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Integral Psychology: Yoga, Growth, and Opening the Heart (Suny Series in Transpersonal and Humanistic Psychology)

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Integral Psychology: Yoga, Growth and Opening the Heart, by Brant Cortright

Having read Dr. Cortright's earlier Psychotherapy and Spirit, I was pleased to discover that Integral Psychology was available this year, and read it immediately upon receiving it. It's been ten years since the earlier publication, and the author has [from my long-distance observation] made important progress in his spiritual growth, opening of the heart, and writing style during this time.

The book is based upon Sri Aurobindo's complex Integral understanding, and though it focuses upon psychological aspects of that theory, the spiritual and developmental features are also mentioned. Through Ken Wilbur's use of the term `Integral', many have become interested in the concept; Dr. Cortright presents a fuller explanation of how Aurobindo's thinking can be related to psychotherapeutic theory and practice.

It's a pleasure to read someone who is so steeped in an Eastern approach, and who can relate it to contemporary psychological, clinical issues. For example, whole chapters link behavior change therapy to karma yoga, mindfulness to jnana yoga, and heart-opening to bhakti yoga. In these and other chapters, sometimes with clinical examples, Dr. Cortright demonstrates his superior integration of Aurobindo's original theory, his own adaptations, and his use of such understanding in psychotherapy.

Some readers will be most touched by the early chapter, The Core Wounding of Our Time. Based in part on ego-psychology and self-psychology, Dr. Cortright suggests that "The core wounding of our time is a rip in the very fabric of the self", and goes on to suggest that it effects the mind, higher-, central-, and lower-emotional aspects, as well as the body and spirit. This essentially diagnostic chapter is an important precursor to the later therapeutic orientation. Others may be more interested in the concept and approach to spiritual emergency; since I've had little clinical experience with this proposed entity I found it less compelling.

More broadly, for the reader interested in the possibility of integrating the integral theory of Sri Aurobindo and the thinking of a contemporary clinician and Professor [California Institute of Integral Studies], this book is highly recommended.

Brant Cortright (Professor of Psychology, California Institute of Integral Studies) presents Integral Psychology: Yoga, Growth, and Opening the Heart, a daring new approach to psychology and healing that seeks to learn from Eastern methods that focus on the inner being and the psyche's spiritual foundation, as well as the Western methods that focus on the outer being and the injuries of body, heart, mind, and self. Chapters apply classical East Indian yogas as a means to perceive psychotherapy: psychotherapy as behavior change or karma yoga, psychotherapy as mindfulness practice or jnana yoga, and psychotherapy as opening the heart or bhakti yoga. An approach that combines the best of both worlds for psychological and spiritual healing and self-improvement lies at the heart of Integral Psychology. Though Integral Psychology touches upon spirituality, the concepts presented are emphatically not meant to convert the reader to any specific religion, but rather to promote healing and wellness for patients of all faiths and cultural backgrounds. The result is a highly recommended supplementary text especially recommended for psychologists and psychotherapists.

Brant Cortright's Integral Psychology was for me a reader's digest version of the entire history of Psychology and Transpersonal Psychology into the even deeper realms of our being with Shri Aurobindo's " Integral Yoga". His "map" showed me, in a remarkably concise way, the ever deepening paths of the west and the profoundly deep offering from the east of growing through the opening of our hearts and souls. For the beginner, what an overview this is and for the advanced one, what an acknowledgment of spirit and matter in it's evolution!

I frequently felt touched by the obvious sensitivity and care taken by Dr. Cortright in writing "Integral Psychology: Yoga, Growth and Opening the Heart".

"Integral Psychology" reaches beyond the bounds of empirical science to embrace the spiritual, and indeed the soul. Dr. Cortright insists this bold extension is essential for psychology if it is ever going to discover the defining essence of the human being. In looking to psychology's future, Dr. Cortright proposes a synthesis of western psychology and eastern spirituality. This synthesis is based on the life work of the great twentieth century Indian sage Sri Aurobindo.

Bringing western psychology and eastern spirituality together facilitates opening the heart. Both western psychology and eastern spirituality aspire to open the heart, although, as Dr. Cortright explains, each opens different areas of the heart. To open the heart fully they need each other. Opening the heart clears the way to discover the soul, the eternal core of the human psyche.

"Integral Psychology" is not a religious or dogmatic book. It is a thoughtful characterisation of the psychology traditions of the east and the west, with a result that is inclusive and respectful of both. This book challenges the rational mind and entices those serious about psychology and psychotherapy toward a deeper and expanded perspective.

Dr. Cortright gives us a new look at practical psychology. From this perspective, it is within our human potential to know our true self and the most profound purpose of physical existence. Reflecting the optimism of Sri Aurobindo, "Integral Psychology" embraces the notion, basic to eastern psychology, but revolutionary in western psychology, "that our deepest identity is a self-existent joy, love and light."

Our most essential identity is our soul, which is itself a spark of Divine love. Congruent with our deepest human aspirations, integral psychology aims to move us into alignment with our soul's consciousness. Expressing this unification in daily life is the next step in human potential and the goal of integral psychology.