Indian Thought and Humanistic Psychology

·期刊原文

Indian Thought and Humanistic Psychology:
Contrasts and Parallels between East and West

By Winthrop, Henry

Philosophy East and West

V. 13 No. 2 (1963) pp. 137-154

Copyright 1963 by University of Hawaii Press

Hawaii, USA

p. 137

Introduction
There is a movement in the United States today whose members share a common set of convictions and concepts which, in many respects, remarkably parallel certain ideas found in Indian philosophy. Although this movement embraces a loose federation of thinkers, chiefly psychologists, it also includes philosophers, specialists in the field of religion, philosophical anthropologists, social and behavioral scientists other than psychologists, existential psychiatrists, and educators and humanists of every vintage. It is frequently referred to as The Third Force in psychology, and its posture has generally been described as that of a humanistic psychology. [1] On the negative side, it rejects, or perhaps we should say, plays down, three approaches to the study of man which it regards as too limited to provide a full range of understanding of his behavior. The Third Force rejects (1) any overconfidence in the degree of understanding which can be supplied by the use of statistical methods applied to the study of man; (2) any type of behaviorism which hopes to give an account of man strictly in terms of stimulus-response theory when such theory proposes to neglect the rich and significant central processes which mediate human behavior; and (3) orthodox psychoanalysis and neo-Freudian innovations which (a) interpret human behavior strictly in terms of man's animal-like and egocentric impulses

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1. Its official journal is called the Journal of Humanistic Psychology and is published under the auspices of Brandeis University. This journal describes itself as being concerned with "the publication of theoretical and applied research, original contributions, papers, articles and studies in values, autonomy, being, self, love, creativity, identity, growth, psychological health, organism, self-actualization, basic need-gratification and related concepts."

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and (b) interpret all forms of self-transcendence and altruism in terms of such clinical mechanisms as sublimation or anti-cathexes of the superego. There are many parallelisms between the outlook of The Third Force and some of the basic postures in Indian thought, but because of limitations of space only a few of these will be taken up here.

It would be equally difficult to enumerate all the concerns of The Third Force. However, let me furnish a reasonably substantial list of these here. Humanistic psychology is concerned with such phenomena as the following: the phenomenon of self-actualization when this refers to behavior whose aim is the fulfillment of one's own potentialities and basic, human nature; the concept of self and the quest for personal identity; the phenomenon of alienation and the phenomenon of ego-extension, which refers to the process by which the individual identifies with his fellow man, so as to enrich the quality and range of his consciousness. In addition, humanistic psychologists are deeply concerned with the problem of values as these stem from man's preoccupation with his role in Nature and society; the phenomenon of autonomous rather than conditioned behavior in self-conscious man; the nature of Being to the degree that problems of ontology are relevant to an understanding of human behavior; and the many expressions of the religious impulse and the concept of love as agape, as both of these are manifested in interpersonal relationships and with the objective of recalling to man the diverse forms of human love in much the same manner as Ortega y Gasset [2] does. Finally, there are also a series of concerns which have become the focus of attention for humanistic psychologists, with which behavioral scientists in general are less familiar. Among these are investigations into the variety of expressions to which the creative impulse gives rise in human behavior; the meaning of cognitive and spiritual growth over and above the mere passive accumulation of patterns of social conditioning; the ways in which psychological health can be defined so that the concept will have universal applicability; the notion of self-transcendence as behavior aimed at meeting the basic needs of others rather than one's own needs; and the role of intuition in man's ability to grasp unities in experience which have not been mediated by controlled, rational processes.

A number of figures have achieved prominence in connection with work along one or more of the lines just mentioned. Maslow [3] has done considerable experimental work and theory construction with reference to the con-

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2. Jose Ortega y Gasset, On Love: Aspects of a Single Theme, Toby Talbot, trans. (New York: Meridian Books, 1957).

3. Abraham H. Maslow, ed" Motivation and Personality (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1954).

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cept of self-actualization. The Josephsons [4] have edited an outstanding volume on alienation. Fromm [5] has done extensive research on the effects of alienation on personal maladjustment, social pathology, and the human drive to reduce alienation by group experiments with intentional communities. Dunn [6] has devoted himself to the theory and measurement of high-level wellness or psychological health. May [7] [8] has performed a meritorious editing function on two volumes both of which make succinct and clear the relationship of existentialism as a philosophical and literary movement to both psychology and psychiatry. Bruner [9] has focused attention on the relationship between the work of intuition and controlled, regulatory thought. In general, a large volume of literature has been appearing in recent years -- some from behavioral and social scientists, some from social philosophers, some from theologians and humanists -- dealing with the concerns of a humanistic psychology and an existential psychology and psychiatry. It would take a bibliography of several hundred pages to list the books and periodical literature along the lines of a humanistic psychology which reflect the varied concerns of The Third Force. For the reader, however, who wishes to acquaint himself in a general way with the literature of The Third Force and with some of its major representatives, a recent volume by Maslow [10] will be of major value.

We shall begin by discussing some of the leading ideals of classical humanism, which are still vibrantly alive in the West and which are the cultural heritage upon which a humanistic psychology seeks to build. Next we shall turn to a discussion of the contrast between certain central concepts in Indian philosophy and some of the pathology of the Western way of life. We shall follow this by an examination of those concepts and phenomena in the field of humanistic psychology which are similar in content and intent to those central concepts of Indian thought on which we have chosen to concentrate. Finally, we shall conclude with an evaluation of the trends and parallels we have emphasized here.

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4. Eric and Mary Josephson, eds. Man Alone: Alienation in Modern Society. (Laurel Edition. New York: Dell Publishing Company, 1962).

5. Erich Fromm, The Sane Society (New York: Rinehart, 1955).

6. Halbert L. Dunn, High-Level Wellness (Arlington: R. W. Beatty Co., 1961).

7. Rollo May, ed., Existential Psychology (New York: Random House, 1961).

8. Rollo May et al., eds., Existence. A New Dimension in Psychiatry and Psychology (New York: Basic Books, 1958).

9. Jerome S. Bruner, On Knowing. Essays for the Left Hand (Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1962).

10. Abraham H. Maslow, Toward a Psychology of Being (New York: Van Nostrand, 1962).

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II. The Living Spirit of the Humanist Heritage
Although our Western humanist heritage stems from both the vision of the possibility of a life of reason for man and from the vision of human perfectibility which moved the ancient Hebrews, these same ideals received their most finished expression during the Renaissance when they were most systematically explored and passionately supported along educational lines. As early as Petrarch [11] we note the recognition that the direction in which all learning and human striving must move is toward an answer to the perennial question which characterizes the human condition, namely, "What is the good life?" Petrarch wrote: "What is the use -- I beseech you -- of knowing the nature of quadrupeds, fowls, fishes, and serpents and not knowing or even neglecting man's nature, the purpose for which we are born, and whence and whereto we travel?" [12]

Renaissance humanism also stressed the degree to which man is in command of his own destiny and his own becoming, a matter which was of primary concern for Pico della Mirandola. [13] This can be seen, for instance, in a literary conceit that author made use of, in which he asserts that the Supreme Architect of the universe addresses man as follows.

… Neither a fixed abode nor a form that is thine alone nor any function peculiar to thyself have we given thee, Adam, to the end that according to thy longing and according to thy judgment thou mayest have and possess what abode, what form, and what functions thou thyself shalt desire. The nature of all other beings is limited and constrained within the bounds of laws prescribed by Us. Thou, constrained by no limits, in accordance with thine own free will, in whose hand We have placed thee, shalt ordain for thyself the limits of thy nature. We have set thee at the world's center that thou mayest from thence more easily observe whatever is in the world. We have made thee neither of heaven nor of earth, neither mortal nor immortal, so that with freedom of choice and with honor, as though the maker and molder of thyself, thou mayest fashion thyself in whatever shape thou shalt prefer… [14]

Finally, let us note that the West's current concern with the well-balanced man was given its fullest expression in the educational vision of Baldesar Castiglione. [15]

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11. Francesco Petrarch, "On His Own Ignorance," in Renaissance Philosophy of Man, H. Nachod, trans., E. Cassirer, P. O. Kristeller, and F. H. Randall, Jr., eds. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948).

12. Ibid., p. 108.

13. Pico della Mirandola, "Oration on the Dignity of Man," P. O. Kristeller, trans., in Renaissance Philosophy of Man.

14. Ibid., pp. 223ff.

15. Baldesar Castiglione, Book of the Courtier, L. E. Opdycke, trans. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1903).

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In some of the later sections of this paper, we shall be concerned with emphasizing certain parallels between the spirit which moves certain aspects of Indian philosophy and thought and the spirit of the new, humanistic psychology. We shall also be concerned subsequently with focusing attention upon current features of the Western (American) way of life which are in marked contrast to the spirit exemplified in these parallels. For these reasons we run the risk of appearing to be contrasting the best in Indian thought and ideals with some of the unhappiest aspects of Western behavior. Because this is clearly not our intention and, even more importantly, because we firmly believe that there are ideas, ideals, and forces -- stemming largely from the humanist heritage of the West -- which are still alive in our midst, these must be given some attention, in contrast to the liability side of the Western ledger, which will be emphasized later. These ideas and ideals still prompt the behavior of vast segments of Western publics and definitely represent Western contributions whose merit is tremendous, whose potency has been epoch-making, and whose significance is apodictically and historically demonstrable as the unique contribution of the West to the self-transcendent goals of man. The present section, then, will be concerned with a brief resume of those assets in the cultural balance-sheet of the West of which the West can be proud -- assets whose extension into the future contain much of promise for the human condition and whose reflection in the relationship of man to man can become a potent complement of the best in Eastern thought and ideals.

The faith in and development of the forms of reason, from the Greeks to our own time, have, without question, been boons to man -- where they have been pursued disinterestedly rather than twisted to serve some ideology, religious or secular. Criticism of the Hellenic rational tradition in the West, when it is socially responsible, is concerned with the "abuse, not the use," of the rationalist faith and is likewise concerned with Western neglect of existentialist critiques of important matters which that faith neglects. Faith in reason and in its proper domains of application has resulted in several benefits. The first of these, obvious to the average man, is the accumulating series of materialistic, economic, social, and technological gains which are so closely associated with the history of the West. The second of these is the appearance of that modern form of the rationalistic impulse which we presently speak of as the logico-empirical tradition. Contrary to popular misconception, it is illegitimate to suppose that the Greek faith in reason is something quite different from the humility before fact which characterizes the logico-empirical tradition. The rationalism of the Greeks, as generally described by textbook writers, was, in no sense, indifferent to the test of ex-

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perience. [16] The rationalist faith, since the beginning of the industrial revolution, has resulted in the extension of the analytic impulse to the effort to understand Nature and enter into partnership with her, so as to enlist her powers in the service of man. This extension has, clearly enough, given rise to a tremendous development of natural science. Equally and significantly, it has also given rise to the rich developments and ramifications of modern logic, scientific methodology, and statistical inference. All of these latter represent gains, both theoretical and practical, which can be said to have resulted from the Western humanistic faith in reason -- a faith which received systematic expression among the Greeks, which was not spelled with a capital R, and which was not limited to the Organon of Aristotle.

The most recent extension of the rational impulse has been to areas of intellectual synthesis, to the so-called newer areas of interdisciplinary development, and to the areas of social, economic, community, and human planning. This recent extension of the rational impulse has given rise to such new intellectual disciplines as the following: cybernetics, general systems theory, bionics, linear programming, input-output analysis, information, game and decision-theory, data-processing and computer technologies, administration and organization theory, the sciences of social and economic planning, etc. Some of these latter, new developments are, in turn, also being used to enlist reason in support of various ways of improving the human condition. This Western faith in reason has, of course, not been misplaced, but, if the use of the rational spirit in meeting both personal and community needs is not guided and checked by social, religious, and philosophical impulses, that spirit can give rise to forms of both social and psychological pathology which might make its potential blessings negligible indeed. The rest of the world now also seeks to achieve the fruits of the Western faith in reason, but -- and this is particularly true in India -- the non-Western world seeks to marry the modern extensions of human reason to the ideals, sensitivity, and human concerns of cultures which are sometimes far older and wiser than the West's. They may thereby, hopefully, avoid much of the social and personal pathology which a rampant, unchecked science and technology inadvertently gave birth to in the West.

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16. One of the best and most scholarly demonstrations of the false dichotomy between the alleged Greek emphasis on pure reason and the appeal, by contrast, to experiment and observation in the logico-empirical tradition can be found in Benjamin Farrington, Greek Science, 2 vols. Pelican Series (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1949). The failure of Greek rationalism was not in its indifference to the touchstone of experience, but, rather, in its indifference to the social benefits of science. As Farrington puts it, "The failure of ancient science was in the use that was made of it. It failed in its social function. Even when the acquisition of slaves became more and more difficult the ancients still did not turn to a systematic application of science to production, ..." Vol. II (Theophrastus to Galen), p. 166.

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It goes without saying that the fruits of such a marriage should be infinitely more palatable than the fruits of the unchecked, extended rationalistic impulse have been thus far in the West -- when this impulse is unaccompanied by spiritual mainsprings of action in the forms of religious and social consciousness. In the present connection, however, the important point is to remind ourselves that the development and use of reason have been one of the great, continuing contributions made by the West and one which, if properly used, can do much to improve the lot of man. This, significantly enough, the East clearly recognizes.

Closely allied to the Western faith in reason is the Western concern for law, justice, and morality as a codifiable body of principles and abstractions which are applicable dispassionately to the affairs of and relations among men. Beginning with the fierce Hebraic demand for justice toward those one does not love as well as toward those one does, continuing through the Socratic effort to understand virtue intellectually and philosophically, coursing conspicuously through Renaissance humanism, and permeating the spirit of the law of contract in the West, we find a deep and widespread concern over the relationship of man to man. The fruits of this concern, both legally and morally, have been all to the good and have tended -- slowly, to be sure -- to reduce the brutish in life, so that increasingly when men are at peace they can walk with dignity and security. To be sure, the legalistic atmosphere has often failed to insure right relations, the codified abstractions have frequently been deployed against their original spiritual purposes, and the existentialist humanity of a Buber [17] has often been lacking sufficiently to vitiate the good effects of an abstract morality. On the whole, however, the full development of codes of morality and law in the West has done wonders in making the creation of civilized communities possible and in guaranteeing the maintenance of an atmosphere which would insure cultural and spiritual development for those whose daemon led in these directions. The law and its philosophy are still one of the mightiest currents of the Western humanist heritage, and their spirit even now dominates a vast effort to establish a comity of nations and universal peace.

The spirit of Western morality, which, of course, influences the spirit of Western law, has been aptly described by John Stuart Mill. [18] This spirit is ex-

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17. I have in mind, in this connection, the compassion, feeling, and empathy so succinctly expressed in the postures struck in Martin Buber, Between Man and Man, Ronald Gregor Smith, trans. (Boston: Beacon Press, 1955).

18. The brief characterization given in Buber is based upon Chapter V, entitled "Of the Connection between Justice and Utility," in the by-now famous work of John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism, 14th impression (London, New York, and Bombay: Longmans, Green and Co., 1901).

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pressed in five ideals: (1) It is unjust to deprive anyone of his personal liberty, his property, or any other thing which belongs to him by law. (2) Injustice consists in taking or withholding from any person that to which he has a moral right, and the emphasis on "moral right" has to be made because the legal rights of which a person may be deprived may be rights which ought not to have belonged to him. (3) It is considered just that each person should obtain that (whether good or evil) which he deserves, and unjust that he should obtain a good, or to be made to undergo an evil, which he does not deserve. (4) It is unjust to break faith with anyone: to violate an engagement, either express or implied, or disappoint expectations raised by our own conduct, at least if we have raised those expectations knowingly and voluntarily. (5) It is inconsistent with justice to be partial: to show favor or preference to one person over another, in matters to which favor and preference do not properly apply.

It may be argued that these ideals have received more systematic expression and scholarly elaboration and more institutional reinforcement in the West than in the East. Such exploration and reinforcement have been expressed chiefly through legal institutions, procedures, philosophy, and, above all, civil rights and social welfare legislation. These ideals still constitute a high tide of cultural expression and are given expression in the everyday community affairs of the West, and their presence constitutes a unique cultural achievement of the West whose spirit in some ways runs parallel to the ideals of Indian thought and in other ways supplements it.

The West's humanist heritage, which has in part given concrete expression to Hebraic-Hellenic values, also keeps alive, quite apart from Western legalistic concerns, several other important ideals. That heritage keeps burning the passion for social justice, the quest for augmented social welfare, a concern for the institutional expression of equity, and a permanent vigilance against all would-be tyrannies over the mind of man. This vigilance receives concrete expression in many forms -- the concern for the preservation of civil rights, the organized quest for universal peace, and the insistence on intellectual independence in the form of freedom of speech, press, assembly, and religious worship. In modern dress, these social passions which were resuscitated during the rise of Renaissance humanism are kept alive by a literature of social protest which is deeply concerned over the increasing alienation from the values and ideals of the Judeo-Christian tradition which is occurring in our time. These same ideals are, to some extent, kept alive by a literature in the form of the novel, the essay, and the act of philosophical inquiry which in large part reflects a criticism of life through an existentialist appreciation of the concrete plight of the individual. [19] This latter concern,

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19. This literature is much too vast to be characterized systematically in any way whatsoever. Let me mention only four of its exemplary products in passing -- works which are neither the most nor the least meritorious in this tradition of existentialist criticism. These are: Karl Jaspers, Man in the Modern Age, Eden and Cedar Paul, trans. (New York: Doubleday & Company, 1957); Emmanuel Mounier, The Character of Man, Cynthia Rowland, trans. (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1956); Jose Ferrater Mora, Man at The Crossroads, "Willard R. Trask, trans. (Boston: Beacon Press, 1957), and Max Scheler, Man's Place in Nature, translated, and with an introduction, by Hans Meyerhoff (Boston: Beacon Press, 1961).

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for instance, is also at the root of the recent revolution in dramatic technique and content which has given rise to what has come to be called the "theater of the absurd," so ably discussed and explored by Esslin, [20] and which complements the existentialist posture in literature. Although no single statement could justly or definitively characterize the theater of the absurd, one of its central purposes is clearly to sensitize the audience to the sense of perplexity aroused by the human condition, and to the concreteness and tragedy of individual existence when it is immersed in that condition.

In the West, another major theme which has been encouraged by the repository of Judeo-Christian ideals, as these receive expression through the West's humanist heritage, has been one which stresses that man is the master of his fate and the captain of his soul. The notion -- optimistic, of course -- that man makes himself is summed up in such pithy folk-sayings as "God helps those who help themselves." This optimism, which is essentially the metaphysics underlying the belief in the continuous possibility of progress, is diametrically opposed to the spirit of resignation in the face of suffering, which many thinkers believe one of the less desirable Leitmotifs of the Eastern outlook. With its roots in the life-affirming expansiveness of the still living Western humanism, the belief in progress, if wisely and well nurtured, clearly constitutes one of the foremost assets of Western culture. That this is an asset which must be juxtaposed against the liability represented by the fatalism of the East -- a fatalism which is only now beginning to disappear as a result of Western influence and Eastern efforts to come abreast of the material advantages of Western man -- would be maintained by many partisans of Western culture. One representative of this point of view is Andre Siegfried [21] who has said:

… Egypt, Pakistan, and Hindustan do not belong to our family, and it is in this respect that the unity, fundamentally Christian, of the Western world appears, a unity that is perhaps its strongest bond of all, that humanism, that sense of pity and charity, which, in the words of St. Paul, "covers a multitude of sins."

In the light of these distinctions, and once we have cleared away a whole under-

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20. See, for instance, in this connection, Martin Esslin, The Theater of the Absurd (Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday & Company, 1961).

21. Andre Siegfried, Nations Have Souls, Edward Fitzgerald, trans. (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1952).

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growth of claims, outward appearances and hypocrisy, the true spirit of Western civilization is seen with reasonable clarity. Fundamentally the West believes and proclaims that man can and should be the master of his own destiny. Western man does not wait passively for Heaven to bring him happiness; he takes a hand himself, after having determined the aims to be followed and the means to be employed to achieve them. His attitude is the negation of fatalism and passivity. The accent is placed on the material and social aspect of things, and it is less a matter of mysticism than of human progress. Those who know Asia know to what an extent the atmosphere there is different, and to what a degree Asiatics, even today, resign themselves to misery, hunger, sickness, and even physical decay. Certain quarters of Canton or Benares are reminiscent of some medieval court of miracles. Obviously Asiatics place the real source of happiness elsewhere than in material progress. [22]

The Judeo-Christian ideals, then, expressed through the rich humanist traditions of the West, offer man in history both intellectual and spiritual benchmarks which can justly be said to have eternal value. In casting up the balance sheet of the cultural assets and liabilities of both the East and the West, a judicious treatment necessitates that the Western virtues mentioned in this section be given their proper due. It is not, however, with respect to these virtues and ideals that the West is derelict. It is, rather, in the neglect of the quest for self-understanding and self-identity -- a quest and a concern which so thoroughly permeate Indian philosophy and Indian thought -- that the West is deficient. When we speak of the West in this connection, we have in mind primarily the United States, but, because of the increasing Americanization of Europe, it may reasonably be asserted that the same inner psychological processes of destruction are beginning to eat away at the spiritual centers of the West as a whole. It is this disintegration which is of central concern to humanistic psychologists in the West, and it is this same disintegration which is the source of the critical attitudes and postures toward life in the West which is reflected in the sections which follow.

III. Some Central Concepts of Indian Thought as a Contrast to the Western Way of Life
Indian philosophy can be credited with a cluster of concepts which are bound up with the achievement of personal unity and direction, the creation of a spiritual sense of balance, and the capacity for depth of identification with others. Central to these are such concepts as ahi^msaa, which, though usually translated as love or non-violence, in the present context will be translated as fellow feeling for all living things, embracing in its

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22. Ibid., pp. 196-197.

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intent even an identification at times with the flow of life in inferior living forms. Also pertinent in this connection is the harmony which may be established between mind and body and between hands and brain. It is frequently argued in Indian philosophy that the achievement of these types of harmony is the concrete expression of a genuine religious impulse which, itself, is the manifestation of abhaya, freedom from fear. The achievement of ahi^msaa is the fruit of a conscious effort to achieve abhaya, freedom from fear. The achievement of abhaya demands first of all the rejection of all forms of maayaa, secular illusion. There are many forms of the world's illusions. However, one is not overcome by these when one has a great deal of awareness and sympathy and freedom and love, which are the fruits of abhaya and ahi^msaa. The individual who is free in this sense does not suffer from inner conflicts, and the resulting equanimity of soul frees him from mood swings between anger and depression. Under the sway of abhaya and ahi^msaa the individual is protected against what the West calls "alienation." The most pathological form of alienation is alienation from one's true self (aatman) or vital center. When the subject devotes his energies to the pursuit of the world's illusions he tends to identify his empirical self with his universal or true self. This universal self (aatman) can be hidden from consciousness, but it cannot be suppressed. According to `Sa^mkara this universal self is unaware of birth or death and is the basis of all knowledge, dreams, and ecstasies. The aatman, like the Freudian id, is pre-natal, but not the source of the passions. Instead, it is the source of the three major elements of spiritual experience, namely, the sense of the real, the presence of awareness, and the extension of freedom. It is the unity of being, truth, and freedom.

The alienated person, however, mistakes his empirical self for his true self. The former is the self which is the aggregate of his customary roles, habits, aspirations, values, ideas, ideals, attitudes, and sentiments, which are the deposits of his culture, and those biogenic traits which are reinforced by the mutable and the accidental. This empirical self is incorporated into the trait profile of the psychologist and the role-playing behavior described by the sociologist. Speaking of this empirical self, Radhakrishnan [23] says, "It is a sort of psychological being that answers to our name, is reflected in the looking-glass (naamaruupa), a number in statistical tables. It is subject to pleasure and pain, expands when praised, contracts when criticized, admires itself, and is lost in the masquerade." [24]

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23. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Eastern Religions and Western Thought (London: Oxford University Press, 1940).

24. Ibid., p.27.

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Curiously enough, Western social psychology has recognized the same considerations which Radhakrishnan stresses, but has done so favorably rather than critically. I am referring to Cooley's concept of the "looking-glass self." Cooley puts it this way:

In a very large and interesting class of cases the social reference takes the form of a somewhat definite imagination of how one's self ... appears in a particular mind, and the kind of self-feeling one has is determined by the attitude toward this attributed to that other mind. A social self of this sort might be called the reflected or looking-glass self.

"Each to each a looking-glass
Reflects the other that doth pass."

The self that is most important is a reflection, largely, from the minds of others… We live on, cheerful, self-confident . . . until in some rude hour we learn that we do not stand as well as we thought we did, that the image of us is tarnished. Perhaps we do something, quite naturally, that we find the social order is set against, or perhaps it is the ordinary course of our life that is not so well regarded as we supposed. At any rate, we find with a chill of terror that the world is cold and strange, and our self-esteem, self-confidence, and hope, being chiefly founded upon the opinions attributed to others, go down in the crash… [25]

Thus the looking-glass self turns out to be nothing more than the subject's self-image which has been formed on the basis of perceiving how others react toward him.

The alienated subject, of course, is afflicted with maayaa when he mistakes the empirical self for aatman. It is the equivalent of exiling ourselves from that spiritual consciousness which confers clarity and certainty of vision. In a sense it results from pride of intellect and the overemphasis on the cognitive functions in man. It results in error of all sorts, that is, avidyaa, or the deformation of true knowledge. This naturally leads to selfishness, and selfishness in turn must be buoyed up by hundreds of other secular illusions. These myriad forms of maayaa deepen the sense of alienation from self and make it harder and harder, as time goes on, for the subject to achieve self-definition or what existentialist philosophers call "authenticity."

In the West, as everywhere else, including India, the forms of maayaa which, resting on avidyaa, produce alienation and inauthenticity are numerous. Certain expressions of these secular illusions are worth mentioning specifically, such as the emphasis by some on money as the mainspring of human motivation, by some on pleasure, by some on power, by some on

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25. Quoted in David Krech, Richard S. Crutchfield, and Egerton L. Ballachey, Individual in Society (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1962), p. 82. The work from which this quotation has been taken is C. H. Cooley, Human Nature and the Social Order (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1902).

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merely "gracious living," by some on role-playing of some sort or another, by some on superficiality in culture and education, etc. These are tragic.

What, then, are some of the concerns of a humanistic psychology which essentially seeks to restore some of the wisdom of Indian thought and seeks to emphasize in part that educational philosophy which stems from the Hindu ideals? Precisely what are the concerns of a humanistic psychology which may result in teaching men how to cultivate the spiritual life and how to reduce the degree to which their behavior is motivated by the myriad expressions of maayaa? Let us turn to the answers to these three questions.

IV. Some Parallels Between a Humanistic Psychology and Indian Thought
In the United States, humanistic psychologists are preoccupied with the formulation of a body of descriptive theory, concepts, formulations, analyses, and experimental studies, all of which recognize the importance of abhaya, freedom from fear, in man's estate. Their interest in the life of the spirit, however, is manifested without prejudice to their interest in the secular behavioral repertoire, which is, as academic psychologists would put it, stimulus bound. In addition, they recognize that socially conditioned behavioral repertoires which work against the possibility of self-identity and self-fulfillment are aspects of maayaa, illusion. In individual development it is recognized that there can be little which is as important as the quest for self-identity. In man's social relations there can be nothing more important than a proper concern for the human condition. In a large measure, this involves an existentialist concern over, and involvement with, the plight of our fellow man. It involves a commitment to emphasize those conditions which produce for man justice, mercy, freedom, well-being, enlightenment, elimination of unnecessary anxiety, peace, and the realization of many other cherished ideals which have been part of the Western humanistic heritage for over 2,000 years. As a result, humanistic psychologists are producing a body of literature which, in a sense, reflects the Western conceptual analogues of Indian thought and ideals. It will be of value to deal briefly with some of these conceptual analogues as they are related to the four aa`sramas, or stages of life. The material below will bring out the degree to which the matters emphasized by The Third Force encourage the quest for knowledge (vidyaa), or enlightenment (bodhi), and the unity of these.

The Buddha taught that the empirical self is a composite of perception (sa^mj~naa), feeling (vedanaa), the thrusts of will (sa^mskaaras), intelligence (vij~naana), and form (ruupa). These are impermanent, and, when over-

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whelmed by ignorance (avidyaa) and selfish craving (ta.nhaa), a contact with one's true self is impossible. Where the sense of self is firm and clear, action will follow which will help to unfold the self's potentialities. When self-actualization is being successfully achieved, the individual attains wisdom (praj~naa) and compassion (karu.naa). We shall see that the qualities of heart, mind, and soul which define the self-actualizing person below relate rather closely to some of these traditional concepts in Indian thought.

The concept of self-actualization is, of course, one of the central concepts of a humanistic psychology. Maslow, [26] who has pioneered in research along these lines, has spelled out some of the characteristics of the self-actualizing person. This is the individual who is psychologically healthy, is well integrated, and seeks to attain what most people call good values -- serenity, kindness, courage, knowledge, honesty, love, unselfishness, and goodness. On the basis of his research, Maslow has isolated many of the objectively describable and measurable characteristics of the self-actualizing individual. These individuals are said to possess: (1) clearer, more efficient perception of reality; (2) more openness to experience; (3) increased integration, wholeness, and unity of the person; (4) increased spontaneity, expressiveness, full functioning, aliveness; (5) a real self, a firm identity, autonomy, uniqueness; (6) increased objectivity, detachment, transcendence of self; (7) recovery of creativeness; (8) ability to fuse concreteness and abstractness, primary and secondary process-cognition, etc.; (9) democratic character-structure; and (10) ability to love, etc.

These are also the individuals who report a feeling of joie de vivre, of happiness and euphoria, of serenity, joy, and calmness, of responsibility, and of confidence in their ability to handle stress, anxiety, and personal problems. These are the people who are free from the negative reactions of bhaya and hi^msaa -- reactions which, in the language of psychology, involve self-betrayal, fixation, regression, living by fear rather than by growth, so as to be bogged down with anxiety, despair, boredom, inability to enjoy, intrinsic guilt, intrinsic shame, aimlessness, feelings of emptiness, of lack of identity, etc.

Maslow finds that, in fact, most people tend toward self-actualization and that, in principle, at least, all people are capable of it. All religions are expressions of human aspiration toward self-actualization. The characteristics of self-actualizing persons parallel at many points traditional religious ideals, e.g., the transcendence of self, the fusion of the true, the good, and the beautiful, contributions to others, honesty and naturalness, the sacrificing of

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26. Abraham H. Maslow, ed., New Knowledge in Human Values (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1959).

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lower desires for higher ones, the easy differentiation between ends and means, the decrease of hostility, cruelty, and destructiveness, and the increase of friendliness, gentleness, kindness, etc.

Maslow finds that certain antinomies are resolved in self-actualizing people. They can unify impulses of Apollonian and Dionysian origins; they can strike a balance between the spirit of classicism and romanticism, between the values of poetry and those of science, between reason and impulse, work and play, the verbal and the pre-verbal, the mature and the childlike, the masculine and feminine components of their natures, and between growth and regression. Self-actualizing people find no contradictions between the needs and desires of the individual and those of society. Such people define a healthy collectivity as one in which all individuals are permitted to achieve self-actualization. In self-actualizing people, the enjoyment of an experience, the impulse to achieve it, and the desire for it run together. These three are never at loggerheads in such people, in terms of a Freudian war between id, ego, and superego. It is this unity, this concurrence, which disintegrates when people become psychologically sick. Self-actualizing people are those who, on the whole, exhibit a drive to realize their potentialities for health, integration, and growth.

The concept of self-actualization, however, is not the only concern of a humanistic psychology. Third Force psychologists are deeply concerned with the phenomenon of alienation in all its forms. When men do not have a sure sense of the nature of their common needs, heritage, and destiny, when they cease to be able to understand one another due to constricted ego-extension, when they have irrevocably lost the capacity to establish what Buber calls the "I and Thou" relationship, there is then the alienation of man from man. When the sexes lack any deep understanding of one another's psychology there is another form of alienation. When the individual finds that he is unhappy over the themes with which his culture or society is preoccupied he can be said to be alienated from society. If one feels that the work one does yields no satisfaction, that the commodity produced is without meaning to the individual and without social worth, and if one feels that he cannot see the contribution that his labor makes to a commodity which is finally offered for exchange, then one is alienated from work. When the individual has lost the sense of unity with other living forms, when he has lost what Schweitzer calls "reverence for life," when he has lost the capacity to be awed by the sights and sounds and processes of Nature and the ability to be swept up in a feeling of communion with all that is, then he may be said to be alienated from Nature. This sense of communion may come from a variety of experiences. It may, for instance, be the product of a

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moment of solitude on a mountain-top or may come as the result of the senses sweeping in everything which transpires about one in the atmosphere of a dense jungle in which one is alone. It is this sense of communion and continuity with Nature, however, which is essential. Finally, when one ceases to wonder how anything came to be, when one feels no nagging perplexity over the phenomenon of Becoming, one is alienated from God -- from the mystery of Being. When one forgets the significance of the scholastic injunction "Ex nihilo nihil fit," when one ceases to ask questions concerning the possible moral evolution of man and his destiny in the universe, and when one experiences no anguish over human egocentricity and no impatience over the slow human drive toward transcendence of self, then the sense of alienation from God has deepened beyond measure.

Third Force psychologists are in general agreement concerning some of the more central causes of alienation. Among these are the following. The growing bureaucratization of community effort, aided and abetted by the uncontrolled impact of science and technology, is promoting the ravages of alienation. Another alienation-promoting factor is the phenomenon of depersonalization, in which people glory in making themselves interchangeable with one another as a result of cultivating the same roles, postures, habits, attitudes, sentiments, rituals, and religious mimesis. Dehumanization also contributes to alienation, where by this term we refer to the effects on ourselves of egocentric impulses such as overweening ambition, pride, material cupidity, lust, the pursuit of power, etc. Dehumanization sets in when we conspire to obtain these by wounding others, depriving them of their rights as human beings, ruthlessly destroying their reputations, frustrating their needs, and preventing them from realizing their potentialities. Dehumanization is also reflected when individuals try to manipulate others as objects to serve their own ends, when they chronically fail to assess the consequences of their imperious behavior for others, when they remain indifferent to suffering which does not touch them immediately, etc.

Also contributing to alienation is what the sociologist calls anomie, a sense of rootlessness in relation to all groups with which one could conceivably be affiliated, a feeling that one lacks any perspective by which to guide personal conduct, a sense of not being involved with the age and it's concerns, and a deep ennui with the themes which the Zeitgeist emphasizes. As a result of anomie the individual is without standards of conduct, without guides to the relationship of man to man, confused as to one's roles and functions, uncertain of what one wants to do. There is also a phenomenon which the medieval scholastics called accidie, spiritual sloth. This is the inability to close the gap between our professed altruistic ideals and our be-

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havior. Accidie sometimes takes the form of being unable to galvanize enough energy and concern to carry out a resolve intended to promote our own welfare or that of others.

A widespread extension of alienation occurs, in addition, through the phenomenon of homogenization, which is a product of mass culture. This occurs when one is unable to discriminate relative worth among the offerings in mass society to the mind and spirit. Often, alienation is spread, via the mass culture of the West, by means of kitsch. This is the term applied to those products of mass culture -- via the mass media -- in which all the aesthetic work is done for the reader, spectator, or listener. The message is built into, rather than drawn out of, the product. The recipient is told what he is supposed to feel and think. The sweep of symbol and allegory are replaced by the visually concrete image. Intellectual depth is eliminated for an artificial simplicity of problem and confrontation to which social life is nowhere tangent. The consumer of mass culture must never be emotionally taxed or swept up in nuances and conflicts beyond his limited spiritual attention. He must be rendered unaware of complexity. If a classic is to be brought to his attention via stage or screen or via a printed popularization, its meaning must be either explained in a corrupted and distorted fashion or it must be explained away entirely. This, then, is kitsch. [27]

The themes which now constitute the major concerns of a humanistic psychology represent an effort to analyze and do research upon the concepts to which we have already referred in footnote 1. The content of many of these concepts has been traditionally emphasized in other forms, of course, in the thought and ideals of Indian philosophy. In Section III, we have contrasted some of these ideals with some of the more conspicuous forms of personal and social pathology of the West. In Section IV, we have set forth those major parallels to these same ideals which are found in the main-springs of motivation of self-actualizing persons. In addition, we have discussed those trends in Western social psychology and mass culture which, by promoting various types of, alienation and other forms of social and cultural pathology, work against the quest for self-identity and self-actualization -- a theme which is one of the central ideals of Indian philosophy. As the work of humanistic psychologists develops further, the parallels between Indian philosophy and a humanistic psychology will be reinforced. As this reinforcement becomes richer both in depth and latitude, it should lead

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27. In this connection the reader will find the following item worth consulting: Clement Greenberg, "Avant-Garde and Kitsch," in Mass Culture, Bernard Rosenberg and David Manning White, eds. (Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press & The Falcon's Wings Press, 1957).

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to a fusion and complementation of these areas of study -- a fusion and complementation which should result in the West in a greater interest in and personal expression of the living ideals of Indian philosophy. In the process, it is hoped the science of psychology will also be considerably enriched.