Transpersonal Psychology

Transpersonal Psychology

What is Transpersonal Psychology?

A psychology that studies as well as relates the “personal” to the “transpersonal”. The “personal” encompasses the personality, the mind, body, and spirit. The “transpersonal” includes the “personal” and goes beyond it: soul, the collective unconscious, and God. 

In placing the personal within the transpersonal, and vice versa, this psychology peers into the mystery of unconditional love, creativity, intuition, and other important questions that give rise to the human condition.

Transpersonal psychology investigates the shared insights of wisdom traditions and the world’s longest standing religions about human nature, the nature of consciousness, and the nature of the universe. It is interested in the full spectrum of human experiences, valuing the pathological as well as transcendent experiences the same in their potential for individual as well as collective healing, transformation, and evolution.

Pioneers and notable persons recognized for their contribution to transpersonal psychology include William James, Abraham Maslow, Roberto Assagioli, Carl Gustav Jung, Stanislav Grof, Ken Wilber, Frances Vaughn, Angeles Arrien, James Fadiman, Robert Frager, Roger Walsh, Charles Tart, John Welwood, Robert A. Johnson, and still others.

Related Resources (Videos)

  • Science of the Soul: The Story of Transpersonal Psychology
  • Roberto Assagioli, The Scientist of the Spirit
  • The Way of the Psychonaut: Stanislav Grof’s journey of consciousness

Related Resources (Books)

  • The Farther Reaches of Human Nature, written by Abraham Maslow
  • Toward a Psychology of Being, written by Abraham Maslow
  • Psychosynthesis, written by Roberto Assagioli
  • Act of Will, written by Roberto Assagioli
  • Paths Beyond Ego, Edited by Roger Walsh & Frances Vaughan
  • Meeting the Shadow, Edited by Connie Zweig & Jeremiah Abrams
  • Nature and the Human Soul, written by Bill Plotkin
  • Pathways of the Soul, written by Hillevi Ruumet

Related Resources (Articles)

  • Contemporary Viewpoints on Transpersonal Psychology, by Mariana Caplan, Glenn Hartelius, & Mary Anne Rardin, The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 2003. Vol 35, No. 2.
  • Definitions of Transpersonal Psychology: The first twenty-three years, edited by D.H. Lajoie & S. Shapiro, The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 1992. Vol 24, No. 1.
  • On Transpersonal Definitions, by R. Walsh & F. Vaughan, The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 1993. Vol 25, No. 2.