The Naturalistic Approach to the History of Transpersonal Psychology
Transpersonal Psychology as a Reflection of America’s Visionary “Folk Psychology” Tradition
Transpersonal psychology as a uniquely American phenomenon. Looking beyond the Continental flavor and European character that formed the background of many of transpersonal psychology’s early pioneers (e.g., Fechner, Myers, Freud, Adler, Jung, and Assagioli), modern transpersonal psychology in many ways is a uniquely American psychology borne of the Zeitgeist of the 1960’s. Indeed, modern transpersonal psychology can be seen as a child of the 1960’scounterculture reflecting the grand idealism, optimism, individualism, adventuresomeness, and pragmatism of the country, its fundamental belief in the higher potentialities of human nature, and its basic conviction that spirituality is an important aspect of the American character.
The three streams of American psychology. According to historiographer Eugene Taylor (1999, p. x) in his book, Shadow Culture: Psychology and Spirituality in America, three different “streams” of history have flowed together to contribute to the vitality and significance of modern American psychology. One stream is the history of American laboratory psychological science. A second stream is the history of American applied clinical psychology. The third stream is the history of America’s visionary tradition of “folk psychology,”
3. Referring to a psychospiritual tradition of character development that appears to have been endemic to the American science ever since the founding of the American colonies and that now appears to be driving a significant revolution in American popular culture focused on an experiential interpretation of higher consciousness. (Taylor, 1999, p. x)
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The American visionary “folk psychology” tradition. Transpersonal psychology can be viewed as an academic version of the third stream of American psychology - America’s visionary “folk psychology.”
Such a psychology is characterized by its emphasis on multiple realities, by its view that personality is shaped by dynamic forces of the unconscious, and by its aim toward an understanding of extraordinary states of consciousness and expanded human potential. It is also known by its intense attraction to the natural environment and by its hint that there is some fundamental relationship between a return to nature and the recovery of basic values. It can be identified by its millennial vision of world peace. (Taylor, 1999, pp. 15-16)
Transpersonal psychology as the modern representative of America’s “alternative reality tradition.” The American visionary tradition and, by implication, the transpersonal movement as a modern representative of that visionary character, has its roots in what philosopher of religion Robert Ellwood (1973) in his book, Religious and Spiritual Groups in America, called the “alternative reality tradition” in the West whose language is simultaneously psychological and spiritual.
It rests on the assumption that mental healing is an essential part of physical health and that there is healing in community. It promotes the paranormal as an integral part of human functioning, and it takes seriously accounts of spirit communication on the after-death plane, dream images, personal symbols of one’s destiny, and religious visions… Above all, the most important element of this psychology is its emphasis on the possibility of the transcendent – that consciousness can be molded into something higher, purer, better. (Taylor, 1999, pp. 15-16)
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