REL407 Guiding Questions for Readings

Guiding Questions, REL 407/507 Buddhism and Psychotherapy

Week 3 (10/4) This week's readings focus on C. G. Jung's Archetypal Psychology, his view of Buddhism, and one view of Tibetan Buddhism

Radmila Moacanin, "Chapter 2: C. G. Jung" (CR4).

Moacanin gives an overview of Jung's Archetypal Psychology - structure (ego consciousness, personal unconscious, collective unconscious), process (individuation - becoming an individual and becoming whole at the same time), and content, especially the Archetypes: the Shadow, which overlaps both the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. Other archetypes primarily manifest in the collective unconscious: Anima and Animus, the Great Mother, and the like. What is the relationship between consciousness and the unconscious in all of this?

Connie Zweig and Katy Butler, "Introduction: The Shadow Side," and "Encounter the Shadow in Buddhist America."

What is the shadow? What are its negative implications and impacts, and what are its positive potential and potential for creative expression?

Anne Carolyn Klein, "Psychology, the Sacred, and Energetic Sensing."

Anne Klein emphasizes the sense of energetic sensing experienced in Buddhist practice, especially in the master-disciple relationship. What is this energetic sensing? How might it be similar to and also different from Jung's view of psychic experience?

Week 4 (10/18) Ann Ulanov, Creativity and Madness.

Ulanov is a Jungian analyst who describes the process of individuation and provides this work as a commentary on Jung's Red Book. Here is a link to a Reading Guide to Creativity and Madness along with Guiding Questions.

Week 5 (10/25) Buddhism and Psychotherapy as a Field, Part II

Jack Engler, "Promises and Perils of the Spiritual Path," B and P Across Cultures (RT).

Engler examines problematic cultural assumptions, false views of "Enlightenment as a goal," and hidden ego-centered assumptions or arrogance among Buddhist practitioners, especially as he has observed among Western followers. How do Engler's observations and insights align with or depart from Jung's ideas concerning problems arising from naive adoption of Buddhist meditation practices among Westerners as described towards the end of "Psychological Commentary on the Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation" (CR6).

Jeremy Safran, "Cross-Cultural Dialogue and the Resonance of Narrative Strands," B and P Across Cultures (RT).

Safran, while recognizing the different cultural context out of which psychotherapeutic and Buddhist practices have arisen, propose that they can be mutually illuminating and fruitfully synthesized. What are two points where he sees them converging and possibly synthesized?

Harvey Aronson, "Buddhist Practice in Relation to Self-Representation: A Cross-Cultural Dialogue," B and P Across Cultures (RT).

Aronson makes observations about cultural differences in the 'self'-concept between Western psychology and Asian Buddhism, but he also identifies points of contact. How does this relate to Engler's observations about Western practitioners of Buddhism? Do they complement each other, or are there potential points of disagreement between them?

Week 6 (11/1) Buddhist-based Views of Self and Psychology: Tibetan, Pure Land

Mark Unno, "The Original Buddhist Rebel - Shinran," 1-16 (CR9).

Shinran is the founder of Shin Buddhism, the largest sect of Japanese Buddhism, and a development of East Asian Pure Land Buddhism. The core practice is invoking the Name of Amida Buddha, Namu Amida Butsu, which means, "I, this foolish being, entrust myself to the awakening of infinite light." The practitioners simultaneously realizes their deep attachments, or "blind passions," and the boundless compassion that releases them into the flow of the Oneness of Reality. What is Shinran's view of society and Shin Buddhist practice? What are some similarities and differences between Shinran's view of Shin Buddhist realization and Jung's process of individuation?

Karen Kissel Wegela, The Courage To Be Present (CR7).

What does Wegela mean by 'exchange'? What is the Buddhist basis for this practice, and how is this applied in Contemplative Psychotherapy?

Julie Hanada-Lee, "Shan-dao's Verses on Guiding Others and Healing the Heart, " B and P Across Cultures (RT).

In this article, Hanada-Lee describes her training in Clinical Pastoral Education. How is her supervisor's relationship to her, and then her relation to her client, informed by her understanding of Buddhist compassion?

Mark Unno, "The Borderline between Buddhism and Psychotherapy," B and P Across Cultures

What does Unno mean by "deep hearing" in the Shin Buddhist and psychotherapeutic contexts. How does the experience or realization of human limitations become an opening or portal to deeper realization of compassionate awareness in the Shin Buddhist and psychotherapeutic contexts? What are some similarities and differences?

Week 7 (11/8) Pure Land and Zen Buddhism Intersecting with Psychotherapy

Marsha Linehan, Building a Life Worth Living (RT).

Through her memoir, Marsha Linehan charts her journey through Borderline Personality Disorder and the innovation of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy designed to address BPD, including her journey through and incorporation of Zen Buddhist meditation and practice. In what sense is Marsha Linehan a behvioralist in her orientation as a psychiatrist and psychotherapist? What similarities and differences are there between her approach and that of Jung as well as the Buddhist approaches we have read about so far in the class?

Mark Unno, "Discipleship, Fellowship, and the Therapeutic Alliance," (PDF download)

How might the concept of "therapeutic alliance" be identified in the following two episodes included: Erickson and the case of the gap-teethed woman, and Maura O'Halloren's resistance to the idea of marriage advanced by her Zen master Go Roshi? Are they cases of the lack of this alliance or its appropriate function? Can the Buddhist notion of great compassion discussed in the conclusion hold and resolve the contradictions examined in the body of this article?

Henry Shukman, "Light and Dark: Koans and Dreams" (CR8)

How do koans in Zen practice and dreamwork in the psychotherapy of Analytical Psychology help with stories that are stuck at one level open possibilities towards stories of renewal, connection, and healing at another, purportedly deeper level? What are the similarities and differences between koan practice and dreamwork, according to Shukman?

Anne Spencer, "The Flowers Scatter" (CR10)

As a genetic counselor, how does Anne Spencer face and overcome the burnout or compassion fatigue that she faces?

Week 8 (11/15) Robert Akeret, Tales from a Travelling Couch

This is the work of Robert Akeret, a student of Erich Fromm and Rollo May, who were both influenced by classical psychodynamic models of psychotherapy as well as by other sources including Buddhism. What would some of our Buddhist thinkers and other therapists from this course say about his work?

Specifically, reflect on ideas of 1) process: What is Akeret's process in working with a client? How does this compare with Buddhist practice, the work of other therapists who incorporate such ideas as 'developmental stages' and 'individuation'? 2) method: What is Akeret's method in working with clients? How does this compare with Buddhist skillful means (upaya); strategic and integrative (archetypal) psychotherapies; and the like?

Chapter 1: "Naomi: Dancer from the Dance"

This in part a story about self-identity. Can you relate Safran (object-relations), Engler ("being somebody"), and Buddhist notions of no-self and emptiness to Naomi's story and Safran's therapeutic relation to her?

Chapter 2: "Soul of Love"

At one level, this is a problem of mistaken self-identity and misrelationship. Or is it? In relation to this episode, compare and contrast themes of human love (attachment), distorted love, and compassion (unconditional, nonattached love), the latter as found in Shinran's Shin Buddhism?

Chapter 3: "Seth: The Real Thing"

Are Buddhist themes of suffering and the transformation of suffering into great compassion applicable here? If so, how?
Are there other ways to think about Seth's development, such as in terms of Jung's 'individuation', or the realization of a Zen koan (see Henry Shukman, "Light and Dark: Koans and Dreams" (CR8)?

Week 9 (11/22) Beyond the Box

Shoko Sugao, "An Abortion's Influence on a Woman: Confrontation with Death," 1-15 (CR11)

Abortion is widespread, here in the U.S. as well as in Japan, and although there is heated controversy, it is accepted within a wide swath of mainstream culture. Yet, it can be very difficult to deal with emotionally, and there are very few known outlets for discussing and dealing with the emotional, psychological, and spiritual consequences or ramifications. What does this article tell us about the relationship between outwardly accepted social practices, inwardly complex ramifications of practices such as abortion, and the place of journal keeping, rituals, and Buddhist ceremonies for helping to resolve or heal the resulting inner pain and difficulty?

Oliver Sacks, An Anthropologist on Mars, 244-295 (CR12)

Autism is not considered within the range of psychogenic disorders that are the usual province of psychotherapy. Oftentimes, those with autism are considered to be permanently unable to relate to deep human emotions and what it means to lead an emotionally meaningful existence. Oliver Sacks is not a therapist but a neurologist. Yet, does he have a potentially therapeutic effect on Temple Grandin? Is she able to connect with something deeply meaningful in an affective way?

Temple Grandin, Thinking in Pictures, 191-206 (CR13)

This excerpt describes a dramatic moment at the end of this work, in which Temple Grandin describes a Zen-like moment? What is the significance of her reference in this regard? How does it fit into her larger questions about religion and life? Does it actually have a Zen Buddhist resonance? If so, in what way?