The Observing Self: Mysticism and Psychotherapy [Paperback]

Arthur J. Deikman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0807029513 | ISBN-13: 978-0807029510 | Publication Date: April 15, 1983

In The Observing Self, noted psychiatrist Arthur J. Deikman lucidly relates how the mystical tradition can enable Western psychology to come to terms with the essential problems of meaning, self, and human progress.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Deikman is a Beacon Press author.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press (April 15, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807029513
• ISBN-13: 978-0807029510
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #510,310 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The common element in psychotherapy and meditation, April 9, 2007

By 

Paul F. Grim (PA. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Observing Self: Mysticism and Psychotherapy (Paperback)

This book should be required reading for all students of clinical psychology. When I first came across it I bought two copies just in case something happened to the first copy.
Students spend the first few years in psychology courses lost in all the different theories and therapies, lost in the forest of trees, and some never get the whole picture,ie,the communality that runs through them all. And the reason for
meditation practices being what they are
is seldom explained even by meditation masters. Deikman integrates psychotherapy and meditation. He basically splits a person in two: the one doing the experiencing and the one doing the observing. Normally we are too identified
with our thinking and feeling, but we are
not these because they can be observed. Psychotherapy is stepping back and looking at that tight identification.

Meditation carrys the process to the extreme,not for "life facilitation" as in psychotherapy but for purifying the self.
In Buddhist Vipassana meditation, you observe your body and mental processes(once you have enough concentration to observe)because,again, you are not what you can observe. That observing is awareness.

Deikman spells this all out in his masterpiece. It's too bad this is labeled mysticism in the book since mysticism has such a negative or irrational connotation. There is nothing obscure about it.

18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mysticism explained in modern psychological terminology, December 25, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Observing Self: Mysticism and Psychotherapy (Paperback)

Questions about Chapters 6-12

Chapter 6: The Object Self

1. How do Western psychology and the mystical tradition differ in their assumptions about the self? (page 65)

2. How does the understanding of the body which the infant develops help him/her understand the outside world? And what limitations does this basis of understanding impose on our conceptualizations? (page 68)

3. What change in orientation toward self and others does Deikman place at about three years of age? (page 70)

4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the object mode of consciousness? (pages 71-76)

5. How does Deikman characterize sexual experience in the object mode of consciousness, compared to the receptive mode of consciousness? (page 73)

6. What does Deikman say about the relationship of the receptive mode to "higher consciousness", the goal of mysticism? (pages 75-76) Chapter 7: Motivation, Virtue, and Consciousness

1. What is the difference between the tendency found within religions about virtuous behavior, and the mystical understanding of the relationship between motivation, mode of consciousness, and perception? How does the religious devotee differ in motivation from the aspiring student of mysticism, according to our text? (pages 77-78)

2. What qualities of character did Buddha explicitly advocate for his disciples? (page 78)

3. "One does not 'earn' enlightenment, one becomes capable of receiving it." Explain. (page 78)

4. What is the true definition of renunciation, according to a Zen master Deikman quotes? And what is its function? (page 79)

5. How does the story of "The Rabbi of Lublin and a Preacher" (page 81) relate to Deikman's critique of ordinary Western psychotherapy's approach to dealing with the desire to possess?

6. How does Deikman define humility and sincerity? What is their function? (pages 81- 85)

7. The psychoanalytic view is that "morality is an introject" - what does this phrase mean? How does the work of Kohlberg contradict this? What does Kohlberg mean by a "fully reversible moral claim"? And in what way is Kohlberg's view of moral development consistent with the mystical attitude ? (pages 85-89)

Chapter 8: The Observing Self

1. What are the four domains of experience that Deikman delineates for the self? Which aspect of the self does Deikman claim is fundamentally different from what he calls "the object world"? (pages 91-96)

2. What non-observing self methods are now used (as they have been for thousands of years) to relieve psychological distress? (page 97)

3. What is the special contribution of Western psychotherapy toward relieving psychological distress? What does this lead to? (pages 97-98)

4. How is zazen similar to free association in psychoanalysis? (page 97)

5. What was the important question to ask of a patient in psychotherapy, according to Fritz Perls, founder of Gestalt therapy? What is different, and better, about this question, than "Why?" (pages 98-99)

6. What is the crucial error behind the confused theory about the self in Western psychology, according to Deikman? (pages 99-103 - see especially page 101)

7. What does Deikman suggest a person should "disidentify" with as part of the psychotherapeutic process? Why was his laughing at a patient's distress therapeutic? (pages 105-109)

8. What motivation can there be which is not reducible to self-interest, in Deikman's view? (pages 110-114)

9. How is "serving the task" related to what Deikman calls "the problem of meaning"? (pages 114-118)

Chapter 9: The Trance of Ordinary Life

1. What is Deikman's meaning for the phrase which is the chapter title? (pages 119-131)

2. How is a person's fantasy life related to childhood? (pages 119-120)

3. What are R. Shor's three dynamic factors related to depth of hypnotic trance? How does Deikman relate these to "ordinary consciousness" and not just hypnosis? (pages 120-124)

4. Give two or three examples of how people may unconsciously be living in ways that reflect fantasy motivations, in Deikman's view. (pages 124-129)

5. What changes in a person's motivation are related to awakening from "the trance of ordinary life"? (pages 129-131)

Chapter 10: Meditation

1. What error does Deikman claim is being made by those who consider themselves "spiritual" just because they practice meditation?

2. What are the two types of meditation that Deikman identifies?

3. What is the principal aim of meditation, even more important than the two secondary activities of (1) deautomatization and (2) shifting from the object mode to the receptive mode?

4. On page 142 Deikman summarizes his viewpoint about the two kinds of meditative practice he has identified. What does he state is the result of achieving the most important goal of either practice?

5. How would you describe a Western psychotherapeutic approach to meditation?

6. What is the relevance to any Western use of meditation of the ethnic differences in adaptability and irritability of infants which have been found?

7. What are the classical requirements for the practice of meditation that have been almost completely ignored in Western scientific studies of it?

8. What possible negative effects of meditation does Deikman identify?

9. What suggestions does Deikman give for improving any Western use of meditation?

Chapter 11: Teaching Stories

1. Give four possible "lessons" from the story "The Reason" (to buy an elephant, Nasrudin claims).

2. Be familiar with the central assertion of this chapter: that teaching stories are subtly- crafted tools which people can use to make themselves aware of their unconscious motivations. Deikman states that they are especially suitable as an introduction to mystical science for a literate Western public.

Chapter 12: Mysticism and Psychotherapy

Mysticism cannot replace psychotherapy for those who need psychotherapy. However, psychotherapy can help people become objective enough to participate effectively in mystical studies. Those who do pursue the subject come to realize that they have a part to play in a long term, broadly based task - the development of humanity. The Appendix gives some guidelines for those who might be interested in deeper study of mysticism.

[Questions prepared by David Jodrey.]

16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Potential Remains Unexplored, April 29, 2001

By 

Brian Harmon (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Observing Self: Mysticism and Psychotherapy (Paperback)

I was attracted to this book by a very short but highly intriguing article written by Dr. Deikman in a recent mental health publication. Finishing the book left me with the same feeling I have when I've gone to see a movie on the virtues of a great preview, only to find that all the good parts of the movie were contained in the preview. The article brilliantly teases at the notion of a connection between mysticism and psychotherapy, but the books's treatment of it is superficial at best. While I agree with Dr. Deikman's assertion that mystical techniques can probably not be directly employed in psychotherapy, I would have been happier if he had at least been willing to issue a critique of major psychotherapeutic techniques in light of what he's learned from mystical traditions.

This book rests on an odd paradox. It seems intended to challenge academic thinkers traditionally hostile to any consideration of mysticism in typically analytical contexts. A noble goal, perhaps, but what incentive would someone with this perspective have to want to read this book? For those of us open to the possibility of a connection and hence most likely to be willing to read about it, we find in this book rudimentary concepts that are much better treated elsewhere. An unfortunate no-man's-land for an author whose interests and passions clearly deserve better...