Being

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Incomplete, sparse and badly ordered. To sort, expand on, and merge to/from Action, Health, Organisation, etc.

Biological

See also Health, Biology

Genetic


Central nervous system

Neurons


Brain

biiig mess currently








  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalamus - situated between the cerebral cortex and the midbrain, relaying of sensory and motor signals to the cerebral cortex, and the regulation of consciousness, sleep, and alertness.




  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal_ganglia - The basal ganglia (or basal nuclei) comprises multiple subcortical nuclei, of varied origin, in the brains of vertebrates, which are situated at the base of the forebrain. Basal ganglia are strongly interconnected with the cerebral cortex, thalamus, and brainstem, as well as several other brain areas. The basal ganglia is associated with a variety of functions including: control of voluntary motor movements, procedural learning, routine behaviors or "habits" such as bruxism, eye movements, cognition and emotion. Currently popular theories implicate the basal ganglia primarily in action selection; that is, it helps determine the decision of which of several possible behaviors to execute at any given time. In more specific terms, the basal ganglia's primary function is likely to control and regulate activities of the motor and premotor cortical areas so that voluntary movements can be performed smoothly
Metencephalon
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metencephalon - composed of the pons and the cerebellum; contains a portion of the fourth ventricle; and the trigeminal nerve (CN V), abducens nerve (CN VI), facial nerve (CN VII), and a portion of the vestibulocochlear nerve (CN VIII).
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebellum - (Latin for "little brain") is a region of the brain that plays an important role in motor control. It may also be involved in some cognitive functions such as attention and language, and in regulating fear and pleasure responses; its movement-related functions are the most solidly established. The cerebellum does not initiate movement, but it contributes to coordination, precision, and accurate timing. It receives input from sensory systems of the spinal cord and from other parts of the brain, and integrates these inputs to fine tune motor activity. Cerebellar damage does not cause paralysis, but instead produces disorders in fine movement, equilibrium, posture, and motor learning.
Spinal chord

Spinal chord

Peripheral nervous system

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somatic_nervous_system - associated with the voluntary control of body movements via skeletal muscles, consists of efferent nerves responsible for stimulating muscle contraction, including all the non-sensory neurons connected with skeletal muscles and skin.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomic_nervous_system - visceral nervous system or involuntary nervous system, acts as a control system that functions largely below the level of consciousness to control visceral functions, including heart rate, digestion, respiratory rate, salivation, perspiration, pupillary dilation, micturition (urination), sexual arousal, breathing and swallowing. Most autonomous functions are involuntary but they can often work in conjunction with the somatic nervous system which provides voluntary control.


to sort





Being

"Do not follow in the footsteps of sages. Seek what they sought."

"If the truth can be told so as to be understood, it will be believed." (William Blake: "Truth cannot be told, so as to be understood, and not be believ'd.")

"“Understanding” is a vague concept." — Wittgenstein 

What I if told you
You the read first line wrong
Same with the second

"there is old wisdom enough to contradict the other half of old wisdom" - approx.

Emotions


  • Animal spirits - "The more we learn about the emotions shared by all mammals, the more we must rethink our own human intelligence" [4]



  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facial_expression - one or more motions or positions of the muscles beneath the skin of the face. These movements convey the emotional state of an individual to observers. Facial expressions are a form of nonverbal communication. They are a primary means of conveying social information between humans, but they also occur in most other mammals and some other animal species.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affect_(psychology) - refers to the experience of feeling or emotion, a key part of the process of an organism's interaction with stimuli. The affective domain represents one of the three divisions described in modern psychology.

Affective states are considered psycho-physiological constructs and are split up into three main categories: valence, arousal, and motivational intensity. Valence is the positive-to-negative evaluation of the subjectively experienced state. Emotional valence is defined as referring to the emotion’s consequences, eliciting circumstances, or subjective feel or attitude. Arousal is by the activation of the sympathetic nervous system and can be measured subjectively. Arousal is a construct that is closely related to motivational intensity but they differ because motivation requires action implications while arousal does not. Motivational intensity refers to impulsion to act. It is the strength of urge to move toward or away from a stimulus. Simply moving is not considered approach motivation without a motivational urge present. All three of these categories are important when looking at the effect of affective states on cognitive scope. Initially, it was thought that positive affects broadened cognitive scope whereas negative affects narrowed cognitive scope. However, evidence now suggests that affects high in motivational intensity narrow cognitive scope whereas affects low in motivational intensity broaden cognitive scope. The cognitive scope has indeed proven to be a highly effective cognitive approach.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valence_(psychology) - Valence, as used in psychology, especially in discussing emotions, means the intrinsic attractiveness (positive valence) or aversiveness (negative valence) of an event, object, or situation. However, the term is also used to characterize and categorize specific emotions. For example, the emotions popularly referred to as "negative", such as anger and fear, have "negative valence". Joy has "positive valence". Positively valenced emotions are evoked by positively valenced events, objects, or situations. The term is also used about the hedonic tone of feelings, affect, certain behaviors (for example, approach and avoidance), goal attainment or nonattainment, and conformity with or violation of norms. Ambivalence can be viewed as conflict between positive and negative valence-carriers. Theorists taking a valence-based approach to studying affect, judgment, and choice posit that emotions with the same valence (i.e. anger and fear or pride and surprise) produce a similar influence on judgments and choices.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appraisal_theory - the theory in psychology that emotions are extracted from our evaluations (appraisals or estimates) of events that cause specific reactions in different people. Essentially, our appraisal of a situation causes an emotional, or affective, response that is going to be based on that appraisal.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mood_(psychology) - an emotional state. Moods differ from emotions in that they are less specific, less intense, and less likely to be triggered by a particular stimulus or event. Moods generally have either a positive or negative valence. In other words, people typically speak of being in a good mood or a bad mood. Mood also differs from temperament or personality traits which are even longer lasting.


  • Bodily maps of emotions - Emotions coordinate our behavior and physiological states during survival-salient events and pleasurable interactions. Even though we are often consciously aware of our current emotional state, such as anger or happiness, the mechanisms giving rise to these subjective sensations have remained unresolved. Here we used a topographical self-report tool to reveal that different emotional states are associated with topographically distinct and culturally universal bodily sensations; these sensations could underlie our conscious emotional experiences. Monitoring the topography of emotion-triggered bodily sensations brings forth a unique tool for emotion research and could even provide a biomarker for emotional disorders.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blunted_affect - clinical term describing a lack of emotional reactivity (affect display) on the part of an individual. It manifests as a failure to express feelings either verbally or non-verbally, especially when talking about issues that would normally be expected to engage the emotions. Expressive gestures are rare and there is little animation in facial expression or vocal inflection. Conversely, there may be poor modulation of feelings as well, with reduced expression punctuated by periods of very strong expression, including laughing uncontrollably, crying inconsolably, and outbursts of anger.

Microexpressions

Memory



Consciousness

See also Science

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consciousness - the quality or state of awareness, or, of being aware of an external object or something within oneself. It has been defined as: sentience, awareness, subjectivity, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood, and the executive control system of the mind. Despite the difficulty in definition, many philosophers believe that there is a broadly shared underlying intuition about what consciousness is. As Max Velmans and Susan Schneider wrote in The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness: "Anything that we are aware of at a given moment forms part of our consciousness, making conscious experience at once the most familiar and most mysterious aspect of our lives."

At one time consciousness was viewed with skepticism by many scientists, but in recent years it has become a significant topic of research in psychology, neuropsychology, and neuroscience. The primary focus is on understanding what it means biologically and psychologically for information to be present in consciousness—that is, on determining the neural and psychological correlates of consciousness. The majority of experimental studies assess consciousness by asking human subjects for a verbal report of their experiences (e.g., "tell me if you notice anything when I do this"). Issues of interest include phenomena such as subliminal perception, blindsight, denial of impairment, and altered states of consciousness produced by drugs and alcohol, or spiritual or meditative techniques.

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentience - the ability to feel, perceive, or to experience subjectivity. Eighteenth-century philosophers used the concept to distinguish the ability to think (reason) from the ability to feel (sentience). In modern Western philosophy, sentience is the ability to experience sensations (known in philosophy of mind as "qualia"). In Eastern philosophy, sentience is a metaphysical quality of all things that requires respect and care. The concept is central to the philosophy of animal rights, because sentience is necessary for the ability to suffer, and thus is held to confer certain rights.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognition - is mental processing that includes the attention of working memory, comprehending and producing language, calculating, reasoning, problem solving, and decision making. Various disciplines, such as psychology, philosophy and linguistics all study cognition. However, the term's usage varies across disciplines; for example, in psychology and cognitive science, "cognition" usually refers to an information processing view of an individual's psychological functions. It is also used in a branch of social psychology called social cognition to explain attitudes, attribution, and group dynamics. In cognitive psychology and cognitive engineering, cognition is typically assumed to be information processing in a participant’s or operator’s mind or brain. Cognition is a faculty for the processing of information, applying knowledge, and changing preferences. Cognition, or cognitive processes, can be natural or artificial, conscious or unconscious. These processes are analyzed from different perspectives within different contexts, notably in the fields of linguistics, anesthesia, neuroscience, psychiatry, psychology, philosophy, anthropology, biology, systemics, and computer science. Within psychology or philosophy, the concept of cognition is closely related to abstract concepts such as mind, intelligence. It encompasses the mental functions, mental processes (thoughts), and states of intelligent entities (humans, collaborative groups, human organizations, highly autonomous machines, and artificial intelligences).
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_problem_of_consciousness - the problem of explaining how and why we have qualia or phenomenal experiences — how sensations acquire characteristics, such as colours and tastes. David Chalmers, who introduced the term "hard problem" of consciousness, contrasts this with the "easy problems" of explaining the ability to discriminate, integrate information, report mental states, focus attention, etc. "it is the only major question in the sciences that we don't even know how to ask."



  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_ethology - a branch of ethology concerned with the influence of conscious awareness and intention on the behaviour of an animal. Donald Griffin, a zoology professor in the United States, set up the foundations for researches in the cognitive awareness of animals within their habitats. The fusion of cognitive science and classical ethology into cognitive ethology "emphasizes observing animals under more-or-less natural conditions, with the objective of understanding the evolution, adaptation (function), causation, and development of the species-specific behavioral repertoire"
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought - can refer to the ideas or arrangements of ideas that result from thinking, the act of producing thoughts, or the process of producing thoughts. Despite the fact that thought is a fundamental human activity familiar to everyone, there is no generally accepted agreement as to what thought is or how it is created. Thoughts are the result or product of spontaneous acts of thinking. Because thought underlies many human actions and interactions, understanding its physical and metaphysical origins, processes, and effects has been a longstanding goal of many academic disciplines including artificial intelligence, biology, philosophy, psychology, and sociology. Thinking allows humans to make sense of, interpret, represent or model the world they experience, and to make predictions about that world. It is therefore helpful to an organism with needs, objectives, and desires as it makes plans or otherwise attempts to accomplish those goals. Thoughts are the keys which determine one's goal.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_functions - also known as cognitive control and supervisory attentional system) is an umbrella term for the management (regulation, control) of cognitive processes, including working memory, reasoning, task flexibility, and problem solving as well as planning and execution. The executive system is a theorized cognitive system in psychology that controls and manages other cognitive processes, such as executive functions. The prefrontal areas of the frontal lobe are necessary but not solely sufficient for carrying out these functions.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_consciousness - a term the American biologist Gerald Edelman coined to describe the ability, found in humans and some animals, to integrate observed events with memory to create an awareness of the present and immediate past of the world around them. This form of consciousness is also sometimes called "sensory consciousness". Put another way, primary consciousness is the presence of various subjective sensory contents of consciousness such as sensations, perceptions, and mental images. For example, primary consciousness includes a person's experience of the blueness of the ocean, a bird's song, and the feeling of pain. Thus, primary consciousness refers to being mentally aware of things in the world in the present without any sense of past and future; it is composed of mental images bound to a time around the measurable present.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metacognition - defined as "cognition about cognition", or "knowing about knowing". It comes from the root word "meta", meaning beyond. It can take many forms; it includes knowledge about when and how to use particular strategies for learning or for problem solving. There are generally two components of metacognition: knowledge about cognition, and regulation of cognition.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_consciousness - an individual's accessibility to their history and plans. The concept is also loosely and commonly associated with having awareness of one's own consciousness. The ability allows its possessors to go beyond the limits of the remembered present of primary consciousness. Primary consciousness can be defined as simple awareness that includes perception and emotion. As such, it is ascribed to most animals. By contrast, secondary consciousness depends on and includes such features as self-reflective awareness, abstract thinking, volition and metacognition
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamemory - a type of metacognition, is both the introspective knowledge of one’s own memory capabilities (and strategies that can aid memory) and the processes involved in memory self-monitoring. This self-awareness of memory has important implications for how people learn and use memories. When studying, for example, students make judgements of whether they have successfully learned the assigned material and use these decisions, known as "judgments of learning", to allocate study time.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology_(philosophy) - the philosophical study of the structures of experience and consciousness. As a philosophical movement it was founded in the early years of the 20th century by Edmund Husserl and was later expanded upon by a circle of his followers at the universities of Göttingen and Munich in Germany. It then spread to France, the United States, and elsewhere, often in contexts far removed from Husserl's early work. Phenomenology, in Husserl's conception, is primarily concerned with the systematic reflection on and study of the structures of consciousness and the phenomena that appear in acts of consciousness. This ontology (study of reality) can be clearly differentiated from the Cartesian method of analysis which sees the world as objects, sets of objects, and objects acting and reacting upon one another. Husserl's conception of phenomenology has been criticized and developed not only by himself but also by students, such as Edith Stein, by hermeneutic philosophers, such as Martin Heidegger, by existentialists, such as Max Scheler, Nicolai Hartmann, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean-Paul Sartre, and by other philosophers, such as Paul Ricoeur, Jean-Luc Marion, Emmanuel Lévinas, and sociologists Alfred Schütz and Eric Voegelin.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenological_description - attempts to depict the structure of first person lived experience, rather than theoretically explain it. This method was first conceived of by Edmund Husserl. It was developed through the latter work of Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Immanuel Levinas and Maurice Merleau-Ponty - and others. It has also been developed through recent strands of modern psychology and cognitive science.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phenomenology_of_Spirit - the basis of Hegel's later philosophy and marked a significant development in German idealism after Kant. Focusing on topics in metaphysics, epistemology, physics, ethics, history, religion, perception, consciousness, and political philosophy, The Phenomenology is where Hegel develops his concepts of dialectic (including the Master-slave dialectic), absolute idealism, ethical life, and Aufhebung. The book had a profound effect in Western philosophy, and "has been praised and blamed for the development of existentialism, communism, fascism, death of God theology, and historicist nihilism."


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurophenomenology - refers to a scientific research program aimed to address the hard problem of consciousness in a pragmatic way. It combines neuroscience with phenomenology in order to study experience, mind, and consciousness with an emphasis on the embodied condition of the human mind. The field is very much linked to fields such as neuropsychology, neuroanthropology and behavioral neuroscience (also known as biopsychology) and the study of phenomenonology in psychology.
  • Neurophenomenology and Contemplative Experience - Themostimportantfeatureofthisapproach isthatexperienceisnotseen asan epiphenomenon,butisconsidered centraltoany adequateunderstanding ofthemind,and accordingly needsto beinvestigated inacarefulphenomenologicalmanner.

Francisco Varela's exploration of the biophysics of being]

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasein - a German word which means "being there" or "presence" (German: da "there"; sein "being") often translated in English with the word "existence". It is a fundamental concept in the existential philosophy of Martin Heidegger particularly in his magnum opus Being and Time. Heidegger uses the expression Dasein to refer to the experience of being that is peculiar to human beings. Thus it is a form of being that is aware of and must confront such issues as personhood, mortality and the dilemma or paradox of living in relationship with other humans while being ultimately alone with oneself.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nachgewahren - Husserlian term referring to the way a lived experience is grasped and retained immediately after it occurs. It is a key component of phenomenological description and analysis since it involves memory and intentionality.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epoch%C3%A9 - an ancient Greek term which, in its philosophical usage, describes the theoretical moment where all judgments about the existence of the external world, and consequently all action in the world, is suspended. One's own consciousness is subject to immanent critique so that when such belief is recovered, it will have a firmer grounding in consciousness. This concept was developed by the Greek skeptics and plays an implicit role in skeptical thought, as in René Descartes' epistemic principle of methodic doubt. The term was popularized in philosophy by Edmund Husserl. Husserl elaborates the notion of 'phenomenological epoché' or 'bracketing' in Ideas I. Through the systematic procedure of 'phenomenological reduction', one is thought to be able to suspend judgment regarding the general or naive philosophical belief in the existence of the external world, and thus examine phenomena as they are originally given to consciousness.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mentalization - the ability to understand the mental state of oneself and others which underlies overt behaviour. Mentalization can be seen as a form of imaginative mental activity, which allows us to perceive and interpret human behaviour in terms of intentional mental states (e.g. needs, desires, feelings, beliefs, goals, purposes, and reasons). Another term that David Wallin has used for mentalization is "Thinking about thinking".

"I think when we talk about the capacity for mentalizing, in other words, the capacity, as I say, to make sense of our own experience, our own behavior, and the experience and behavior of others in terms of underlying mental states, like beliefs, feelings, desires; to the extent that we're able to make sense of behavior on the basis of those underlying mental states, it serves us. And the way in which that's, in a sense, different from the concept of psychological mindedness is that psychological mindedness is something that exists. It's inside you or it's inside me. I think mentalizing, making sense of difficult experience, is of necessity a two-person enterprise. And the reason this is so, is that when you or I or anyone else is in the grip of overwhelmingly intense feelings, we simply can't reflect on our experience. We can't take a step back from experience to try to make sense of it. It's only with the benefit of a relationship to somebody who is, so to speak, mentalizing our experience, that we can come to occupy a stance toward our own experience that's more reflective, more understanding, and so on. So psychological mindedness, you might say, it's kind of like a one-person psychological concept. Mentalizing, in some ways, is a relational, it's a two-person psychological concept. And so the whole idea here is we learn about ourselves through being understood by other people. Babies learn about their feelings by having their feelings understood by someone else."

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_capability - describes the capacity of human beings to transcend and revise their contexts. The term has been used by poets and philosophers to describe the ability of the individual to perceive, think, and operate beyond any presupposition of a predetermined capacity of the human being. It further captures the rejection of the constraints of any context, and the ability to experience phenomena free from epistemological bounds, as well as to assert one's own will and individuality upon their activity. The term was first used by the Romantic poet John Keats to critique those who sought to categorize all experience and phenomena and turn them into a theory of knowledge. It has recently been appropriated by philosopher and social theorist Roberto Mangabeira Unger to comment on human nature and to explain how human beings innovate and resist within confining social contexts. The concept has also inspired psychoanalytic practices and twentieth-century art and literary criticism.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lived_body - your own body as experienced by yourself, as yourself. Your own body manifests itself to you mainly as your possibilities of acting in the world. It is what lets you reach out and grab something, for instance, but it also, and more importantly, allows for the possibility of changing your point of view. This helps you differentiate one thing from another by the experience of moving around it, seeing new aspects of it (often referred to as making the absent present and the present absent), and still retaining the notion that this is the same thing that you saw other aspects of just a moment ago (it is identical). Your body is also experienced as a duality, both as object (you can touch your own hand) and as your own subjectivity (you are being touched). Empathy refers to the experience of another human body as another subjectivity: In one sense, you see another body, but what you immediately perceive or experience is another subject. In Husserl's original account, this was done by a sort of apperception built on the experiences of your own lived-body.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterophenomenology - a term coined by Daniel Dennett to describe an explicitly third-person, scientific approach to the study of consciousness and other mental phenomena. It consists of applying the scientific method with an anthropological bent, combining the subject's self-reports with all other available evidence to determine their mental state. The goal is to discover how the subject sees the world him- or herself, without taking the accuracy of the subject's view for granted. Heterophenomenology is put forth as the alternative to traditional Cartesian phenomenology, which Dennett calls "lone-wolf autophenomenology" to emphasize the fact that it accepts the subject's self-reports as being authoritative. In contrast, heterophenomenology considers the subjects authoritative only about how things seem to them. It does not dismiss the Cartesian first-person perspective, but rather brackets it so that it can be intersubjectively verified by empirical means, allowing it to be submitted as scientific evidence.



  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_tunnel - a term, akin to the idea of representative realism, coined by Timothy Leary (1920-1996). It was further expanded on by Robert Anton Wilson (1932-2007), who wrote about the idea extensively in his 1983 book Prometheus Rising. The theory states that, with a subconscious set of mental filters formed from his or her beliefs and experiences, every individual interprets the same world differently, hence "Truth is in the eye of the beholder". "The gene-pool politics which monitor power struggles among terrestrial humanity are transcended in this info-world, i.e. seen as static, artificial charades. One is neither coercively manipulated into another's territorial reality nor forced to struggle against it with reciprocal game-playing (the usual soap opera dramatics). One simply elects, consciously, whether or not to share the other's reality tunnel."



  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogācāra - one of the two principal philosophical schools of Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism, emphasizing the psychology of phenomenology and ontology through the interior lens of meditative and yogic practices. Yogācāra discourse explains how our human experience is constructed by mind.



  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indefinite_monism - a philosophical conception of reality that asserts that only Awareness is real and that the wholeness of Reality can be conceptually thought of in terms of immanent and transcendent aspects. The immanent aspect is denominated simply as Awareness, while the transcendent aspect is referred to as Omnific Awareness. Awareness in this system is not equivalent to consciousness. Rather, Awareness is the venue for consciousness, and the transcendent aspect of Reality, Omnific Awareness, is what consciousness is of.


Unconscious

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconscious_mind - unconscious phenomena include repressed feelings, automatic skills, subliminal perceptions, thoughts, habits, and automatic reactions, and possibly also complexes, hidden phobias and desires. It has been argued that consciousness is influenced by other parts of the mind. These include unconsciousness as a personal habit, being unaware, and intuition. Terms related to semi-consciousness include: awakening, implicit memory, subliminal messages, trances, hypnagogia, and hypnosis. Some critics have doubted the existence of the unconscious. In psychoanalytic terms, the unconscious does not include all that is not conscious, but rather what is actively repressed from conscious thought or what a person is averse to knowing consciously.

Erich Fromm contends that, "The term 'the unconscious' is actually a mystification (even though one might use it for reasons of convenience, as I am guilty of doing in these pages). There is no such thing as the unconscious; there are only experiences of which we are aware, and others of which we are not aware, that is, of which we are unconscious. If I hate a man because I am afraid of him, and if I am aware of my hate but not of my fear, we may say that my hate is conscious and that my fear is unconscious; still my fear does not lie in that mysterious place: 'the' unconscious."

  • Psychology of the unconscious : a study of the transformations and symbolisms of the libido : a contribution to the history of the evolution of thought (1916) - Jung, Hinkle
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_unconscious - a set of mental processes influencing judgment and decision making, in a way that is inaccessible to introspective awareness. This conception of the unconscious mind has emerged in cognitive psychology. It was influenced by, but different from, other views on the unconscious mind such as Sigmund Freud's.


States of mind

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awareness - level of consciousness where sense data can be confirmed by an observer without necessarily implying understanding, the state or quality of being aware of something. in biological psychology, awareness is defined as a human's or an animal's perception and cognitive reaction to a condition or event.
  • Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy (IMP) is a non-profit organization dedicated to the education and training of mental health professionals interested in the integration of mindfulness meditation and psychotherapy, for the purpose of enhancing the therapy relationship, the quality of clinical interventions, and the well-being of the therapist.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choiceless_awareness - posited in philosophy, psychology, and spirituality to be the state of unpremeditated, complete awareness of the present without preference, effort, or compulsion. the term was popularized in mid-20th-century by Jiddu Krishnamurti


  • Aeon: Inner peace - We yearn for silence, yet the less sound there is, the more our thoughts deafen us. How can we still the noise within? by Tim Parks
  • Stillness and Awareness from Person to Person - By Astrid Schillings, Cologne. "In this paper I would like to clarify how Carl Rogers' "Therapeutic Core Conditions" can assume a meditative character in psychotherapy. I seek to differentiate the concept of 'presence' in so far as it can vary in meaning depending on the very depth from which we are communicating. Then I go on to illustrate how an understanding of self as process or as interaction - particularly after the further conceptual development by the philosopher and psychologist Eugene Gendlin and the resulting practice of Focusing - resonates with certain experiences from meditative contexts."


Sensory deprivation goes from CIA torture manuals to a yoga studio near you.





  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_in_Wonderland_syndrome - also known as Todd's syndrome or lilliputian hallucinations, is a disorienting neurological condition that affects human perception. Sufferers experience dysmetropsia (micropsia, macropsia, pelopsia, teleopsia) or size distortion of other sensory modalities.





  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compatibilism - the belief that free will and determinism are compatible ideas, and that it is possible to believe both without being logically inconsistent. Compatibilists believe freedom can be present or absent in situations for reasons that have nothing to do with metaphysics.










  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intentionality - a philosophical concept defined by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy as "the power of minds to be about, to represent, or to stand for, things, properties and states of affairs". The term refers to the ability of the mind to form representations and should not be confused with intention. The term dates from medieval Scholastic philosophy, but was resurrected by Franz Brentano and adopted by Edmund Husserl. The earliest theory of intentionality is associated with St. Anselm's ontological argument for the existence of God and his tenets distinguishing between objects that exist in the understanding and objects that exist in reality. Intentionality should not be confused with intensionality, a related concept from logic and semantics.



  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nous - sometimes equated to intellect or intelligence, is a philosophical term for the faculty of the human mind which is described in classical philosophy as necessary for understanding what is true or real, similar in meaning to intuition. The three commonly used philosophical terms are from Greek, νοῦς or νόος, and Latin intellectus and intelligentia respectively.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noumenon - a posited object or event that is known (if at all) without the use of the senses. The term is generally used in contrast with, or in relation to "phenomenon", which refers to anything that appears to, or is an object of, the senses. In Platonic philosophy, the noumenal realm was equated with the world of ideas known to the philosophical mind, in contrast to the phenomenal realm, which was equated with the world of sensory reality, known to the uneducated mind.
  • Intuitions are a priori. This view holds that distinctions are to be made between various sorts of intuition, roughly corresponding to their subject matter (see George Bealer). The only intuitions that are relevant in analytic philosophy are 'rational' intuitions. These are intellectual seemings that something is necessarily the case. They are directed exclusively towards statements that make some kind of necessity claim. For example, a rational intuition is what occurs when it seems to us that a mathematical statement (e.g. 2+2=4) must be true. Intuitions, as this view characterizes them, are to be distinguished from beliefs, since we can hold beliefs which are not intuitive, or have intuitions for propositions that we know to be false.
  • Intuitions are a species of belief, and based ultimately in experience. This view holds that intuitions are not especially different from beliefs, although they appear subjectively to be more unrevisable than other beliefs. Unlike the previous view, these intuitions are liable to differ between social groups. Evidence for this is shown in various psychological studies (e.g. the one by Stich, Weinburg and Nichols)

In the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, intuition is thought of as basic sensory information provided by the cognitive faculty of sensibility (equivalent to what might loosely be called perception). Kant held that our mind casts all of our external intuitions in the form of space, and all of our internal intuitions (memory, thought) in the form of time.

Intuitionism is a position advanced by Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer in philosophy of mathematics derived from Kant's claim that all mathematical knowledge is knowledge of the pure forms of the intuition - that is, intuition that is not empirical (Prolegomena, p.7). Intuitionistic logic was devised by Arend Heyting to accommodate this position (and has been adopted by other forms of constructivism in general). It is characterized by rejecting the law of excluded middle: as a consequence it does not in general accept rules such as double negation elimination and the use of reductio ad absurdum to prove the existence of something.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intuition_(psychology) - is the ability to acquire knowledge without inference or the use of reason. The word intuition comes from Latin verb intueri which is usually translated as to look inside or to contemplate. Intuition is thus often conceived as a kind of inner perception, sometimes regarded as real lucidity or understanding. Cases of intuition are of a great diversity; however, processes by which they happen typically remain mostly unknown to the thinker, as opposed to the view of rational thinking. Intuition provides views, understandings, judgements, or beliefs that we cannot in every case empirically verify or rationally justify. For this reason, it has been not only a subject of study in psychology, but also a topic of interest in various religions and esoteric domains, as well as a common subject of writings. The right brain is popularly associated with intuitive processes such as aesthetic or generally creative abilities. Some scientists have contended that intuition is associated with innovation in scientific discovery.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_image - the representation in a person's mind of the physical world outside of that person. It is an experience that, on most occasions, significantly resembles the experience of perceiving some object, event, or scene, but occurs when the relevant object, event, or scene is not actually present to the senses.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind's_eye - refers to the human ability for visualization, i.e., for the experiencing of visual mental imagery; in other words, one's ability to "see" things with the mind.




  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enactivism - argues that cognition depends on a dynamic interaction between a cognitive organism and its environment. It claims that our environment is one which we selectively create through our capacities to interact with the world. "Organisms do not passively receive information from their environments, which they then translate into internal representations. Natural cognitive systems...participate in the generation of meaning ...engaging in transformational and not merely informational interactions: they enact a world." These authors suggest that the increasing emphasis upon enactive terminology presages a new era in thinking about cognitive science. How the actions involved in enactivism relate to age-old questions about free will remains a topic of active debate. The term 'enactivism' is close in meaning to 'enaction', defined as "the manner in which a subject of perception creatively matches its actions to the requirements of its situation".


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Extended_Mind - an idea in the field of philosophy of mind which holds that the reach of the mind need not end at the boundaries of skin and skull. Tools, instrument and other environmental props can under certain conditions also count as proper parts of our minds.

Douglas Hofstadter


Reasoning

surprise; a mess

See also Learning


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Understanding - a psychological process related to an abstract or physical object, such as a person, situation, or message whereby one is able to think about it and use concepts to deal adequately with that object. Understanding is a relation between the knower and an object of understanding. Understanding implies abilities and dispositions with respect to an object of knowledge sufficient to support intelligent behavior. An understanding is the limit of a conceptualization. To understand something is to have conceptualized it to a given measure.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nous - sometimes equated to intellect or intelligence, is a philosophical term for the faculty of the human mind which is described in classical philosophy as necessary for understanding what is true or real, similar in meaning to intuition.


"In science, if you know what you are doing, you should not be doing it. In engineering, if you do not know what you are doing, you should not be doing it. Of course, you seldom, if ever, see either pure state." —Richard Hamming, The Art of Doing Science and Engineering

"The most exciting engineering challenges lie on the boundary of theory and the unknown. Not so unknown that they're hopeless, but not enough theory to predict the results of our decisions. Systems at this boundary often rely on emergent behavior — high-level effects that arise indirectly from low-level interactions. When designing at this boundary, the challenge lies not in constructing the system, but in understanding it. In the absence of theory, we must develop an intuition to guide our decisions. The design process is thus one of exploration and discovery. The most powerful way to gain insight into a system is by moving between levels of abstraction. Many designers do this instinctively. But it's easy to get stuck on the ground, experiencing concrete systems with no higher-level view. It's also easy to get stuck in the clouds, working entirely with abstract equations or aggregate statistics. This interactive essay presents the ladder of abstraction, a technique for thinking explicitly about these levels, so a designer can move among them consciously and confidently. I believe that an essential skill of the modern system designer will be using the interactive medium to move fluidly around the ladder of abstraction."


See also Maths#Logic

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivated_reasoning - n emotion-biased decision-making phenomenon studied in cognitive science and social psychology. This term describes the role of motivation in cognitive processes such as decision-making and attitude change in a number of paradigms, including: Cognitive dissonance reduction, Beliefs about others on whom one's own outcomes depend, Evaluation of evidence related to one's own outcomes
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Po_(lateral_thinking) - an idea which moves thinking forward to a new place from where new ideas or solutions may be found. The term was created by Edward de Bono as part of a lateral thinking technique to suggest forward movement, that is, making a statement and seeing where it leads to. It is an extraction from words such as hypothesis, suppose, possible and poetry, all of which indicate forward movement and contain the syllable "po." Po can be taken to refer to any of the following: provoking operation, provocative operation or provocation operation. Also, in ancient Polynesian and the Maori, the word "po" refers to the original chaotic state of formlessness, from which evolution occurred. Edward de Bono argues that this context as well applies to the term.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factor_analysis - a statistical method used to describe variability among observed, correlated variables in terms of a potentially lower number of unobserved variables called factors. For example, it is possible that variations in four observed variables mainly reflect the variations in two unobserved variables. Factor analysis searches for such joint variations in response to unobserved latent variables. The observed variables are modelled as linear combinations of the potential factors, plus "error" terms. The information gained about the interdependencies between observed variables can be used later to reduce the set of variables in a dataset. Computationally this technique is equivalent to low rank approximation of the matrix of observed variables. Factor analysis originated in psychometrics, and is used in behavioral sciences, social sciences, marketing, product management, operations research, and other applied sciences that deal with large quantities of data.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_questioning - is disciplined questioning that can be used to pursue thought in many directions and for many purposes, including: to explore complex ideas, to get to the truth of things, to open up issues and problems, to uncover assumptions, to analyze concepts, to distinguish what we know from what we don't know, to follow out logical implications of thought or to control the discussion. The key to distinguishing Socratic questioning from questioning per se is that Socratic questioning is systematic, disciplined, deep and usually focuses on fundamental concepts, principles, theories, issues or problems.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermeneutics - initially applied to the interpretation, or exegesis, of scripture. includes both verbal and nonverbal communication as well as semiotics, presuppositions, and preunderstandings. Hermeneutic consistency refers to the analysis of texts to achieve a coherent explanation of them. Philosophical hermeneutics refers primarily to the theory of knowledge initiated by Martin Heidegger and developed by Hans-Georg Gadamer in his work Truth and Method. It sometimes refers to the theories of Paul Ricoeur.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polychotomous_key - refers to the number of alternatives which a decision point may have in a non-temporal hierarchy of independent variables. The number of alternatives are equivalent to the root or nth root of a mathematical or logical variable. Decision points or independent variables with two states have a binary root that is referred to as a dichotomous key whereas, the term polychotomous key refers to roots which are greater than one or unitary and usually greater than two or binary. Polychotomous keys are used in troubleshooting to build troubleshooting charts and in classification/identification schemes with characteristics that have more than one attribute and the order of characteristics is not inherently based on the progression of time.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomothetic_and_idiographic - terms used by Kantian philosopher Wilhelm Windelband to describe two distinct approaches to knowledge, each one corresponding to a different intellectual tendency, and each one corresponding to a different branch of academe. Nomothetic is based on what Kant described as a tendency to generalize, and is typical for the natural sciences. It describes the effort to derive laws that explain objective phenomena in general. Idiographic is based on what Kant described as a tendency to specify, and is typical for the humanities. It describes the effort to understand the meaning of contingent, unique, and often subjective phenomena.
  • The Structure of Ill Structured Problems - Herbert A. Simon - The boundary between well structured and ill structured problems is vague, fluid and not susceptible to formalization. Any problem solving process will appear ill structured if the problem solver is a serial machine that has access to a very large long-term memory of potentially relevant information, and/or access to a very large external memory that provides information about the actual real-world consequences of problem-solving actions. There is no reason to suppose that new and hitherto unknown concepts or techniques are needed to enable artificial intelligence systems to operate successfully in domains that have these characteristics.




  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_theory - in economics, psychology, philosophy, mathematics, and statistics is concerned with identifying the values, uncertainties and other issues relevant in a given decision, its rationality, and the resulting optimal decision. It is closely related to the field of game theory as to interactions of agents with at least partially conflicting interests whose decisions affect each other.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satisficing - portmanteau of satisfy and suffice, a decision-making strategy or cognitive heuristic that entails searching through the available alternatives until an acceptability threshold is met. This is contrasted with optimal decision making, an approach that specifically attempts to find the best alternative available.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bounded_rationality - the idea that in decision-making, rationality of individuals is limited by the information they have, the cognitive limitations of their minds, and the finite amount of time they have to make a decision.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communicative_action - The theory of communicative action is a critical project which reconstructs a concept of reason which is not grounded in instrumental or objectivistic terms, but rather in an emancipatory communicative act. This reconstruction proposes "human action and understanding can be fruitfully analysed as having a linguistic structure", and each utterance relies upon the anticipation of freedom from unnecessary domination. These linguistic structures of communication can be used to establish a normative understanding of society. This conception of society is used "to make possible a conceptualization of the social-life context that is tailored to the paradoxes of modernity."
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communicative_rationality - Communicative rationality, or communicative reason, is a theory or set of theories which describes human rationality as a necessary outcome of successful communication. In particular, it is tied to the philosophy of Karl-Otto Apel, Jürgen Habermas, and their program of universal pragmatics, along with its related theories such as those on discourse ethics and rational reconstruction. This view of reason is concerned with clarifying the norms and procedures by which agreement can be reached, and is therefore a view of reason as a form of public justification. According to the theory of communicative rationality, the potential for certain kinds of reason is inherent in communication itself. Building from this, Habermas has tried to formalize that potential in explicit terms. According to Habermas, the phenomena that need to be accounted for by the theory are the "intuitively mastered rules for reaching an understanding and conducting argumentation", possessed by subjects who are capable of speech and action. The goal is to transform this implicit "know-how" into explicit "know-that", i.e. knowledge, about how we conduct ourselves in the realm of "moral-practical" reasoning. The result of the theory is a conception of reason that Habermas sees as doing justice to the most important trends in twentieth century philosophy, while escaping the relativism which characterizes postmodernism, and also providing necessary standards for critical evaluation.
  • http://sas-space.sas.ac.uk/941/1/R_Samuels_Reason.pdf



Reflection

To merge with contemplation topics above.

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflective_practice - "the capacity to reflect on action so as to engage in a process of continuous learning". According to one definition it involves "paying critical attention to the practical values and theories which inform everyday actions, by examining practice reflectively and reflexively. This leads to developmental insight".



  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflexivity_(social_theory) - refers to circular relationships between cause and effect. A reflexive relationship is bidirectional with both the cause and the effect affecting one another in a relationship in which neither can be assigned as causes or effects. In sociology, reflexivity therefore comes to mean an act of self-reference where examination or action "bends back on", refers to, and affects the entity instigating the action or examination. To this extent it commonly refers to the capacity of an agent to recognize forces of socialization and alter their place in the social structure. A low level of reflexivity would result in an individual shaped largely by their environment (or 'society'). A high level of social reflexivity would be defined by an individual shaping their own norms, tastes, politics, desires, and so on. This is similar to the notion of autonomy. (See also: structure and agency, social mobility). It is an instance of a feedback loop.
  • PDF: On Becoming A Critically Reflexive Practitioner - Critically reflexive practice embraces subjective understandings of reality as a basis for thinking more critically about the impact of our assumptions, values, and actions on others. Such practice is important to management education, because it helps us understand how we constitute our realities and identities in relational ways and how we can develop more collaborative and responsive ways of managing organizations. This article offers three ways of stimulating critically reflexive practice: (a) an exercise to help students think about the socially constructed nature of reality, (b) a map to help situate reflective and reflexive practice, and (c) an outline and examples of critically reflexive journaling.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflexive_modernization - a joint effort of three of the leading European sociologists — Anthony Giddens, Ulrich Beck and Scott Lash, serving a double purpose: to reassess sociology as a science of the present (moving beyond the early 20thC conceptual framework); and to provide a counterbalance to the postmodernist paradigm offering a re-constructive view alongside deconstruction. The concept built upon previous notions such as post-industrial society (Daniel Bell) and postmaterial society, but stresses how in reflexive modernization, modernity directs its attention to the process of modernization itself.

Intuition

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intuition_pump - a thought experiment structured to allow the thinker to use their intuition to develop an answer to a problem. The term was coined by Daniel Dennett. In Consciousness Explained, he uses the term to describe John Searle's Chinese room thought experiment, characterizing it as designed to elicit intuitive but incorrect answers by formulating the description in such a way that important implications of the experiment would be difficult to imagine and tend to be ignored. In his book, Elbow Room, Dennett used the term in a positive sense to describe thought experiments which facilitate the understanding of or reasoning about complex subjects by harnessing intuition: "A popular strategy in philosophy is to construct a certain sort of thought experiment I call an intuition pump [...]. Intuition pumps are cunningly designed to focus the reader's attention on "the important" features, and to deflect the reader from bogging down in hard-to-follow details. There is nothing wrong with this in principle. Indeed one of philosophy's highest callings is finding ways of helping people see the forest and not just the trees. But intuition pumps are often abused, though seldom deliberately."

Biases and fallacies

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_abstraction - in which a detail is taken out of context and believed whilst everything else in the context is ignored. It commonly appears in Aaron Beck's work in cognitive therapy. Another definition is, "focusing on only the negative aspects of an event, such as, 'I ruined the whole recital because of that one mistake'"


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathy_gap - in which a person underestimates the influences of visceral drives, and instead attributes behavior primarily to other, nonvisceral factors. The crux of this idea is that human understanding is "state dependent". For example, when one is angry, it is difficult to understand what it is like for one to be happy, and vice versa; when one is blindly in love with someone, it is difficult to understand what it is like for one not to be, (or to imagine the possibility of not being blindly in love in the future). The bargaining games conclude that if one is completely powerless, the one proposing the offer to the powerless will lack strategy.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjective_validation - sometimes called personal validation effect, is a cognitive bias by which a person will consider a statement or another piece of information to be correct if it has any personal meaning or significance to them
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forer_effect - the observation that individuals will give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically for them, but are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_exposure_theory- a concept in media and communication research that historically refers to individuals’ tendency to favor information that reinforces pre-existing views while avoiding contradictory information. In contemporary work,[1] the term 'selective exposure' coins any bias in exposure to available messages (e.g., men watching more sports than women, or individuals with higher education spending more time with newspaper reading).
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-risk_bias - a tendency to prefer the complete elimination of a risk even when alternative options produce a greater reduction in risk (overall). Other biases might underlie the zero-risk bias. One is a tendency to think in terms of proportions rather than differences. A greater reduction in proportion of deaths is valued higher than a greater reduction in actual deaths. The zero-risk bias could then be seen as the extreme end of a broad bias about quantities as applied to risk. Framing effects can enhance the bias, for example, by emphasizing a large proportion in a small set or can attempt to mitigate the bias by emphasizing total quantities.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reification_(fallacy) - also known as concretism, or the fallacy of misplaced concreteness, is a fallacy of ambiguity, when an abstraction (abstract belief or hypothetical construct) is treated as if it were a concrete, real event, or physical entity. In other words, it is the error of treating as a concrete thing, something which is not concrete, but merely an idea.

Another common manifestation is the confusion of a model with reality. Mathematical or simulation models may help understand a system or situation but real life will differ from the model (e.g. 'the map is not the territory'). Reification is generally accepted in literature and other forms of discourse where reified abstractions are understood to be intended metaphorically, but the use of reification in logical arguments is usually regarded as a fallacy.

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindsight_bias - also known as the knew-it-all-along effect or creeping determinism, is the inclination, after an event has occurred, to see the event as having been predictable, despite there having been little or no objective basis for predicting it, prior to its occurrence


  • An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments - "This book is aimed at newcomers to the field of logical reasoning, particularly those who, to borrow a phrase from Pascal, are so made that they understand best through visuals. I have selected a small set of common errors in reasoning and visualized them using memorable illustrations that are supplemented with lots of examples. The hope is that the reader will learn from these pages some of the most common pitfalls in arguments and be able to identify and avoid them in practice."
  • The Skeptic's Dictionary is a website and a book. Each features definitions, arguments, and essays on topics ranging from acupuncture to zombies, and provides a lively, commonsense trove of detailed information on things supernatural, paranormal, and pseudoscientific.

Creation and change

See Organisation, Startups#Innovation

"The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." --Stephen R. Covey

"Every transition involves to some extent the killing off of the old self"

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it." -- Alan Kay

Put The Other Thoughts Down

Get Shit Done, etc.

Creating opportunities;

  • McDonald’s Theory - I use a trick with co-workers when we’re trying to decide where to eat for lunch and no one has any ideas. I recommend McDonald’s. An interesting thing happens. Everyone unanimously agrees that we can’t possibly go to McDonald’s, and better lunch suggestions emerge. Magic!

times for the specific, times for the general. FOCUS.

"(By the way, try thinking about Imposter Syndrome and the Dunning–Kruger effect in a loop sometime. Fastest way to feeling worthless and confused that I've ever found.)"

golden thread;

silver thread!

inner funk (idm)






Philosophy




to sort;



"there's enough old wisdom to counter the other half of old wisdom" - approx. anon.?


Knowledge and truth


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistemology the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge and is also referred to as "theory of knowledge". It questions what knowledge is and how it can be acquired, and the extent to which knowledge pertinent to any given subject or entity can be acquired. Much of the debate in this field has focused on the philosophical analysis of the nature of knowledge and how it relates to connected notions such as truth, belief, and justification. The term "epistemology" was introduced by the Scottish philosopher James Frederick Ferrier (1808–1864).
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistemic_virtue - as identified by virtue epistemologists, reflect their contention that belief is an ethical process, and thus susceptible to the intellectual virtue or vice of one's own life and personal experiences. Being an epistemically virtuous person is often equated with being a critical thinker.



  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_epistemology - A study of the origins (genesis) of knowledge (epistemology). The discipline was established by Jean Piaget. The goal of genetic epistemology is to link the validity of knowledge to the model of its construction. It shows that how the knowledge was gained affects how valid it is. It also explains the process of how people develop cognitively from birth throughout their lives in four primary stages: sensorimotor (birth to age 2), preoperational (2-7), concrete operational (7-11), and formal operational (11 years onward). Assimilation occurs when the perception of a new event or object occurs to the learner in an existing schema and is usually used in the context of self-motivation. In Accommodation, one accommodates the experiences according to the outcome of the tasks. The highest form of development is equilibration. Equilibration encompasses both assimilation and accommodation as the learner changes how they think to get a better answer. This is the upper level of development. Piaget's genetic epistemology is half-way between formal logic and dialectical logic and mid-way between objective idealism and materialism.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Piaget
  • Piaget on Piaget






Analytic philosophy

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytic_philosophy - or analytical philosophy, can refer to: A broad philosophical tradition characterized by an emphasis on clarity and argument (often achieved via modern formal logic and analysis of language) and a respect for the natural sciences, or the more specific set of developments of early 20th-century philosophy that were the historical antecedents of the broad sense: e.g., the work of Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, G. E. Moore, Gottlob Frege, and logical positivists.

Linguistic philosophy

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_philosophy - describes the view that philosophical problems are problems which may be solved (or dissolved) either by reforming language, or by understanding more about the language we presently use. The former position is that of ideal language philosophy, the latter the position of ordinary language philosophy.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordinary_language_philosophy - sees traditional philosophical problems as rooted in misunderstandings philosophers develop by distorting or forgetting what words actually mean in everyday use. "Such 'philosophical' uses of language, on this view, create the very philosophical problems they are employed to solve." Ordinary language philosophy is a branch of linguistic philosophy closely related to logical positivism.


Science

See Science, Maths#Logic

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothesis - a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. For a hypothesis to be a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it. Scientists generally base scientific hypotheses on previous observations that cannot satisfactorily be explained with the available scientific theories. Even though the words "hypothesis" and "theory" are often used synonymously, a scientific hypothesis is not the same as a scientific theory. A working hypothesis is a provisionally accepted hypothesis proposed for further research.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_theory - a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world that is acquired through the scientific method, and repeatedly confirmed through observation and experimentation. As with most (if not all) forms of scientific knowledge, scientific theories are inductive in nature and aim for predictive power and explanatory force. The strength of a scientific theory is related to the diversity of phenomena it can explain, and to its elegance and simplicity (Occam's razor). As additional scientific evidence is gathered, a scientific theory may be rejected or modified if it does not fit the new empirical findings- in such circumstances, a more accurate theory is then desired. In certain cases, the less-accurate unmodified scientific theory can still be treated as a theory if it is useful (due to its sheer simplicity) as an approximation under specific conditions (e.g. Newton's laws of motion as an approximation to special relativity at velocities which are small relative to the speed of light).
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictive_power - refers to its ability of a a scientific theory to generate testable predictions. Theories with strong predictive power are highly valued because they have practical applications. The concept of predictive power differs from explanatory and descriptive power (where phenomena that are already known are retrospectively explained by a given theory) in that it allows a prospective test of theoretical understanding.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_evidence - evidence which serves to either support or counter a scientific theory or hypothesis. Such evidence is expected to be empirical evidence and in accordance with scientific method. Standards for scientific evidence vary according to the field of inquiry, but the strength of scientific evidence is generally based on the results of statistical analysis and the strength of scientific controls.










to sort






Metaphysics

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pragmatism - A rejection of the idea that the function of thought is to describe, represent, or mirror reality. Instead, pragmatists develop their philosophy around the idea that the function of thought is as an instrument or tool for prediction, action, and problem solving. Pragmatists contend that most philosophical topics—such as the nature of knowledge, language, concepts, meaning, belief, and science—are all best viewed in terms of their practical uses and successes rather than in terms of representative accuracy
  • In Out Time - Pragmatism




  • Relation, Virtue, and Relational Virtue: Three Concepts of Caring - This essay breaks new ground in defending the view that contemporary care-based ethics and early Confucian ethics share some important common ground. Luo also introduces the notion of relational virtue in an attempt to bridge a conceptual gap between relational caring ethics and agent-based virtue ethics, and to make the connections between the ethics of care and Confucian ethics philosophically clearer and more defensible.



  • http://www.reddit.com/r/ProcessRelational - Process-relational thought, an umbrella term for a form of metaphysical realism, focuses on the dynamism by which things are perpetually moving forward, interacting, and creating new conditions in the world. Process-relational thought rejects the Cartesian idea that there are minds, or things that think, and bodies, or matter that only acts according to strict causal laws. Rather, the two are considered one and the same, or two aspects of the same evolving, processual reality. In this sense, process-relational views are related to certain forms of panpsychism and pan-experientialism, that is, to philosophies that understand “mind” or “mental experience” to be not the possession of specific objects or subjects, but part of the relational expression or manifestation of all things.



Ontology

See also Language

Semeotics

See also Language#Linguistics, Maths#Logic


Systems

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_thinking - sometimes used as a broad catch-all heading for the process of understanding how systems behave, interact with their environment and influence each other. The term is also used more narrowly as a heading for thinking about social organisations, be they natural or designed, healthy or unhealthy. Often the focus is on a government or business organisation that is viewed as containing people, processes and technologies.

Systems thinking has been applied to problem solving, by viewing "problems" as parts of an overall system, rather than reacting to specific parts, outcomes or events and potentially contributing to further development of unintended consequences. Systems thinking is not one thing but a set of habits or practices within a framework that is based on the belief that the component parts of a system can best be understood in the context of relationships with each other and with other systems, rather than in isolation. Systems thinking focuses on cyclical rather than linear cause and effect.

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_science - an interdisciplinary field that studies the nature of complex systems in nature, society, and science itself. It aims to develop interdisciplinary foundations that are applicable in a variety of areas, such as engineering, biology, medicine, and social sciences. Systems science covers formal sciences such as complex systems, cybernetics, dynamical systems theory, and systems theory, and applications in the field of the natural and social sciences and engineering, such as control theory, operations research, social systems theory, systems biology, systems dynamics, systems ecology, systems engineering and systems psychology.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopoiesis - (from Greek αὐτo- (auto-), meaning "self", and ποίησις (poiesis), meaning "creation, production") refers to a system capable of reproducing and maintaining itself. The term was introduced in 1972 by Chilean biologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela to define the self-maintaining chemistry of living cells.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_psychology - a branch of both theoretical psychology and applied psychology that studies human behaviour and experience in complex systems. It is inspired by systems theory and systems thinking, and based on the theoretical work of Roger Barker, Gregory Bateson, Humberto Maturana and others. Groups and individuals are considered as systems in homeostasis. Alternative terms here are "systemic psychology", "systems behavior", and "systems-based psychology".
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeostasis - the property of a system in which variables are regulated so that internal conditions remain stable and relatively constant. Examples of homeostasis include the regulation of temperature and the balance between acidity and alkalinity (pH). It is a process that maintains the stability of the human body's internal environment in response to changes in external conditions. The concept was described by Claude Bernard in 1865 and the word was coined by Walter Bradford Cannon in 1926, 1929 and 1932. Although the term was originally used to refer to processes within living organisms, it is frequently applied to automatic control systems such as thermostats. Homeostasis requires a sensor to detect changes in the condition to be regulated, an effector mechanism that can vary that condition; and a negative feedback connection between the two.


Integral theory

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integral_(spirituality) - Integral is a term applied to a wide-ranging set of developments in philosophy, psychology, spirituality, and many other areas regarding a comprehensive synthesizing transdisciplinary framework or multidimensional perspective to a given field. The term is often combined with others such as approach, consciousness, culture, paradigm, philosophy, society, theory, and worldview. Major themes of this range of philosophies and teachings include a synthesis of science and religion, evolutionary spirituality, and holistic programs of development for the body, mind, soul, and spirit.

In some versions of integral spirituality, integration is seen to necessarily include the three domains of self, culture, and nature. Integral thinkers draw inspiration from the work of Sri Aurobindo, Don Beck, Jean Gebser, Robert Kegan, Ken Wilber, and others. Some individuals affiliated with integral spirituality have claimed that there exists a loosely-defined "Integral movement". Others, however, have disagreed. Whatever its status as a "movement", there are a variety of religious organizations, think tanks, conferences, workshops, and publications in the US and internationally that use the term integral.

Integral thought is claimed to provide "a new understanding of how evolution affects the development of consciousness and culture." It includes areas such as business, education, medicine, spirituality, sports, psychology and psychotherapy. The idea of the evolution of consciousness has also become a central theme in much of integral theory. According to the Integral Transformative Practice website, integral means "dealing with the body, mind, heart, and soul."

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integral_theory - a philosophy with origins in the work of Sri Aurobindo and Jean Gebser, and promoted by Ken Wilber, seeks a synthesis of the best of pre-modern, modern, and postmodern reality. It is portrayed as a "theory of everything," and offers an approach "to draw together an already existing number of separate paradigms into an interrelated network of approaches that are mutually enriching." It has been applied by scholar-practitioners in 35 distinct academic and professional domains as varied as organizational management and art. It initially started as a theoretical transpersonal psychology that attempted to synthesize Western and non-Western understandings of consciousness with notions of biological, mental, and divine evolution. Wilber has since distanced himself from transpersonal psychology and Integral Theory has turned into an emerging field of academic discourse and research focused on the complex interactions of ontology, epistemology, and methodology. However, there is ongoing discussion surrounding its standing in academia. Integral Theory has been applied in a variety of different domains: integral art, integral ecology, integral economics, integral politics, integral psychology, integral spirituality, and many others. Researchers have also developed applications in areas such as leadership, coaching, and organization development.

"The quadrants are the inside and the outside view (or perspective) of the individual and the collective. ... We often refer to any event as a holon — a 'whole/part', or a whole that is a part of other wholes ... If you imagine any of the phenomena (or holons) in the various quadrants, you can look at them from their own inside or outside. This gives you 8 primordial perspectives ... We inhabit these 8 spaces, these zones, these life worlds, as practical realities. Each of these zones is not just a perspective, but an action,an injunction,a concrete set of actions in a real world zone. Each injunction brings forth or discloses the phenomena that are apprehended through the various perspectives. The "address" of a holon in the AQAL matrix as address = altitude + perspective, where altitude means degree of development and perspective means the perspective or quadrant it is in."

  • UL - singular interior - i - subjective - introspection, phenomenology / structuralism, hetrophenomenology, psychology, etc.
  • UR - singular exterior - we - objective - autopoiesis (cognitive science) / empiricism, neurophysiology, etc.
  • LL - plural interior - it - intersubjective - hermenutics / anthropology, ethnomethodology, etc.
  • LR - plural exterior - its - interobjective - social autopoiesis / systems theory

"The Integral view leads to an entirely new approach to metaphysics that is actually post-metaphysics, in that it requires none of the traditional baggage of metaphysics (such as postulating the existence of pre-existing ontological structures of a Platonic, archetypal, Patanjali, or YogacharaBuddhist variety), and yet it can generate those structures if needed (as I will try to demonstrate later). This Integral Post-Metaphysics replaces perceptions with perspectives, and thus re-defines the manifest realm as the realm of perspectives, not things nor events nor structures nor processes nor systems nor vasanas nor archetypes nor dharmas, because all of those are perspectives before they are anything else, and cannot be adopted or even stated without first assuming a perspective."

"Integral Methodological Pluralism is one way of handling those difficult issues. It explicitly finds room for premodern truths, modern truths, and postmodern truths, all in an integral framework not of conclusions, but of perspectives and methodologies. Moreover, it doesn’t “cheat” by watering down the various truths in such a horrid way that they are hardly recognizable. It takes all of those truths more or less as it finds them. The only thing it alters is their claim to absoluteness, and any scaffolding (and metaphysics) meant to justify that unjustifiable claim. Moreover, in ways we will return to later (when this will make more sense to an introductory reader), Integral Methodological Pluralism can reconstruct the important truths ofthe contemplative traditions but without the metaphysical systems that would not survive modernist and postmodernist critiques, elements it turns out they don’t really need, anyway.

Newer metaphors;

  • Lines = streams
  • Levels = waves.

Psychology


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psyche_(psychology) - the totality of the human mind, conscious and unconscious. Psychology is the scientific or objective study of the psyche. The word has a long history of use in psychology and philosophy, dating back to ancient times, and has been one of the fundamental concepts for understanding human nature from a scientific point of view. The English word soul is sometimes used synonymously, especially in older texts.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_science_(psychology) - subdisciplines within psychology that can be thought to reflect a basic-science orientation include biological psychology, cognitive psychology, neuropsychology, etc., characterized by methodological rigor, concerned by understanding the laws and processes that underlie behavior, cognition, and emotion.

Varieties

to resort

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_psychology - an integration of science, theory and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective and behavioural well-being and personal development. Central to its practice are psychological assessment and psychotherapy, although clinical psychologists also engage in research, teaching, consultation, forensic testimony, and program development and administration. In many countries, clinical psychology is regulated as a health care profession.



  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizotypy - a theory stating that there is a continuum of personality characteristics and experiences ranging from normal dissociative, imaginative states to more extreme states related to psychosis and in particular, schizophrenia. This is in contrast to a categorical view of psychosis, where psychosis is considered to be a particular (usually pathological) state, that someone either has, or has not.


  • Gloria—Fifty years on - Two new APA videos on contemporary psychotherapy, "Three Approaches to Psychotherapy with a Male/Female Client—The Next Generation," are reviewed and discussed

Social psychology

Early psychology

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_psychology - refers to work done by those who apply experimental methods to the study of behavior and the processes that underlie it. Experimental psychologists employ human participants and animal subjects to study a great many topics, including, among others sensation & perception, memory, cognition, learning, motivation, emotion; developmental processes, social psychology, and the neural substrates of all of these.
  • "I swear half of user support is letting the users down gently when the problem fixes itself the moment you look at it." [11]

Critical psychology

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_psychology - challenges mainstream psychology and attempts to apply psychological understandings in more progressive ways, often looking towards social change as a means of preventing and treating psychopathology
  • - Radical Psychology Network seeks like-minded psychologists and others to help create a society better able to meet human needs and bring about social justice. We want to change society's unacceptable status quo and bring about a better world. And we want to change the status quo of psychology, too. We challenge psychology's traditional focus on minor reform, because enhancing human welfare demands fundamental social change instead. Moreover, psychology itself has too often oppressed people rather than liberated them."

Developmental psychology

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developmental_psychology - the scientific study of changes that occur in human beings over the course of their life. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult development, aging, and the entire lifespan. This field examines change across a broad range of topics including motor skills and other psycho-physiological processes; cognitive development involving areas such as problem solving, moral understanding, and conceptual understanding; language acquisition; social, personality, and emotional development; and self-concept and identity formation. Developmental psychology examines issues such as the extent of development through gradual accumulation of knowledge versus stage-like development—and the extent to which children are born with innate mental structures, versus learning through experience. Many researchers are interested in the interaction between personal characteristics, the individual's behavior, and environmental factors including social context, and their impact on development; others take a more narrowly-focused approach. Developmental psychology informs several applied fields, including: educational psychology, child psychopathology, and forensic developmental psychology. Developmental psychology complements several other basic research fields in psychology including social psychology, cognitive psychology, ecological psychology, and comparative psychology.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developmental_systems_theory - (DST) is an overarching theoretical perspective on biological development, heredity, and evolution. It emphasizes the shared contributions of genes, environment, and epigenetic factors on developmental processes. DST, unlike conventional scientific theories, is not directly used to help make predictions for testing experimental results; instead, it is seen as a collection of philosophical, psychological, and scientific models of development and evolution. As a whole, these models argue the inadequacy of modern evolutionary views on the roles of genes and natural selection as the principle explanation of living structures. Developmental systems theory embraces a large range of positions that expand biological explanations of human development and hold modern evolutionary theory as a misconception of the nature of living processes.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self_psychology - a school of psychoanalytic theory and therapy created by Heinz Kohut and developed in the United States at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. Self psychology explains psychopathology as being the result of disrupted or unmet developmental needs. Essential to understanding self psychology are the concepts of empathy, self-object, mirroring, idealising, alter ego/twinship and the tripolar self. Though self psychology also recognizes certain drives, conflicts and complexes present in Freudian psychodynamic theory, these are understood within a different framework.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivism_(psychological_school) - refers to many schools of thought (for example, under psychotherapy) that, though extraordinarily different in their therapeutic techniques, are all connected by a common critique of previous standard approaches and by shared assumptions about the active constructive nature of human knowledge. In particular, the critique is aimed at the “associationist” postulate of empiricism, “by which the mind is conceived as a passive system that gathers its contents from its environment and, through the act of knowing, produces a copy of the order of reality. In contrast, constructivism is an epistemological premise grounded on the assertion that, in the act of knowing, it is the human mind that actively gives meaning and order to that reality to which it is responding”. The constructivist psychologies theorize about and investigate how human beings create systems for meaningfully understanding their worlds and experiences. In psychotherapy, for example, this frame could translate into a therapist asking questions that confront a client's world-view in an effort to expand his or her meaning making habits. The assumption here is that clients encounter problems not because life is inherently problematic or because they have a mental disease but because of the way they frame their problems, or the way people make sense of events that occur in their life.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_systems_theory - also called development in context or human ecology theory, identifies five environmental systems with which an individual interacts. This theory provides the framework from which community psychologists study the relationships with individuals' contexts within communities and the wider society. Ecological systems theory was developed by Urie Bronfenbrenner. 1979.



  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developmental_stage_theories - theories that divide child development into distinct stages which are characterized by qualitative differences in behaviour. There are a number of different views about the way in which psychological and physical development proceed throughout the life span. In addition to individual differences in development, developmental psychologists generally agree that development occurs in an orderly way and in different areas simultaneously.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_of_proximal_development - often abbreviated ZPD, is the difference between what a learner can do without help and what he or she can do with help. It is a concept introduced yet not fully developed by Soviet psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934) during the last two years of his life. Also, many theorists are still applying it to their work today. Vygotsky's often-quoted definition of zone of proximal development presents it as "the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers. For example, two 8 yr. old children may be able to complete a task that an average 8 yr. old cannot do. Next, more difficult tasks are presented with very little assistance from an adult. In the end, both children were able to complete the task. However, the styles methods they chose depended on how far they were willing to stretch their thinking process."
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clare_W._Graves - was a professor of psychology and originator of a theory of adult human development. He acknowledged that he was unable to answer the frequently-asked question as to who, from among the many competing psychology theorists, was ultimately "right" or "correct" with their model, since there were elements of truth and error in all of them, so created an epistemological theory that he hoped would reconcile the various approaches to human nature and questions about psychological maturity. Graves theorized that in response to the interaction of external conditions with internal neuronal systems, humans develop new bio-psycho-social coping systems to solve existential problems and cope with their worlds. These coping systems are dependent on evolving human culture and individual development, and they are manifested at the individual, societal, and species levels. He believed that tangible, emergent, self-assembling dynamic neuronal systems evolved in the human brain in response to evolving existential and social problems. He theorized "man's nature is not a set thing, that it is ever emergent, that it is an open system, not a closed system." This open-endedness set his approach apart from many of his contemporaries who sought a final state, a nirvana, or perfectibility in human nature.

Spiral Dynamic terms are alienating to tier-1. They're one way of viewing a path anyway.

Cognitive psychology

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_psychology - the study of mental processes such as "attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, creativity and thinking." Much of the work derived from cognitive psychology has been integrated into various other modern disciplines of psychological study including educational psychology, social psychology, personality psychology, abnormal psychology, developmental psychology, and economics. Modern perspectives on cognitive psychology generally address cognition as a dual process theory, introduced by Jonathan Haidt in 2006, and expounded upon by Daniel Kahneman in 2011. Kahneman differentiated the two styles of processing more, calling them intuition and reasoning. Intuition (or system 1), similar to associative reasoning, was determined to be fast and automatic, usually with strong emotional bonds included in the reasoning process. Kahneman said that this kind of reasoning was based on formed habits and very difficult to change or manipulate. Reasoning (or system 2) was slower and much more volatile, being subject to conscious judgments and attitudes.


Positive psychology

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_psychology - A recent branch of psychology whose purpose is to use scientific understanding and effective interventions to aid to satisfactory normal life rather than merely treating mental illness. The "positive" branch complements, with no intention to replace or ignore, the traditional areas of psychology. By adding an important emphasis to use the scientific method to study and determine positive human development, this area of psychology fits well with the investigation of how human development can falter. This field brings attention to the possibility that focusing only on disorder could result in a partial, and limited, understanding of a person's condition.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_optimism - the idea that a talent for joy, like any other, can be cultivated. It is contrasted with learned helplessness. Learning optimism is done by consciously challenging any negative self talk.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_Strengths_and_Virtues - A handbook of human strengths and virtues, by Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman, represents the first attempt on the part of the research community to identify and classify the positive psychological traits of human beings. In the same way that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is used to assess and facilitate research on mental disorders, the CSV - first published in 2004 - is intended to provide a theoretical framework to assist in developing practical applications for positive psychology. The CSV identifies six classes of virtue (i.e., "core virtues"), made up of twenty-four measurable character strengths.
  • Wisdom and Knowledge: creativity, curiosity, open-mindedness, love of learning, perspective, innovation
  • Courage: bravery, persistence, integrity, vitality
  • Humanity: love, kindness, social intelligence
  • Justice: citizenship, fairness, leadership
  • Temperance: forgiveness and mercy, humility, prudence, self control
  • Transcendence: appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humor, spirituality

"Paul Ekman: Well, I have some hesitation about [positive psychology] because I do not believe that - this is one of the things I got the Dalai Lama to change on - that any emotion is either positive or negative. I think that's an over-simplification. The humor that's used to ridicule is negative; there is forms of anger that can be very constructive. The issue is how to constructively enact any emotion, so I would be in favor of a constructive emotion movement. I think the positive psychology movement is an over-simplification of a more complex set of matters."

Industrial and organizational psychology

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_and_organizational_psychology - (also known as I–O psychology, occupational psychology, work psychology, WO psychology, IWO psychology and business psychology) is the scientific study of human behavior in the workplace and applies psychological theories and principles to organizations. I-O psychologists are trained in the scientist–practitioner model. I-O psychologists contribute to an organization's success by improving the performance, satisfaction, safety, health and well-being of its employees. An I–O psychologist conducts research on employee behaviors and attitudes, and how these can be improved through hiring practices, training programs, feedback, and management systems. I–O psychologists also help organizations and their employees transition among periods of change and organization development.

Integral psychology

To sort

Self and identity

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self_actualization - a term that has been used in various psychology theories, often in slightly different ways. The term was originally introduced by the organismic theorist Kurt Goldstein for the motive to realize one's full potential. Expressing one's creativity, quest for spiritual enlightenment, pursuit of knowledge, and the desire to give to society are examples of self-actualization. In Goldstein's view, it is the organism's master motive, the only real motive: "the tendency to actualize itself as fully as possible is the basic drive... the drive of self-actualization." Carl Rogers similarly wrote of "the curative force in psychotherapy - man's tendency to actualize himself, to become his potentialities... to express and activate all the capacities of the organism." The concept was brought most fully to prominence in Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory as the final level of psychological development that can be achieved when all basic and mental needs are essentially fulfilled and the "actualization" of the full personal potential takes place, although he adapted this viewpoint later on in life, and saw it more flexibly. Self actualization can be seen as similar to words and concepts such as self discovery, self reflection, self realisation and self exploration.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-concept - also called self-construction, self-identity, or self-perspective) is a collection of beliefs about oneself that includes elements such as academic performance, gender roles and sexuality, and racial identity. Generally, self-concept embodies the answer to "Who am I?". One's self-concept is made up of self-schemas, and their past, present, and future selves. Self-concept is distinguishable from self-awareness, which refers to the extent to which self-knowledge is defined, consistent, and currently applicable to one's attitudes and dispositions. Self-concept also differs from self-esteem: self-concept is a cognitive or descriptive component of one's self (e.g. "I am a fast runner"), while self-esteem is evaluative and opinionated (e.g. "I feel good about being a fast runner"). Self-concept is made up of one's self-schemas, and interacts with self-esteem, self-knowledge, and the social self to form the self as whole. It includes the past, present, and future selves, where future selves (or possible selves) represent individuals' ideas of what they might become, what they would like to become, or what they are afraid of becoming. Possible selves may function as incentives for certain behavior. The perception people have about their past or future selves is related to the perception of their current selves. The temporal self-appraisal theory argues that people have a tendency to maintain a positive self-evaluation by distancing themselves from their negative self and paying more attention to their positive one. In addition, people have a tendency to perceive the past self less favorably (e.g. "I'm better than I used to be") and the future self more positively (e.g. "I will be better than I am now").
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-esteem - term used regarding the reflection a person's overall emotional evaluation of his or her own worth. It is a judgment of oneself as well as an attitude toward the self. Self-esteem encompasses beliefs (for example, "I am competent," "I am worthy") and emotions such as triumph, despair, pride and shame. Smith and Mackie define it by saying "The self-concept is what we think about the self; self-esteem, is the positive or negative evaluations of the self, as in how we feel about it." Self-esteem is also known as the evaluative dimension of the self that includes feelings of worthiness, prides and discouragement. One's self-esteem is also closely associated with self-consciousness.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-efficacy - the extent or strength of one's belief in one's own ability to complete tasks and reach goals. Psychologists have studied self-efficacy from several perspectives, noting various paths in the development of self-efficacy; the dynamics of self-efficacy, and lack thereof, in many different settings; interactions between self-efficacy and self-concept; and habits of attribution that contribute to, or detract from, self-efficacy. This can be seen as the ability to persist and a person's ability to succeed with a task. As an example, self-efficacy directly relates to how long someone will stick to a workout regimen or a diet. High and low self-efficacy determine whether or not someone will choose to take on a challenging task or write it off as impossible. Self-efficacy affects every area of human endeavor. By determining the beliefs a person holds regarding his or her power to affect situations, it strongly influences both the power a person actually has to face challenges competently and the choices a person is most likely to make. These effects are particularly apparent, and compelling, with regard to behaviors affecting health. Judge et al. (2002) argued the concepts of locus of control, neuroticism, self-efficacy and self-esteem measured the same, single factor and demonstrated them to be related concepts.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_effectiveness - a branch of the self-help movement dealing with success, goals, and related concepts. Personal effectiveness integrates some ideas from “the power of positive thinking” and Positive Psychology but in general it is distinct from the New Thought Movement. A primary differentiating factor is that Personal Effectiveness proponents generally take a more systematic approach including a number of factors beside simple positive thinking. Some proponents take an approach with similarities to business process management techniques. Others may take a holistic spiritual and physical wellness approach.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_self_and_false_self - concepts introduced into psychoanalysis in 1960 by D. W. Winnicott. Winnicott used "True Self" to describe a sense of self based on spontaneous authentic experience, and a feeling of being alive, having a "real self". "False Self" by contrast Winnicott saw as a defensive facade - one which in extreme cases could leave its holders lacking spontaneity and feeling dead and empty, behind a mere appearance of being real.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individuation - describes the manner in which a thing is identified as distinguished from other things. The concept appears in numerous fields and is encountered in works of Carl Jung, Gilbert Simondon, Bernard Stiegler, Friedrich Nietzsche, Arthur Schopenhauer, David Bohm, Henri Bergson, Gilles Deleuze, and Manuel De Landa.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personality_style - has been defined as "an individual's relatively consistent inclinations and preferences across contexts." Personality can be defined as a dynamic and organized set of personal traits and patterns of behavior. "Personality includes attitudes, modes of thought, feelings, impulses, strivings, actions, responses to opportunity and stress and everyday modes of interacting with others." Personality style is apparent "when these elements of personality are expressed in a characteristically repeated and dynamic combination."
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-fulfillment - a concept used in philosophy and, to a lesser degree, psychology, referring to the realizing of one's deepest desires and capacities. The history of this concept can be traced to Ancient Greek philosophers, and although it has been criticized since, it still remains a notable concept in modern philosophy.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-realization - an expression used in psychology, spirituality, and Eastern religions. It is defined as the "fulfillment by oneself of the possibilities of one's character or personality. In one overview, Mortimer Adler defines self-realization as freedom from external coercion, including cultural expectations, political and economic freedom, and the freedom from worldly attachments and desires etc.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_self-reflection - the capacity of humans to exercise introspection and the willingness to learn more about their fundamental nature, purpose and essence. The earliest historical records demonstrate the great interest which humanity has had in itself. Human self-reflection invariably leads to inquiry into the human condition and the essence of humankind as a whole. Human self-reflection is related to the philosophy of consciousness, the topic of awareness, consciousness in general and the philosophy of mind.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_mindedness - refers to a person's capacity for self-examination, self-reflection, introspection and personal insight. It includes an ability to recognize meanings that underlie overt words and actions, to appreciate emotional nuance and complexity, to recognize the links between past and present, and insight into one's own and others' motives and intentions. Psychologically minded people have above average insight into mental life. Conceptual definitions of psychological mindedness have included variant, but related descriptions. Some definitions relate solely to the self, “a person’s ability to see relationships among thoughts, feelings, and actions with the goal of learning the meanings and causes of his experiences and behaviors”. Conte (1996) extended the concept beyond self-focus, as involving “... both self-understanding and an interest in the motivation and behavior of others”. Hall’s (1992) definition introduces the multidimensional nature of PM. She defined it as “reflectivity about psychological processes, relationships and meanings [that] is displayed by ... both interest in and ability for such reflectivity across affective and intellectual dimensions”


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egosyntonic_and_egodystonic - Egosyntonic is a psychological term referring to behaviors, values, feelings that are in harmony with or acceptable to the needs and goals of the ego, or consistent with one's ideal self-image. Egodystonic (or ego alien) is the opposite of egosyntonic and refers to thoughts and behaviors (e.g., dreams, impulses, compulsions, desires, etc.) that are in conflict, or dissonant, with the needs and goals of the ego, or, further, in conflict with a person's ideal self-image.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_resilience - defined as an individual’s ability to properly adapt to stress and adversity. Stress and adversity can come in the shape of family or relationship problems, health problems, or workplace and financial stressors, among others. Individuals demonstrate resilience when they can face difficult experiences and rise above them with ease. Resilience is not a rare ability; in reality, it is found in the average individual and it can be learned and developed by virtually anyone. Resilience should be considered a process, rather than a trait to be had. There is a common misconception that people who are resilient experience no negative emotions or thoughts and display optimism in all situations. Contrary to this misconception, the reality remains that resiliency is demonstrated within individuals who can effectively and relatively easily navigate their way around crises and utilize effective methods of coping. In other words, people who demonstrate resilience are people with positive emotionality; they are keen to effectively balance negative emotions with positive ones.



  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introjection - Generally, it is regarded as the process where the subject replicates in itself behaviors, attributes or other fragments of the surrounding world, especially of other subjects. Cognate concepts are identification, incorporation, and internalization. To use a simple example, a person who picks up traits from their friends (e.g., a person who begins frequently exclaiming "Ridiculous!" as a result of hearing a friend of theirs repeatedly doing the same) is introjecting. Projection has been described as an early phase of introjection.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acting_in - generally used in opposition to acting out to cover conflicts which are brought to life inside therapy, as opposed to outside. One commentator, noting the variety of usages, points out that it is often “unclear whether 'in' refers to the internalization into the personality, to the growth in insight, or to the acting within the session”.

Behaviour

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behaviorism - an approach to psychology that combines elements of philosophy, methodology, and theory. It emerged in the early twentieth century as a reaction to "mentalistic" psychology, which often had difficulty making predictions that could be tested using rigorous experimental methods. The primary tenet of behaviorism, as expressed in the writings of John B. Watson, B. F. Skinner, and others, is that psychology should concern itself with the observable behavior of people and animals, not with unobservable events that take place in their minds.

While behaviorism and cognitive schools of psychological thought may not agree theoretically, they have complemented each other in practical therapeutic applications, such as in cognitive–behavioral therapy that has demonstrable utility in treating certain pathologies, such as simple phobias, PTSD, and addiction.

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mand_(psychology) - a verbal operant in which the response is reinforced by a characteristic consequence and is therefore under the functional control of relevant conditions of deprivation or aversive stimulation. One cannot determine, based on form alone, whether a response is a mand; it is necessary to know the kinds of variables controlling a response in order to identify a verbal operant. A mand is sometimes said to "specify its reinforcement" although this is not always the case.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tact_(psychology) - a verbal operant which is controlled by a nonverbal stimulus (such as an object, event, or property of an object) and is maintained by nonspecific social reinforcement (praise). Less technically, a tact is a label. For example, a child may see their pet dog and say "dog"; the nonverbal stimulus (dog) evoked the response "dog" which is maintained by praise (or generalized conditioned reinforcement) "you're right that is a dog!". Chapter five of Skinner's Verbal Behavior discusses the tact in depth. A tact is said to "make contact with" the world, and refers to behavior that is under the control of generalized reinforcement. The controlling antecedent stimulus is nonverbal, and constitutes some portion of "the whole of the physical environment."
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioural_sciences - the systematic analysis and investigation of human and animal behaviour through controlled and naturalistic observation, and disciplined scientific experimentation. It attempts to accomplish legitimate, objective conclusions through rigorous formulations and observation. Examples of behavioural sciences include psychology, psychobiology, and cognitive science. Behavioral sciences includes two broad categories: neural — Information sciences and social — Relational sciences.

Information processing sciences deals with information processing of stimuli from the social environment by cognitive entities in order to engage in decision making, social judgment and social perception for individual functioning and survival of organism in a social environment. These include psychology, cognitive science, psychobiology, neural networks, social cognition, social psychology, semantic networks, ethology and social neuroscience. On the other hand, Relational sciences deals with relationships, interaction, communication networks, associations and relational strategies or dynamics between organisms or cognitive entities in a social system. These include fields like sociological social psychology, social networks, dynamic network analysis, agent-based model and microsimulation.

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_behaviorism - is "the established formal designation for B. F. Skinner's philosophy of the science of behavior". The term radical behaviorism is also used to refer to the school of psychology known as the experimental analysis of behavior. Radical behaviorism, as a school of psychology, bears little resemblance to other schools of psychology, differing in the acceptance of mediating structures, the role of private events and emotions, and other areas. Radical behaviorism has attracted attention since its inception. First, it proposes that all organismic action is determined and not free. However, there are deterministic elements in much of psychology. Second, it is considered to be "anti-theoretical," although this is a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of theory in a radically inductive scientific position, which rejects hypothetico-deductive method.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_medicine - interdisciplinary field of medicine concerned with the integration of knowledge in the biological, behavioral, psychological, and social sciences relevant to health and illness, exploded during the late 1970s
  • Procrastination Research Group (PRG) began in 1995 when Dr. Pychyl completed his own doctoral work related to personal projects and subjective well being (see Pychyl & Little, 1998 in the Research Bibliography). In his research interviews, a consistent theme emerged in which participants described the difficulty they were having with procrastination on their personal projects and how this procrastination had a negative impact on their well being. This was the beginning of a new focus for Dr. Pychyl and his students at Carleton University as they explored how procrastination, as a breakdown in volitional action, affects our lives.
    • Dr. Pychyl is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology with a cross-appointment to the School of Linguistics and Language Studies. His research in psychology is focused on the breakdown in volitional action commonly known as procrastination and its relation to personal well being (recent publications are provided below).
    • YouTube: Teaching Talk: Helping Students Who Procrastinate (Tim Pychyl)
  • HOWTO: Be more productive - Choose good problems. Have a bunch of them. Make a list. Integrate the list with your life. Ease physical constraints. Carry pen and paper. Avoid being interrupted. Ease mental constraints. Eat, sleep, exercise. Talk to cheerful people. Share the load. - Aaron Swartz

Upset

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emptiness - as a human condition is a sense of generalized boredom, social alienation and apathy. Feelings of emptiness often accompany dysthymia, depression, loneliness, anhedonia, despair, or other mental/emotional disorders, including schizoid personality disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, schizotypal personality disorder and borderline personality disorder. A sense of emptiness is also part of a natural process of grief, as resulting of separation, death of a loved one, or other significant changes. However, the particular meanings of “emptiness” vary with the particular context and the religious or cultural tradition in which it is used. While Christianity and Western sociologists and psychologists view a state of emptiness as a negative, unwanted condition, in some Eastern philosophies such as Buddhist philosophy and Taoism, emptiness (Śūnyatā) is a realized achievement. Outside of Eastern philosophy, some writers have also suggested that people may use a transitory state of emptiness as a means of liberating themselves for personal growth.



Stress and anxiety


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shyness - also called diffidence) is the feeling of apprehension, lack of comfort, or awkwardness especially when a person is in proximity to other people. This commonly occurs in new situations or with unfamiliar people. Shyness can be a characteristic of people who have low self-esteem. Stronger forms of shyness are usually referred to as social anxiety or social phobia.

Defence mechanisms

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_(psychology) - may refer to (1) an unconscious aspect of the personality which the conscious ego does not identify in itself. Because one tends to reject or remain ignorant of the least desirable aspects of one's personality, the shadow is largely negative, or (2) the entirety of the unconscious, i.e., everything of which a person is not fully conscious. There are, however, positive aspects which may also remain hidden in one's shadow (especially in people with low self-esteem). Contrary to a Freudian definition of shadow, therefore, the Jungian shadow can include everything outside the light of consciousness, and may be positive or negative.
  • Carl Jung: the ego and its projections
  • Ken Wilber - Casting Shadow


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addictive_personality - refers to a particular set of personality traits that make an individual predisposed to addictions. Many scientists believe that addictive behaviors are defined by the "excessive, repetitive use of pleasurable activities to cope with unmanageable internal conflict, pressure, and stress." This hypothesis states that there are common elements among people with varying addictions that relates to personality traits. People who are substance dependent are characterized by: a physical or psychological dependency that negatively affects their quality of life. They are frequently connected with substance abuse; however, people with addictive personalities are also highly at risk of becoming addicted to gambling, food, pornography, exercise, work, and codependency.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_suppression - when an individual consciously attempts to stop thinking about a particular thought. It is often associated with obsessive–compulsive disorder. OCD is when a person will repeatedly (usually unsuccessfully) attempt to prevent or "neutralize" intrusive distressing thoughts centered around one or more obsessions. It is also related to work on memory inhibition. Thought suppression is relevant to both mental and behavioral levels, possibly leading to ironic effects that are contrary to intention.


  • Effective Web Experimentation as a Homo Narrans - "Humans are at once flawed and remarkable animals. Much as we might imagine ourselves to be rational actors, we aren't. But we can erect frameworks in which we can compel ourselves to behave rationally."


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactance_(psychology) - a motivational reaction to offers, persons, rules, or regulations that threaten or eliminate specific behavioral freedoms. Reactance occurs when a person feels that someone or something is taking away his or her choices or limiting the range of alternatives. Reactances can occur when someone is heavily pressured to accept a certain view or attitude. Reactance can cause the person to adopt or strengthen a view or attitude that is contrary to what was intended, and also increases resistance to persuasion. People using reverse psychology are playing on at least an informal awareness of reactance, attempting to influence someone to choose the opposite of what they request. In the phenomenology of reactance there is no assumption that a person will be aware of reactance. When a person becomes aware of reactance, they will feel a higher level of self-direction in relationship to their own behavior. In other words, they will feel that if they are able to do what they want, then they do not have to do what they do not want. In this case when the freedom is in question, that person alone is the director of their own behavior.

Projection

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection - a theory in psychology in which humans defend themselves against unpleasant impulses by denying their existence in themselves, while attributing them to others. For example, a person who is rude may constantly accuse other people of being rude. According to some research, the projection of one's negative qualities onto others is a common process in everyday life. However, the belief that psychological projection includes the denial of any of the perceived negative qualities in oneself is challenged by research, and the concept may need to be revised.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transference - characterized by unconscious redirection of feelings from one person to another. One definition of transference is "the inappropriate repetition in the present of a relationship that was important in a person's childhood." Another definition is "the redirection of feelings and desires and especially of those unconsciously retained from childhood toward a new object." Still another definition is "a reproduction of emotions relating to repressed experiences, especially of childhood, and the substitution of another person ... for the original object of the repressed impulses." Transference was first described by Sigmund Freud, who acknowledged its importance for psychoanalysis for better understanding of the patient's feelings. The inclusion of "inappropriate" in the first definition notwithstanding, transference is normal and does not constitute underlying pathology in itself; it is only inappropriate when patterns of transference lead to maladaptive thoughts, feelings or behaviours.

Pathology

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_anxiety_disorder - Social anxiety disorder (SAD), also known as social phobia, is the most common anxiety disorder. It is one of the most common psychiatric disorders, with 12% of Americans having experienced it in their lifetime. It is characterized by intense fear in one or more social situations, causing considerable distress and impaired ability to function in at least some parts of daily life. These fears can be triggered by perceived or actual scrutiny from others. While the fear of social interaction may be recognized by the person as excessive or unreasonable, overcoming it can be quite difficult. Some people suffering from social anxiety disorder fear a wide range of social situations while others may only show anxiety in performance situations. In the latter case, the specifier "performance only" is added to the diagnosis. Social anxiety disorder is known to appear at an early age in most cases. Fifty percent of those who develop this disorder have developed it by the age of 11 and 80% have developed it by age 20. This early age of onset may lead to people with social anxiety disorder being particularly vulnerable to depressive illnesses, drug abuse and other psychological conflicts. Physical symptoms often accompanying social anxiety disorder include excessive blushing, sweating (hyperhidrosis), trembling, palpitations and nausea. Stammering may be present, along with rapid speech. Panic attacks can also occur under intense fear and discomfort. An early diagnosis may help minimize the symptoms and the development of additional problems, such as depression. Some sufferers may use alcohol or other drugs to reduce fears and inhibitions at social events. It is common for sufferers of social phobia to self-medicate in this fashion, especially if they are undiagnosed, untreated, or both; this can lead to alcoholism, eating disorders or other kinds of substance abuse. SAD is sometimes referred to as an 'illness of lost opportunities' where 'individuals make major life choices to accommodate their illness
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phobia - (from the Greek: φόβος phóbos,"aversion", "fear, morbid fear") is, when used in the context of clinical psychology, a type of anxiety disorder, usually defined as a persistent fear of an object or situation in which the sufferer commits to great lengths in avoiding, typically disproportional to the actual danger posed, often being recognized as irrational. In the event the phobia cannot be avoided entirely, the sufferer will endure the situation or object with marked distress and significant interference in social or occupational activities. The terms distress and impairment as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV-TR) should also take into account the context of the sufferer's environment if attempting a diagnosis. The DSM-IV-TR states that if a phobic stimulus, whether it be an object or a social situation, is absent entirely in an environment — a diagnosis cannot be made.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experiential_avoidance - has been broadly defined as attempts to avoid thoughts, feelings, memories, physical sensations, and other internal experiences—even when doing so creates harm in the long-run. The process of EA is thought to be maintained through negative reinforcement—that is, short-term relief of discomfort is achieved through avoidance, thereby increasing the likelihood that the behavior will persist. Importantly, the current conceptualization of EA suggests that it is not negative thoughts, emotions, and sensations that are problematic, but how one responds to them that can cause difficulties. In particular, a habitual and persistent unwillingness to experience uncomfortable thoughts and feelings (and the associated avoidance and inhibition of these experiences) is thought to be linked to a wide range of problems.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avoidance_coping - or escape coping, is a maladaptive coping mechanism characterized by the effort to avoid dealing with a stressor. Coping refers to behaviors that attempt to protect oneself from psychological damage. Variations of avoidance coping include modifying or eliminating the conditions that gave rise to the problem and changing the perception of an experience in a way that neutralizes the problem.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterphobic_attitude - a response to anxiety that, instead of fleeing the source of fear in the manner of a phobia, actively seeks it out, in the hope of overcoming the original anxiousness. Contrary to the avoidant personality disorder, the counterphobic represents the less usual, but not totally uncommon, response of seeking out what is feared: codependents may fall into a subcategory of this group, hiding their fears of attachment in over-dependency.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addictive_personality - refers to a particular set of personality traits that make an individual predisposed to addictions. Many scientists believe that addictive behaviors are defined by the "excessive, repetitive use of pleasurable activities to cope with unmanageable internal conflict, pressure, and stress." This hypothesis states that there are common elements among people with varying addictions that relates to personality traits. People who are substance dependent are characterized by: a physical or psychological dependency that negatively affects their quality of life. They are frequently connected with substance abuse; however, people with addictive personalities are also highly at risk of becoming addicted to gambling, food, pornography, exercise, work, and codependency.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurosis - class of functional mental disorders involving distress but neither delusions nor hallucinations, whereby behavior is not outside socially acceptable norms. It is also known as psychoneurosis or neurotic disorder, and thus those suffering from it are said to be neurotic. There are many forms of neurosis: obsessive–compulsive disorder, anxiety neurosis, hysteria (in which anxiety may be discharged through a physical symptom), and a nearly endless variety of phobias as well as obsessions such as pyromania.



  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personality_disorder - a class of mental disorders characterized by enduring maladaptive patterns of behavior, cognition and inner experience, exhibited across many contexts and deviating markedly from those accepted by the individual's culture. These patterns develop early, are inflexible and are associated with significant distress or disability. The definitions may vary some according to other sources.

The ICD-10 section on mental and behavioral disorders includes categories of personality disorder and enduring personality changes. They are defined as ingrained patterns indicated by inflexible and disabling responses that significantly differ from how the average person in the culture perceives, thinks and feels, particularly in relating to others. The specific personality disorders are: paranoid, schizoid, dissocial, emotionally unstable (borderline type and impulsive type), histrionic, anankastic, anxious (avoidant) and dependent. There is also an 'Others' category involving conditions characterized as eccentric, haltlose (derived from "haltlos" (German) = drifting, aimless and irresponsible), immature, narcissistic, passive-aggressive or psychoneurotic. An additional category is for unspecified personality disorder, including character neurosis and pathological personality.

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depersonalization - an anomaly of self-awareness. It consists of a feeling of watching oneself act, while having no control over a situation. Subjects feel they have changed, and the world has become vague, dreamlike, less real, or lacking in significance. It can be a disturbing experience, since many feel that, indeed, they are living in a "dream". Chronic depersonalization refers to depersonalization disorder, which is classified by the DSM-IV as a dissociative disorder. Though degrees of depersonalization and derealization can happen to anyone who is subject to temporary anxiety/stress, chronic depersonalization is more related to individuals who have experienced a severe trauma or prolonged stress/anxiety.

Depersonalization-derealization is the single most important symptom in the spectrum of dissociative disorders, including dissociative identity disorder and "dissociative disorder not otherwise specified" (DD-NOS). It is also a prominent symptom in some other non-dissociative disorders, such as anxiety disorders, clinical depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, migraine and sleep deprivation, and it can be a symptom of some types of neurological seizure. It can be considered desirable, such as in the use of recreational drugs. In social psychology, and in particular self-categorization theory, the term depersonalization has a different meaning and refers to "the stereotypical perception of the self as an example of some defining social category".

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borderline_personality_disorder - the essential feature of which is a pattern of marked impulsivity and instability of affects, interpersonal relationships and self image. The pattern is present by early adulthood and occurs across a variety of situations and contexts. Other symptoms usually include intense fears of abandonment and intense anger and irritability, the reason for which others have difficulty understanding. People with BPD often engage in idealization and devaluation of others, alternating between high positive regard and great disappointment
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histrionic_personality_disorder - characterized by a pattern of excessive emotions and attention-seeking, including inappropriately seductive behavior and an excessive need for approval, usually beginning in early adulthood. People affected by HPD are lively, dramatic, vivacious, enthusiastic, and flirtatious. HPD affects four times as many women as men.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsessive%E2%80%93compulsive_personality_disorder - also called anankastic personality disorder, is a personality disorder characterized by a pervasive pattern of preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism, mental and interpersonal control and a need for power over one's environment, at the expense of flexibility, openness, and efficiency. People with OCPD do not generally feel the need to repeatedly perform ritualistic actions—a common symptom of OCD—and usually find pleasure in perfecting a task, whereas people with OCD are often more distressed after their actions.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haltlose_personality_disorder - in which affected individuals are selfish, irresponsible and hedonistic. They have many similarities with dissocial personality disorder and its DSM counterpart antisocial personality disorder. Haltlose people have a strong present time orientation with no long-term goals. They have no conscientiousness or concentration; they do not feel remorse or learn from experience. They are typically overoptimistic. They have charm and are easily persuaded, features in common with histrionic personality disorder. Many haltlosen are alcoholics and associate with antisocials. "Haltlos" is a German word which means drifting, aimless, irresponsible.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dependent_personality_disorder - formerly known as asthenic personality disorder, is a personality disorder that is characterized by a pervasive psychological dependence on other people. This personality disorder is a long-term (chronic) condition in which people depend on others to meet their emotional and physical needs, with only a minority achieving normal levels of independence.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexithymia - a personality construct characterized by the sub-clinical inability to identify and describe emotions in the self. The core characteristics of alexithymia are marked dysfunction in emotional awareness, social attachment, and interpersonal relating. Furthermore, individuals suffering from alexithymia also have difficulty in distinguishing and appreciating the emotions of others, which is thought to lead to unempathic and ineffective emotional responding. Alexithymia is prevalent in approximately 10% of the general population and is known to be comorbid with a number of psychiatric conditions.


Flourishing

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closure_(psychology) - or need for closure (NFC) (used interchangeably with need for cognitive closure (NFCC)) are psychological terms that describe an individual's desire for a firm answer to a question and an aversion toward ambiguity. The term "need" denotes a motivated tendency to seek out information
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness_(psychology) - is "the intentional, accepting and non-judgmental focus of one's attention on the emotions, thoughts and sensations occurring in the present moment", which can be trained by meditational practices derived from Buddhist anapanasati. It has been popularized in the west by Jon Kabat-Zinn with his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program. Clinical psychology and psychiatry since the 1970s have developed a number of therapeutic applications based on mindfulness for helping people suffering from a variety of psychological conditions. Clinical studies have documented the physical and mental health benefits of mindfulness in general, and MBSR in particular. Programs based on MBSR and similar models have been widely adapted in schools, prisons, hospitals, veterans centers, and other environments.



  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-disclosure - a process of communication through which one person reveals himself or herself to another. It comprises everything an individual chooses to tell the other person about himself or herself, making him or her known. The information can be descriptive or evaluative and can include thoughts, feelings, aspirations, goals, failures, successes, fears, dreams as well as one's likes, dislikes, and favorites. According to social penetration theory, there are two dimensions to self-disclosure: breadth and depth. Both are crucial in developing a fully intimate relationship. The range of topics discussed by two individuals is the breadth of disclosure. The degree to which the information revealed is private or personal is the depth of that disclosure. It is easier for breadth to be expanded first in a relationship because of its more accessible features; it consists of outer layers of personality and everyday lives, such as occupations and preferences. Depth is more difficult to reach, given its inner location; it includes painful memories and more unusual traits that we might try to hide from most people. This is why we reveal ourselves most thoroughly and discuss the widest range of topics with our spouses and loved ones. Self-disclosure is an important building block for intimacy; intimacy cannot be achieved without it. We expect self-disclosure to be reciprocal and appropriate. Self-disclosure can be assessed by an analysis of cost and rewards which can be further explained by social exchange theory. Most self-disclosure occurs early in relational development, but more intimate self-disclosure occurs later.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self_care - refers to actions and attitudes which contribute to the maintenance of well-being and personal health and promote human development. In terms of health maintenance, self care is any activity of an individual, family or community, with the intention of improving or restoring health, or treating or preventing disease. A holistic health approach is common in self care.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-help - or self-improvement, is a self-guided improvement—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial psychological basis. Many different self-help group programs exist, each with its own focus, techniques, associated beliefs, proponents and in some cases, leaders. "Self-help culture, particularly Twelve-Step culture, has provided some of our most robust new language: recovery, dysfunctional families, and codependency." Self-help often utilizes publicly available information or support groups, on the Internet as well as in person, where people in similar situations join together. From early examples in self-driven legal practice and home-spun advice, the connotations of the word have spread and often apply particularly to education, business, psychology and psychotherapy, commonly distributed through the popular genre of self-help books. According to the APA Dictionary of Psychology, potential benefits of self-help groups that professionals may not be able to provide include friendship, emotional support, experiential knowledge, identity, meaningful roles, and a sense of belonging.


Compassion

  • Self-Compassion, Self-Esteem, and Well-Being - Kristin D. Neff, University of Texas at Austin. This article focuses on the construct of self-compassion and how it differs from self-esteem. First,it discusses the fact that while self-esteem is related to psychological well-being, the pursuit ofhigh self-esteem can be problematic. Next it presents another way to feel good about oneself: self-compassion. Self-compassion entails treating oneself with kindness, recognizing one’s sharedhumanity, and being mindful when considering negative aspects of oneself. Finally, this articlesuggests that self-compassion may offer similar mental health benefits as self-esteem, but withfewer downsides. Research is presented which shows that self-compassion provides greater emo-tional resilience and stability than self-esteem, but involves less self-evaluation, ego-defensiveness,and self-enhancement than self-esteem. Whereas self-esteem entails evaluating oneself positivelyand often involves the need to be special and above average, self-compassion does not entail self-evaluation or comparisons with others. Rather, it is a kind, connected, and clear-sighted way ofrelating to ourselves even in instances of failure, perceived inadequacy, and imperfection.
  • YouTube: Self Compassion Part 1 Kristin Neff
  • YouTube: A Love affair - Vidyuddeva - "How are we ever going to be free from anger, if you're angry at human delusion? Look around! What are we gonna do?! Although there's a pathological aspect to what I'm going to say next, what stuck me is that there has to be a love affair with human delusion to have any effectiveness, any efficacy at all, there has to be a love affair with human delusion. But this total love and this total acceptance is not justification or condoning or even propagating, particularly ... Error has it's own beauty, it's own pathology, but when you spot error, often our tendency is then to be arrogant and to distance ourselves and then not to be in communication, not to have any relationship ..."

Existential

Human condition: "These limitations are neither subjective nor objective, or rather there is both a subjective and an objective aspect of them. Objective, because we meet with them everywhere and they are everywhere recognisable: and subjective because they are lived and are nothing if man does not live them – if, that is to say, he does not freely determine himself and his existence in relation to them. And, diverse though man’s purpose may be, at least none of them is wholly foreign to me, since every human purpose presents itself as an attempt either to surpass these limitations, or to widen them, or else to deny or to accommodate oneself to them." ... "In this sense we may say that there is a human universality, but it is not something given; it is being perpetually made. I make this universality in choosing myself; I also make it by understanding the purpose of any other man, of whatever epoch. This absoluteness of the act of choice does not alter the relativity of each epoch."

"There is this in common between art and morality, that in both we have to do with creation and invention."



Wellbeing

to sort/reorder

See also Organisation#Communication, Health


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coping_(psychology) - expending conscious effort to solve personal and interpersonal problems, and seeking to master, minimize or tolerate stress or conflict. The effectiveness of the coping efforts depend on the type of stress and/or conflict, the particular individual, and the circumstances. Psychological coping mechanisms are commonly termed coping strategies or coping skills. Unconscious or non conscious strategies (e.g. defense mechanisms) are generally excluded. The term coping generally refers to adaptive or constructive coping strategies, i.e. the strategies reduce stress levels. However, some coping strategies can be considered maladaptive, i.e. stress levels increase. Maladaptive coping can thus be described, in effect, as non-coping. Furthermore, the term coping generally refers to reactive coping, i.e. the coping response follows the stressor. This contrasts with proactive coping, in which a coping response aims to head off a future stressor. Coping responses are partly controlled by personality (habitual traits), but also partly by the social environment, particularly the nature of the stressful environment.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conation - stems from the Latin conatus, meaning any natural tendency, impulse, striving, or directed effort. Conative is one of three parts of the mind, along with the affective and cognitive. In short, the cognitive part of the brain measures intelligence, the affective deals with emotions and the conative drives how one acts on those thoughts and feelings.



Action

See also Action (for yoga, somatic, etc.), Health



  • Wheel running in the wild - "The importance of exercise for health and neurogenesis is becoming increasingly clear. Wheel running is often used in the laboratory for triggering enhanced activity levels, despite the common objection that this behaviour is an artefact of captivity and merely signifies neurosis or stereotypy. If wheel running is indeed caused by captive housing, wild mice are not expected to use a running wheel in nature. This however, to our knowledge, has never been tested. Here, we show that when running wheels are placed in nature, they are frequently used by wild mice, also when no extrinsic reward is provided. Bout lengths of running wheel behaviour in the wild match those for captive mice. This finding falsifies one criterion for stereotypic behaviour, and suggests that running wheel activity is an elective behaviour. In a time when lifestyle in general and lack of exercise in particular are a major cause of disease in the modern world, research into physical activity is of utmost importance. Our findings may help alleviate the main concern regarding the use of running wheels in research on exercise."


Meditation

Brief introductions to practice;

  • The Dharma Overground is a resource for the support of hardcore meditation practice. It is a place where everything related to the support of practice may flourish, including where to go on retreats, what techniques may lead to what, an in depth look at the maps of possible states and stages, discussions about how to determine what experience was what, and in general anything that has to do with actually practicing rather than what typically occurs in standard meditation circles. Here you will find a robust and variable community of people with a wide range of experience levels, perspectives and interests, though all loosely bound by the same basic principles of empowering, helpful, engaged dharma and exploration of the possibilities of the mind.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekagrata - one-pointed, intentness in the pursuit of one object, close and undisturbed attention. Tapas and Brahmacharya are part of the Vedic exercises meant for attaining self-control. The Upanishads emphasise on the practice of austere virtues; tapas destroys sins, weakens indriyas, purifies citta and leads to ekagrata. The Yoga school also lays equal emphasis on self-control and gain of Abhyasa through regular practice of meditation, through self-imposed discipline to prevent detraction of thought and to acquire Ekagrata.



"All these approaches have the common elements of CBT (recognizing and challenging maladaptive thoughts) and a version of meditation that goes under the moniker “mindfulness meditation” or sometimes just “mindfulness.” A review of the treatment manuals for DBT, ACT, MBSR and MBCBT suggest that “mindfulness meditation” is something close to a “soft-vipassana.” The person doing meditation in these treatment protocols is instructed to watch thoughts and feelings come and go on their own without judgment. This leads to the insight that one does not need to believe in, or act on, thoughts or feelings. This is perfect for CBT, which emphasizes the importance of thoughts and beliefs as the drivers of mood disorders. I call mindfulness meditation a “soft” version of vipassana because it stops short of instructing the person to see that everything in awareness is coming and going and is not owned. It also does not emphasize the kind of intense or rapid momentary concentration that marks some vipassana techniques. Instead, clinical mindfulness focuses on relaxation and gentleness (but not samadhi) and points the person to watch thinking and emotional reactions. I would argue that these differences are a very good thing because, despite popular opinion, traditional vipassana would be terrible medicine for a person who is emotionally distraught, unstable, and unable to cope."

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_muscle_relaxation - technique for learning to monitor and control the state of muscular tension. It was developed by American physician Edmund Jacobson in the early 1920s. Dr Jacobson wrote several books on the subject of Progressive Relaxation. The technique involves learning to monitor tension in each specific muscle group in the body by deliberately inducing tension in each group. This tension is then released, with attention paid to the contrast between tension and relaxation. These learning sessions are not exercises or self-hypnotism.

Buddhist

See also Mind#Buddhism

"Friends, whoever — monk or nun — declares the attainment of arahantship in my presence, they all do it by means of one or another of four paths. Which four? "There is the case where a monk has developed insight preceded by tranquillity. [...] "Then there is the case where a monk has developed tranquillity preceded by insight. [...] "Then there is the case where a monk has developed tranquillity in tandem with insight. [...] "Then there is the case where a monk's mind has its restlessness concerning the Dhamma [Comm: the corruptions of insight] well under control."

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samatha - the Buddhist practice (bhavana) of the calming of the mind (citta) and its 'formations' (sankhara). This is done by practicing single-pointed meditation most commonly through mindfulness of breathing. Samatha is common to all Buddhist traditions.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anapanasati - meaning 'mindfulness of breathing' ("sati" means mindfulness; "ānāpāna" refers to inhalation and exhalation), is a form of Buddhist meditation now common to the Tibetan, Zen, Tiantai, and Theravada schools of Buddhism, as well as western-based mindfulness programs. Anapanasati means to feel the sensations caused by the movements of the breath in the body, as is practiced in the context of mindfulness. According to tradition, Anapanasati was originally taught by the Buddha in several sutras including the Ānāpānasati Sutta
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anapanasati_Sutta
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vipassanā - experiential insight, which enables one to see, explore and discern "formations" (conditioned phenomena based on the five aggregates)
  • Vipassana - As taught by S.N. Goenka in the tradition of Sayagyi U Ba Khin


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kammaṭṭhāna - literally means the place of work. Figuratively it means the place within the mind where one goes in order to work on spiritual development. More concretely, it refers to the forty canonical objects of meditation, listed in the third chapter of the Visuddhimagga



Zen
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikantaza - a Japanese translation of a Chinese term for zazen introduced by Rujing, a monk of the Caodong school of Zen Buddhism. In Japan, it is associated with the Soto school.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mind - a technique developed by Zen teacher Dennis Merzel that merges Western psychological techniques (specifically Voice Dialogue therapy) with Buddhist conceptions of self and mind.

Daoist

Neo-Confucian

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jing_zuo - mainly Neo-Confucian meditation practice, literal: "quiet sitting" / "sitting in silence", does not require the stopping of rational thought, but instead relies upon disciplined attention to one's current situation and mental phenomena

Christian

Sikh

Vivation

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivation - form of meditation whose primary aim is the permanent and pleasurable resolution of suppressed negative emotions. The word "Vivation" comes from the Latin word vivé (to fully embrace life). Vivation integrates the core principles found in yoga, tantra, breathwork, and meditation into a unified process of healing and personal empowerment. Created by Jim Leonard in 1979, emphasis on maintaining awareness of the strongest feeling in the body on an ongoing basis.

Articles

Transcendental Meditation

Guided

Other

Psychiatry

  • Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental disorders. These include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities. Utilizes research in the field of neuroscience, psychology, medicine, biology, biochemistry, and pharmacology, it has generally been considered a middle ground between neurology and psychology.

Psychosomatic

The academic forebear of the modern field of behavioral medicine and a part of the practice of consultation-liaison psychiatry, psychosomatic medicine integrates interdisciplinary evaluation and management involving diverse specialties including psychiatry, psychology, neurology, internal medicine, surgery, allergy, dermatology and psychoneuroimmunology. Clinical situations where mental processes act as a major factor affecting medical outcomes are areas where psychosomatic medicine has competence.

Support and therapy

to sort

Radical mental health

Radical mental health is about grass-roots and diversity. For so long, our psychic differences have been defined by authority figures intent on fitting us into narrow versions of “normality.” Radical mental health is a dynamic, creative term; one which empowers us to come up with our own understandings for how our psyches, souls, and hearts experience the world, rather than pour them into conventional medical frameworks. It follows that any realistic approach to well-being has to begin by accepting and valuing diversity. There is no single model for a “healthy mind,” no matter how many years of drug treatment, schooling, or behavior modification programs we’ve been put through. And without differences, there can be no movement.

Radical mental health is about politics and social justice. Radical mental health understands how the tools of psychiatric intervention are embedded in broader relations of power. People in power benefit from controlling and silencing how our psyches/bodies/souls speak about an unjust world. They also see these tools as part of a powerful, global medico-industrial complex that profits from framing our experiences as chronic illnesses that require lifelong treatment. For example, the psychiatric establishment has a history of diagnosing entire groups of people who were queer, black, women, poor, gender-variant and/or trans, sick and abnormal, therefore justifying forms of violence and exclusion that maintained the dominance of whiteness, patriarchy, and heternormativity.

Radical mental health is about interconnectedness. Radical mental health sees human experience as a holistic convergence of social, emotional, cultural, physical, spiritual, historical, and environmental elements. The growth and strength of individuals and communities comes from our interconnectedness – we struggle and celebrate together, always. Radical mental health is about emotional/embodied expertise. Radical mental health is about listening to and learning from the expertise of our feelings and bodies.

Radical mental health is about new languages and cultures. We need to get together and find language for our stories that make sense to us; to unlearn social conditioning about what it means to be “sick” and “healthy.” We should feel empowered to create words that better reflect our personal experiences. Some of us have reclaimed the term “mad” or “madness” as no longer negative, but rather, as a proud statement of survival. Radical mental health is about challenging the dominance of biopsychiatry. The biomedical model of psychiatry, or “biopsychiatry,” rests on the belief that mental health issues are the result of chemical imbalances in the brain. It is an idea that is wrapped up in the same ideology of the marketplace that has cut our social safety nets and fragmented our communities — that is, that the problems and solutions of our lives are located solely in the individual.

Radical mental health is about options. Some may assume that radical mental health is simply “anti-psychiatry.” However, most of us take far more complicated, diverse, and nuanced viewpoints. Radical mental health may mean accepting some of the things that mainstream, medicalized models suggest for our well-being, while discarding some of the things we may not find useful, helpful, or positive. In practice, this means supporting people’s self-determination for personal, ongoing decision-making, including whether to take psychiatric drugs or not, and whether to use diagnostic categories or not. Radical alternatives to mainstream approaches celebrate multiple options and diverse forms of expertise. They value, for example, peer support, listening, dialogue, mutual aid, activism, counseling, spirituality, creative activity, community engagement, politicization, and access to more marginalized healing methods. Radical mental health is about questioning and imagination.

Radical mental health is about working within, and without, the bigger mental health systems. Radical mental health activists have a diversity of perspectives towards hospitalization, medication, and diagnoses. Perhaps the most radical aspect of radical mental health has to do with questioning authority and the production of knowledge. We challenge the exclusive voice of formal expertise, and demand that our stories and experiences be considered alongside the voices of professional mental health service providers, profiteers, and institutions. Along with the disability rights movement, we insist: Nothing about us without us. Radical mental health then, is about returning the pathologizing gaze to our crazy-making world. Our struggles for mad justice intersect with others challenging oppressive social relations, including anti-racist, feminist, queer, decolonization, disability, anti-war, decarceration, anti-corporate, public education, and other grassroots community movements.

  • The Icarus Project envisions a new culture and language that resonates with our actual experiences of 'mental illness' rather than trying to fit our lives into a conventional framework. We are a network of people living with and/or affected by experiences that are often diagnosed and labeled as psychiatric conditions. We believe these experiences are mad gifts needing cultivation and care, rather than diseases or disorders. By joining together as individuals and as a community, the intertwined threads of madness, creativity, and collaboration can inspire hope and transformation in an oppressive and damaged world. Participation in The Icarus Project helps us overcome alienation and tap into the true potential that lies between brilliance and madness.
  • Mindful Liberation Project has brought a much-needed radical activist approach to mental well-being to Virginia’s capitol. We work tirelessly in destigmatizing differing mental health concerns, termed “mental illnesses” or “disorders” by the Psychiatric Industrial Complex. With free peer support gatherings that are entirely facilitated by volunteers, we take our health into our own hands and make it okay to be able to openly and frankly tell a friend “I am trying to find a reason to live” or “I feel like I am on top of the world” without fear of being institutionalized or having the police called. We have various events to raise awareness about mental health itself, and to give our community the chance to speak out about their own unique experiences with mental health. We are survivors and we’re here to help. We are not mental health professionals.
  • http://www.radicalpsychology.org/vol4-2/Martinez4.html

Counselling

Psychotherapy


Psychodynamics

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychodynamics - or dynamic psychology, an approach to psychology that emphasises systematic study of the psychological forces that underlie human behavior, feelings, and emotions and how they might relate to early experience, especially interested in the dynamic relations between conscious motivation and unconscious motivation. The term psychodynamics is also used by some to refer specifically to the psychoanalytical approach developed by Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) and his followers. Freud was inspired by the theory of thermodynamics and used the term psychodynamics to describe the processes of the mind as flows of psychological energy (libido) in an organically complex brain. In the treatment of psychological distress, psychodynamic psychotherapy tends to be a less intensive, once- or twice-weekly modality than the classical Freudian psychoanalysis treatment of 3-5 sessions per week. Psychodynamic therapies depend upon a theory of inner conflict, wherein repressed behaviours and emotions surface into the patient’s consciousness; generally, one conflict is subconscious.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychodynamic_psychotherapy - a form of depth psychology, the primary focus of which is to reveal the unconscious content of a client's psyche in an effort to alleviate psychic tension. In this way, it is similar to psychoanalysis. It also relies on the interpersonal relationship between client and therapist more than other forms of depth psychology. In terms of approach, this form of therapy uses psychoanalysis adapted to a less intensive style of working, usually at a frequency of once or twice per week. Principal theorists drawn upon are Freud, Klein and theorists of the object relations movement, e.g. Winnicott, Guntrip, and Bion. Some psychodynamic therapists also draw on Jung. It is a focus that has been used in individual psychotherapy, group psychotherapy, family therapy, and to understand and work with institutional and organizational contexts.


Depth psychology

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_psychology - coined by Eugen Bleuler to refer to psychoanalytic approaches to therapy and research that take the unconscious into account. The term has come to refer to the ongoing development of theories and therapies pioneered by Pierre Janet, William James, Sigmund Freud, and Carl Jung. Depth psychology explores the relationship between the conscious and the unconscious and includes both psychoanalysis and Jungian psychology. In practice, depth psychology seeks to explore underlying motives as an approach to various mental disorders, with the belief that the uncovering of these motives is intrinsically healing. It seeks the deep layers underlying behavioral and cognitive processes.

Psychoanalysis

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoanalysis - a set of psychological and psychotherapeutic theories and associated techniques, popularised by Sigmund Freud, and since then expanded and been revised, reformed and developed in different directions, initially by Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav Jung, and later neo-Freudians included Erich Fromm, Karen Horney, Harry Stack Sullivan and Jacques Lacan.

Under the broad umbrella of psychoanalysis there are at least 22 theoretical orientations regarding human mental development. The various approaches in treatment called "psychoanalysis" vary as much as the theories do. The term also refers to a method of analysing child development.

Freudian psychoanalysis refers to a specific type of treatment in which the "analysand" (analytic patient) verbally expresses his thoughts, including free associations, fantasies, and dreams, from which the analyst induces the unconscious conflicts causing the patient's symptoms and character problems, and interprets them for the patient to create insight for resolution of the problems. The analyst confronts and clarifies the patient's pathological defenses, wishes and guilt. Through the analysis of conflicts, including those contributing to resistance and those involving transference onto the analyst of distorted reactions, psychoanalytic treatment can hypothesize how patients unconsciously are their own worst enemies: how unconscious, symbolic reactions that have been stimulated by experience are causing symptoms.


On the between - "My advice would be, if you want to know what psychoanalysis is, go into these gaps and see what crazy and amazing and heartbreaking things people are up to, but good luck trying to define it. If pressed, I would define psychoanalysis as a disciplined journey into the between. ... The between is everywhere so that is easy enough. The tricky bit is disciplined journey."


Freudian

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_psychology - A school of psychoanalysis rooted in Sigmund Freud's structural id-ego-superego model of the mind. An individual interacts with the external world as well as responds to internal forces. Many psychoanalysts use a theoretical construct called the ego to explain how that is done through various ego functions. Adherents of ego psychology focus on the ego’s normal and pathological development, its management of libidinal and aggressive impulses, and its adaptation to reality.

Object relations theory

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_relations_theory - Suggests that the way people relate to others and situations in their adult lives is shaped by family experiences during infancy. For example, an adult who experienced neglect or abuse in infancy would expect similar behavior from others who remind them of the neglectful or abusive person from their past (often a parent). These images of people and events turn into Objects in the subconscious that the person carries into adulthood, and they are used by the subconscious to predict people's behavior in their social relationships and interactions.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jointness_(psychodynamics) - a dynamic process representing an emotional system for attachment and for communication between separate individuals who jointly approach each other in a third, joint, virtual space. Jointness represents an encounter between mother and infant, psychotherapist and patient, or any partners experiencing simultaneously mutual intimacy, while concomitantly safeguarding separateness.

Psychosynthesis

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychosynthesis - an approach to psychology that was developed by Roberto Assagioli who asserted that "the direct experience of the self, of pure self-awareness... - is true." Spiritual goals of "Self-Realization", and the "interindividual psychosynthesis" - of 'social integration...the harmonious integration of the individual into ever larger groups up to the "one humanity"' - were central to Assagioli's theory. Assagioli developed therapeutic methods beyond those found in psychoanalysis. Although the unconscious is an important part of his theory, Assagioli was careful to maintain a balance with rational, conscious therapeutical work. "If there is a 'psychoanalysis' there must also be a 'psychosynthesis which creates future events according to the same laws'".

In developing psychosynthesis, Assagioli agreed with Freud that healing childhood trauma and developing a healthy ego were necessary aims of psychotherapy, but held that human growth could not be limited to this alone. A student of philosophical and spiritual traditions of both East and West, Assagioli sought to address human growth as it proceeded beyond the norm of the well-functioning ego; he wished also to support the blossoming of human potential into what Abraham Maslow later termed self-actualization, and further still, into the spiritual or transpersonal dimensions of human experience as well.

In other words, Assagioli envisioned an approach to the human being which could address both the process of personal growth—of personality integration and self-actualization—as well as transpersonal development—that dimension glimpsed for example in peak experiences (Maslow) of inspired creativity, spiritual insight, and unitive states of consciousness. Psychosynthesis is therefore one of the earliest forerunners of both humanistic psychology and transpersonal psychology, even preceding Jung’s break with Freud by several years. Assagioli’s conception has an affinity with existential-humanistic psychology and other approaches which attempt to understand the nature of the healthy personality, personal responsibility and choice, and the actualization of the personal self; similarly, his conception is related to the field of transpersonal psychology, with its focus on higher states of consciousness, spirituality, and human experiencing beyond the individual self.

The principal aims and tasks of psychosynthesis are:

  • the elimination of the conflicts and obstacles, conscious and unconscious, that block [the complete and harmonious development of the human personality]
  • the use of active techniques to stimulate the psychic functions still weak and immature.

"Let us examine whether and how it is possible to solve this central problem of human life, to heal this fundamental infirmity of man. Let us see how he may free himself from this enslavement and achieve an harmonious inner integration, true Self-realization, and right relationships with others." Psychosynthesis includes a five-fold process of recognition, acceptance, co-ordination, integration, and synthesis of subpersonalities (little egos, or "degraded expressions of the archetypes of higher qualities") 'leads to the discovery of the Transpersonal Self, and the realization that that is the final truth of the person, not the subpersonalities'.

Analytical psychology

See also Myth

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Jung - Split with Freud and his obsession with libido, started analytical psychology, focused on individuation, the collective unconscious, archetypes and personality types, the wounded healer, synchronicity, unus mundus, etc.

"Often things that will help beautiful people are pretty fucking ugly."

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstraction#Abstraction_in_psychology - Carl Jung's definition of abstraction broadened its scope beyond the thinking process to include exactly four mutually exclusive, different complementary psychological functions: sensation, intuition, feeling, and thinking. Together they form a structural totality of the differentiating abstraction process.

"There is an abstract thinking, just as there is abstract feeling, sensation and intuition. Abstract thinking singles out the rational, logical qualities ... Abstract feeling does the same with ... its feeling-values. ... I put abstract feelings on the same level as abstract thoughts. ... Abstract sensation would be aesthetic as opposed to sensuous sensation and abstract intuition would be symbolic as opposed to fantastic intuition."

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persona_(psychology) - the social face the individual presented to the world—"a kind of mask, designed on the one hand to make a definite impression upon others, and on the other to conceal the true nature of the individual"
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metanoia_(psychology) - a spontaneous attempt of the psyche to heal itself of unbearable conflict by melting down and then being reborn in a more adaptive form - a form of self healing often associated with the mid-life crisis and psychotic breakdown, which can be viewed as a potentially productive process. Jung considered that psychotic episodes in particular could be understood as an existential crisis which might be an attempt at self-reparation: in such instances metanoia could represent a shift in the balance of the personality away from the persona towards the shadow and the self
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wounded_healer - That an analyst is compelled to treat patients because the analyst himself is "wounded". The analyst is consciously aware of his own personal wounds. These wounds may be activated in certain situations especially if his analyzed wounds are similar to his own. The analyzed wounds affect the wounds of the analyst. The analyst either consciously or unconsciously passes this awareness back to his analyzed, causing an unconscious relationship to take place between analyst and analyzed.

Jung felt that depth psychology can be potentially dangerous, because the analyst is vulnerable to being infected by his analyzed's wounds by having his wounds reopened. To avoid this, the analyst must have an ongoing relationship with the unconscious, otherwise he or she could identify with the "healer archetype", and create an inflated ego.

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unus_mundus - Latin for "one world", is the concept of an underlying unified reality from which everything emerges and to which everything returns. The idea was popularized in the 20th century by the Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung, though the term can be traced back to scholastics such as Duns Scotus and was taken up again in the 16th century by Gerhard Dorn, a student of the famous alchemist Paracelsus.

Archetypal psychology

Adlerian

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individual_psychology - or indivisibleof Viennese psychiatrist Alfred Adler, who shifted the grounds of psychological determinance from the Freudian sex and libido to one based on a holistic approach to the study of character and an individual evaluation of world and societal factors, involving combating or confronting three forces: societal, love-related, and vocational and based on theories of pre-adulthood development of a person. Adlerian psychology shows parallels with the humanistic psychology and has been extremely influential in later 20th century counselling and psychiatric strategies

Adler's conceptualization of the "Will to Power" focuses on the individual's creative power to change for the better. Adler argued for holism, viewing the individual holistically rather than reductively, the latter being the dominant lens for viewing human psychology. Adler was also among the first in psychology to argue in favor of feminism, and the female analyst, making the case that power dynamics between men and women (and associations with masculinity and femininity) are crucial to understanding human psychology (Connell, 1995). Adler is considered, along with Freud and Jung, to be one of the three founding figures of depth psychology, which emphasizes the unconscious and psychodynamics (Ellenberger, 1970; Ehrenwald, 1991); and thus to be one of the three great psychologist/philosophers of the twentieth century.

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferiority_complex - a lack of self-worth, a doubt and uncertainty, and feelings of not measuring up to standards. It is often subconscious, and is thought to drive afflicted individuals to overcompensate, resulting either in spectacular achievement or extreme asocial behavior. The term was coined to indicate a lack of covert self-esteem. For many, it is developed through a combination of genetic personality characteristics and personal experiences. Stemming from the psychoanalytic branch of psychology, the idea first appeared among many of Sigmund Freud's works and later in the work of his colleague Carl Jung. Alfred Adler, founder of classical Adlerian psychology held that many neurotic symptoms could be traced to overcompensation for this feeling. The use of the term complex now is generally used to denote the group of emotionally toned ideas. Classical Adlerian psychology makes a distinction between primary and secondary inferiority feelings. A primary inferiority feeling is said to be rooted in the young child's original experience of weakness, helplessness and dependency. It can then be intensified by comparisons to siblings, romantic partners, and adults. A secondary inferiority feeling relates to an adult's experience of being unable to reach a subconscious, fictional final goal of subjective security and success to compensate for the inferiority feelings. The perceived distance from that goal would lead to a negative/depressed feeling that could then prompt the recall of the original inferiority feeling; this composite of inferiority feelings could be experienced as overwhelming. The goal invented to relieve the original, primary feeling of inferiority which actually causes the secondary feeling of inferiority is the "catch-22" of this dilemma. This vicious cycle is common in neurotic lifestyles.

Group psychotherapy

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_psychotherapy - in which one or more therapists treat a small group of clients together as a group. The term can legitimately refer to any form of psychotherapy when delivered in a group format, including Cognitive behavioural therapy or Interpersonal therapy, but it is usually applied to psychodynamic group therapy where the group context and group process is explicitly utilised as a mechanism of change by developing, exploring and examining interpersonal relationships within the group.

The broader concept of group therapy can be taken to include any helping process that takes place in a group, including support groups, skills training groups (such as anger management, mindfulness, relaxation training or social skills training), and psycho-education groups. The differences between psychodynamic groups, activity groups, support groups, problem-solving and psycoeducational groups are discussed by Montgomery (2002). Other, more specialised forms of group therapy would include non-verbal expressive therapies such as art therapy, dance therapy, or music therapy.

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-groups - sometimes also referred to as sensitivity-training group, human relations training group or encounter group) is a form of group training where participants themselves (typically, between eight and 15 people) learn about themselves (and about small group processes in general) through their interaction with each other. They use feedback, problem solving, and role play to gain insights into themselves, others, and groups. The concept of encounter as "a meeting of two, eye to eye, face to face," was articulated by J.L. Moreno in Vienna in 1914-15, in his "Einladung zu Einer Begegnung" ("Invitation to an Encounter"), maturing into his psychodrama therapy. Carl Rogers reportedly described the T-group as "...the most significant social invention of the century."

Psychodrama

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychodrama - Developed in the early part of the 20th century, an action method, often used as a psychotherapy, in which clients use spontaneous dramatization, role playing and dramatic self-presentation to investigate and gain insight into their lives. Developed by Jacob L. Moreno, M.D. (1889–1974) psychodrama includes elements of theater, often conducted on a stage where props can be used. By closely recreating real-life situations, and acting them out in the present, clients have the opportunity to evaluate their behavior and more deeply understand a particular situation in their lives. Psychodrama may be used in a variety of clinical and community-based settings, and is most often utilized in a group scenario, in which each person in the group can become therapeutic agents for one another's scenes. Psychodrama is not, however, a form of group therapy, and is instead an individual psychotherapy that is executed from within a group. A psychodrama is best conducted and produced by a person trained in the method, called a psychodrama director.

Drama therapy

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drama_therapy - (written dramatherapy in the UK) is the use of theatre techniques to facilitate personal growth and promote mental health. Dramatherapy is used in a wide variety of settings, including hospitals, schools, mental health centers, prisons, and businesses. Drama therapy, as a form of expressive arts therapy, (also known as expressive therapy), exists in many forms and can be applicable to individuals, couples, families, and various groups. Following from psychodrama, the field of therapy techniques using drama has expanded to allow many forms of theatrical interventions as therapy including role-play, theatre games, group-dynamic games, mime, puppetry, and other improvisational techniques.

Behaviour therapy

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behaviour_therapy - a broad term referring to psychotherapy, behavior analytical, or a combination of the two therapies. In its broadest sense, the methods focus on either just behaviors or in combination with thoughts and feelings that might be causing them. Those who practice behavior therapy tend to look more at specific, learned behaviors and how the environment has an impact on those behaviors. Those who practice behavior therapy are called behaviorists. They tend to look for treatment outcomes that are objectively measurable. Behavior therapy does not involve one specific method but it has a wide range of techniques that can be used to treat a person’s psychological problems.

Behavior therapy breaks down into three disciplines: applied behavior analysis (ABA), cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), and social learning theory. ABA focuses on operant conditioning in the form of positive reinforcement to modify behavior after conducting a Functional behavior assessment (FBA) and CBT focuses on the thoughts and feelings behind mental health conditions with treatment plans in psychotherapy to lessen the issue.

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_psychotherapy - a type of psychotherapy from the behaviourism tradition, and one of two streams of thought (the other being cognitive psychotherapy) that have come together to produce cognitive behavioral therapy. Behavioral psychotherapy has a rich tradition in research and practice. From a purely behavioral perspective, behavior therapy has shown considerable success with clients from a variety of problems. Traditional behavior therapy draws from respondent conditioning and operant conditioning to solve client problems.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_analysis_(psychology) - the application of the laws of operant conditioning to establish the relationships between stimuli and responses using principles derived from the natural science of behavior analysis to determine the "reason", purpose or motivation for a behavior

Systematic desensitization

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systematic_desensitization - also known as graduated exposure therapy is a type of behavior therapy used in the field of psychology to help effectively overcome phobias and other anxiety disorders. More specifically, it is a form of counter conditioning, a type of Pavlovian therapy developed by South African psychiatrist, Joseph Wolpe. In the 1950s, Wolpe discovered that the cats of Wits University could overcome their fears through gradual and systematic exposure. The process of systematic desensitization occurs in three steps. The first step of systematic desensitization is the identification of an anxiety inducing stimulus hierarchy. The second step is the learning of relaxation or coping techniques. Once the individual has been taught these skills, he or she must use them in the third step to react towards and overcome situations in the established hierarchy of fears. The goal of this process is for the individual to learn how to cope with, and overcome the fear in each step of the hierarchy.

Applied behaviour analysis

Therapeutic behaviour management

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therapeutic_behavior_management - a technology for creating a clinical environment that brings out the best in staff while generating the highest possible compliance outcomes for patients. The techniques and practices of TBM are derived from the field of applied behavior analysis, the term describing the scientific study of behavior.

Clinical behaviour analysis

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_behavior_analysis - Clinical behavior analysis represents a movement in behavior therapy away from cognitivism and back toward radical behaviorism and other forms of behaviorism, in particular functional analysis (psychology) and behavioral models of verbal behavior. This area includes acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), Community Reinforcement Approach and Family Training (CRAFT), behavioral activation (BA), Kohlenberg & Tsai's functional analytic psychotherapy, integrative behavioral couples therapy and dialectical behavioral therapy. These approaches are squarely within the applied behavior analysis tradition of behavior therapy.

Behavioural activation

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_activation - A third generation behavior therapy for treating depression. It is one of many functional analytic psychotherapies which are based on a Skinnerian psychological model of behavior change, generally referred to as applied behavior analysis. This area is also a part of what is called clinical behavior analysis (CBA) (see behavior therapy) and makes up one of the most effective practices in the professional practice of behavior analysis. The theory holds that not enough environmental reinforcement or too much environmental punishment can contribute to depression. The goal of the intervention is to increase environmental reinforcement and reduce punishment.

Social learning theory

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_learning_theory - posits that learning is a cognitive process that takes place in a social context and can occur purely through observation or direct instruction, even in the absence of motor reproduction or direct reinforcement. In addition to the observation of behavior, learning also occurs through the observation of rewards and punishments, a process known as vicarious reinforcement. The theory expands on traditional behavioral theories, in which behavior is governed solely by reinforcements, by placing emphasis on the important roles of various internal processes in the learning individual.

Integrative behavioural couples therapy

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrative_behavioral_couples_therapy - Behavioral marital therapy, sometimes called behavioral couples therapy, has its origins in behaviorism and is a form of behavior therapy. The theory is rooted in social learning theory and behavior analysis. As a model, it is constantly being revised as new research presents.

Logotherapy

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logotherapy - developed by neurologist and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl. It is considered the "Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy" after Freud's psychoanalysis and Adler's individual psychology. Logotherapy is based on an existential analysis focusing on Kierkegaard's will to meaning as opposed to Adler's Nietzschean doctrine of will to power or Freud's will to pleasure. Rather than power or pleasure, logotherapy is founded upon the belief that it is the striving to find a meaning in one's life that is the primary, most powerful motivating and driving force in humans. A short introduction to this system is given in Frankl's most famous book, Man's Search for Meaning, in which he outlines how his theories helped him to survive his Holocaust experience and how that experience further developed and reinforced his theories.

Rollo May argued that logotherapy is, in essence, authoritarian. He suggested that Frankl’s therapy presents a plain solution to all of life’s problems, an assertion that would seem to undermine the complexity of human life itself. May contended that if a patient could not find his own meaning, Frankl would provide a goal for his patient. In effect, this would negate the patient’s personal responsibility, thus “diminish[ing] the patient as a person”. Frankl explicitly replied to May’s arguments through a written dialogue, sparked by Rabbi Reuven Bulka’s article “Is Logotherapy Authoritarian?”. Frankl responded that he combined the prescription of medication, if necessary, with logotherapy, to deal with the person's psychological and emotional reaction to the illness, and highlighted areas of freedom and responsibility, where the person is free to search and to find meaning.

Existential

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_therapy - a philosophical method of therapy that operates on the belief that inner conflict within a person is due to that individual's confrontation with the givens of existence. These givens, as noted by Irvin D. Yalom, are: the inevitability of death, freedom and its attendant responsibility, existential isolation (referring to phenomenology), and finally meaninglessness. These four givens, also referred to as ultimate concerns, form the body of existential psychotherapy and compose the framework in which a therapist conceptualizes a client's problem in order to develop a method of treatment. In the British School of Existential therapy (Cooper, 2003), these givens are seen as predictable tensions and paradoxes of the four dimensions of human existence, the physical, social, personal and spiritual realms (Umwelt, Mitwelt, Eigenwelt and Überwelt).

Humanistic

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person-centered_therapy - formerly client-centered therapy, a form of talk-psychotherapy developed by psychologist Carl Rogers in the 1940s and 1950s. provides clients with an opportunity to develop a sense of self wherein they can realize how their attitudes, feelings and behavior are being negatively affected. criticized by behaviorists for lacking structure and by psychoanalysts for actually providing a conditional relationship, but has proven to be an effective and popular treatment.
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanistic_psychology - a psychological perspective which rose to prominence in the mid-20th century in response to Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory and B.F. Skinner's Behaviorism. With its roots running from Socrates through the Renaissance, this approach emphasizes an individual's inherent drive towards self-actualization and creativity. It typically holds that people are inherently good. It adopts a holistic approach to human existence and pays special attention to such phenomena as creativity, free will, and human potential. It encourages viewing ourselves as a "whole person" greater than the sum of our parts and encourages self exploration rather than the study of behavior in other people. Humanistic psychology acknowledges spiritual aspiration as an integral part of the human psyche. It is linked to the emerging field of transpersonal psychology.

Also part of the range of humanistic psychotherapy are concepts from depth therapy, holistic health, encounter groups, sensitivity training, marital and family therapies, body work, and the existential psychotherapy of Medard Boss. Most recently Compassionate Communication, the rebranding of Nonviolent Communication of Marshall Rosenberg seems to be the leading edge of innovation in this field because it is one of very few psychologies with both a simple and clear model of the human psyche and a simple and clear methodology, suitable for any two persons to address and resolve interpersonal conflict without expert intervention, a first in the field.

Gestalt

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_psychology - (German: Gestalt "shape, form") - theory of mind of the Berlin School of experimental psychology. The central principle of gestalt psychology is that the mind forms a global whole with self-organizing tendencies. This principle maintains that the human mind considers objects in their entirety before, or in parallel with, perception of their individual parts; suggesting the whole is other than the sum of its parts. Gestalt psychology tries to understand the laws of our ability to acquire and maintain meaningful perceptions in an apparently chaotic world. Contrary to the behaviorist approach to understanding the elements of cognitive processes, gestalt psychologists sought to understand their organization (Carlson and Heth, 2010). The gestalt effect is the capability of our brain to generate whole forms, particularly with respect to the visual recognition of global figures instead of just collections of simpler and unrelated elements (points, lines, curves...). In psychology, gestaltism is often opposed to structuralism. The phrase "The whole is other than the sum of the parts" is often used when explaining gestalt theory, though there is a common mistranslation of Kurt Koffka's original phrase to "The whole is greater than the sum of the parts". Gestalt theory allows for the breakup of elements from the whole situation into what it really is.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multistability - refers to systems that are neither stable nor totally instable, but that alternate between two or more mutually exclusive states over time. Multistable systems are very sensitive towards noise, initial condition and system parameter.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multistable_perception - a form of perceptual phenomena in which there are unpredictable sequences of spontaneous subjective changes. While usually associated with visual perception, such phenomena can be found for auditory and olfactory percepts.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_therapy - forged from various influences upon the lives of its founders during the times in which they lived, including: the new physics, Eastern religion, existential phenomenology, Gestalt psychology, psychoanalysis, experimental theatre, as well as systems theory and field theory. Gestalt therapy is not identical with Gestalt Psychology but Gestalt Psychology influenced the development of Gestalt therapy to a large extent. Gestalt therapy focuses on process (what is actually happening) over content (what is being talked about). The emphasis is on what is being done, thought, and felt at the present moment (the phenomenality of both client and therapist), rather than on what was, might be, could be, or should have been. Gestalt therapy is a method of awareness practice (also called "mindfulness" in other clinical domains), by which perceiving, feeling, and acting are understood to be conducive to interpreting, explaining, and conceptualizing (the hermeneutics of experience). This distinction between direct experience versus indirect or secondary interpretation is developed in the process of therapy. The client learns to become aware of what he or she is doing and that triggers the ability to risk a shift or change.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_prayer - a 56-word statement by psychotherapist Fritz Perls that is taken as a classic expression of Gestalt therapy as way of life model of which Dr. Perls was a founder. The key idea of the statement is the focus on living in response to one's own needs, without projecting onto or taking introjects from others. This philosophy still attracts critics, generally arguing that interpersonal relationships require real, hard work to maintain. Supporters counter that an attitude of independence does not refute this, but rather encourages people to realize that relationships need not be founded on obligation or expectation.
I do my thing and you do your thing.
I am not in this world to live up to your expectations,
And you are not in this world to live up to mine.
You are you, and I am I,
and if by chance we find each other, it's beautiful.
If not, it can't be helped.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_theory_(psychology) - theory which examines patterns of interaction between the individual and the total field, or environment, holding that behavior must be derived from a totality of coexisting facts. These coexisting facts make up a "dynamic field", which means that the state of any part of the field depends on every other part of it. Behavior depends on the present field rather than on the past or the future.

Somatic

See also Activities, Health

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somatic - means 'of the body'—relating to the body "distinct" from the mind, soul, or spirit. In medicine, somatic illness is bodily, not mental, illness.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somatic_marker_hypothesis - Proposes a mechanism by which emotional processes can guide (or bias) behavior, particularly decision-making. When individuals make decisions, they must assess the incentive value of the choices available to them, using cognitive and emotional processes. When the individuals face complex and conflicting choices, they may be unable to decide using only cognitive processes, which may become overloaded. In these cases (and others), somatic markers can help decide. Somatic markers are associations between reinforcing stimuli that induce an associated physiological affective state.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somatic_theory - theory of human social behavior based loosely on the somatic marker hypothesis of António Damásio, which proposes a mechanism by which emotional processes can guide (or bias) behavior, particularly decision-making, as well as the attachment theory of John Bowlby and the self psychology of Heinz Kohut, especially as consolidated by Allan Schore. It draws on various philosophical models from On the Genealogy of Morals of Friedrich Nietzsche through Martin Heidegger on das Man, Maurice Merleau-Ponty on the lived body, and Ludwig Wittgenstein on social practices to Michel Foucault on discipline, as well as theories of performativity emerging out of the speech act theory of J. L. Austin, especially as developed by Judith Butler and Shoshana Felman; some somatic theorists have also tied somaticity to performance in the schools of actor training developed by Konstantin Stanislavski and Bertolt Brecht.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprioception - meaning "one's own", "individual" and perception, is the sense of the relative position of neighbouring parts of the body and strength of effort being employed in movement. It is provided by proprioceptors in skeletal striated muscles and in joints. It is distinguished from exteroception, by which one perceives the outside world, and interoception, by which one perceives pain, hunger, etc., and the movement of internal organs. The word kinesthesia (kinesthetic sense) has been used inconsistently to refer either to proprioception alone or to the brain's integration of proprioceptive and
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinesthetics - the study of body motion, and of the perception (both conscious and unconscious) of one's own body motions. The perception of continuous movement (kinesthesia) is largely unconscious. A conscious proprioception is achieved through increased awareness. Kinaesthetics involves the teaching and personal development of such awareness.





  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrative_Body_Psychotherapy - a psychotherapy that recognizes and treats the somatic (physical), psychological/emotional, and spiritual nature of a human being. It is based on the premise that the body, mind, and spirit are not separate, but rather integrated parts of a whole person. Every experience has a physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspect, which manifests internally within the body, and externally in relationship to others.





  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakomi - a form of mindfulness-centered somatic psychotherapy developed by Ron Kurtz in the 1970s. The Hakomi method combines Western psychology, systems theory, and body-centered techniques with the mindfulness and non-violence principles of Eastern philosophy. Hakomi is grounded in five principles: mindfulness, nonviolence, organicity, unity and body-mind holism.


Transpersonal

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transpersonal - a term used by different schools of philosophy and psychology in order to describe experiences and worldviews that extend beyond the personal level of the psyche, and beyond mundane worldly events. It has been defined as experiences "in which the sense of identity or self extends beyond (trans) the individual or personal to encompass wider aspects of humankind, life, psyche or cosmos". The field of Transpersonal Psychiatry has defined the term as "development beyond conventional, personal or individual levels." It is related to the terminology of peak experience, altered states of consciousness, and spiritual experiences. The term has an early precedent in the writing of philosopher William James, but the origin of the term is mostly associated with the human potential movement of the 1960's, and the founders of the field of Transpersonal Psychology, Anthony Sutich, Abraham Maslow and Stanislav Grof.Note b In 1968 the term was selected by the founding editors of the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, Abraham Maslow and Anthony Sutich, in order to represent a new area of psychological inquiry.
  • A Daniel Come To Judgement? Dennett and the Revisioning of Transpersonal Theory - Abstract: Transpersonal psychology first emerged as an academic discipline in the 1960s and has subsequently broadened into a range of transpersonal studies. Jorge Ferrer (2002) has called for a ‘revisioning’ of transpersonal theory, dethroning inner experience from its dominant role in defining and validating spiritual reality. In the current paradigm he detects a lingering Cartesianism, which subtly entrenches the very subject–object divide that transpersonalists seek to overcome. This paper outlines the development and current shape of the transpersonal movement, compares Ferrer’s epistemology with the heterophenomenology of Daniel Dennett, and speculates on the integration of the latter into transpersonal theory.


Exposure therapy


Focusing

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focusing - a psychotherapeutic process developed by psychotherapist Eugene Gendlin. It can be used in any kind of therapeutic situation, including peer-to-peer sessions. It involves holding a kind of open, non-judging attention to an internal knowing which is directly experienced but is not yet in words. Focusing can, among other things, be used to become clear on what one feels or wants, to obtain new insights about one's situation, and to stimulate change or healing of the situation. Focusing is set apart from other methods of inner awareness by three qualities: something called the "felt sense", a quality of engaged accepting attention, and a researched-based technique that facilitates change.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_Relationship_Focusing - Developed in the early 1980s, a process for emotional healing, and for accessing positive energy and insights for forward movement in one's life. In allowing all aspects of the personality to be held in acceptance and awareness, new insights and shifts can emerge and healing can occur.

Expressive therapy

Adventure therapy

Rational emotive behaviour therapy

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_emotive_behavior_therapy - previously called rational therapy and rational emotive therapy, is a comprehensive, active-directive, philosophically and empirically based psychotherapy which focuses on resolving emotional and behavioral problems and disturbances and enabling people to lead happier and more fulfilling lives. REBT was created and developed by the American psychotherapist and psychologist Albert Ellis who was inspired by many of the teachings of Asian, Greek, Roman and modern philosophers. REBT is one form of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) and was first expounded by Ellis in the mid-1950s; development continued until his death in 2007.

Cognitive therapy

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_therapy - A type of psychotherapy developed by American psychiatrist Aaron T. Beck, first expounded by Beck in the 1960s. Cognitive therapy is based on the cognitive model, which states that thoughts, feelings and behavior are all connected, and that individuals can move toward overcoming difficulties and meeting their goals by identifying and changing unhelpful or inaccurate thinking, problematic behavior, and distressing emotional responses. This involves the individual working collaboratively with the therapist to develop skills for testing and modifying beliefs, identifying distorted thinking, relating to others in different ways, and changing behaviors. A tailored cognitive case conceptualization is developed by the cognitive therapist as a roadmap to understand the individual's internal reality, select appropriate interventions and identify areas of distress.

Therapy may consist of testing the assumptions which one makes and looking for new information that could help shift the assumptions in a way that leads to different emotional or behavioral reactions. Change may begin by targeting thoughts (to change emotion and behavior), behavior (to change feelings and thoughts), or the individual's goals (by identifying thoughts, feelings or behavior that conflict with the goals). Beck initially focused on depression and developed a list of "errors" in thinking that he proposed could maintain depression, including arbitrary inference, selective abstraction, over-generalization, and magnification (of negatives) and minimization (of positives).

Cognitive-behavioural therapy

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioral_therapy - a psychotherapeutic approach that addresses dysfunctional emotions, maladaptive behaviors and cognitive processes and contents through a number of goal-oriented, explicit systematic procedures. The name refers to behavior therapy, cognitive therapy, and to therapy based upon a combination of basic behavioral and cognitive principles and research. Most therapists working with patients dealing with anxiety and depression use a blend of cognitive and behavioral therapy. This technique acknowledges that there may be behaviors that cannot be controlled through rational thought. CBT is "problem focused" (undertaken for specific problems) and "action oriented" (therapist tries to assist the client in selecting specific strategies to help address those problems)

CBT is thought to be effective for the treatment of a variety of conditions, including mood, anxiety, personality, eating, substance abuse, tic, and psychotic disorders. Many CBT treatment programs for specific disorders have been evaluated for efficacy; the health-care trend of evidence-based treatment, where specific treatments for symptom-based diagnoses are recommended, has favored CBT over other approaches such as psychodynamic treatments. CBT was primarily developed through an integration of behavior therapy (the term "behavior modification" appears to have been first used by Edward Thorndike) with cognitive psychology research, first by Donald Meichenbaum and several other authors with the label of cognitive behavior modification in the late 1970s. This tradition thereafter merged with earlier work of a few clinicians, labeled as Cognitive Therapy (CT), developed first by Albert Ellis as Rational Emotive Therapy (RET) and later Aaron Beck.

Modern forms of CBT include a number of diverse but related techniques such as exposure therapy, stress inoculation training, cognitive processing therapy, cognitive therapy, relaxation training, dialectical behavior therapy, and acceptance and commitment therapy.

Mindfulness-based stress reduction

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness-based_cognitive_therapy - a psychological therapy designed to aid in preventing the relapse of depression, specifically in individuals with Major depressive disorder (MDD). It uses traditional Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) methods and adds in newer psychological strategies such as mindfulness and mindfulness meditation. This therapy was also created by Zindel Segal and Mark Williams, and was partially based on the mindfulness-based stress reduction program, developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn. The MBCT program is a group intervention that lasts eight weeks. During these eight weeks, there is a weekly course, which lasts two hours, and one day-long class after the fifth week. However, much of the practice is done outside of classes, where the participant uses guided meditations and attempts to cultivate mindfulness in their daily lives.

Dialectical behavior therapy

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectical_behavior_therapy - A therapy devised in the early 1990s, designed to help people change patterns of behavior that are not effective, such as self-harm, suicidal thinking and substance abuse. This approach works towards helping people increase their emotional and cognitive regulation by learning about the triggers that lead to reactive states and helping to assess which coping skills to apply in the sequence of events, thoughts, feelings and behaviors that lead to the undesired behavior. DBT assumes that people are doing the best that they can, but either are lacking the skills or are influenced by positive or negative reinforcement that interfere with one’s functioning. DBT is a form of psychotherapy that was originally developed by Marsha M. Linehan, a psychology researcher at the University of Washington, to treat people with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and chronically suicidal individuals.

Although, research on its effectiveness in treating other conditions has been extremely limited, DBT is now used in a variety of psychological treatments including treatment for traumatic brain injuries (TBI), eating disorders, and mood disorders. Scant research indicates that DBT might have some effect on patients who present varied symptoms and behaviors associated with spectrum mood disorders, including self-injury. Recent work also suggests its effectiveness with sexual abuse survivors and chemical dependency. DBT combines standard cognitive-behavioral techniques for emotion regulation and reality-testing with concepts of distress tolerance, acceptance, and mindful awareness largely derived from Buddhist meditative practice. DBT may be the first therapy that has been experimentally demonstrated to be generally effective in treating BPD.

"acceptance of life as it is, not as it is supposed to be; and the need to change, despite that reality and because of it"

"mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, distress tolerance and emotion regulation."

Being dialectical means: ™* Letting go of self-righteous indignation. ™* Letting go of “black and white”, “all or nothing” ways of seeing a situation. ™* Looking for what is “left out” of your understanding of a situation.

  • ™ Finding a way to validate the other person’s point of view.
  • ™ Expanding your way of seeing things.
  • ™ Getting “unstuck” from standoffs and conflicts.
  • ™ Being more flexible and approachable.
  • ™ Avoiding assumptions and blaming.

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_movement_desensitization_and_reprocessing - a psychotherapy developed by Francine Shapiro that emphasizes disturbing memories as the cause of psychopathology and alleviates the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). EMDR is used for individuals who have experienced severe trauma that remains unresolved. According to Shapiro, when a traumatic or distressing experience occurs, it may overwhelm normal cognitive and neurological coping mechanisms. The memory and associated stimuli are inadequately processed and stored in an isolated memory network. The goal of EMDR therapy is to process these distressing memories, reducing their lingering effects and allowing clients to develop more adaptive coping mechanisms. This is done in an eight-step protocol that includes having clients recall distressing images while receiving one of several types of bilateral sensory input, including side to side eye movements. The use of EMDR was originally developed to treat adults suffering from PTSD; however, it is also used to treat other conditions and children

Functional analytic psychotherapy

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_analytic_psychotherapy - Approach to clinical psychotherapy that uses a radical behaviorist position informed by B.F. Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior, created by Dr. Robert Kohlenberg and Dr. Mavis Tsai in 1991. It offers an interesting model of child development and personality development. This model held that verbal processes can be used to form a stable sense of who we are, through behavioral processes such as stimulus control. As such it represents an extension of Stephen Hayes attempt to incorporate behaviorism with clinical issues (although Hayes' approach utilized his own relational frame theory instead of Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior). Although sufficient for use alone, this approach is offered as something that may be practiced in addition to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

FAP focuses on in-session client–therapist interactions as the basis for clinical change. The basic FAP analysis utilizes what is called the clinically relevant behavior (CRB1), which is the client's presenting problem as presented in-session. Client in-session actions that improve their CRB1s are referred to as CRB2s. Client statements, or verbal behavior, about CRBs are referred to as CRB3s. The CRB3s, although based on Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior, are what most closely approximate CBT cognitions. In-session focus on client behavior approximates the psychoanalytic conception of the therapeutic alliance (which is psychoanalytic parlance containing transference and counter-transference issues).

Cognitive processing therapy

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_processing_therapy - An adaptation of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), developed in the early 1990s and used by clinicians to help clients explore recovery from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and related conditions. CPT typically consists of 12 sessions and has been shown to be effective in treating PTSD across a variety of populations, including combat veterans, sexual assault victims, and refugees. CPT can be provided in individual and group treatment formats. The theory behind CPT conceptualizes PTSD as a disorder of "non-recovery" in which erroneous beliefs about the causes and consequences of traumatic events produce strong negative emotions and prevent accurate processing of the trauma memory and natural emotions emanating from the event. A significant contributor to the interruption of natural recovery process is the ongoing use of avoidance as a coping strategy. By avoiding the trauma memory and situations that trigger reactions, people with PTSD limit their opportunities to process the traumatic experience and gain a more adaptive understanding. CPT incorporates trauma-specific cognitive techniques to help individuals with PTSD more accurately appraise these "stuck points" and progress toward recovery.

Cognitive analytic therapy

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_analytic_therapy - (CAT) is a form of psychological therapy initially developed in the United Kingdom by Anthony Ryle around the turn of the millennium. CAT evolved as an integrative therapy based on ideas from cognitive and analytic therapies. It was originated when Anthony Ryle, a general practitioner and analytically trained psychotherapist, was undertaking research into psychotherapy practice using repertory grids. He found that the themes eventually addressed in analytic work were in fact present in transcripts from the very first sessions. However the slow, exploratory nature of traditional analytic therapy meant that these were not always addressed early and assertively, with the result that therapy, while effective, took a long time to produce results. He proposed a shorter, more active form of therapy which integrated elements from cognitive therapy practice (such as goal setting and Socratic questioning) into analytic practice.

The CAT practitioner aims to work with the patient to identify procedural sequences; chains of events, thoughts, emotions and motivations that explain how a target problem (for example self-harm) is established and maintained. In addition to the procedural sequence model, a second distinguishing feature of CAT is the use of reciprocal roles (RRs). These identify problems as occurring between people and not within the patient. RRs may be set up in early life and then be replayed in later life; for example someone who as a child felt neglected by parents perceived as abandoning might be vulnerable to feelings of abandonment in later life (or indeed neglect themselves).

Acceptance and commitment therapy

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acceptance_and_commitment_therapy - a form of clinical behavior analysis (CBA) used in psychotherapy. It is an empirically-based psychological intervention that uses acceptance and mindfulness strategies mixed in different ways with commitment and behavior-change strategies, to increase psychological flexibility. The approach was originally called comprehensive distancing. It was developed in the late 1980s by Steven C. Hayes, Kelly G. Wilson, and Kirk Strosahl.

ACT is developed within a pragmatic philosophy called functional contextualism. ACT is based on relational frame theory (RFT), a comprehensive theory of language and cognition that is an offshoot of behavior analysis. ACT differs from traditional cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in that rather than trying to teach people to better control their thoughts, feelings, sensations, memories and other private events, ACT teaches them to "just notice," accept, and embrace their private events, especially previously unwanted ones.

As a simple way to summarize the model, ACT views the core of many problems to be due to the concepts represented in the acronym, FEAR:

  • Fusion with your thoughts
  • Evaluation of experience
  • Avoidance of your experience
  • Reason-giving for your behavior

And the healthy alternative is to ACT:

  • Accept your reactions and be present
  • Choose a valued direction
  • Take action

Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyadic_developmental_psychotherapy - a psychotherapeutic treatment method for families that have children with symptoms of emotional disorders, including Complex Trauma and disorders of attachment. It was originally developed by psychologist Daniel Hughes as an intervention for children whose emotional distress resulted from earlier separation from familiar caregivers. Hughes cites attachment theory and particularly the work of John Bowlby as theoretical motivations for dyadic developmental psychotherapy. However, other sources for this approach may include the work of Stern, who referred to the attunement of parents to infants' communication of emotion and needs, and of Tronick, who discussed the process of communicative mismatch and repair, in which parent and infant make repeated efforts until communication is successful.

Dyadic developmental therapy principally involves creating a "playful, accepting, curious, and empathic" (PACE) environment in which the therapist attunes to the child's "subjective experiences" and reflects this back to the child by means of eye contact, facial expressions, gestures and movements, voice tone, timing and touch, "co-regulates" emotional affect and "co-constructs" an alternative autobiographical narrative with the child. Dyadic developmental psychotherapy also makes use of cognitive-behavioral strategies. The "dyad" referred to must eventually be the parent-child dyad. The active presence of the primary caregiver is preferred but not required.

Attention restoration theory

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_restoration_theory - (ART) asserts that people can concentrate better after spending time in nature, or even looking at scenes of nature. Natural environments abound with "soft fascinations" which a person can reflect upon in "effortless attention", such as clouds moving across the sky, leaves rustling in a breeze or water bubbling over rocks in a stream. The theory was developed by Rachel and Stephen Kaplan in the 1980s in their book The experience of nature: A psychological perspective, and has since been found by others to hold true in medical outcomes as well as intellectual task attention. Berman et al discuss the foundation of the Attention Restoration Theory (ART). "ART is based on past research showing the separation of attention into two components: involuntary attention, where attention is captured by inherently intriguing or important stimuli, and voluntary or directed attention, where attention is directed by cognitive-control processes."

Coherence therapy

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coherence_therapy - a system of psychotherapy based in the theory that symptoms of mood, thought and behavior are produced coherently according to the person's current models of reality, most of which are implicit and unconscious. It was founded by Bruce Ecker and Laurel Hulley in the 1990s. It is currently considered among the most well respected postmodern/constructivist therapies.

The basis of coherence therapy is the principle of symptom coherence. This is the view that any response of the brain-mind-body system is an expression of coherent personal constructs and schemas, which are nonverbal, emotional, perceptual and somatic knowings, not verbal-cognitive beliefs. A therapy client’s presenting symptoms are understood as an activation and enactment of specific constructs. The process of coherence therapy is experiential rather than analytic, and in this regard is similar to Gestalt therapy, focusing or Hakomi. The aim is for the client to come into direct, emotional experience of the unconscious personal constructs producing an unwanted symptom and undergo a natural process of revising or dissolving these constructs, ending the existence of the symptom.

Reality therapy

Transference focused psychotherapy

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transference_focused_psychotherapy - highly structured, twice-weekly modified psychodynamic treatment based on Otto Kernberg’s object relations model of borderline personality disorder. It views the individual with borderline personality organization (BPO) as holding unreconciled and contradictory internalized representations of self and significant others that are affectively charged. The defense against these contradictory internalized object relations leads to disturbed relationships with others and with self. The distorted perceptions of self, others, and associated affects are the focus of treatment as they emerge in the relationship with the therapist (transference). The treatment focuses on the integration of split off parts of self and object representations, and the consistent interpretation of these distorted perceptions is considered the mechanism of change.

TFP has been validated as an efficacious treatment for borderline personality disorder (BPD), though too few studies have been conducted to allow firm conclusions about its value. TFP is one of a number of treatments that may be useful in the treatment of BPD; however, only TFP has been shown to change how patients think about themselves in relationships.

Compassionate focused therapy

  • Introducing compassion-focused therapy - Paul Gilbert. Shame and self-criticism are transdiagnostic problems. People who experience them may struggle to feel relieved, reassured or safe. Research suggests that a specialised affect regulation system (or systems) underpins feelings of reassurance, safeness and well-being. It is believed to have evolved with attachment systems and, in particular, the ability to register and respond with calming and a sense of well-being to being cared for.

In compassion-focused therapy it is hypothesised that this affect regulation system is poorly accessible in people with high shame and self-criticism, in whom the ‘threat’ affect regulation system dominates orientation to their inner and outer worlds. Compassion-focused therapy is an integrated and multimodal approach that draws from evolutionary, social, developmental and Buddhist psychology, and neuroscience. One of its key concerns is to use compassionate mind training to help people develop and work with experiences of inner warmth, safeness and soothing, via compassion and self-compassion.


Systems psychology

Systemic therapy

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemic_therapy - form of psychotherapy which seeks to address people not on individual level, as had been the focus of earlier forms of therapy, but as people in relationship, dealing with the interactions of groups and their interactional patterns and dynamics.

Family therapy

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_therapy - also referred to as couple and family therapy, marriage and family therapy, family systems therapy, and family counseling, is a branch of psychotherapy that works with families and couples in intimate relationships to nurture change and development. It tends to view change in terms of the systems of interaction between family members. It emphasizes family relationships as an important factor in psychological health.


Systems Centered Therapy

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_Centered_Therapy - a particular form of group therapy based on the Theory of Living Human Systems developed by Dr. Yvonne Agazarian. The theory postulates that living human systems survive, develop, and transform from simple to complex through discriminating and integrating information. Corresponding to the small and rigorously defined set of concepts, SCT defines a set of methods, techniques and instruments. SCT practitioners use these with individuals, couples and groups to explore the experience of their differences and work with these to integrate them. Using the method of functional subgrouping, these living human systems increase their ability to see both sides of their issues and resolve them productively. The theory was first developed in Agazarian's 1997 book, Systems-Centered Therapy for Groups, and grew out of her earlier work in group psychotherapy under the influence of such figures as W. R. Bion and John Bowlby through the further input of the general systems theory of Ludwig von Bertalanffy.


Social Construction Therapy


  • Social Constructionism is a term used for introducing the awareness of how our ways of life are constantly socially developing and changing over time. The way we communicate with each other, how we get our needs met, how we organize ourselves, are all constructed relationally and are continually being redefined. This website discusses six approaches to therapy which can be called Social Construction Therapy. These include SFBT (Solution Focused Brief Therapy), Possibility Therapy, Narrative Therapy, Collaborative Therapy, Relational Transactional Analysis (Two-Person Psychology) and Social Therapy. The models presented on this website have a common understanding of our cultural conventions being connected with our human struggles. Social Construction Therapists decenter themselves in order to utilize collaborative conversational discourse as a way to generate new possibilities. Client and therapist co-create these possibilities so that a new adventure of living can be embarked by both. The therapist must be willing to change along with the client as the new exploration of the adventure unfolds.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivism_(psychological_school) - critique is aimed at the “associationist” postulate of empiricism, “by which the mind is conceived as a passive system that gathers its contents from its environment and, through the act of knowing, produces a copy of the order of reality. In contrast, constructivism is an epistemological premise grounded on the assertion that, in the act of knowing, it is the human mind that actively gives meaning and order to that reality to which it is responding”.


Personal construct psychology

Personal construct theory


Solution focused brief therapy

Narrative therapy

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative_psychology - a viewpoint or a stance within psychology concerned with the "storied nature of human conduct" or in other words how human beings deal with experience by constructing stories and listening to the stories of others. Operating under the assumption that human activity and experience are filled with "meaning" and stories, rather than logical arguments or lawful formulations, narrative psychology is the study of how human beings construct stories to deal with experiences
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative_therapy - a form of psychotherapy using narrative. It was initially developed during the 1970s and 1980s, largely by Australian Michael White and his friend and colleague, David Epston, of New Zealand. Their approach became prevalent in North America with the 1990 publication of their book, Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends, followed by numerous books and articles about previously unmanageable cases of anorexia nervosa, ADHD, schizophrenia, and many other problems. In 2007 White published Maps of Narrative Practice, a presentation of six kinds of key conversations.


Social therapy

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Therapy - an activity-theoretic practice developed outside of academia at the East Side Institute for Group and Short Term Psychotherapy in New York. Its primary methodologists are cofounders of the East Side Institute, Fred Newman and Lois Holzman. In evolution since the late 1970s, the social therapeutic approach to human development and learning is informed by a variety of intellectual traditions especially the works of Karl Marx, Lev Vygotsky and Ludwig Wittgenstein.


Response-based therapy

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Response-based_therapy - a relatively new psychotherapeutic approach to treating psychological trauma resulting from violence, based on the theory that whenever people are treated badly, they resist. Incorporating elements of Solution focused brief therapy, Narrative therapy, and discourse analysis, it was first proposed by a Canadian family therapist and researcher, Dr. Allan Wade, in his 1997 article "Small Acts of Living: Everyday Resistance to Violence and Other Forms of Oppression."

Therapeutic methods of response-based therapy are based on two theoretical foundations: (1) That alongside accounts of violence in history, there exists an often-unrecognized parallel history of "determined, prudent, and creative resistance," and (2) language is frequently used in a manner that (a) conceals violence, (b) obscures and mitigates perpetrator responsibility, (c) conceals victims' resistance, and (d) blames or pathologizes victims. This second principle employs "discourse analysis" and is referred to in response based therapy as the "four discursive operations." This presupposition of resistance as a natural response to violence is used to engage clients in in-depth conversations about how they responded to specific acts of violence. Therapy consists of using language to (1) expose violence, (2) clarify perpetrators' responsibility, (3) elucidate and honor victims' resistance, and (4) contest victim blaming.


Relational frame theory

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relational_frame_theory - Relational frame theory (RFT) is a psychological theory of human language. It was developed largely through the efforts of Steven C. Hayes of University of Nevada, Reno and Dermot Barnes-Holmes of National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Relational Frame Theory argues that the building block of human language and higher cognition is 'relating', i.e. the human ability to create links between things. It can be contrasted with Associative Learning, which discusses how animals form links between stimuli in the form of the strength of associations in memory. However, Relational Frame Theory argues that natural human language typically specifies not just the strength of a link between stimuli but also the type of relation as well as the dimension along which they are to be related.

Relational frame theory focuses on how humans learn language (i.e., communication) through interactions with the environment and is based on a philosophical approach referred to as functional contextualism. Functional contextualism emphasizes the importance of predicting and influencing psychological events such as thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, by focusing on manipulable variables in the context in which these events occur. In RFT, functional contextualism is applied as a means for extending B.F. Skinner's radical behaviorism to account for the emergence of complex cognitive and language competencies and capabilities from more basic, precursor learning processes. 1957.


Transactional analysis

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transactional_analysis - TA to its adherents), is an integrative approach to the theory of psychology and psychotherapy that has elements of psychoanalytic, humanist and cognitive approaches. TA was first developed by Canadian-born US psychiatrist Eric Berne, starting in the late 1950s. TA is a neo-Freudian theory of personality. A primary difference between Berne and Freud is the former's treatment of the observable transactions known as "games". A number of books popularized TA in the general public but did little to gain acceptance in the conventional psychoanalytic community. TA is considered by its adherents to be a more user-friendly and accessible model than the conventional psychoanalytic model.

A number of modern-day TA practitioners emphasize the similarities with cognitive-behaviorist models while others emphasize different models. TA also differs to Freudian analysis in explaining that an individual's final emotional state is the result of inner dialogue between different parts of the psyche, as opposed to the Freudian hypothesis that imagery is the overriding determinant of inner emotional state. (For example, depression may be due to ongoing critical verbal messages from the inner Parent to the inner Child.) Berne believed that it is relatively easy to identify these inner dialogues and that the ability to do so is parentally suppressed in early childhood. Within the overarching framework of transactional analysis, more recent transactional analysts have developed several different and overlapping theories of Transactional Analysis: cognitive, behavioral, relational, redecision, integrative, constructivist, narrative, body-work, positive psychological, personality adaptational, self-reparenting, psychodynamic, and neuroconstructivist.

Interpersonal

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpersonal_psychoanalysis - based on the theories of American psychiatrist Harry Stack Sullivan (1892–1949). Sullivan believed that the details of a patient's interpersonal interactions with others can provide insight into the causes and cures of mental disorder. Current practitioners stress such features as the detailed description of clinical experience, the mutuality of the interpersonal process, and the not-knowing of the analyst. Along with other neo-Freudian practitioners of interpersonal psychoanalysis, such as Horney, Fromm, Thompson and Fromm-Reichman Sullivan repudiated Freudian drive theory. They, like Sullivan, also shared the interdisciplinary emphasis that was to be an important part of the legacy of interpersonal psychoanalysis, influencing counsellors, clergymen, social workers and more. Sullivan proposed that patients could keep certain aspects or components of their interpersonal relationships out of their awareness by a psychological behavior described as selective inattention - a term that has to a degree passed into common usage.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpersonal_psychotherapy - time-limited treatment that encourages the patient to regain control of mood and functioning typically lasting 12–16 weeks. IPT is based on the common factors of psychotherapy: a "treatment alliance in which the therapist empathically engages the patient, helps the patient to feel understood, arouses affect, presents a clear rationale and treatment ritual, and yields success experiences." Interpersonal therapy began in 1969 at Yale University, where Dr. Gerald Klerman was joined by Dr. Eugene Paykel from London to design a study to test the relative efficacy of an antidepressant alone and both with and without psychotherapy as maintenance treatment of ambulatory nonbipolar depression.

IPT takes structure from contemporary Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) approaches in that it is time-limited and employs homework, structured interviews, and assessment tools. Yet the content of therapy was inspired by Harry Stack Sullivan's psychodynamic Interpersonal Theory (Sullivan, 1953, Interpersonal Theory of Psychiatry). IPT focuses on a specific vulnerability to social stressors, such as differing role expectations in a dyadic relationship (Weissman, et al, 2007), but does include a personality theory or attempt to conceptualize or treat personality (Prochaska, 1984, Systems of Psychotherapy: A Transtheoretical Analysis). This makes IPT quite distinct from its psychodynamic influence, which is fundamentally a personality theory. Interpersonal Psychotherapy of Depression was developed in the New Haven-Boston Collaborative Depression Research Project by Gerald Klerman, MD, Myrna Weissman, PhD, and their colleagues for the treatment of ambulatory depressed, nonpsychotic, nonbipolar patients.

Relational psychoanalysis

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relational_psychoanalysis - a school of psychoanalysis in the United States that emphasizes the role of real and imagined relationships with others in mental disorder and psychotherapy. 'Relational psychoanalysis is a relatively new and evolving school of psychoanalytic thought considered by its founders to represent a "paradigm shift" in psychoanalysis'. Relational psychoanalysis began in the 1980s as an attempt to integrate interpersonal psychoanalysis's emphasis on the detailed exploration of interpersonal interactions with British object relations theory's ideas about the psychological importance of internalized relationships with other people. Relationalists argue that personality emerges from the matrix of early formative relationships with parents and other figures. Philosophically, relational psychoanalysis is closely allied with social constructionism.

Intersubjective

  • Groupe d'étude sur l'intersubjectivité (GEI) - About intersubjectivity "Intersubjective systems theory is part of the continuing development of this new relational movement in psychoanalysis. It is based on a view of the human psyche and of the personal subjective experience as being essentially interactive and continually embedded in relationships. The therapeutic process is thus seen as being a co-constructed emotional dialogue which occurs at both verbal and non-verbal levels, and through which both therapist and patient attempt to explore the meanings of their shared experiences with the goal of understanding and transforming the patient's painful experiences.

From a clinical point of view, intersubjectivity theory is more a sensibility than a technical ability (Buirsky and Haglund, 2001), a sensibility to the inevitable interactions between the observer and the observed (Orange, Atwood and Stolorow, 1997). We are unable to perceive and understand the other's experience without the bias of our own subjective experience. We rather join the other in an intersubjective field in order to co-construct an understanding unique to the two people interacting: "… the therapist’s organization of experience interacts with that of the patient to form a unique and indissoluble psychological system" (Orange, Atwood & Stolorow, 1997, p.9)."

  • Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity (IPSS) was founded in 1987 as an organization of psychoanalytic clinicians and scholars committed to a program that offers clinical training and a broad theoretical background. The IPSS faculty, in addition to offering traditional psychoanalytic courses, has particular expertise and interest in contemporary self psychology, intersubjective systems theory, infant research, and relational psychoanalysis. Our Institute provides clinical training and educational seminars in psychoanalysis through various courses of study.


Brief therapy

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brief_psychotherapy - an umbrella term for a variety of approaches to psychotherapy that emphasises (1) a focus on a specific problem and (2) direct intervention. In brief therapy, the therapist takes responsibility for working more pro-actively with the client in order to treat clinical and subjective conditions faster. It also emphasizes precise observation, utilization of natural resources, and temporary suspension of disbelief to consider new perspectives and multiple viewpoints.

"All brief therapies, not just brief psychodynamic psychotherapy (BPP), evolved from psychoanalytic roots. Freud reported on psychoanalytic therapies that lasted 1 week (Katherine), 7 weeks (Emmy von N), and 9 weeks (Lucie R) and the cure of Gustav Mahler's impotence in a single, 4-hour session (Breuer and Freud 1893–1895; Jones 1957). Freud's followers defined and formally introduced the key ingredients of brief therapy: increased therapist activity, a limit on the length of treatment and/or number of sessions, narrowed treatment focus, and restricted patient selection criteria. Today, research validates the efficacy of BPP, and practitioners are extending the reach of this approach by introducing innovative techniques such as block therapy (Davanloo 2004) and by treating new populations. For instance, Milrod et al. (2007) conducted the first randomized controlled trial of panic-focused psychodynamic psychotherapy in patients with panic disorder and found it to be effective."

Experiential dynamic therapy

Or experiential psychodynamic psychotherapy


Well known forms of EDT are: [21]

  • Affect Phobia Therapy (APT)
  • Intensive Short Term Dynamic Therapy (ISTDP)
  • Intensive Accelerated Experiential-Dynamic Psychotherapy (IEDP)
  • Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP)
  • Accelerated Empathetic Therapy (AET)
  • Unified Model of Personality Guided Relational Therapy
  • Attachment-Based ISTDP
  • Dynamic Emotional Focused Therapy (DEFT).

Affect phobia therapy

  • - Affect Phobia Therapy (APT) was developed by Leigh McCullough. When Leigh was diagnosed with ALS, she asked her Boston colleague, Kristin Osborn, to continue her work internationally. The model is based on the premise that internal conflicts about feelings underlie most psychologically-based disorders. These conflicts are seen as Affect Phobias: phobias about feelings. In the same way a person with external phobias would avoid bridges, a patient with an affect phobia avoids the experience and expression of certain feelings (e.g. anger or grief). APT integrates psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, and experiential techniques, into a powerful whole that can increase the effectiveness of therapy and help it to proceed more rapidly.

Intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leigh_McCullough - pioneer of short-term dynamic psychotherapy (STDP). Her treatment model focused on the learned fears of experiencing certain emotions, or what she called affect phobias. This is an exceptionally clear and useful reformulation of psychodynamic conflicts in behavioral terms. For example, in case of a psychodynamic conflict between anger (or sexual desire, or grief, or closeness) and anxiety (or guilt, or shame); McCullough framed anger as an (internal) object that has learned (phobically) to activate anxiety. Thus in McCullough's reformulation, anger and anxiety do not stand against each other, as in an interpersonal conflict, but rather: anger activates anxiety, which then activates some defence mechanisms to avoid or inhibit the activation of anger. In terms of Freud's Id, ego and super-ego, the Id (anger) activates the super-ego (anxiety), which then activates the ego defences against the id.
  • Intensive Short-Term Psychotherapy (ISTDP) is an evidence-based form of therapy designed to help resolve emotional problems as rapidly as possible. It can be used as an effective treatment for people suffering with anxiety, depression, relationship difficulties, self-destructive patterns of behaviour, or physical health problems that have a psychological origin. ISTDP is a specific Short Term Dynamic Therapy that comes from a group of therapeutic approaches known as Experiential Dynamic Therapies.

Both the CBT and ISTDP therapist call the thought into question, with the goal of ultimately liberating the patient. The difference is that the ISTDP therapist sees the faulty cognition as preventing access to the true, buried feelings, while the CBT therapist sees the faulty cognition as the cause of the painful emotions leading to the painful psychological state

Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy

Dynamic Deconstructive Psychotherapy


Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory


Play therapy

Art therapy

Milieu therapy


Relationship counselling

Problem solving therapy

Psychedelic therapy

See also Health#Drugs

Neuro-linguistic programming

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming - an approach to communication, personal development, and psychotherapy created by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in California, United States in the 1970s. Its creators claim a connection between the neurological processes ("neuro"), language ("linguistic") and behavioral patterns learned through experience ("programming") and that these can be changed to achieve specific goals in life.

Schema Therapy

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schema_Therapy - was developed by Dr. Jeffrey E. Young for use in treatment of personality disorders and chronic Axis I disorders, such as when patients fail to respond or relapse after having been through other therapies (for example, traditional cognitive behavioral therapy). Schema Therapy is a newer, integrative psychotherapy combining theory and techniques from existing therapies, including cognitive behavioral therapy, psychoanalytic object relations, attachment Theory, and Gestalt therapy (Young, 2003, p. 6).

Reparenting

To sort





to sort


  • Fitting the Facts to the Narrative - "Be right all the time" is a worthy goal but impossible; "Try to be right all the time, but when wrong, get right as soon as you can" is the correct mindset.
  • The Worst - "The basic premise of the worst is that both ideas and material possessions should be tools that serve us, rather than things we live in service to. When that relationship with material possessions is inverted, such that we end up living in service to them, the result is consumerism. When that relationship with ideas is inverted, the result is ideology or religion."


  • placepatterns.org - "the objective here is to build an online knowledge resource and community for building and development: to store, showcase, and refine recipes/tools/patterns/examples of successful building and development."


  • Perlmonks: The path to mastery - "When you see the code of master Perl programmers you may be amazed at how few strokes of the keyboard they require to solve a problem completely. Many in error think that they should therefore constantly try to cram as much into as little room as possible. This is a misguided path. Instead strive to understand fully and completely the tool at hand. Explore exactly how it works and what it can do. In addition constantly learn how to build on what you and others have done before. Aim for clarity and comprehension, and mastery shall surely follow. This is a true path."










Interpersonal

argh. to sort with Comms, Organisation

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta-communication - a secondary communication (including indirect cues) about how a piece of information is meant to be interpreted. It is based on idea that the same message accompanied by different meta-communication can mean something entirely different, including its opposite, as in irony. The term was brought to prominence by Gregory Bateson to refer to "communication about communication", which he expanded to: "all exchanged cues and propositions about (a) codification and (b) relationship between the communicators". Metacommunication may or may not be congruent, supportive or contradictory of that verbal communication.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirroring_(psychology) - the behaviour in which one person copies another person usually while in social interaction with them. It may include miming gestures, movements, body language, muscle tensions, expressions, tones, eye movements, breathing, tempo, accent, attitude, choice of words or metaphors, and other aspects of communication. It is often observed among couples or close friends.


Attachment

Nonverbal

See also Mind#Emotions

Language

See Language. To merge.

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analogy - a cognitive process of transferring information or meaning from a particular subject (the analogue or source) to another particular subject (the target), or a linguistic expression corresponding to such a process. In a narrower sense, analogy is an inference or an argument from one particular to another particular, as opposed to deduction, induction, and abduction, where at least one of the premises or the conclusion is general. The word analogy can also refer to the relation between the source and the target themselves, which is often, though not necessarily, a similarity, as in the biological notion of analogy.

everything is X all of the Y






  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoken_language - language produced in its spontaneous form, as opposed to written language. Many languages have no written form, and so are only spoken. Oral language or vocal language is language produced with the vocal tract, as opposed to sign language, which is produced with the hands and face. The term "spoken language" is sometimes used to mean only vocal languages, especially by linguists, making all three terms synonyms by excluding sign languages. Others refer to sign language as "spoken", especially in contrast to written transcriptions of signs.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paralanguage - a component of meta-communication that may modify or nuance meaning, or convey emotion, such as prosody, pitch, volume, intonation etc. It is sometimes defined as relating to nonphonemic properties only. Paralanguage may be expressed consciously or unconsciously. The study of paralanguage is known as paralinguistics, and was invented by George L. Trager in the 1950s, while he was working at the Foreign Service Institute of the Department of State. His colleagues at the time included Henry Lee Smith, Charles F. Hockett (working with him on using descriptive linguistics as a model for paralanguage), Edward T. Hall developing proxemics, and Ray Birdwhistell developing kinesics.

Trager published his conclusions in 1958, 1960 and 1961.His work has served as a basis for all later research, especially those investigating the relationship between paralanguage and culture (since paralanguage is learned, it differs by language and culture). A good example is the work of John J. Gumperz on language and social identity, which specifically describes paralinguistic differences between participants in intercultural interactions. The film Gumperz made for BBC in 1982, Multiracial Britain: Crosstalk, does a particularly good job of demonstrating cultural differences in paralanguage, and the impact these have on relationships.





Listening

To merge with interpersonal communication sections.

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_listening - a communication technique used in counselling, training and conflict resolution, which requires the listener to feed back what they hear to the speaker, by way of re-stating or paraphrasing what they have heard in their own words, to confirm what they have heard and moreover, to confirm the understanding of both parties.

a terribly underselling description!

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflective_listening - a communication strategy involving two key steps: seeking to understand a speaker's idea, then offering the idea back to the speaker, to confirm the idea has been understood correctly. It attempts to "reconstruct what the client is thinking and feeling and to relay this understanding back to the client". Reflective listening is a more specific strategy than the more general methods of active listening. It arose from Carl Rogers' school of client-centered therapy in counseling theory. Empathy is at the center of Rogers' approach.

Nonviolent communication

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolent_Communication - (abbreviated NVC, also called Compassionate Communication or Collaborative Communication) is a communication process developed by Marshall Rosenberg beginning in the 1960s. NVC often functions as a conflict resolution process. It focuses on three aspects of communication: self-empathy (defined as a deep and compassionate awareness of one's own inner experience), empathy (defined as listening to another with deep compassion), and honest self-expression (defined as expressing oneself authentically in a way that is likely to inspire compassion in others). NVC is based on the idea that all human beings have the capacity for compassion and only resort to violence or behavior that harms others when they don't recognize more effective strategies for meeting needs. Habits of thinking and speaking that lead to the use of violence (psychological and physical) are learned through culture. NVC theory supposes all human behavior stems from attempts to meet universal human needs and that these needs are never in conflict. Rather, conflict arises when strategies for meeting needs clash. NVC proposes that if people can identify their needs, the needs of others, and the feelings that surround these needs, harmony can be achieved. While NVC is ostensibly taught as a process of communication designed to improve compassionate connection to others, it has also been interpreted as a spiritual practice, a set of values, a parenting technique, an educational method and a worldview.
  • Communication based on honesty and trust
  • Observation -> feelings -> needs -> request
  • Empathy, active/reflective listening, sensing feelings and needs
  • Violent communication is a tragic expression of a deeper need and a request for understanding and empathy.
  • Don't try to be perfect, rather progressively less stupid (anything worth doing is worth doing poorly)
Video

Non-Rosenburg

Compassionate communication

  • Compassionate Communication works with an easy-to-understand model that helps you choose words that strengthen relationships. And avoid words that weaken relationships. The model gives you practical and clear steps. Courses give you an opportunity to learn and practise. Compassionate Communication is based on Nonviolent Communication (NVC), developed by Marshall Rosenberg and the Centre for Nonviolent Communication.

Radical honesty

Debate

See also Comms#Structured debate

to sort

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_turn - a major development in Western philosophy during the 20th century, the most important characteristic of which is the focusing of philosophy and the other humanities primarily on the relationship between philosophy and language.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectic - In a dialectic process describing the interaction and resolution between multiple paradigms or ideologies, one putative solution establishes primacy over the others. The goal of a dialectic process is to merge point and counterpoint (thesis and antithesis) into a compromise or other state of agreement via conflict and tension (synthesis). "Synthesis that evolves from the opposition between thesis and antithesis." The dialectical method is discourse between two or more people holding different points of view about a subject, who wish to establish the truth of the matter guided by reasoned arguments


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_discourse_analysis - an interdisciplinary approach to the study of discourse that views language as a form of social practice and focuses on the ways social and political domination are reproduced in text and talk. At the micro-level, the analyst considers the text's syntax, metaphoric structure and certain rhetorical devices. The meso-level involved studying the text's production and consumption, focusing on how power relations are enacted. At the macro-level, the analyst is concerned with intertextual understanding, trying to understand the broad, societal currents that are affecting the text being studied.




  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversation_Theory - cybernetic and dialectic framework that offers a scientific theory to explain how interactions lead to "construction of knowledge", or "knowing": wishing to preserve both the dynamic/kinetic quality, and the necessity for there to be a "knower". 70s.

In a dialogic process, various approaches coexist and are comparatively existential and relativistic in their interaction. Here, each ideology can hold more salience in particular circumstances. Changes can be made within these ideologies if a strategy does not have the desired effect.

The English terms dialogic and dialogism often refer to the concept used by the Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin in his work of literary theory, The Dialogic Imagination. Bakhtin contrasts the dialogic and the "monologic" work of literature. The dialogic work carries on a continual dialogue with other works of literature and other authors. It does not merely answer, correct, silence, or extend a previous work, but informs and is continually informed by the previous work. Dialogic literature is in communication with multiple works. This is not merely a matter of influence, for the dialogue extends in both directions, and the previous work of literature is as altered by the dialogue as the present one is. Bakhtin's "dialogic" is consonant with T.S.Eliot's ideas in "Tradition and the Individual Talent," where Eliot holds that "the past should be altered by the present as much as the present is directed by the past". For Bakhtin, the influence can also occur at the level of the individual word or phrase as much as it does the work and even the oeuvre or collection of works. A German cannot use the word "fatherland" or the phrase "blood and soil" without (possibly unintentionally) also echoing (or, Bakhtin would say "refracting") the meaning that those terms took on under National Socialism. Every word has a history of usage to which it responds, and anticipates a future response.

The term 'dialogic' does not only apply to literature. For Bakhtin, all language — indeed, all thought — appears as dialogical. This means that everything anybody ever says always exists in response to things that have been said before and in anticipation of things that will be said in response. In other words, we do not speak in a vacuum. All language (and the ideas which language contains and communicates) is dynamic, relational and engaged in a process of endless redescriptions of the world.




Intimacy

Love

“My dear, find what you love and let it kill you. Let it drain you of your all. Let it cling onto your back and weigh you down into eventual nothingness. Let it kill you and let it devour your remains. For all things will kill you, both slowly and fastly, but it’s much better to be killed by a lover." --Charles Bukowski

Non-monogamy

Gaze

Sex






Other

Support networks

Social and culture

to sort

See also Myth



Groups

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_dynamics - a system of behaviors and psychological processes occurring within a social group (intragroup dynamics), or between social groups (intergroup dynamics). The study of group dynamics can be useful in understanding decision-making behavior, tracking the spread of diseases in society, creating effective therapy techniques, and following the emergence and popularity of new ideas and technologies. Group dynamics are at the core of understanding racism, sexism, and other forms of social prejudice and discrimination. These applications of the field are studied in psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science, epidemiology, education, social work, business, and communication studies.

Sociology

er


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnomethodology - approach to sociological inquiry on everyday methods that people use for the production of social order, documenting the methods and practices through which society's members make sense of their world.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_representation - a stock of values, ideas, metaphors, beliefs, and practices that are shared among the members of groups and communities. Social Representations Theory is a body of theory within Social Psychology and Sociological social psychology. It has parallels in sociological theorizing such as Social Constructionism and Symbolic Interactionism, and is similar in some ways to mass consensus and Discursive Psychology.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociological_social_psychology - psychological sociology, is an area of sociology that focuses on social actions and on interrelations of personality, values, and mind with social structure and culture. Some of the major topics in this field are sociocultural change, social inequality and prejudice, leadership and intra-group behavior, social exchange, group conflict, impression formation and management, conversation structures, socialization, social constructionism, social norms and deviance, identity and roles, and emotional labor. The primary methods of data collection are sample surveys, field observations, vignette studies, field experiments, and controlled experiments.



Anthropology



Family


Parenting

See Learning

misc links for now

Ethics
  • Can Classic Moral Stories Promote Honesty in Children? - The classic moral stories have been used extensively to teach children about the consequences of lying and the virtue of honesty. Despite their widespread use, there is no evidence whether these stories actually promote honesty in children. This study compared the effectiveness of four classic moral stories in promoting honesty in 3- to 7-year-olds. Surprisingly, the stories of “Pinocchio” and “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” failed to reduce lying in children. In contrast, the apocryphal story of “George Washington and the Cherry Tree” significantly increased truth telling. Further results suggest that the reason for the difference in honesty-promoting effectiveness between the “George Washington” story and the other stories was that the former emphasizes the positive consequences of honesty, whereas the latter focus on the negative consequences of dishonesty. When the “George Washington” story was altered to focus on the negative consequences of dishonesty, it too failed to promote honesty in children.
Computing
Creativity

Generations

Other

From old wiki:

History


to sort

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structuralism - argued that human culture may be understood by means of a structure—modeled on language (i.e., structural linguistics)—that differs from concrete reality and from abstract ideas—a "third order" that mediates between the two




Communication studies

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_studies - an academic field that deals with processes of human communication, commonly defined as the sharing of symbols to create meaning. The discipline encompasses a range of topics, from face-to-face conversation to mass media outlets such as television broadcasting. Communication studies also examines how messages are interpreted through the political, cultural, economic, semiotic, hermeneutic, and social dimensions of their contexts.

to sort

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_constructionism - theory of knowledge of the fields of both Sociology and Communication that examines the development of jointly constructed understandings of the world. It assumes that understanding, significance, and meaning are developed not separately within the individual, but in coordination with other human beings. The elements most important to the theory are (a) the assumption that human beings rationalize their experience by creating a model of the social world and how it functions and, (b) that language is the most essential system through which humans construct reality





  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramaturgy_(sociology) - a sociological perspective starting from symbolic interactionism and commonly used in microsociological accounts of social interaction in everyday life, a theatrical metaphor in defining the method in which one human being presents itself to another based on cultural values, norms, and expectations



Lacanianism

  • No Subject - an encylopedia of Lacanian psychoanalysis
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objet_petit_a - object little-a) stands for the unattainable object of desire. It is sometimes called the object cause of desire. Lacan always insisted that the term should remain untranslated, "thus acquiring the status of an algebraic sign." (Écrits). 'The "a" in question stands for "autre" (other), the concept having been developed out of the Freudian "object" and Lacan's own exploitation of "otherness."

As a body of thought, Lacanianism began to make its way into the English-speaking world from the sixties onwards, influencing film theory, feminist thought, and psychoanalytic criticism, as well as politics and social sciences, primarily through the concepts of the Imaginary and the Symbolic. As the role of the real and of jouissance in opposing structure became more widely recognised, however, so too Lacanianism developed as a tool for the exploration of the divided subject of postmodernity.

  • Lacan’s Reasoning of the Subject - At the time of the structuralist reduction of the subject to the mere effect of structure, Lacan tends to preserve the concept of the subject. Despite that fact, Lacan does not directly follow up on the modern thought of the subject. It is the Cartesian cogito that is for him the foundation and object of criticism. With regards to the Cartesian cogito, Lacan finds disputable the selffounding of “I” in the act of its thinking. He claims that, even if we allow for the possibility of self-certitude arising from the consciousness itself, the question of how “I” can be conceived in this act remains unanswered. The part of the Cartesian subject that Lacan does adopt is the formation of the subject in the act of doubting. When considered in this context, Freud’s procedure is Cartesian for Lacan, since Freud places special emphasis on doubting in the speech of the analysed in order to be able to conceive his unconscious. For Lacan, the subject is a split subject – a subject that is split by its Symbolic constitution into the imaginary ego and the subject of the unconscious. The discourse of the Symbolic has the constitution of a signifying chain, so the subject in the Symbolic is also reduced to the signifier. The meaning of the subject of the signifier does not encompass the subject of the unconscious, so the subject is alienated from its subject of the unconscious. The splitting that occurred within the subject by its subjection to the signifying constitution of the Other has repercussion on the subject’s perception as well. In the act of perception the subject is split, since the objects are perceived by the ego, the subject of the signifier, and desired by the subject of the unconscious.

Post-structuralism

Foucault


Other modernity


Politics

See Politics


Media studies

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambient_awareness - a term used by social scientists to describe a new form of peripheral social awareness. This awareness is propagated from relatively constant contact with one's friends and colleagues via social networking platforms on the Internet. Some examples of social networking websites are Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Blogger, delicious.com, etc. The term essentially defines the sort of omnipresent knowledge one experiences by being a regular user of these media outlets that allow a constant connection with one's social circle.
  • Technological or Media Determinism
    • "Chandler’s web essay explores the concept and history of technological determinism, which he defines as ‘seek[ing] to explain social and historical phenomena in terms of one principal or determining factor’ - technology. Chandler calls this theory ‘reductive’, and points out that as a way of understanding social phenomena, reductionism is often criticised as being overly simplistic. This is especially the case when determinists become ‘technocentric’ - ‘trying to account for almost everything in terms of technology'. He introduces concepts such as ‘reification’; ‘autonomy’; and ‘universalism’, as elements of technological determinism. Importantly for our purposes, he also indicates how we can identify when a determinist position is being taken, even if an author or speaker doesn’t make it explicit: "The assumptions of technological determinism can usually be easily spotted in frequent references to the 'impact' of technological 'revolutions' which 'led to' or 'brought about', 'inevitable', 'far reaching', 'effects', or 'consequences' or assertions about what 'will be' happening 'sooner than we think' 'whether we like it or not'." The resources below contain some language like this, and you will probably start to notice it elsewhere. The relationship between technological determinism and utopian and dystopian accounts is one we’d like you to consider and discuss as you engage in the readings and films during the rest of this week and next week."
  • http://www.mediapolis.org.uk/
  • http://www.academia.edu/3425545/Media_Life
    • "The media life perspective offers a prediction and explanation of increasingly invisi- ble media; it sustains a theoretical argument as that proposed by Friedrich Kittler (2009),aiming to resolve ontology’s hostility to media. As Kittler argues, ‘philosophy … has been necessarily unable to conceive of media as media’, in that the relation betweenobserver and the observed as for example expressed in writing, audio or video recordingsis generally not considered to be of influence to the work of the philosopher. This blind-ness to the structuring role of media in lived experience not only considers but moves beyond technical media – while acknowledging how significant the medium may be tothe message – to address the essential nature of media as the invisible interlocutor of people’s lives. In today’s media culture, where people increasingly move through theworld (more or less deliberately) assembling a deeply individualized media system – in other words: living in their own personal information space – such a viewpoint can formthe basis of investigation and understanding of everyday life.

Cultural Studies

Area studies

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_studies - interdisciplinary fields of research and scholarship pertaining to particular geographical, national/federal, or cultural regions. The term exists primarily as a general description for what are, in the practice of scholarship, many heterogeneous fields of research, encompassing both the social sciences and the humanities. Typical area studies programs involve history, political science, sociology, cultural studies, languages, geography, literature, and related disciplines. In contrast to cultural studies, area studies often include diaspora and emigration from the area.

Organisations

Networks


Transparency

See also Organisation

to sort

See also Organisation, Economics




Intersectionality

underdone

Humanism

Edinburgh

Scotland

UK

Europe

Social sites

Education

Race

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racialization - the processes of ascribing ethnic or racial identities to a relationship, social practice, or group that did not identify itself as such. Racialization and ethnicization is often born out of the interaction of a group with a group that it dominates and ascribes identity for the purpose of continued domination. While it is often born out of domination, the racialized and ethnicized group often gradually identifies with and even embraces the ascribed identity and thus becomes a self-ascribed race or ethnicity. These processes have been common across the history of imperialism, nationalism, and racial and ethnic hierarchies.

Feminism

Articles

LGBT

Trans

Morality

  • The Role of Conscious Reasoning and Intuition in Moral Judgment - Testing Three Principles of Harm - Fiery Cushman, Liane Young, and Marc Hauser - Psychology, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Biological Anthropology, Harvard University. Is moral judgement accomplished by intuition or conscious reasoning? An answer demands a detailed account of the moral principles in question. We investigated three principles that guide moral judgments: (a) Harm caused by action is worse than harm caused by omission, (b) harm intended as the means to a goal is worse than harm foreseen as the side effect of a goal, and (c) harm involving physical contact with the victim is worse than harm involving no physical contact. Asking whether these principles are invoked to explain moral judgments, we found that subjects generally appealed to the first and third principles in their justifications, but not to the second. This finding has significance for methods and theories of moral psychology: The moral principles used in judgment must be directly compared with those articulated in justification, and doing so shows that some moral principles are available to conscious reasoning whereas others are not.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_psychology - field of study in both philosophy and psychology. Some use the term "moral psychology" relatively narrowly to refer to the study of moral development. However, others tend to use the term more broadly to include any topics at the intersection of ethics, psychology, and philosophy of mind. Some of the main topics of the field are moral judgment, moral reasoning, moral responsibility, moral development, moral diversity, moral character (especially as related to virtue ethics), altruism, psychological egoism, moral luck, and moral disagreement.








  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_skepticism - class of metaethical theories all members of which entail that no one has any moral knowledge. Many moral skeptics also make the stronger, modal, claim that moral knowledge is impossible. Moral skepticism is particularly opposed to moral realism: the view that there are knowable, objective moral truths.

Cognitivism

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_realism - the position that ethical sentences express propositions that refer to objective features of the world (that is, features independent of subjective opinion), some of which propositions may be true to the extent that they report those features accurately. This makes moral realism a non-nihilist form of ethical cognitivism with an ontological orientation, standing in opposition to all forms of moral anti-realism and moral skepticism, including ethical subjectivism (which denies that moral propositions refer to objective facts), error theory (which denies that any moral propositions are true); and non-cognitivism (which denies that moral sentences express propositions at all). Within moral realism, the two main subdivisions are ethical naturalism and ethical non-naturalism.









to sort into;

Normative ethics

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normative_ethics - The study of ethical action. It is the branch of philosophical ethics that investigates the set of questions that arise when considering how one ought to act, morally speaking. Normative ethics is distinct from meta-ethics because it examines standards for the rightness and wrongness of actions, while meta-ethics studies the meaning of moral language and the metaphysics of moral facts. Normative ethics is also distinct from descriptive ethics, as the latter is an empirical investigation of people’s moral beliefs. To put it another way, descriptive ethics would be concerned with determining what proportion of people believe that killing is always wrong, while normative ethics is concerned with whether it is correct to hold such a belief. Hence, normative ethics is sometimes called prescriptive, rather than descriptive. However, on certain versions of the meta-ethical view called moral realism, moral facts are both descriptive and prescriptive at the same time. Most traditional moral theories rest on principles that determine whether an action is right or wrong. Classical theories in this vein include utilitarianism, Kantianism, and some forms of contractarianism. These theories mainly offered overarching moral principles to use to resolve difficult moral decisions.
Virtue ethics
Hedonism
Stoicism
Epicureanism
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicureanism - A system of philosophy based upon the teachings of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus, founded around 307 BC. Epicurus was an atomic materialist, following in the steps of Democritus. His materialism led him to a general attack on superstition and divine intervention. Following Aristippus—about whom very little is known—Epicurus believed that what he called "pleasure" is the greatest good, but the way to attain such pleasure is to live modestly and to gain knowledge of the workings of the world and the limits of one's desires. This led one to attain a state of tranquility (ataraxia) and freedom from fear, as well as absence of bodily pain (aponia). The combination of these two states is supposed to constitute happiness in its highest form. Although Epicureanism is a form of hedonism, insofar as it declares pleasure to be the sole intrinsic good, its conception of absence of pain as the greatest pleasure and its advocacy of a simple life make it different from "hedonism" as it is commonly understood.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrapharmakos - Epicurus' (341 BC, Samos – 270 BC, Athens) recipe for leading the happiest possible life. The "tetrapharmakos" was originally a compound of four drugs (wax, tallow, pitch and resin); the word has been used metaphorically by Epicurus and his disciples to refer to the four remedies for healing the soul.
Don't fear god,
Don't worry about death;
What is good is easy to get, and
What is terrible is easy to endure
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metakosmia - the relatively empty spaces in the infinite void where worlds had not been formed by the joining together of the atoms through their endless motion. Epicurus held that the metakosmia were the abode of the gods, whom he considered to be immortal and blissful living beings made of atoms.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_rerum_natura - (On the Nature of Things) is a first-century BC didactic poem by the Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius (c. 99 BC – c. 55 BC) with the goal of explaining Epicurean philosophy to a Roman audience. The poem, written in some 7,400 dactylic hexameters, is divided into six untitled books, and explores Epicurean physics through richly poetic language and metaphors. Lucretius presents the principles of atomism; the nature of the mind and soul; explanations of sensation and thought; the development of the world and its phenomena; and explains a variety of celestial and terrestrial phenomena. The universe described in the poem operates according to these physical principles, guided by fortuna, "chance," and not the divine intervention of the traditional Roman deities.
  • On the Nature of Things - Full Audiobook
Deontological
Consequentialism
Utilitarianism
Atruism
Egoism


Pragmatic
Care
  • Relation, Virtue, and Relational Virtue: Three Concepts of Caring - This essay breaks new ground in defending the view that contemporary care-based ethics and early Confucian ethics share some important common ground. Luo also introduces the notion of relational virtue in an attempt to bridge a conceptual gap between relational caring ethics and agent-based virtue ethics, and to make the connections between the ethics of care and Confucian ethics philosophically clearer and more defensible.
Role

Applied ethics

Descriptive ethics

Sleep





Dreaming

Death

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charnel_ground - in concrete terms, is an above-ground site for the putrefaction of bodies, generally human, where formerly living tissue is left to decompose uncovered. understood as a polysemy and metaphor, it must be emphasized that holy people as part of their sadhana and natural spiritual evolution grappling with death, impermanence and transition, full of profound transpersonal significance, representing the 'death of ego'
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aghori

Death Cafe

Spirituality, mysticism and esoteric

to sort!

See Myth

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirituality - Traditionally spirituality has been defined as a process of personal transformation in accordance with religious ideals. Since the 19th century spirituality is often separated from religion, and has become more oriented on subjective experience and psychological growth. It may refer to almost any kind of meaningful activity or blissful experience, but without a single, widely-agreed definition.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_formation -the growth and development of the whole person by an intentional focus on one’s spiritual and interior life, interactions with others in ordinary life, and spiritual practices (prayer, the study of scripture, fasting, simplicity, solitude, confession, worship, etc.).
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_evolution - the philosophical, theological, esoteric or spiritual idea that nature and human beings and/or human culture evolve, extending from the established cosmological pattern or ascent, or in accordance with certain pre-established potentials. It is synonymous with "higher evolution", a term used to differentiate psychological, mental, or spiritual evolution from the "lower" or biological evolution of physical form.

The concept of spiritual evolution is also complemented by the idea of a creative impulse in human beings, known as epigenesis.

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_direction - the practice of being with people as they attempt to deepen their relationship with the divine, or to learn and grow in their own personal spirituality. The person seeking direction shares stories of his or her encounters of the divine, or how he or she is experiencing spiritual issues. The director listens and asks questions to assist the directee in his or her process of reflection and spiritual growth. Spiritual direction develops a deeper relationship with the spiritual aspect of being human. It is not psychotherapy, counseling, or financial planning.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_(philosophy) - the concept of an unconditional reality which transcends limited, conditional, everyday existence. It is sometimes used as an alternate term for "God" or "the Divine" especially, but by no means exclusively, by those who feel that the term "God" lends itself too easily to anthropomorphic presumptions. The concept of The Absolute may or may not (depending on one's specific doctrine) possess discrete will, intelligence, awareness, or a personal nature. It is sometimes conceived of as the source through which all being emanates.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism - the view that mind or soul (Greek: ψυχή) is a universal feature of all things, and the primordial feature from which all others are derived. The panpsychist sees him or herself as a mind in a world of minds.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anima_mundi - world soul (Greek: ψυχὴ κόσμου, Latin: anima mundi) is, according to several systems of thought, an intrinsic connection between all living things on the planet, which relates to our world in much the same way as the soul is connected to the human body. The idea originated with Plato and was an important component of most Neoplatonic systems:

Therefore, we may consequently state that: this world is indeed a living being endowed with a soul and intelligence ... a single visible living entity containing all other living entities, which by their nature are all related. The Stoics believed it to be the only vital force in the universe. Similar concepts also hold in systems of eastern philosophy in the Brahman-Atman of Hinduism, the Buddha-Nature in Mahayana Buddhism, and in the School of Yin-Yang, Taoism, and Neo-Confucianism as qi. Other resemblances can be found in the thoughts of hermetic philosophers like Paracelsus, and by Baruch Spinoza, Gottfried Leibniz, Friedrich Schelling and in Hegel's Geist ("Spirit"/"Mind"). There are also similarities with ideas developed since the 1960s by Gaia theorists such as James Lovelock.

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheism - the belief that the universe (or nature as the totality of everything) is identical with divinity, or that everything composes an all-encompassing, immanent God. Pantheists thus do not believe in a distinct personal or anthropomorphic god. Some Eastern religions are considered to be pantheistically inclined. Pantheism was popularized in the West as both a theology and philosophy based on the work of the 17th-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza, whose book Ethics was an answer to Descartes' famous dualist theory that the body and spirit are separate.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_mind - the universal higher consciousness or source of being in some forms of esoteric or New Thought and spiritual philosophy. It may be considered synonymous with the subjective mind or it may be referred to in the context of creative visualization, usually with religious or spiritual themes. The word originally derived from Hegel.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_consciousness - book written by Richard Maurice Bucke, a Canadian psychiatrist. In this book, he explored the concept of Cosmic Consciousness, which he defined as "a higher form of consciousness than that possessed by the ordinary man.". "This consciousness shows the cosmos to consist not of dead matter governed by unconscious, rigid, and unintending law; it shows it on the contrary as entirely immaterial, entirely spiritual and entirely alive; it shows that death is an absurdity, that everyone and everything has eternal life; it shows that the universe is God and that God is the universe, and that no evil ever did or ever will enter into it; a great deal of this is, of course, from the point of view of self consciousness, absurd; it is nevertheless undoubtedly true."
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transtheistic - coined by philosopher Paul Tillich or Indologist Heinrich Zimmer, referring to a system of thought or religious philosophy which is neither theistic, nor atheistic, but is beyond them. Zimmer applies the term to the theological system of Jainism, which is theistic in the limited sense that the gods exist, but become irrelevant as they are transcended by moksha (that is, a system which is not non-theistic, but in which the gods are not the highest spiritual instance). Zimmer (1953, p. 182) uses the term to describe the position of the Tirthankaras having passed "beyond the godly governors of the natural order".

The term has more recently also been applied to Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta and the Bhakti movement.

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perennial_philosophy - also referred to as Perennialism, is a perspective within the philosophy of religion which views each of the world’s religious traditions as sharing a single, universal truth on which the foundation of all religious knowledge and doctrine has grown. The term philosophia perennis was first used by Agostino Steuco (1497–1548), drawing on the neo-Platonic philosophy of Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–94). In the early 19th century this idea was popularised by the Transcendentalists. By the end of the 19th century it was further popularized by the Theosophical Society, under the name of "Wisdom-Religion" or "Ancient Wisdom". In the 20th century it was popularized in the English speaking world through Aldous Huxley's book The Perennial Philosophy as well as the strands of thought which culminated in the New Age movement.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soteriology - is the study of religious doctrines of salvation. Salvation theory occupies a place of special significance and importance in many religions. In the academic field of religious studies, soteriology is understood by scholars as representing a key theme in a number of different religions and is often studied in a comparative context; that is, comparing various ideas about what salvation is and how it is obtained. Broadly speaking, religious traditions have either fallen into the category of advocating universal salvation, in which believers hold a generally optimistic view that humanity as whole will eventually receive a positive afterlife free of suffering (this is commonly held by Buddhists and Jews, for example), or advocating special salvation, in which believers hold a generally pessimistic view that the vast majority of humanity will either be destroyed forever or will be condemned to eternal torment with only a small few finding eternal peace (this is traditionally held in Christianity).
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncretism - is the combining of different, often seemingly contradictory beliefs, while melding practices of various schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merger and analogizing of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thus asserting an underlying unity and allowing for an inclusive approach to other faiths. Syncretism also occurs commonly in expressions of arts and culture (known as eclecticism) as well as politics (syncretic politics).
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendentalism - a religious and philosophical movement that was developed during the late 1820s and 1830s in the Eastern region of the United States as a protest against the general state of spirituality and, in particular, the state of intellectualism at Harvard University and the doctrine of the Unitarian church taught at Harvard Divinity School. Among the transcendentalists' core beliefs was the inherent goodness of both people and nature. Transcendentalists believe that society and its institutions—particularly organized religion and political parties—ultimately corrupt the purity of the individual. They have faith that people are at their best when truly "self-reliant" and independent. It is only from such real individuals that true community could be formed.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritualism - a belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living. Spiritism, a branch of Spiritualism developed by Allan Kardec and today found mostly in continental Europe and Latin America, especially Brazil, has emphasised reincarnation. Spiritualism developed and reached its peak growth in membership from the 1840s to the 1920s, especially in English-speaking countries. By 1897, it was said to have more than eight million followers in the United States and Europe, mostly drawn from the middle and upper classes. The religion flourished for a half century without canonical texts or formal organization, attaining cohesion through periodicals, tours by trance lecturers, camp meetings, and the missionary activities of accomplished mediums. Many prominent Spiritualists were women, and like most Spiritualists, supported causes such as the abolition of slavery and women's suffrage. By the late 1880s the credibility of the informal movement had weakened due to accusations of fraud being perpetrated by mediums, and formal Spiritualist organizations began to appear. Spiritualism is currently practiced primarily through various denominational Spiritualist churches in the United States, Canada and United Kingdom.









Shamanism

Early

to resort

Zoroastrianism

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism - also called Zarathustraism, Mazdaism and Magianism, is an ancient Iranian religion and a religious philosophy. Zoroastrianism arose in the eastern region of the ancient Persian Empire, when the religious philosopher Zoroaster simplified the pantheon of early Iranian gods into two opposing forces: Spenta Mainyu (Progressive mentality) and Angra Mainyu (Destructive Mentality) under the one God, Ahura Mazda (Illuminating Wisdom). Zoroaster's ideas led to a formal religion bearing his name by about the 6th century BCE and have influenced other later religions including Judaism, Gnosticism, Christianity and Islam.

Eastern

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sramana - a non-Vedic Indian religious movement parallel to but separate from the historical Vedic religion. The Śramaṇa tradition gave rise to Yoga, Jainism, Buddhism, and some nāstika schools of Hinduism such as Cārvāka and Ājīvika, and also popular concepts in all major Indian religions such as saṃsāra (the cycle of birth and death) and moksha (liberation from that cycle).
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana - used in Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism. It leads to moksha, liberation from samsara, or release from a state of suffering, after an often lengthy period of bhāvanā or sādhanā.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Āstika_and_nāstika - technical terms in Hinduism used to classify philosophical schools and persons, according to whether they accept the authority of the Vedas as supreme revealed scriptures, or not, respectively. Similar to the orthodox/heterodox distinction in the West.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sūtra - a collection of aphorisms in the form of a manual or, more broadly, a text in Hinduism or Buddhism. The Pali form of the word, sutta is used exclusively to refer to the scriptures of the early Pali Canon, the only texts recognized by Theravada Buddhism as canonical.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashtamangala - a sacred suite of Eight Auspicious Signs endemic to a number of Indian religions such as Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. The symbols or "symbolic attributes" are yidam and teaching tools. Not only do these attributes, these energetic signatures, point to qualities of enlightened mindstream, but they are the investiture that ornaments these enlightened "qualities"
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sādhanā - "a means of accomplishing something", an ego-transcending spiritual practice, found in Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist and Muslim practices that are followed in order to achieve various spiritual or ritual objectives.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sādhu - a religious ascetic or holy person, dedicated to achieving mokṣa (liberation), the fourth and final aśrama (stage of life), through meditation and contemplation of brahman. the vast majority of sādhus are yogīs, not all yogīs are sādhus.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahimsa - meaning 'to not injure'. The word is derived from the Sanskrit root hiṃs – to strike; hiṃsā is injury or harm, a-hiṃsā is the opposite of this, i.e. cause no injury, do no harm. Ahimsa is also referred to as nonviolence, and it applies to all living beings including animals according to many Indian religions. Ahimsa is one of the cardinal virtues and an important tenet of major Indian religions (Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism). Ahimsa is a multidimensional concept, inspired by the premise that all living beings have the spark of the divine spiritual energy, to hurt another being is to hurt oneself. Ahimsa has also been related to the notion that any violence has karmic consequences. While ancient scholars of Hinduism pioneered and over time perfected the principles of Ahimsa, the concept reached an extraordinary status in the ethical philosophy of Jainism. Most popularly, Mahatma Gandhi strongly believed in the principle of ahimsa.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vāsanā - a behavioural tendency or karmic imprint which influences the present behaviour of a person. It is a technical term in Dharmic Traditions, particularly Buddhist philosophy and Advaita Vedanta.


Hinduism

See also Activities#Yoga

Texts

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhammasattha - the Pali name of a genre of literature found in the Indianized kingdoms of Western Indochina (modern Laos, Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, and Yunnan). historically related to Hindu dharmaśāstra literature, although they are very significantly influenced by the Theravada Buddhist traditions and literature of Southeast Asia.

Denominations

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Āstika_and_nāstika - Āstika (Sanskrit: आस्तिक āstika; "it exists") and Nāstika (नास्तिक, nāstika; "it doesn't exist") are technical terms in Hinduism used to classify philosophical schools and persons, according to whether they accept the authority of the Vedas as supreme revealed scriptures, or not, respectively. By this definition, Nyāyá, Vaiśeṣika, Sāṃkhya, Yoga, Mīmāṃsā and Vedānta are classified as āstika schools; and some schools like Cārvāka, Ājīvika, Jainism and Buddhism are considered nāstika. The distinction is similar to the orthodox/heterodox distinction in the West.

Āstika

6 orthodox Hindu/Indian schools of thought

Nāstika

Heterodox schools of thought

  • Cārvāka
  • Ājīvika
  • Jainism
  • Buddhism

Vedic

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigveda - a compound of ṛc "praise, verse" and veda "knowledge") is a sacred Indo-Aryan collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns still being used in India. It is counted among the four canonical sacred texts (śruti) of Hinduism known as the Vedas. It is one of the oldest extant texts in any Indo-European language. Philological and linguistic evidence indicate that the Rigveda was composed in the north-western region of the Indian subcontinent, most likely between c. 1500–1200 BCE, though a wider approximation of c. 1700–1100 BCE has also been given.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yajna - a ritual of offerings accompanied by chanting of Vedic and offering and sublimating the havana sámagri (herbal preparations) in the fire


Samkhya

Yoga

See Action#Yoga

Vedanta

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta - literally translates to "the conclusion of Vedas," and originally referred to the Upanishads, a collection of foundational texts in Hinduism (considered the last appendix or final layer of the Vedic canon). By the 8th century, it came to mean all philosophical traditions concerned with interpreting the three basic texts of Hinduist philosophy, namely the Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita.

Cārvāka

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cārvāka - also known as Lokāyata, is a heterodox system of Indian philosophy that assumes various forms of materialism, philosophical skepticism and religious indifference.

Ājīvika

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ājīvika - Ajivika or Ajivaka, literally means "living" in Sanskrit) was a heterodox system of ancient Indian philosophy and an ascetic movement of the Mahajanapada period in the Indian subcontinent. Ājīvika was primarily a heterodox Indian (Nāstika) system. The Ājīvikas may simply have been a more loosely-organized group of wandering ascetics (shramanas or sannyasins). Thought to be contemporaneous to other early Indian nāstika philosophical schools of thought, such as Cārvāka, Jainism and Buddhism.


Cosmology and gods

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purusha - In some lineages of Hinduism, Purusha (Sanskrit puruṣa, पुरुष "man, cosmic man", in Sutra literature also called puṃs "man") is the "Self" which pervades the universe. The Vedic divinities are interpretations of the many facets of Purusha. According to the Rigvedic Purusha sukta, Purusha was dismembered by the devas—his mind is the Moon, his eyes are the Sun, and his breath is the wind.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimurti - creation, maintenance, and destruction personified by the forms of Brahma the creator, Vishnu the maintainer or preserver and Shiva the destroyer or transformer.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manusmṛti - also known as Mānava-Dharmaśāstra मानवधर्मशास्त्र), is the most important and earliest metrical work of the Dharmaśāstra textual tradition of Hinduism. The text presents itself as a discourse given by Manu, the progenitor of mankind to a group of seers, or rishis, who beseech him to tell them the "law of all the social classes" (1.2). Manu became the standard point of reference for all future Dharmaśāstras that followed it. According to Hindu tradition, the Manu smruti records the words of Brahma.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma - is the Hindu god (deva) of creation and one of the Trimūrti, the others being Vishnu and Shiva. According to the Brahmā Purāņa, he is the father of Manu, and from Manu all human beings are descended. In the Rāmāyaņa and the Mahābhārata, he is often referred to as the progenitor or great grandsire of all human beings. He is not to be confused with the Supreme Cosmic Spirit in Hindu Vedānta philosophy known as Brahman, which is genderless. As per Hindu tradition, Vedas never were created by anyone. It always existed from time immemorial.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daksha - one of the sons of Lord Brahma, who, after creating the ten Manas Putras, created Daksha, Dharama, Kamadeva and Agni from his right thumb, chest, heart and eyebrows respectively. Besides his noble birth, Daksa was a great king. Pictures show him as a rotund and obese man with a stocky body, protruding belly, and muscular with the head of an ibex-like creature with spiral horns.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aditi - mother of the gods (devamatar) and all twelve zodiacal spirits from whose cosmic matrix the heavenly bodies were born. As celestial mother of every existing form and being, the synthesis of all things, she is associated with space (akasa) and with mystic speech (Vāc). She may be seen as a feminized form of Brahma and associated with the primal substance (mulaprakriti) in Vedanta. She is mentioned nearly 80 times in the Rigveda: the verse "Daksha sprang from Aditi and Aditi from Daksha" is seen by Theosophists as a reference to "the eternal cyclic re-birth of the same divine Essence" and divine wisdom. In contrast, the Puranas, such as the Shiva Purana and the Bhagavata Purana, suggest that Aditi is wife of sage Kashyap and gave birth to the Adityas such as Indra, Surya, and also Vamana.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu - the Supreme God of Vaishnavism, one of the three main sects of Hinduism. Vishnu is also known as Narayana and Hari. Lakshmi is the wife of Vishnu. The Vishnu Sahasranama declares Vishnu as Paramatman (supreme soul) and Parameshwara (supreme God). It describes Vishnu as the all-pervading essence of all beings, the master of—and beyond—the past, present and future, the creator and destroyer of all existences, one who supports, preserves, sustains and governs the universe and originates and develops all elements within.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devi - Sanskrit root-word of Divine, its related masculine term is Deva. Devi is synonymous with Shakti, the female aspect of the divine, as conceptualized by the Shakta tradition of Hinduism. She is the female counterpart without whom the male aspect, which represents consciousness or discrimination, remains impotent and void. Goddess worship is an integral part of Hinduism.

Devi is, quintessentially, the core form of every Hindu Goddess. As the female manifestation of the supreme lord, she is also called Prakriti, as she balances out the male aspect of the divine addressed Purusha. Devi or Durga is the supreme Being in the Shaktism tradition of Hinduism, while in the Smartha tradition, she is one of the five primary forms of God. In other Hindu traditions of Shaivism and Vaishnavism, Devi embodies the active energy and power of male deities (Purushas), such as Vishnu in Vaishnavism or Shiva in Shaivism. Vishnu's shakti counterpart is called Lakshmi, with Parvati being the female shakti of Shiva.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali - also known as Kālikā (Sanskrit: कालिका), is the Hindu goddess associated with empowerment, shakti. She is the fierce aspect of the goddess Durga (Parvati). The name Kali comes from kāla, which means black, time, death, lord of death: Shiva. Since Shiva is called Kāla— the eternal time — the name of Kālī, his consort, also means "Time" or "Death" (as in "time has come"). Hence, Kāli is the Goddess of Time and Change. Although sometimes presented as dark and violent, her earliest incarnation as a figure of annihilation of evil forces still has some influence. Various Shakta Hindu cosmologies, as well as Shākta Tantric beliefs, worship her as the ultimate reality or Brahman. She is also revered as Bhavatārini (literally "redeemer of the universe").
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrikas - (Matrika singular, Sanskrit: mātṝkā, मातृका "mother"), also called Matara (Sanskrit: mātaraḥ plural, मातरः) and Matri (mātṛ, मातृ singular), is a group of Hindu goddesses who are always depicted together. Since they are usually depicted as a heptad, they are called Saptamatrika(s) (Sanskrit: saptamātṝkāh, सप्तमातृका:, "seven mothers"): Brahmani, Vaishnavi, Maheshvari, Indrani, Kaumari, Varahi and Chamunda or Narasimhi. However, they may sometimes be eight (Ashtamatrika(s): ashtamātṝkāh, अष्टमातृका:, "eight mothers"). Whereas in South India, Saptamatrika worship is prevalent, the Ashtamatrika are vener

to sort


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramatman - the Absolute Atman or Supreme Soul or Spirit (also known as Supersoul or Oversoul) in Vedanta and Yoga, the “Primordial Self” or the “Self Beyond” who is spiritually practically identical with the Absolute, identical with Brahman. Selflessness is the attribute of Paramatman, where all personality/individuality vanishes.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ātman_(Hinduism) - 'inner-self' or 'soul', the true self of an individual beyond identification with phenomena, the essence of an individual. In order to attain salvation (liberation), a human being must acquire self-knowledge (atma jnana), which is to realize that one's true self (Ātman) is identical with the transcendent self Brahman
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahman - "the unchanging reality amidst and beyond the world", which "cannot be exactly defined", Brahman is conceived as Atman, personal god, impersonal absolute or Para Brahman, or in various combinations of these qualities depending on the philosophical school.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satcitananda - "being, consciousness, bliss", is a description of the subjective experience of Brahman, sublimely blissful experience of the boundless, pure consciousness is a glimpse of ultimate reality



  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashrama_(stage) - one of four stages in an age-based social system as laid out in the Manu Smriti and later Classical Sanskrit texts. The ashrama system of life was an attempt to institutionalize Sramana ideals within the Brahmanical social structure



Goals in life;

Chakras

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajna - end of duality, balancing the higher and lower selves and trusting inner guidance, access of intuition, visual consciousness, clarity on an intuitive level.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anahata - complex emotions, compassion, tenderness, unconditional love for the self and others, equilibrium, rejection and well-being, circulation, passion, devotion

Shinto

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shintoism - the indigenous religion of Japan and the people of Japan. It is defined as an action-centred religion, focused on ritual practices to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present-day Japan and its ancient past. Founded in 660 BC according to Japanese mythology, Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written historical records of the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki in the 8th century. Still, these earliest Japanese writings do not refer to a unified "Shinto religion", but rather to a collection of native beliefs and mythology. Shinto today is a term that applies to the religion of public shrines devoted to the worship of a multitude of gods (kami), suited to various purposes such as war memorials and

Confucianism

Buddhism

  • w:Buddhism - sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE

See also Activities#Meditation

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ananda - First cousin, one of the principal disciples and a devout attendant of the Buddha. The name means 'bliss' in Pali, Sanskrit as well as other Indian languages



  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratītyasamutpāda - commonly translated as dependent origination or dependent arising, the basis for other key concepts in Buddhism, such as karma and rebirth, the arising of dukkha (suffering), and the possibility of liberation through realizing no-self (anatman). The general principle of pratītyasamutpāda (that everything is interdependent) is complementary to the concept of emptiness (sunyata).
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Śūnyatā - emptiness, voidness, openness, spaciousness, vacuity, is a Buddhist concept which has multiple meanings depending on its doctrinal context. In Theravada Buddhism, suññatā often refers to the not-self (Pāli: anatta, Sanskrit: anātman) nature of the five aggregates of experience and the six sense spheres. Suññatā is also often used to refer to a meditative state or experience.




  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangha - a word in Pali and Sanskrit meaning "association", "assembly," "company" or "community" and most commonly refers in Buddhism to the monastic community of ordained Buddhist monks or nuns. The Sangha also includes laymen and laywomen who are personally dedicated to the discipline of Dharma-Vinaya.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_truths_doctrine - differentiates between two levels of truth (satya) in Buddhist discourse: relative or commonsensical truth, and absolute or ultimate truth. In Tibetan Buddhism ultimate truth is synonymous with emptiness.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhi - the understanding possessed by a Buddha regarding the nature of things. It is traditionally translated into English with the word enlightenment and literally means awakened. Bodhi is knowledge of the causal mechanism by which beings incarnate into material form and experience suffering. Although its most common usage is in the context of Buddhism, bodhi is also present as a concept in other Indian philosophies and traditions.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhipakkhiyādhammā - qualities conducive or related to awakening, of which there are seven sets with a total of thirty-seven individual qualities. recognized by both Theravada and Mahayana Buddhists as complementary facets of the Buddhist Path to Enlightenment
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sotāpanna - or "stream-winner", a person who has eradicated the first three fetters (sanyojanas) of the mind, namely self-view (or identity), skeptical doubt (in Buddhadharma or the teachings of the Buddha), and clinging to rites and rituals.



  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhisattva - an enlightenment (bodhi) being (sattva). Traditionally, a bodhisattva is anyone who, motivated by great compassion, has generated bodhicitta, which is a spontaneous wish to attain Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upaya - "expedient means", "pedagogy", term used in Mahayana Buddhism to refer to an aspect of guidance along the Buddhist Paths to liberation where a conscious, voluntary action is driven by an incomplete reasoning around its direction.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gradual_training - The Buddha sometimes described the practice (patipatti) of his teaching as the gradual training (Pali: anupubbasikkhā) because the eightfold path involves a process of mind-body transformation that unfolds over a sometimes lengthy period.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anupubbikathā - In Theravada Buddhism, anupubbikathā or ānupubbikathā (Pali) – variously translated as "gradual discourse," "gradual instruction," "progressive instruction," and "step-by-step talk" – is a method by which the Buddha taught the Dhamma to suitably receptive lay people. In this approach, the Four Noble Truths are the consummate teaching. The common formula is: Generosity (dāna), Virtue (sīla), Heaven (sagga), Danger of sensual pleasure (kāmānaṃ ādīnava), Renunciation (nekkhamma), The Four Noble Truths (cattāri ariya-saccāni)


Texts


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abhidharma - ancient (3rd century BCE and later) Buddhist texts which contain detailed scholastic and scientific reworkings of doctrinal material appearing in the Buddhist Sutras, according to schematic classifications. The Abhidhamma works do not contain systematic philosophical treatises, but summaries or abstract and systematic lists. According to the Macmillan Encyclopedia of Buddhism, Abhidhamma started as an elaboration of the teachings of the suttas, but later developed independent doctrines. The literal translation of the term Abhidharma is unclear. Two possibilities are most commonly given: abhi - higher or special + dharma- teaching, philosophy, thus making Abhidharma the "higher teachings", and abhi - about + dharma of the teaching, translating it instead as "about the teaching" or even "metateaching". In the West, the Abhidhamma has generally been considered the core of what is referred to as "Buddhist Psychology".
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhammacakkappavattana_Sutta - "The Setting in Motion of the Wheel of Dharma", considered to be a record of the first teaching given by the Buddha after he attained enlightenment. The main topic of this sutta is the Four Noble Truths, which are the central teachings of Buddhism that provide a unifying theme, or conceptual framework, for all of Buddhist thought. This sutta also introduces the Buddhist concepts of the middle way, impermanence, and dependent origination.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pāli_Canon - standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the most complete extant early Buddhist canon. It was composed in North India, and preserved orally until it was committed to writing during the Fourth Buddhist Council in Sri Lanka in 29 BCE, approximately four hundred and fifty four years after the death of Gautama Buddha
  • http://www.palicanon.org/


Noble Eightfold Path

Wisdom (Sanskrit: prajñā, Pāli: paññā)

  • 1. Right view (understanding the four noble truths) (9. Superior right knowledge)
  • 2. Right intention (10. Superior right liberation)

Ethical conduct (Sanskrit: śīla, Pāli: sīla)

  • 3. Right speech
  • 4. Right action
  • 5. Right livelihood

Concentration (Sanskrit and Pāli: samādhi)

  • 6. Right effort
  • 7. Right mindfulness
  • 8. Right concentration

Four Noble Truths

  1. The truth of dukkha (suffering, anxiety, unsatisfactoriness)
  2. The truth of the origin of dukkha
  3. The truth of the cessation of dukkha
  4. The truth of the path leading to the cessation of dukkha
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avidya_(Buddhism) - commonly translated as "ignorance" or "delusion". It can be defined as not understanding the full meaning and implication of the four noble truths or as a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of reality

Pāramitā

In the Pāli canon's Buddhavaṃsa the Ten Perfections (dasa pāramiyo) are (original terms in Pāli):

  1. Dāna pāramī : generosity, giving of oneself
  2. Sīla pāramī : virtue, morality, proper conduct
  3. Nekkhamma pāramī : renunciation
  4. Paññā pāramī : transcendental wisdom, insight
  5. Viriya (also spelled vīriya) pāramī : energy, diligence, vigour, effort
  6. Khanti pāramī : patience, tolerance, forbearance, acceptance, endurance
  7. Sacca pāramī : truthfulness, honesty
  8. Adhiṭṭhāna (adhitthana) pāramī : determination, resolution
  9. Mettā pāramī : loving-kindness
  10. Upekkhā (also spelled upekhā) pāramī : equanimity, serenity

Brahmavihara

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmavihara - (sublime attitudes, lit. "abodes of brahma") are a series of four Buddhist virtues and the meditation practices made to cultivate them. They are also known as the four immeasurables (Sanskrit: apramāṇa, Pāli: appamaññā). It contains a number of recollections or recitations that promote the development of mettā through virtuous characteristics and meditation. The discourse identifies fifteen moral qualities and conditions conducive to the development of mettā. These include such qualities as being non-deceptive (uju), sincere (suju), easy to correct (suvaco), gentle (mudu) and without arrogance (anatimānī).

The meditator is instructed to radiate out to all beings in all directions the mental states of:

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mettā - loving-kindness or benevolence
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karuṇā - compassion
  3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudita - empathetic joy / compersion
  4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upekkha - equanimity

Early

Schools



  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nichiren_Buddhism - based on the teachings of the 13th century Japanese monk Nichiren (1222–1282). Nichiren Buddhism is generally noted for its focus on the Lotus Sutra and an attendant belief that all people have an innate Buddha nature and are therefore inherently capable of attaining enlightenment in their current form and present lifetime

Tripitaka

Yanas

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yana_(Buddhism) - refers to a mode, method or approach to spiritual practice in Buddhism, and in particular to divisions of various schools of Buddhism according to their type of practice in relation to the realization of emptiness.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutrayana - Indo-Tibetan three-fold classification of yanas. Theravada ("Hinayana"), Mahayana, and Vajrayana. The third yana, Vajrayana, comprises Tantrayana and Dzogchen.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinayana - is a Sanskrit term literally meaning: the "Smaller Vehicle", applied to the Śrāvakayāna, the Buddhist path followed by a śrāvaka who wishes to become an arhat. The term appeared around the 1st or 2nd century. Hīnayāna is often contrasted with Mahāyāna, which means the "Great Vehicle." The Hinayana or Small Vehicle is defined by Kalu Rinpoche as follows: "The Small Vehicle is based on becoming aware of the fact that all we experience in samsara is marked by suffering. Being aware of this engenders the will to rid ourselves of this suffering, to liberate ourselves on an individual level, and to attain happiness. We are moved by our own interest. Renunciation and perseverance allow us to attain our goal." The Chinese monk Yijing who visited India in the 7th century, distinguishes Mahāyāna from Hīnayāna as follows: Both adopt one and the same Vinaya, and they have in common the prohibitions of the five offenses, and also the practice of the Four Noble Truths. Those who venerate the bodhisattvas and read the Mahāyāna sūtras are called the Mahāyānists, while those who do not perform these are called the Hīnayānists.

Maha Stupa at Thotlakonda Monastic Complex initially flourished as an early Buddhist school of Hinayana and later developed as one among the Theravada Schools of Buddhism, which witnessed peak activity during 2nd Century BCE, in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India The term was widely used in the past by Western scholars to cover "the earliest system of Buddhist doctrine" as the Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (Oxford, 1899) put it.[4] It has been used as a synonym for the Theravada tradition, which continues as the main form of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and South-East Asia, but some scholars deny that the term included Theravada Buddhism. In 1950 the World Fellowship of Buddhists declared that the term Hīnayana should not be used when referring to any form of Buddhism existing today.

Mahayana

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahayana - originated in India, and some scholars believe that it was initially associated with one of the oldest historical branches of Buddhism, the Mahāsāṃghika. The largest school of Buddhism today
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prajnaparamita - means "the Perfection of (Transcendent) Wisdom.", indispensable elements of the Bodhisattva Path, elucidated and described in the genre of the Prajñāpāramitā sūtras, which vary widely in length and exhaustiveness. The Prajñāpāramitā sūtras suggest that all things including oneself, appear as thoughtforms (conceptual constructs)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatamsaka_Sutra - one of the most influential Mahayana sutras of East Asian Buddhism. The title is rendered in English as Flower Garland Sutra, Flower Adornment Sutra, or Flower Ornament Scripture. describes a cosmos of infinite realms upon realms, mutually containing one another. The vision expressed in this work was the foundation for the creation of the Huayan school of Chinese Buddhism, which was characterized by a philosophy of interpenetration.






  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinayana - "Smaller Vehicle", applied to the Śrāvakayāna, the Buddhist path followed by a śrāvaka who wishes to become an arhat. The term appeared around the 1st or 2nd century. Hīnayāna is often contrasted with Mahāyāna, which means the "Great Vehicle."


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogacara - influential school of Buddhist philosophy and psychology emphasizing phenomenology and ontology through the interior lens of meditative and yogic practices. Associated with Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism in about the 4th century CE, but also included non-Mahayana practitioners of the Dârstântika school.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asanga

Vajrayana

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahasiddha - maha meaning "great" and siddha meaning "adept", a certain type of yogin/yogini recognized in Vajrayana Buddhism, founders of Vajrayana traditions and lineages, such as Dzogchen and Mahamudra.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmasambhava - also known as the Second Buddha, was a sage guru from northwestern Classical India (modern-day Swat Valley, Pakistan). Padmasambhava is said to have transmitted Vajrayana Buddhism to Tibet, Bhutan and neighboring countries in the 8th century AD.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empowerment_(Vajrayana) - a ritual in Vajrayana which initiates a student into a particular tantric deity practice. The Tibetan word for this is wang (Skt. abhiṣeka; Tib. དབང་, wang; Wyl. dbang), which literally translates to power. The Sanskrit term for this is abhiseka which literally translates to sprinkling or bathing or anointing. A tantric practice is not considered effective or as effective until a qualified master has transmitted the corresponding power of the practice directly to the student. This may also refer to introducing the student to the mandala of the deity.

Tibetan

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyingma - a name contemporary to the emergence of the above schools in the 11th century, is the sole Ngagyur or "old translation," school and is often equated as originating with the widespread introduction of Buddhism to Tibet around the turn of the 8th century.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarma_(Tibetan_Buddhism) - "new translation" schools include the three newer of the four main schools, comprising the following traditions and their sub-branches with their roots in the 11th century. primarily follows Tantric teachings (Vajrayāna) which were translated into Tibetan during the second diffusion of the Buddha Dharma into Tibet (diffusing the so-called New Tantras).
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kagyu - Sarma school. Due to the Kagyu tradition's particularly strong emphasis on guru devotion and guru yoga, and the personal transmission of esoteric instructions (dam ngag or man ngag) from master to disciple, the early Kagyu tradition soon gave rise to a bewildering number of independent sub-schools or sub-sects centered around individual charismatic Kagyu teachers and their lineages. These lineages are hereditary as well as mindstream emanation in nature.
    • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma_Kagyu - probably the largest and certainly the most widely practiced lineage within the Kagyu school. The central teaching of the Karma Kagyu is the doctrine of Mahamudra, also known as the "Great Seal". Within the Karma Kagyu, meditative practice is almost invariably presented in a progressive manner. Early practice includes Shamatha meditation (calm abiding; single-pointedness), introduction to Buddhist history and philosophy, and initiation into the lower Tantras - classically across the Yidams (deities) Avalokiteshvara (Tibetan Chenrezik), Tara and Amitabha Buddha. This is followed by Ngondro (the practice of the Four Extraordinary Foundations) and Vipassana meditation. During the traditional three-year retreat, retreatants usually focus their practice on the Six Yogas of Naropa. At the Anuttarayogatantra level of practice, the principal Yidams of the lineage are Vajravarahi, Hevajra and Chakrasamvara. While one of the distinguishing characteristics of the Karma Kagyu is its emphasis on meditative practice, all forms and levels of Buddhist history and philosophy are also taught, most notably the Shentong branch of Prāsaṅgika Madhyamaka philosophy.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonang - traced to early 12th century master Yumo Mikyo Dorje, but became much wider known with the help of Dolpopa Sherab Gyeltsen, a monk originally trained in the Sakya school. The Jonang school was widely thought to have become extinct in the late 17th century at the hands of the Fifth Dalai Lama who forcibly annexed the Jonang monasteries to his Gelug school, declaring them heretical. Recently, however, it was discovered that some remote Jonang monasteries escaped this fate and have continued practicing uninterrupted to this day.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dzogchen - The analogy given by Dzogchen masters is that one's nature is like a mirror which reflects with complete openness but is not affected by the reflections, or like a crystal ball that takes on the colour of the material on which it is placed without itself being changed. The knowledge that ensues from recognizing this mirror-like clarity (which cannot be found by searching nor identified) is what Dzogchenpas refer to as rigpa.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigpa - the "self-reflexive awareness that cognizes Buddha-nature." It has also come to mean the "pristine awareness" that is the fundamental ground itself.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terma_(religion) - key Tibetan Buddhist and Bön teachings, which the tradition holds were originally esoterically hidden by various adepts such as Padmasambhava and his consorts in the 8th century for future discovery at auspicious times by other adepts, known as tertöns. As such, they represent a tradition of continuing revelation in Buddhism. The majority of terma teachings are tantric in nature, although there are notable exceptions.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bardo_Thodol - Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State, Tibetan Book of the Dead, a funerary text. The Tibetan text describes, and is intended to guide one through, the experiences that the consciousness has after death, during the interval between death and the next rebirth. This interval is known in Tibetan as the bardo. The text also includes chapters on the signs of death, and rituals to undertake when death is closing in, or has taken place.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chöd - "Cutting Through the Ego,", the practice is based on the Prajñāpāramitā or "Perfection of Wisdom" sutras which expound the "emptiness", combined with specific meditation methods and tantric ritual. The chod practitioner seeks to tap the power of fear through activities such as rituals set in graveyards, and visualisation of offering their bodies in a tantric feast in order to put their understanding of emptiness to the ultimate test.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lung_(Tibetan_Buddhism) - means wind or breath. It is a key concept in the Vajrayana traditions of Tibetan Buddhism and has a variety of meanings. Lung is a concept that's particularly important to understandings of the subtle body and the Three Vajras (body, speech and mind). Tibetan medicine practitioner Dr Tamdin Sither Bradley provides a summary:

The general description of rLung is that it is a subtle flow of energy and out of the five elements (air, fire, water, earth and space) it is most closely connected with air. However it is not simply the air which we breathe or the wind in our stomachs, it goes much deeper than that. rLung is like a horse and the mind is the rider, if there is something wrong with the horse the rider will not be able to ride properly. Its description is that it is rough, light, cool, thin, hard, movable. The general function of rLung is to help growth, movement of the body, exhalation and inhalation and to aid the function of mind, speech and body. rLung helps to separate in our stomachs what we eat into nutrients and waste products. However its most important function is to carry the movements of mind, speech and body. The nature of rLung is both hot and cold.

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointing-out_instruction - said to be the direct introduction to the nature of mind in the Tibetan Buddhist lineages of Mahāmudrā and Dzogchen. In these traditions, a "root guru" (S. mūlaguru, Wylie: rtsa-ba'i bla-ma, pronounced "tsawey lama") is the master who gives the "pointing-out instruction" in such a way that the disciple successfully recognizes the "nature of mind." The tradition of conferring such instructions outside of the context of formal abhiṣeka (empowerment) is unique to the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages. Whether or not such instructions are valid without the formal abhiṣeka has historically been a point of contention with the more conservative Gelug and Sakya lineages. The pointing-out instruction is often equated with the "fourth" or ghanta abhiṣeka of more formal vajrayana empowerment.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anuttarayoga_Tantra - often translated as Unexcelled Yoga Tantra or Highest Yoga Tantra, is a term used in Tibetan Buddhism in the categorization of esoteric tantric Indian Buddhist texts that constitute part of the Kangyur, or the 'translated words of the Buddha' in the Tibetan Buddhist canon.



  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahamudra - "a ritual hand-gesture, one of a sequence of 'seals' in Tantric practice, the nature of reality as emptiness, a meditation procedure focusing on the nature of Mind, an innate blissful gnosis cognizing emptiness nondually, or the supreme attainment of buddhahood at the culmination of the Tantric path."


  • The Berzin Archives is a collection of translations and teachings by Dr. Alexander Berzin primarily on the Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. Covering the areas of sutra, tantra, Kalachakra, dzogchen, and mahamudra meditation, the Archives presents material from all five Tibetan traditions: Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu, Gelug, and Bon, as well as comparisons with Theravada Buddhism and Islam. Also featured are Tibetan astrology and medicine, Shambhala, and Buddhist history.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer_flag - a colorful rectangular cloth, often found strung along mountain ridges and peaks high in the Himalayas. They are used to bless the surrounding countryside and for other purposes. Prayer flags are believed to have originated with Bon, which predated Buddhism in Tibet. In Bon, shamanistic Bonpo used primary-colored plain flags in healing ceremonies in Nepal. They are unknown in other branches of Buddhism. Traditional prayer flags include woodblock-printed text and images.

Pure Land

Chinese Chán

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Chán - (from Sanskrit dhyāna, meaning "meditation") is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism developed in China from the 6th century CE onwards, becoming dominant during the Tang and Song dynasties. After the Song, Chán more or less fused with the Pure Land school. From China, Chán spread south to Vietnam and east to Korea (where it is known as Seon) and, in the 13th century, to Japan, where it became known as Zen. The Chán/Zen tradition became the best-known instance of Buddhism in the Western World.

Zen

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sōtō - the largest of the three traditional sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism, imported in the 13th century by Dōgen Zenji, who studied Caodong Buddhism.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rinzai_school - Rinzai Zen is marked by the emphasis it places on kensho ("seeing one's true nature") as the gateway to authentic Buddhist practice, and for its insistence on many years of exhaustive post-kensho training to embody the free functioning of wisdom within the activities of daily life. Training focuses on zazen (seated meditation), kōan, and samu (physical work done with mindfulness).
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ōbaku - established in 1661 by a small faction of masters from China and their Japanese students at Manpuku-ji in Uji, Japan. "Insofar as the Ōbaku belonged to the Rinzai tradition, zazen and kōan practice were made part of daily life, but ritual was also accorded a place of considerable importance."
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kōan - is a story, dialogue, question, or statement, which is used in Zen practice to provoke the "great doubt" and test a student's progress in Zen practice.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samu_(Zen) - refers to physical work that is done with mindfulness as a simple, practical and spiritual practice. Samu might include activities such as cleaning, cooking, gardening, or chopping wood. Samu is a way to bring mindfulness into everyday life as well as to get things done. Samu is popular in Zen monasteries, particularly as a means of maintaining the monastery and as practicing mindfulness. "If you consider quietude right and activity wrong, then this is seeking the real aspect by destroying the worldly aspect, seeking nirvana, the peace of extinction, apart from birth and death. When you like quiet and hate activity, this is the time to apply effort. Suddenly when in the midst of activity, you topple the sense of quietude-that power surpasses quietistic meditation [seated meditation] by a million billion times." -Dahui Zonggao
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hua_Tou - Korean: hwadu, Japanese: wato, a form of Buddhist meditation common in the teachings of Chinese Chán and Korean Seon. Hua Tou can be translated as 'word head', 'head of speech' or 'point beyond which speech exhausts itself'. A Hua Tou can be a short phrase that is used as a subject of meditation to focus the mind. Hua Tou are based on the encounter-dialogues and koans of the interactions between past masters and students, but are shorter phrases than koans. The Hua Tou method was invented by the Chinese Zen master Dahui Zonggao (1089 – 1163) who was a member of the Linji school. Hua Tou practice does not use regular interviews and question and answer sessions between student and teacher (dokusan). According to Dahui, Hua Tou is also a form of meditation that "can be carried out by laymen in the midst of their daily activities."
  • "What is it?"
  • "What is this?"
  • "Who is repeating the Buddha’s name?"
  • "Who is dragging this corpse around?" (popularized by Hsu Yun)
  • "Who am I?"
  • "What was my Original face before my father and mother were born?"
  • "What is Mu?"

Huaijang entered the room and bowed to Huineng. Huineng asked: “Where do you come from?”. “I came from Mount Sung”, replied Huaijang. “What is this and how did it get here?” demanded Huineng. Huaijang could not answer and remained speechless. He practised for many years until he understood. He went to see Huineng to tell him about his breakthrough. Huineng asked: “What is this?” Huaijang replied: “To say it is like something is not to the point. But still it can be cultivated”. 

A monk once asked Jo ju, "Does a dog have Buddha-nature?"
Jo Ju answered, "Mu!"(No)

1. Buddha said everything has Buddha-nature. Jo Ju said a dog has no Buddha-nature. Which one is correct?

2. Jo Ju said, "Mu!" What does this mean?

3. I ask you, does a dog have Buddha-nature?

Commentary: Silence is better than holiness, so opening your mouth is a big mistake. But if you use this mistake to save all beings, this is Zen.
  • PDF: Go Straight - A collection of Dharma Talks by Teachers of the Kwan Um School of Zen
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Equanimity - Book of Equanimity or Book of Serenity (Japanese: Shōyōroku) is a collection of 100 koans compiled in the early 12th century by the Chinese Chán master Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091-1157). Along with The Gateless Gate, the Book of Equanimity is considered one of the two primary compilations of Zen dialogue.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Cliff_Record - is a collection of Chán Buddhist koans originally compiled in China during the Song dynasty in 1125 (宋宣和七年) and then expanded into its present form by the Chán master Yuanwu Keqin (圜悟克勤 1063 – 1135). The book includes Yuanwu's annotations and commentary on Xuedou Zhongxian's (雪竇重顯 980 – 1052) collection 100 Verses on Old Cases 《頌古百則》 — a compilation of 100 koans. Xuedou selected 82 of these from the Jingde Chuandeng Lu 《景德傳燈錄》 (Jingde era Record of the Transmission of the Lamp), with the remainder selected from the Yunmen Guanglu 《雲門廣録》 (Extensive Record of Yunmen Wenyan (864 – 949).
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gateless_Gate - a collection of 48 Chan (Zen) koans compiled in the early 13th century by the Chinese Zen master Wumen Hui-k'ai (無門慧開)(1183–1260) (Japanese: Mumon Ekai). The common theme of the koans of the Wumen Guan and of Wumen's comments is the inquiry and introspection of dualistic conceptualization. Each koan epitomizes one or more of the polarities of consciousness that act like an obstacle or wall to the insight. The student is challenged to transcend the polarity that the koan represents and demonstrate or show that transcendence to the Zen teacher.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/101_Zen_Stories - a 1919 compilation of Zen koans including 19th and early 20th century anecdotes compiled by Nyogen Senzaki, and a translation of Shasekishū, written in the 13th century by Japanese Zen master Mujū (無住) (literally, "non-dweller").

to sort

"People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar." -Thich Nhat Hanh

"You can only lose what you cling to." -Buddha


Third/middle path/way differs from certain existential values. to rethink.


Integral Buddhism

Tantra

A tradition within many traditions.

Tao

Judaism

Christianity


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charism - in general denotes any good gift that flows from God's love to humans. The word can also mean any of the spiritual graces and qualifications granted to every Christian to perform his or her task in the Church. In the narrowest sense, it is a theological term for the extraordinary graces given to individual Christians for the good of others. These extraordinary spiritual gifts, often termed "charismatic gifts", are the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, increased faith, the gifts of healing, the gift of miracles, prophecy, the discerning of spirits, diverse kinds of tongues, interpretation of tongues (1 Corinthians 12:8-10). To these are added the gifts of apostles, prophets, teachers, helps (connected to service of the poor and sick), and governments (or leadership ability) which are connected with certain offices in the Church. These gifts are given by the Holy Spirit to individuals, but their purpose is to build up the entire Church. The charismata in this narrowest sense are distinguished from the graces given for personal sanctification, such as the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit.


Jainism

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jainism_and_non-creationism - Jainism does not support belief in a creator deity. According to Jain doctrine, the universe and its constituents—soul, matter, space, time, and principles of motion—have always existed. All the constituents and actions are governed by universal natural laws. It is not possible to create matter out of nothing and hence the sum total of matter in the universe remains the same (similar to law of conservation of mass). Jain text claims that the universe consists of Jiva (life force or souls), and Ajiva (lifeless objects).Similarly, the soul of each living being is unique and uncreated and has existed since beginningless time.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirthankara - a human being who helps in achieving liberation and enlightenment as an arihant. According to Jain scriptures, that which helps one to cross the great ocean of worldly life is a tīrtha “ford” and a person who fills that role is a tīrthaṅkara “ford-maker”. Tīrthaṅkaras achieve liberation and enlightenment by destroying their constraining (karmas) and becoming role models and leaders for those seeking spiritual guidance. They also seek Kevala Jnana, a state of permanent, perpetual, absolute knowledge of the Soul; it is the precursor to final liberation from the cycle of birth and death.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arihant_(Jainism) - a step before becoming siddha. Arihants destroyed all gathi karma and live on until they reach the siddha status. Arihant is not a synonym for tirthankara, which refers specifically to certain arihants who have certain karmas that enable them to become spiritual leaders. defeated anger, ego, deception, and greed - inner enemies or kashayas responsible for the perpetuation of ignorance. When that happens, the person has destroyed the four ghati karmas, namely Gyanavarniya (knowledge blocking) Karma, Darshanavarniya (perception blocking) Karma, Mohniya (passion causing) Karma and Antaraya "obstacle-causing" karma.


Yazidi

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yazidi - Kurdish-speaking people who adhere to a branch of Iranian religions that blends elements of Mithraism, pre-Islamic Mesopotamian/Assyrian religious traditions, Christianity and Islam.

Sikhism

Islam

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dervish - someone treading a Sufi Muslim ascetic path or "Tariqah", known for their extreme poverty and austerity. In this respect, Dervishes are most similar to mendicant friars in Christianity or Hindu/Buddhist/Jain sadhus.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barzakh - In Sufism, the or Barzakh or Alam-e-Araf, is not only where the human soul resides after death but it is also a place that the soul can visit during sleep and meditation. Major Scholar, Ibn 'Arabi, defines Barzakh as the intermediate realm or "isthmus". It is between the World of Corporeal Bodies and the World of Spirits, and is a means of contact between the two worlds. Without it, there would be no contact between the two and both would cease to exist. It is described as simple and luminous, like the World of Spirits, but also able to take on many different forms just like the World of Corporeal Bodies can. In broader terms Barzakh, “is anything that separates two things”. It has been described as the dream world in which the dreamer is in both life and death.

Theosophy

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theosophy - refers to systems of esoteric philosophy concerning, or investigation seeking direct knowledge of, presumed mysteries of being and nature, particularly concerning the nature of divinity. Theosophy is considered a part of the broader field of esotericism, referring to hidden knowledge or wisdom that offers the individual enlightenment and salvation. The theosophist seeks to understand the mysteries of the universe and the bonds that unite the universe, humanity, and the divine. The goal of theosophy is to explore the origin of divinity and humanity, and the world. From investigation of those topics, theosophists try to discover a coherent description of the purpose and origin of the universe.


Hermeticism

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kybalion - a 1908 book claiming to be the essence of the teachings of Hermes Trismegistus, published anonymously by a group or person under the pseudonym of "the Three Initiates".


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theurgy - the practice of rituals, sometimes seen as magical in nature, performed with the intention of invoking the action or evoking the presence of one or more gods, especially with the goal of uniting with the divine, achieving henosis, and perfecting oneself.

Rosicrucianism

Orders

Tarot

Magick

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceremonial_magic - or ritual magic, also referred to as high magic and as learned magic in some cases, is a broad term used in the context of Hermeticism or Western esotericism to encompass a wide variety of long, elaborate, and complex rituals of magic. It is named as such because the works included are characterized by ceremony and myriad necessary accessories to aid the practitioner. It can be seen as an extension of ritual magic, and in most cases synonymous with it. Popularized by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, it draws on such schools of philosophical and occult thought as Hermetic Qabalah, Enochian magic, Thelema, and the magic of various grimoires.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apotropaic_magic - intended to "turn away" harm or evil influences, as in deflecting misfortune or averting the evil eye. "Apotropaic" observances may also be practiced out of vague superstition or out of tradition, as in good luck charm (perhaps some token on a charm bracelet), amulets, or gestures such as fingers crossed or knocking on wood. The Greeks made offerings to the Averting Gods, chthonic deities and heroes who grant safety and deflect evil.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_magic - the attempt to bind the passions of another, or to capture them as a sex object through magical means rather than through direct activity. It can be implemented in a variety of ways, such as written spells, dolls, charms, amulets, potions, or different rituals.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimoire - a textbook of magic. Such books typically include instructions on how to create magical objects like talismans and amulets, how to perform magical spells, charms and divination and also how to summon or invoke supernatural entities such as angels, spirits, and demons.


Witchcraft

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cunning_folk - Folk healers, in England also known as cunning folk or (more rarely) as white witches are practitioners of folk medicine, folk magic, and divination within the context of the various traditions of folklore in Christian Europe (from at least the 15th up until at least the early 20th century).
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Discoverie_of_Witchcraft - a partially sceptical book published by the English gentleman Reginald Scot in 1584, intended as an exposé of medieval witchcraft. It contains a small section intended to show how the public was fooled by charlatans, which is considered the first published material on magic. Scot believed that the prosecution of those accused of witchcraft was irrational and un-Christian, and he held the Roman Church responsible. Popular belief held that all obtainable copies were burned on the accession of James I in 1603.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_the_Horseman%27s_Word - was a fraternal secret society that operated in Scotland from the eighteenth through to the twentieth century. Its members were drawn from those who worked with horses, including horse trainers, blacksmiths and ploughmen, and involved the teaching of magical rituals designed to provide the practitioner with the ability to control both horses and women. It also acted as a form of trade union, aiming to gain better rights for its members. The initiation rituals into the society incorporated a number of elements such as reading passages from the Bible backwards, and the secrets included Masonic-style oaths, gestures, passwords and handshakes. Like the similar societies of the Miller's Word and the Toadsmen, they were believed to have practiced witchcraft. In East Anglia, horsemen with these powers were sometimes called Horse Witches.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_witchcraft - used to refer to a variety of contemporary forms of witchcraft. Pagan studies scholar Ethan Doyle White described it as "a broad movement of aligned magico-religious groups who reject any relation to Gardnerianism and the wider Wiccan movement, claiming older, more "traditional" roots. Although typically united by a shared aesthetic rooted in European folklore, the Traditional Craft contains within its ranks a rich and varied array of occult groups, from those who follow a contemporary Pagan path that is suspiciously similar to Wicca to those who adhere to Luciferianism".

Thelema

Wicca

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicca - Wicca (English pronunciation: /ˈwɪkə/) is a modern pagan, witchcraft religion. It was developed in England during the first half of the 20th century and it was introduced to the public in 1954 by Gerald Gardner, a retired British civil servant. It draws upon a diverse set of ancient pagan and 20th century hermetic motifs for its theological structure and ritual practice. The word witch derives from Middle English wicche, Old English wicce (/ˈwɪttʃe/) (feminine) "witch" and wicca (/ˈwɪttʃɑ/) (masculine) "wizzard".

Wicca is a diverse religion with no central authority or figure defining it. It is divided into various lineages and denominations, referred to as traditions, each with its own organisational structure and level of centralisation. Due to its decentralized nature, there is some disagreement over what actually constitutes Wicca. Some traditions, collectively referred to as British Traditional Wicca, strictly follow the initiatory lineage of Gardner and consider the term Wicca to apply only to such lineaged traditions, while other eclectic traditions do not.

Wicca is typically duotheistic, worshipping a god and goddess traditionally viewed as a mother goddess and horned god. These two deities are sometimes viewed as facets of a greater pantheistic godhead. However, beliefs range from hard polytheism to even monotheism. Wiccan celebration follows approximately eight seasonally based festivals known as Sabbats. An unattributed statement known as the Wiccan Rede is the traditional basis of Wiccan morality. Wicca often involves the ritual practice of magic, though it is not always necessary.

Chaos

"laughter: it is the highest emotion, for it can contain any of the others from ecstasy to grief"

Bahá'í Faith

New Thought

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Thought - a spiritual movement, sometimes classed as a Christian denomination, which developed in the United States in the 19th century, following the teachings of Phineas Quimby. promotes the ideas that Infinite Intelligence, or God, is everywhere, spirit is the totality of real things, true human selfhood is divine, divine thought is a force for good, sickness originates in the mind, and "right thinking" has a healing effect. Although New Thought is neither monolithic nor doctrinaire, in general, modern-day adherents of New Thought believe that God or Infinite Intelligence is "supreme, universal, and everlasting", that divinity dwells within each person, that all people are spiritual beings, that "the highest spiritual principle [is] loving one another unconditionally... and teaching and healing one another", and that "our mental states are carried forward into manifestation and become our experience in daily living". The New Thought movement originated in the early 19th century, and survives to the current day in the form of a loosely allied group of religious denominations, authors, philosophers, and individuals who share a set of beliefs concerning metaphysics, positive thinking, the law of attraction, healing, life force, creative visualization, and personal power.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_Science - Science of Mind was established in 1927 by Ernest Holmes (1887–1960) and is a spiritual, philosophical and metaphysical religious movement within the New Thought movement. In general, the term "Science of Mind" applies to the teachings, while the term "Religious Science" applies to the organizations. However, adherents often use the terms interchangeably. In his book, The Science of Mind, Ernest Holmes stated "Religious Science is a correlation of laws of science, opinions of philosophy, and revelations of religion applied to human needs and the aspirations of man." He also stated that Religious Science/Science of Mind (RS/SOM) is not based on any "authority" of established beliefs, but rather on "what it can accomplish" for the people who practice it.

The RS/SOM teaching generally incorporates idealistic and panentheistic philosophies. RS/SOM teaches that all beings are expressions of and part of Infinite Intelligence, also known as Spirit, Christ Consciousness, or God. It teaches that, because God is all there is in the universe (not just present in Heaven, or in assigned deities, as believed by traditional teachings), Its power can be used by all humans to the extent that they recognize and align themselves with Its presence. Ernest Holmes said "God is not ... a person, but a Universal Presence ... already in our own soul, already operating through our own consciousness."

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirmative_prayer - a form of prayer or a metaphysical technique that is focused on a positive outcome rather than a negative situation. For example, a person who is experiencing some form of illness would focus the prayer on the desired state of perfect health and affirm this desired intention "as if already happened" rather than identifying the illness and then asking God for help to eliminate it.

Anthroposophy

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf_education - a humanistic approach to pedagogy based on the educational philosophy of the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy. The first Waldorf school was founded in 1919 in Stuttgart, Germany. At present there are 1,039 independent Waldorf schools, 2,000 kindergartens and 646 centers for special education, located in 60 countries. There are also Waldorf-based state schools, charter schools and academies, and homeschooling environments.

Alan Watts

Joseph Campbell

See also Myth

Alan Moore

Radical Faeries

Satanism

Diamond Approach

Discordianism

SubGenius

Theopoetics

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theopoetics - an interdisciplinary field of study that combines elements of poetic analysis, process theology, narrative theology, and postmodern philosophy. Originally developed by Stanley Hopper and David Leroy Miller in 1960s and furthered significantly by Amos Wilder with his 1976 text, Theopoetic: Theology and the Religious Imagination. Theopoetics suggests that instead of trying to develop a “scientific” theory of God, as Systematic Theology attempts, theologians should instead try to find God through poetic articulations of their lived (“embodied”) experiences. It asks theologians to accept reality as a legitimate source of divine revelation and suggests that both the divine and the real are mysterious — that is, irreducible to literalist dogmas or scientific proofs. Theopoetics makes significant use of “radical” and “ontological” metaphor to create a more fluid and less stringent referent for the Divine. One of the functions of theopoetics is to recalibrate theological perspectives, suggesting that theology can be more akin to poetry than physics. It belies the logical assertion of the Principle of Bivalence and stands in contrast to some rigid Biblical hermeneutics that suggest that each passage of scripture has only one, usually teleological, interpretation.

Other


Atheism

Personality types

other;

Psychological Types

MBTI

Socionics

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socionics_(typology) - in psychology and sociology, is a theory of information processing and personality type, distinguished by its information model of the psyche (called "Model A") and a model of interpersonal relations. It incorporates Carl Jung's work on Psychological Types with Antoni Kępiński's theory of information metabolism.

Keirsey Temperament Sorter

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Please_Understand_Me - a psychology book written by David Keirsey and Marilyn Bates which focuses on the classification and categorization of which links human behaviourial patterns to four temperaments and sixteen character types.

Interaction Styles

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interaction_Styles - groupings of the 16 types of the MBTI instrument of psychometrics and Jungian psychology. The Interaction Styles model was developed by Linda Berens, PhD, founder of the Temperament Research Institute. This model builds on David Keirsey's Temperament model and its subcategories, and is based on observable behavior patterns that are quite similar to David Merrill's "Social Styles" and William Moulton Marston's DiSC theory.

Big Five

Enneagrams


Other

Audio

Video

authenti* Why You Should Rather Die Than Miss A Day In The Gymon work ethic

"Let me find and use metaphors to help me understand the world around me and give me the strength to get rid of them when it's apparent they no longer work"

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