This book presents a consciousness-based approach to psychology and psychiatry based upon the worldview of Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950), the great Indian yoga philosopher and spiritual teacher. The author, Dr. Soumitra Basu, is a psychiatrist in Kolkata, India, who has developed this approach over more than three decades of clinical practice. The co-author, Dr. Michael Miovic, is a colleague and psychiatrist from the United States who has also written about the relevance of Sri Aurobindo's work to psychology and psychiatry.
Since Sri Aurobindo's thought is complex, the authors have attempted to make this book accessible to a variety of readers who are interested in yoga, transpersonal psychology, spirituality and mental health. To achieve this goal, we have included many case studies from both India and the United States, and we have directly quoted certain passages from the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother that illustrate particular points especially well. Note that since Sri Aurobindo considered "the Mother" (aka Mirra Al-fassa) to be his equal and collaborator in developing their integral yoga, her statements are cited often in this book to illustrate his point of view. Also, since understanding Sri Aurobindo's model of consciousness is an experiential process, rather than an intellectual activity that relies primarily on analyzing information, this book is intended for both lay and professional readers, although it addresses content from the professional discourse of psychology and psychiatry.
Part 1 of this book reviews the main themes and concepts from Sri Aurobindo's yogic worldview that frame the discussion of consciousness and consciousness-based psychology (CBP). In Chapter 1. Dr. Miovic presents the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo and Indian yoga, with an eye towards readers outside of India who may have a limited background in this tradition of thought. In Chapter 2, Dr. Basu then reviews the history of Western psychology as seen through the lens of Indian yoga and the consciousness perspective. Chapters 3-9 proceed to present the core concepts of CBP, with a focus on the relationship between CBP and the biopsychosocial model of psychology and psychiatry. These chapters address key issues such as the psychic being (evolving soul), karma, rebirth, the relationship between the soul and the ego, occultism, the possession model of illness, the communal and social dimensions of CBP, and higher and deeper orders of cognition. This survey of Sri Aurobindo's detailed and disciplined approach to what is loosely called "intuition" culminates in an extraordinary case study of how the Mother used supramental cognition to experience LSD without actually ingesting the substance.
Part 2 addresses advanced topics in CBP, beginning with Sri Aurobindo's yogic map of the planes and parts of the being (Chapter 10), and his description of the levels and causes of dis-harmonies in consciousness (Chapter 11). Chapters 12-18 review the planes of consciousness from the Superconscous down to the Inconscient, with case studies of clinical problems that can arise at each level, plus practices for yogic growth and self-development. Note that in CBP growth is a fluid process in which both the client and clinician are evolving in consciousness across the lifespan, and each may be more developed in certain planes and parts of the being than the other at a given point in time. Thus, there is not a fixed division between growth and treatment, nor an assumption that the clinician has to be more "advanced" than the client. Finally, the Appendix contains an essay that examines how Western psychology and culture have unfairly pathologized mystics in the past, and explains why current diagnostic criteria for mental ill-ness now view spirituality as potentially healthy. This problem is illustrated with reference to misguided interpretations about the etiology of Sri Aurobindo's interest in mysticism.
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