The consciousness disciplines and the behavioral sciences: questions of comparison and assessment
Year: 1980
Type: article
Abstract: In recent years a number of assessments of the non-Western consciousness disciplines have been undertaken by Western behavioral scientists. The author suggests that a variety of conceptual, methodological, experimential, and content inadequacies render the conclusions of these investigations of doubtful validity. He then describes the models of human nature postulated by these disciplines and the Western behavioral sciences, suggesting that comparing them results in a paradigm clash. The failure to recognize this clash seems to have resulted in inappropriate pathologizing interpretations. Attention is drawn to the relevance of recent findings in state-dependent learning, meditation studies, peak and transcendental experiences, transpersonal psychology, and quantum physics to an assessment of the consciousness disciplines, and suggestions for more adequate investigation are provided.
Source: American Journal of Psychiatry
Author: R Walsh
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2399260239