PSYCHOLOGY - HUMAN SELF UNDERSTANDING

'THE HUMAN WHOLE' - PSYCHOLOGY & HUMAN SELF UNDERSTANDING
An Holistic Outline of the Human Psyche

by Robert C. Priddy
(formerly lectured in philosophy & social science at the University of Oslo - 1968-1984)

This book aims to give an understanding of human psychology in clear terms avoiding unnecessary terminology. It is person-centered rather than 'technically' oriented and provides an embracing frame of reference to aid in integrating personal understanding of oneself and of others. Basic assumptions of modern Western psychology are re-interpreted critically and brought into a holistic and universal perspective, one partly developed in Vedanta. While 'lower' psychologies deal mostly with bodily conditioning, egoistic desires, psychic illnesses and are mainly past-oriented, 'higher' psychology focuses more on psychic health, consciousness, human possibilities and challenges of personal and spiritual development.

CONTENTS
Click on any underlined heading or sub-text below to link to its text source

FOREWORD:	A General Overview of 'THE HUMAN WHOLE'
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO 'HIGHER' PSYCHOLOGY	Scientific method in psychology - Mistaken scientific ideas about the person - The meaning of life/philosophy in psychology - The reinstitution of perennial insights - The psychologist's dilemma - Vedantic broadening of psychological vision - Key philosophical assumptions in psychology.
CHAPTER 2: SELF-AWARENESS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL UNDERSTANDING	Understanding others and self-knowledge - 'Who am I and why?' - Identity as ego vs. the self - Understanding the self as a whole - Selfhood and the body-soul dilemma - Limits to objectification of the human subject - Outer and inner being.
CHAPTER 3: HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS	'Subjective' or 'objective' experiences? - The relations between thinking and being - Individual consciousness This article from 1990 is undergoing radical revision due to new discoveries and a resultant major shift in perception
CHAPTER 4: WHAT IS 'THE UNCONSCIOUS'?	Five distinct meanings of 'the unconscious' - 1- The unconscious as the subconsciousness - The subconscious and positive input - the computer analogy - Limits of the computer analogy - 2- The unconscious as unreflected learned behaviour - 3- The unconscious as unrecognised needs - 4- The unconscious as repressed self-experience - Recovered memory vs. false memory syndrome - 5- The unconscious as collective ideation - Paranormal phenomena and the unconscious.
CHAPTER 5: VICTIMS OF FATE OR WELDERS OF DESTINY?	Free will' and physical conditions - Volition as the 'inner moment of truth' - Limits and conditioners of volition - Determinism, pre-destiny and fate - The doctrine of karma - Conscious will and personal autonomy.
CHAPTER 6: VALUES IN PSYCHOLOGY -	Self-fulfilment in Psychology - Universality of human values - Human values' - Human values applied in practise - Values vs. anti-values - Values and psychic health.
CHAPTER 7: THE PERSON AS A WHOLE	Personality integration - Dangers of person classifications and typologies.
CHAPTER 8: THE HUMAN SOUL (PSYCHE)	Confused terms and levels of understanding - The human psyche - Elucidation of the seven-stage model - Body, mind, spirit: the ego, the mind and the 'I'.
CHAPTER 9: THE EGO	Development of ego and personality - Vedanta & the Freudian concept of ego - Structures in the balanced person's ego - Ego-centredness contrasted to self-expansion.
CHAPTER 10: ORIGIN AND NATURE OF THE HUMAN MIND	On tendencies inherent from birth - On the mind's capacities - .... its faculty of self-direction - ...memory & forgetting - ....perception of manifold wholes (gestalts) - The programmed mind vs. directing awareness - Purpose of & control of the mind.
CHAPTER 11: PERCEPTION OF REALITY AND PROJECTION	The mind's perceptive faculties - Mental structuring of 'reality' - Perceptive reception & mental projection - The nature of emotional-mental projection - Projection in understanding.
CHAPTER 12: INTELLIGENCE	Intelligence as mental and conceptual skills- Practical and social intelligence - The synthesising intelligence - Intelligence as moral discrimination - Intuitive intelligence.
CHAPTER 13: WHAT PSYCHIC HEALTH IS	The role of values in psychic balance - Standards for the healthy psyche - Early development & psychic health - Motivation: feelings & thoughts - The influence of imitation on personality.
CHAPTER 14: MENTAL-EMOTIONAL DISORDER	Mental derangement - Inner mental process in derangement - Fallacies of perception and cognition - Reality sense and derangement - Mental disorder, self-image and identity.
CHAPTER 15: BEYOND THE MIND	The overself - The 'I' witnesses the cosmos - Selflessness -egoless self - The inner voice?
CHAPTER 16: THE HUMAN FACULTY OF UNDERSTANDING -	Understanding as based on practical relations - Collective and personal understanding - Language and the psychology of understanding - Values that underpin personal understanding - Understanding as a human quality.
CHAPTER 17: SELF-TRANSFORMATION	Motives and goals of self-transformation - Human values and self-transformation in therapy - The cradle of self-understanding - Personal investigation and teachings - Past, present & future in self-transformation - The present & gnosis - The past & diagnosis - The future & prognosis.
CHAPTER 18: FIVE ASPECTS OF SELF-DISCOVERY	Self-trust - Self-enyoyment - Self-reflection - Self-sacrifice - Self-fulfilment - Self-transformation.
CHAPTER 19: SELFHOOD AND SELF-PERCEPTION	Self-image: its physical, social, and universal aspects - Altering self-perception - The social persona - Being oneself - The false self - Divided selfhood - 'Selfless selfhood'.
CHAPTER 20: SELF-DISCIPLINE AND RESPONSIBILITY	Fatalism and pessimism in modern theories - Voluntarism in practice - Personal freedom and consequences - Self-discipline and control of the mind - 'Positive thinking' examined.
CHAPTER 21: NON-ATTACHMENT	Attachments & emotions - Satisfaction & attachments - Converting negativity (6 ways) - Questions for self-reflection.
CHAPTER 22: SELF-DEVELOPMENT THROUGH LOVE	Confusions as to what love means - Romantic love, partnerships, marriage - Self-love and inauthenticity - Exclusion and inclusion - 'The short cut'.
APPENDIX: SOME THERAPEUTIC SYSTEMS CRITICALLY REVIEWED	Psychoanalysis and the human whole - Projective symbolism in therapy - Character types and psychologisation in psychoanalysis Dreams in psychotherapy - Alfred Adler's individual psychology - C.G. Jung's psychology - Other past-oriented techniques - Ego-centered therapies: egs 1) Gestalt Therapy 2) Neuro-linguistic Programming.

This book 'The Human Whole'' is the copyright of Robert C. Priddy, Oslo (revised/expanded edition of 1999). All brief quotes must be identified by stating the title & date of this book plus the author's name ( 'The Human Whole', 1999 by Robert C. Priddy) and this website address -http://home.no.net/rrpriddy/psy/

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