Transpersonal Psychology Around the World
The present account of the intellectual history of transpersonal psychology has focused largely upon its development in the United States. Ideas spread, of course, out of the country that gave them birth to influence other countries, societies, cultures, especially in a world interconnected by a vast webwork of communication via newspaper, television, telephone, and especially the Internet. We have indeed become a global village, and journals dedicated to discourse in the area of transpersonal studies recognize this. Beginning with its 2002 issue, for instance, The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology presents summaries of research briefs that introduce readers to transpersonal researchers in countries such as Italy, Denmark, Russia, India, and South America. The International Journal of Transpersonal Psychology is devoted to publishing transpersonal theory and research from a full spectrum of international contributors. We will briefly consider two international venues for transpersonal psychology – Europe and Russia.
Europe. Transpersonal psychology’s growth in free Europe has been slow but continuous. Laura Boggio Gilot (2000), founder and president of the Italian Association of Transpersonal Psychology (IAPT) and cofounder and president of the European Transpersonal Psychology Association (ETPA), identifies origins of transpersonal thought in Europe in the works of the Swiss C.G. Jung (founder of Analytical Psychology), the Italian Roberto Assagioli (founder of Psychosynthesis), the German Karl Durckheim (mystic and writer), the French Robert Desoille (creator of the guided daydream), and the Austrian Viktor Frankl (the founder of logotherapy). According to Boggio Gilot, “The formal transpersonal movement started in Europe with the establishment of the European Transpersonal Association (EUROTAS) in 1987…and is not limited to any particular discipline, school of thought, or technique” (Gilot, 2000, p. 140).
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European Transpersonal Association (ETPA). Continuing professional growth of the transpersonal movement in Europe gave rise to the establishment of the European Transpersonal Association (ETPA) in 1999, which includes the national transpersonal associations of six countries including, Italy, France, Brazil, Spain, Germany, and Norway.
ETPA was established…as an association of professional psychologists and psychiatrists for the study, teaching, and research of transpersonal psychology and psychotherapy in the integral perspective. Pointing out the relevance of integral psychology, as defined by Ken Wilber, ETPA is focused on transformative spirituality and consciousness development beyond ego, through spiritual practices, in order to understand reality and heal individual and social life. In this context, ETPA fosters a dynamic epistemology toward body, mind, soul, and Spirit wholeness, and unified or nondual consciousness, in which the qualities of intuitive awareness, compassion, and discriminative wisdom are expressed in a socially engaged spirituality…. ETPA’s members are recommended to be committed to daily spiritual practices, such as meditation, action without attachment, service, cultivation of altruistic love, and truthfulness. (Gilot, 2000, p. 140)
Russia. In Russia, transpersonal psychology’s development has been rapid and compressed ever since the collapse of the Iron Curtain and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Brevde, Kozlov, & Maykov (2002) report on the first conference of the Russian Transpersonal Psychology and Psychotherapy Association (RTPPA) which provides an overview of the history of the transpersonal movement in Russia. Prior to the 1970’s transpersonal concepts were not formally recognized or accepted in Russia, although ideas derived from Christian Gnosticism, Greek Orthodox Christianity, Shamanism and Sufism had long influenced Russian folk culture and, more recently the theosophical ideas of Rudolf Steiner (Nalimov, 2001). From 1970-1990, as the transpersonal movement developed in the United States and started to spread elsewhere, it eventually found its way to Russia. Political repression pushed transpersonal ideas underground until 1990-1995 when Communism fell and organized associations and conferences began to be held.
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