the discipline of psychology was offering manifold paths to self-creation: Behaviorism (Section 5, “Behaviorism and the Experimental Creation of Selves”), psychoanalysis (Section 6, “Psychoanalysis: New Paths to Self-Creation”), and social psychology (Section 7, “Social Psychology and the Sources of Self-Creation”). The various theories and practices put forward gained enthusiastic adherents but by the middle decades of the 20th century, this pursuit of the self was being met with growing skepticism. Existentialist philosophy (Section 8, “Selves as Prisons: Existentialism and Self-Creation”) claimed that the conventional faith in selfhood and psychology blinded people to their absolute freedom, but by the 1950s and 1960s this critique would be recuperated by psychologists, with existential analysts and humanistic psychologists celebrating the move beyond the everyday identity as a potential foundation for personal growth. At the same time, the rise of information technology and cybernetics supported the idea that the self was little more than a code or pattern of signals, encouraging the belief that it could be transformed through integration into new systems of information. At the beginning of the 21st century, the self-skepticism that had animated 19th-century schemes of self-building had become an academic commonplace. This is celebrated as a radical position, but in fact, this sense that individuals are not subjects but projects undergoing continual revision is the same sense that animates the growth of therapy and the self-help industry in the modern era.

Mindfulness and eudaimonic well-being: the mediating roles of rumination and emotion dysregulation

Mindfulness has been widely studied in Western psychology for reducing psychological distress. However, several scholars noted that in the East, where the concept originated, mindfulness may be understood differently. In Eastern cultures such as Thailand, mindfulness is not only employed to deal with suffering but also to promote well-being. To the best of our knowledge, no studies have been undertaken to evaluate the relationship between traditional mindfulness and eudaimonic well-being in Eastern contexts. In the present study, we investigated the relationships between mindfulness and eudaimonic well-being in Thai contexts. We also explored the mediating roles of rumination and emotion dysregulation on this relationship. Data were collected from 312 Thai undergraduates who completed a measure of Eudaimonic Well-Being, the Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory, the Rumination–Reflection Questionnaire, and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. Results largely supported our hypotheses. Mindfulness was found to have a positive and direct association with eudaimonic well-being. Rumination and emotion dysregulation partially mediated this association. Additionally, both rumination and emotion dysregulation had negative and direct association with eudaimonic well-being. The findings highlight the positive influences of mindfulness on well-being. The benefits of mindfulness for improvement of eudaimonic well-being through reducing rumination and emotion dysfunction are discussed.

Psikologi Humanis; Mengurai Relasi Teoritik antara Psikologi dan Agama

Psychological discourse can be traced through the thoughts of Muslim philosophers such as Al-Kindi, Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, and Al-Ghazali about the concept of the nafs. Its abstract but real structure forms the human psyche, received a warm welcome from Western thinkers such as Wilhelm Wundt and Ivan Pavlov so that psychology was born. Islamic teachings about psychology and psychology are not two different things but mutually support each other and complement each other, because in the development of psychology there are ups and downs in the relationship between psychology and religion. Through a multidisciplinary study of Islamic religious education, this article describes the terminology of Islamic psychology; human psychological elements; and the human driving force. At the end of this article, the author tries to find an estuary between western psychology and Islamic teachings on psychology which leads to humanist psychology. Humanist psychology is the latest period of the ebb and flow of the relationship between psychology and religion. Humanist psychology is able to become the new mainstream in understanding humans not only related to their psychology but also the driving motivation and side of human spirituality that experimental psychology cannot reach.

Religion: The WEIRDest concept in the world?

Henrich (2020) discusses the role of Christianity in shaping Western psychology and affluence. We expand on his perspective by critically discussing Henrich's account of religions. Drawing on cross-cultural research, we clarify when religions are consistent with Henrich's account of religions, and when they reflect pragmatic specialists who assist clients with rare and uncertain problems. We conclude by considering why Western ethnographers might tend to interpret some practical specialist-client relationships as religions, arguing that theories of "religions" might ironically reflect the WEIRD mindset Henrich describes in his book.

Resilience revisited: AIDS and resilience among a Yi ethnic minority in Southwest China

This study attempts to widen the conceptual space of resilience in (Western) psychology in order to better capture the resilience landscape of an ethnic minority group ravaged by the HIV/AIDS pandemic—the Nuosu-Yi in Southwest China. Without decolonizing the construct of resilience, non-Western versions of coping with adversities cannot be properly understood. Our process of decolonization of resilience involved two steps: First, we conducted semistructured interviews with the target population ( N = 21) to take inventory of their Indigenous notions of resilience. Second, for conceptual comparison, we mapped the themes and categories, derived from thematic analysis, of the interview data onto the conceptual space of the Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA), which we used as proxy for mainstream conceptualizations of resilience. This mapping revealed multiple lacunae in the theoretical framework of RSA, and unique properties in the Indigenous approach to adversities in contrast. Far reaching theoretical and practical implications of this investigation are discussed.

Nature: the cure we've been looking for

Nature-based therapy is a therapeutic lens that utilizes nature as a co-therapist. This approach addresses the disconnect between land and people, a disconnect that negatively impacts the mental health of many of those seeking mental health services. Consequently, this approach is now considered an effective treatment for youth and is used as a standalone approach or integrated with cognitive behavioural therapy, gestalt, or group therapy. In either case, this nature-based lens provides a bridge between traditional Indigenous practices and Western psychology. My project highlights various activities and ideas in order to incorporate nature into one’s practice as a therapist, specifically within a northern context. Information regarding benefits, ethical concerns and various types of nature-based therapy will be discussed and guide the development of the manual. The guidebook will assist those interested in nature therapy by creating a place where tangible and realistic ideas for how to incorporate it into practice are located.