Contemplative psychology

The term Contemplative Psychology was coined by Han F. De Wit in 1991 when he, a theoretical psychologist at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, published his pioneering book Contemplative Psychology. The goal of this project was to "establish a dialogue between contemplative psychology and academic psychology" (p. 233). As a first step Han did not offer a systematic contemplative psychology but rather he suggested a "framework in which a full-fledged contemplative psychology may be developed" (p. 3). In this work he outlines the "contours and the view of contemplative psychology" (p. 4). As Han develops the concept, his first point is to illustrate "a position from which the 'excavation' and 'exposure' of the contemplative psychologies seems possible" (p. 115) and to "make explicit and clarify the nature and position of the psychological know-how that contemplative traditions contain" (p. 14) Mindfulness is a practice that allows one to exist in the present moment without being judgmental of it. This meditative absorption, often referred to as samadhi in many eastern traditions, is the equivalent of contemplation in Western traditions. Gerald G. May expands on this notion in his book Will and Spirit by differentiating between willfulness and willingness. Willfulness, he explains, is one's attempted mastery over the psyche, while willingness is a surrender of one's self to a way of being. Contemplative practices allow persons to cultivate meaningful experiences intrinsic to religious and spiritual traditions that are virtually absent in modern, mechanistic psychology alone. Understanding contemplative traditions For Han, the project of defining a contemplative psychology begins with the excavation and explication of the "psychology embedded in various contemplative traditions (although often in an implicit and not fully developed state); to compare these different psychologies and derive more general rules from them; and to refine and systematize these findings further through a confrontation with contemporary academic psychology" (p. 84). == Differences from the psychology of religion and psychology in general==

"If we would interpret the preposition ‘of’ in the possessive sense of 'belonging to', then contemplative psychology would definitely be a psychology of religion, but the academic ‘psychology of religion’ would not. For the standard interpretation of the preposition ‘of' in ‘psychology of religion’ is rather in the direction of ‘about’ than in the direction of ‘belonging to’. And conventional psychology about religion is not and does not intend to be a psychology belonging to religion" (p.86).Thus contemplative psychology is a psychology of first-person experience. The psychology of religion (and scientific psychology) is a psychology about its object of study, it is a third-person psychology. The major difference is epistemological. The first-person nature of contemplative psychology values the knowledge which comes from private, personal experience. "It has its own notion of objectivity (see e.g. the ‘acid test of truth’ in Roberts, 1985: 171)" (p.86). The psychology of religion and scientific psychology in general "tend to shun away from research into experience that is only available in the first-person sense. For the private character of first-person experience seems to exclude ‘objectivity’ as defined in third person methodology" (p. 86). Differing objectives "The object of contemplative psychology is the totality of human existence or human experience. The central question is: what is the place of all aspects of human life within the contemplative perspective and its development? How could one deal with all these aspects in a way that furthers one’s contemplative development" (p.87)?"The object of scientific psychology of religion is religion itself, which is viewed as one among the many non-religious aspects of human life. The central question here is: how could we gain a third-person psychological understanding of religious phenomena and how are these causally related to other non-religious phenomena" (p.87)? Differing aims The aim of contemplative psychology as a field of study is a way of life. It pursues knowledge about living "in the first-person sense of being wise [and] being free from confusion and ignorance" (p. 87). The aim of psychology of religion is scientific knowledge, that is true information about its object of study. "This knowledge is primarily representational and indirect and as such distinct from (at a distance of) what it represents"(p. 87). Differing methodology Because of the difference in epistemological bases there is also differentiation between the methods of acquiring the differing types of knowledge. The methods of contemplative psychologies are in fact practices and disciplines like (meditation, contemplation, prayer) that bring about what the contemplative tradition views the existentential path towards the above-mentioned aims." Han de Wit characterizes these practices as awareness strategies that are aimed at the "discipline of becoming aware on the spot of one’s working basis" (p. 111). The methods of psychology of religion consist of the empirical scientific method, which are characterized by Han de Wit as conceptual strategies, as they aim for the development of conceptual knowledge that represents human behavior." == Uses ==

An example of using contemplative psychology would be using Buddhist concepts such as no self (anatta), equanimity, karma, impermanence, brilliant sanity (or buddha-nature), ego, mindfulness, and interconnectedness as framework for interpreting psychological experiences, as is done in the contemplative counseling program at Naropa university. The same could be applied to other faiths, as May used the Christian concept of Grace as a framework for explaining our psychological surrender to a cosmic order. ==References==