The centre for Transpersonal Psychology The Centre for Transpersonal Psychology

 

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The genesis of Transpersonal Psychology as a fourth distinct branch or force within psychology, in contrast to first force (classical psychoanalytic theory), second force (positivistic or behavioral theory) and third force (humanistic psychology), was conceived between 1966-69 in the United States. Its birth was marked by the first issue of the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology (1969) and the establishment of the American Association for Transpersonal Psychology (1971).

Whereas the primary emphasis at that time in the US stressed inward and transcendent experience, self-realisation, and an orientation towards the actualizing dimension, the foundation of the Centre for Transpersonal Psychology (CTP) in the UK by Ian Gordon-Brown and Barbara Somers (1973) differed in many respects to the Americans in its fundamental approach. Ian Gordon-Brown and Barbara Somers began at the grass roots, developing a series of workshops that combined structured experiential work underpinned by two primary theoretical sources: the Analytical Psychology of Carl Jung, brought in primarily by Barbara’s twenty year experience in Jungian psychotherapy, and its close associate the Psychosynthesis of Roberto Assagioli, with whom Ian had studied in the US. Ian’s background in Industrial Psychology and as a Consultant Psychologist, as well as a psychotherapist, encouraged the teaching of a transpersonal psychology that was firmly grounded in daily experience and filtered through the individual person. Moreover, Eastern systems of spiritual development, especially Tibetan meditation and Zen martial arts, and the work of Alice Bailey, were important formative influences in their teachings. From these workshops, and in response to growing demand, they began an informal training in transpersonal skills in counselling and psychotherapy, namely a transpersonal perspective that would enrich any pre-existing theoretical orientation. This has created an informal network of therapeutic counselling and psychotherapy practitioners and allied professionals who work from a transpersonal perspective.

The guiding influence of Ian and Barbara in bringing together thinking in Jungian, Humanistic and Transpersonal philosophy has ensured that the Centre for Transpersonal Psychology has been a prime mover in the development of transpersonal psychology in the UK over the last thirty years. Alongside this, the belief was always strongly held that therapists are useful only to the extent that they have integrated their experience of life with their being as a person.

Following Ian's unexpected and sad death in October 1996, the Centre's work was further developed upon the foundations that Ian and Barbara had laid by two experienced psychotherapists, Elizabeth Wilde McCormick and Nigel Wellings. Bringing together a varied background of psychotherapeutic orientations and psychiatric disciplines, they renewed the life force of CTP with additional philosophical ideas and developed a revised curriculum for a new professional training, paying particular attention to the relationship between psychotherapy and spiritual practice. They were supported in this by the deep knowledge of CTP's spirit carried by the Centre's Administrator, Barbara Scott. This has ensured that the Centre has entered a new phase in its intellectual development and maturity, reflecting the shifting paradigms and ideological debates existing, over the last decade, within the international field of Transpersonal Psychology as a whole.

This in essence is the continuing tension and dialogue between three transpersonal developmental perspectives: a broadly European transpersonal movement that sees its origins in Jung’s Analytical Psychology, and which is emphasized in Washburn’s spiral-dynamic perspective; a US transpersonal movement, which is influenced heavily by Wilber’s Integral Psychology and structural-hierarchical perspective, an impressive meta-system that contains many “big” concepts including the Perennial Philosophy, the Spectrum of Consciousness from Pre-egoic, through Egoic, to the Trans-egoic, the Pre/Trans Fallacy, the Four Quadrants Model and also the individual need for contemplative spiritual practice. This movement has been informed by the non-dual philosophies of Vedanta and Buddhism. Thirdly and more recently, Ferrer’s participatory perspective has challenged perennialism, the limitations of transpersonal conceptual and hierarchical thinking, and the over-reliance on individual, inner, subjective experience as a form of spiritual reductionism. He argues for a participatory vision and open dialogue that will allow for a permissive spiritual pluralism and universalism that respects the irreducible diversity of spiritual traditions and paths as the nature of spirit is intrinsically indeterminate.

The CTP Vision

The Centre for Transpersonal Psychology endeavours to hold the tension of these diverse streams with an intention to embrace and celebrate difference and to welcome inclusivity. Ian Gordon-Brown clearly predicted this need for pluralism with an intelligent and inquiring openness to exploring such diversity; floating the idea that CTP might come to stand one day for “The Centre for Transpersonal Psychologies”, not singular but plural. Although our name as yet remains unchanged, the spirit of his intuition has been taken up and internalized, and in recent years the Centre has stood for the ongoing attempt to build a synthesis between Western psychological traditions and principally (but not exclusively) Asian contemplative traditions. In James Hillman’s use of the terms, the marriage of soul and spirit.

The struggle to maintain and contain this synthesis lies at the core of the vision of CTP, both in the way that we as therapeutic practitioners try to be present to ourselves as human beings, but also in our holistic approach as integrative psychotherapists working in a transpersonal context. Our vision and philosophy is dynamic in that it represents a continuing work in progress, where paradox, internecine debate, passionate argument and counter-argument are readily included so that “there shall be in that rich earth a richer dust concealed” (Brooke, 1935), producing an enriched and honest soil from which something interesting, heartfelt and vigorously growing will emerge. From this, the following central ideas express our important transpersonal theoretical perspectives:

  • The understanding that human beings are capable of making a living and meaningful relationship with suffering, a process Hillman calls “Soul making”, and also have the capacity to step into states of “spiritual” awareness that move beyond the ordinary everyday consciousness of personality. Being present in suffering, not by just intellectually understanding it, neither by repressing emotion nor by unconsciously acting out emotion aroused by it, we make our own vessel of transformation, where it is not the will of the ego that makes change, but a trust in the wiser and knowing nature of the psyche
     
  • The development of a robust healthy sense of self that can survive the intentional surrender of its own boundaries and the fulfillment of the essential tasks of appropriate ego formation lie at the base of all transpersonal development
     
  • The Centre’s integrative approach acknowledges that there are many therapeutic pathways for building a “good-enough” stable ego system, and each has insights to offer. In consequence students are exposed to many different methods within clinical practice that address patterns of ego wounding, including psychodynamic, object relations, archetypal Jungian, Gestalt, personal psychosynthesis and other approaches that aid ego building and ego integration work
     
  • Accepting as fundamental that some sort of functioning self is necessary if any spiritual work is to be truly integrated, attempts at synthesis of pre-personal and personal with transpersonal stages of development within CTP show the predomination of two primary streams of conceptual thinking within its teaching
     
  • One stream represents a synthesis of Object Relations models of developmental psychology within a Jungian perspective (and aspects of Psychosynthesis). Here the transpersonal emphasis is represented by Jung’s Collective Unconscious and Archetypes, particularly the archetype of the Self, the transcendent function and the ego/Self dialogue
     
  • The other stream represents the synthesis of Western psychologies (e.g. psychoanalytic, object relations etc) that have no spiritual pretensions, with the contemplative traditions (e.g. Buddhism, Vedanta) that focus on the nature of the self once formed and how to be liberated from the suffering identification with such a self engenders. The former describe the process of and problems of making a self, while the latter describe the transpersonal experience and method of moving beyond (behind, above, deeper within) it
     
  • A bridge between Western psychologies and contemplative traditions which has been introduced into the CTP curriculum and is achieving growing interest is the Buddhist Vipassana practice of Mindfulness, or insight meditation, as expressed in the work of Wilber, Vaughn and Walsh, Epstein, Engler and Welwood. This creates a marriage between psychotherapeutic reflection and unconditional presence, wherein the individual can develop the ability to be mindfully present as transpersonal witness with mental and emotional experience as it arises without resorting to the twin defences of repression or enactment. Gendlin’s technique of Focusing is one example of a bridge that allows both exploration of personal experience and a way over to establishing the presence of the transpersonal witness
     
  • CTP’s approach recognizes that psychopathology as a label can be unhelpful and disabling, and that “soul-making” can derive from the confrontation with one’s Shadow as much as soul enrichment from the Light. However, it does not encourage or approve of misusing spirituality to avoid the necessary developmental processes for healthy ego functioning, and is fully cognizant of ego defences and therapeutic collusions masquerading themselves as spirituality
     
  • CTP has always been open to each person finding their own way to practice and understand an integrative psychotherapy within a transpersonal context, and equally accepts the choice to work in a purely Jungian or Psychosynthesis way or Contemplative way, or indeed any way, that is respectful and open to the inclusion of a transpersonal dimension within existing personal clinical work

 

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