Post by Admin on Sept 12, 2020 10:51:27 GMT
Notes on counselling
Analytical and synthetic approaches in psychology and psychiatry
Dr. Soumitra Basu
www.namahjournal.com/doc/Actual/Analytical-and-synthetic-approaches-vol-28-iss-1.html
Abstract
A whole-person narrative needs both an analytical and synthetic approach for psycho-pathology. Creativity and spirituality can co-exist in a single individual. An analytical perspective that encompasses physical, psychological and social dimensions needs to be studied in the context of a spiritual dimension of consciousness.
One major problem with consciousness is that it is a complex subject with not only multiple dimensions but multiple viewpoints. Scientists approach consciousness from different perspectives and each viewpoint has its own validity. However, mystics experience consciousness in a different way. It is realised as a vast ethereal matrix that is universal in extension, unitary in essence and transcends the individual. Sri Aurobindo explains how this unitary consciousness in its highest creative poise (which he calls the Supermind) actually becomes all the worlds and planes of existence, but without losing its unity. This integral perspective, in which the One and the Many exist simultaneously, justifies the study of consciousness along multiple dimensions as well as simultaneously from a unitary viewpoint. In practical terms, this means that human behaviour should not only be considered analytically but also from a synthetic standpoint.
The incompleteness of the analytical approach becomes apparent when we try to understand creative geniuses. For instance, the mental status of Vincent Van Gogh has been studied from various angles. He has been considered to suffer from one disease or another, ranging from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and epilepsy to acute intermittent porphyria and even Meniere’s disease. Some enthusiastic researchers have also discovered alterations of his mental state in some of his paintings. A symposium of thirty international medical experts at September 14th and 15th, 2016 weighed all available evidence and analysed competing theories to conclude that nothing definitive could be pronounced about his medical status, except that the diagnosis in his last years was probably more prosaic (1). What is interesting is that no analytical approach could explain the magnificent creativity of Van Gogh. That might not be possible unless a synthetic perspective is used. This endeavour gets more significant when we try to study a personality where spiritual and psycho-pathological elements are concurrently manifest as the following case study shows. Here the subject not only suffers from delusions but is also a creative artist and simultaneously a sincere spiritual aspirant.
Analytical and synthetic approaches in psychology and psychiatry
Dr. Soumitra Basu
www.namahjournal.com/doc/Actual/Analytical-and-synthetic-approaches-vol-28-iss-1.html
Abstract
A whole-person narrative needs both an analytical and synthetic approach for psycho-pathology. Creativity and spirituality can co-exist in a single individual. An analytical perspective that encompasses physical, psychological and social dimensions needs to be studied in the context of a spiritual dimension of consciousness.
One major problem with consciousness is that it is a complex subject with not only multiple dimensions but multiple viewpoints. Scientists approach consciousness from different perspectives and each viewpoint has its own validity. However, mystics experience consciousness in a different way. It is realised as a vast ethereal matrix that is universal in extension, unitary in essence and transcends the individual. Sri Aurobindo explains how this unitary consciousness in its highest creative poise (which he calls the Supermind) actually becomes all the worlds and planes of existence, but without losing its unity. This integral perspective, in which the One and the Many exist simultaneously, justifies the study of consciousness along multiple dimensions as well as simultaneously from a unitary viewpoint. In practical terms, this means that human behaviour should not only be considered analytically but also from a synthetic standpoint.
The incompleteness of the analytical approach becomes apparent when we try to understand creative geniuses. For instance, the mental status of Vincent Van Gogh has been studied from various angles. He has been considered to suffer from one disease or another, ranging from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and epilepsy to acute intermittent porphyria and even Meniere’s disease. Some enthusiastic researchers have also discovered alterations of his mental state in some of his paintings. A symposium of thirty international medical experts at September 14th and 15th, 2016 weighed all available evidence and analysed competing theories to conclude that nothing definitive could be pronounced about his medical status, except that the diagnosis in his last years was probably more prosaic (1). What is interesting is that no analytical approach could explain the magnificent creativity of Van Gogh. That might not be possible unless a synthetic perspective is used. This endeavour gets more significant when we try to study a personality where spiritual and psycho-pathological elements are concurrently manifest as the following case study shows. Here the subject not only suffers from delusions but is also a creative artist and simultaneously a sincere spiritual aspirant.