new perspectives in psychiatry, psychology, and psychotherapy.doc

New Perspectives in Psychiatry, Psychology, and Psychotherapy: Observations from Modern Consciousness Research Stanislav Grof, M.D. Maslow’s Fourth Force: A Brief History of Transpersonal Psychology ………. Psychology of the Future: Lessons from Modern Consciousness Research … Holotropic Breathwork: New Perspectives in Psychotherapy and Self-Exploration Understanding and Treatment of Crises of Transformation (“Spiritual Emergencies”) ……………………………………………………………. Roots of Human Violence and Greed: Psychospiritual Perspective …………. The Current Global Crisis and the Future of Humanity: A Transpersonal Perspective ……………………………………………………………. Psychedelic Research: Past, Present, and Future ………………………………. Abraham Maslow’s Fourth Force: A Brief History of Transpersonal Psychology. Stanislav Grof, M.D. In the middle of the twentieth century, American psychology was dominated by two major schools - behaviorism and Freudian psychology. Increasing dissatisfaction with these two orientations as adequate approaches to the human psyche led to the development of humanistic psychology. The main spokesman and most articulate representative of this new field was the well-known American psychologist Abraham Maslow. He offered an incisive critique of the limitations of behaviorism and psychoanalysis, or the First and the Second Force in psychology as he called them, and formulated the principles of a new perspective in psychology (Maslow 1969). Maslow’s main objection against behaviorism was that the study of animals, such as rats and pigeons, can only clarify those aspects of human functioning that we share with these animals. It thus has no relevance for the understanding of higher, specifically human qualities that are unique to human life, such as love, self-consciousness, self-determination, personal freedom, morality, art, philosophy, religion, and science. It is also largely useless in regard to some specifically human negative chara