Buddhism & Psychoanalysis

The latest draft of “Buddhism & Psychoanalysis: a basic reading guide,” is available here. As noted at the link, I have related compilations on “Buddhism,” “the Emotions,” and secondary literature on “Freudian and Post-Freudian Psychology.”

 

“Modern  neuroscience is validating observations about the mind that Buddhists have known for thousands of years. When I first began to study Buddhism, it was common to hear put-downs of Western psychology and...psychotherapy in major Buddhist centers. There was a widespread belief that meditation would answer everyone’s problems, and if you were a really good Zen or Vipassana or Vajrayana practitioner, you wouldn’t need therapy. Now I could give you the names of abbots of those same centers who are themselves seeing therapists—they have realized there’s a complementarity between meditation and the interpersonal skills of Western psychology.”—Jack Kornfield, in a forum discussion, “Is Western Psychology Redefining Buddhism?,” Buddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Quarterly, Summer 2014 (Vol. 12, No. 4). 

The image above is found here.