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Conrad Lawrence's Writing Samples

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Abstract

What role does spirituality and creativity play in the realm of psychotherapy? What value might it have in times of global upheaval, when the collective psyche of all suffers under such stress? Certainly, psychotherapy influenced by Eastern thought has a different perspective than psychotherapy influenced by Western thought. It seems possible that creativity, enmeshed in the aspects of spirituality, mediation, hypnosis, expression, is the vector point which joins Eastern and Western psychotherapeutic thought. This paper compares the differences between Eastern and Western thought, the use of meditation and hypnosis, the value of expression and spirituality’s influence. It seeks to find the possible connections which have not been explored in 60 years of psychotherapeutic research, revealing the path for further examination.

“Without self-knowledge there will be no inner and outer revolution” (Krishnamurti, 1948, pg12). It is not mainly a stage for expression. Expression of the unwanted, inexpressible until a certain moment, simply reopens a wound without considering the main, urgent need to self-knowing and discovering. Bankart, Kosikawa, Nedate, Haruki (1992) noted that this type of expression for the purpose of release from this past is and operative practice of Western psychotherapy.

Introduction

In the process of overcoming suffering one must reveal what is behind the curtain of the self so one can have the opportunity to become renewed. This means a shift away from materialistic, economic, and reductionistic values which characterized the development of Western psychotherapy toward a more Eastern world view, which values contemplation over dissection, understanding over analysis, and concern over the isolation of the individual...

In the Western psychotherapy focus, there is no energy directed in preventing or decreasing traumatizing the mankind, decreasing human suffering and if we just try to catch up with the result there will not be a manifestation of change.

Important to Bankart, et al’s (1992) discussion was the consideration of the merging of the mind and the body. This begged discussion of the typically Eastern practice of Meditation used as a daily practice or as an operative practice in psychotherapy. When speaking of using Eastern thought and practices, such as meditation, one must consider the spirituality and its links to psychotherapy.

In 1957, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi inaugurated the Spiritual Regeneration Movement in the United States, bringing to the Western world the practice of Transcendental Meditation (TM). He tied this movement to science with his book, “Science of Being and Art of Living” (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, 1963)^ in which he unfolds the wisdom of the Veda and Vedic Literature taught to Maharishi by Guru Dev. He expressed that “All levels of peace and happiness, creativity, intelligence, and power are nothing but levels of being. One extreme of being is absolute, and the other is the grossest state of relative existence.” (p.67) The main goal is achieving the level of “pure being”, defined as being in the stage “of peace of mind” as formulated by Dalai Lama. (1999). This contrasts to what Bankart, et al, (1992), refer to as Western psychotherapy’s focus to release an individual from the bonds of the past through verbal expression.