Positive Health Online

Abstract

FALKENSTROEM, Young Adults Counseling Center, Repslagaregatan 5a, S-611 30 Nykoeping, Sweden, frederik.falkenstrom@nln.dll.se, has written a Buddhist contribution to the psychoanalytic psychology of self. Abstract: The article attempts to integrate the various concepts of 'self' used in psychoanalytic theory with the understanding of the nature of self in the Buddhist meditative tradition. Concepts of self in psychoanalytic theory can be divided into three levels of consciousness and abstraction: self as experience, representational self, and self as system. The experiential level consists of moment-to-moment flow of consciousness. The representational level consists of unconscious organizing structures of interaction. And the systems level is a hierarchically higher organization of representations. The author argues that these levels should be differentiated in discussions of self. Buddhist psychology of self can enrich psychoanalytic understanding of the experiential self and of narcissism. The author describes a model of therapeutic development using different levels of self and the relationships between them, and shows how psychoanalysis and Buddhist insight meditation emphasize different levels of self in a complementary rather than mutually exclusive way.

Background

Methodology

Results

Conclusion

References

Falkenstroem F. A Buddhist contribution to the psychoanalytic psychology of self. The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 84 (6): 1551-1568, Dec 2003.