The Empathic Ground

Judith Blackstone

Description

The Empathic Ground explores the experience of nondual consciousness as the basis of human connection, and describes its importance for psychological healing. It looks at the therapeutic relationship from the perspectives of psychoanalytic intersubjectivity theory and Asian nondual philosophy, finding practical meeting points between them that illuminate crucial issues in psychotherapy, such as transference and counter-transference, the nature of subjectivity, and the role of the body. The book also includes a series of exercises developed by the author for realizing nondual consciousness in the clinical setting. Access to this subtle, unified dimension of consciousness develops both our individual human capacities—perception, understanding, love, and physical pleasure—and our relationships with other people. It thus has profound significance for both psychological healing and development, and for the relationship of psychotherapist and client.
Acknowledgments
Introduction

1. Nondual Realization and Intersubjectivity Theory

2. The Potential of the Relational Field

3. The Embedded Self: A Case for Interiority

4. Disentangling from the Object: Transference, the Body, and the Nondual Field

5. Realization Process: Exercises for Nondual Realization and Psychological Healing

Postscript
References
Index

Sujets

• Psychology
• Psychotherapy

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791479582
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

the empathic ground

SUNY SERIES IN T RANSPERSONAL AND H UMANISTIC P SYCHOLOGY

Richard D. Mann, editor

The Empathic Ground 

Intersubjectivity and Nonduality in the Psychotherapeutic Process

Judith Blackstone

S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y O F N E W Y O R K P R E S S

Published by S TATE U NIVERSITY OF N EW Y ORK P RESS , A LBANY

© 2007 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, address State University of New York Press, 194 Washington Avenue, Suite 305, Albany, NY 12210-2384

Production, Laurie Searl Marketing, Anne M.Valentine

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Blackstone, Judith, 1947- The empathic ground : intersubjectivity and nonduality in the psychotherapeutic process / Judith Blackstone. p. ; cm. — (SUNY series in transpersonal and humanistic psychology) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7914-7183-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-7914-7184-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Psychotherapy. 2. Empathy. 3. Self. I.Title. II. Series. [DNLM: 1. Psychotherapeutic Processes. 2. Empathy. WM 420 B631e 2007] RC489.E46B57 2007 616.89'14—dc22 2006036609

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Acknowledgments

Introduction

Contents

CHAPTER ONE Nondual Realization and Intersubjectivity Theory

CHAPTER TWO The Potential of the Relational Field

CHAPTER THREE The Embedded Self: A Case for Interiority

CHAPTER FOUR Disentangling from the Object:Transference, the Body, and the Nondual Field

CHAPTER FIVE Realization Process: Exercises for Nondual Realization and Psychological Healing

Postscript

References

Index

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Acknowledgments

I OFFER MY DEEPEST THANKS Max Sucharov,to Doris Brothers, Nancy Rowe, Stanford J. Searl, Bruce G. Douglass, Inta Dzelme, and Maureen Kennedy for their careful reading of earlier versions of this manuscript, and to my husband, Zoran Josipovic, and my parents, Annette and Oliver Bloodstein, for their love and support. I am also grateful to my students and clients for helping to shape my understand- ing over the years.

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Introduction

THIS BOOK EXPLORES how the psychotherapeutic process can be enhanced through accessing a subtle dimension of nondual—or uni- tive—consciousness described in some schools of Asian nondual philos- ophy. It also examines how the psychotherapeutic process can facilitate nondual realization. Many different types of nondual realization are described in the Asian spiritual literature. One type, for example, experienced in deep meditative absorption, is a state of pure consciousness, in which one has no perception of any sort of phenomena. In this book, however, nond- ual realization refers to the experience of pure (or empty) consciousness and phenomena at the same time. It is the realization of one’s own nature as an unbounded expanse of subtle consciousness, pervading one’s internal and external experience as a unity. My main premise is that as human development progresses, psycho- logical and spiritual maturity become inseparable. They both involve the same accomplishments of deepened contact with oneself and others, emotional resilience, and authenticity. The advanced stages of psychological and spiritual maturity both arrive at a radical openness to experience that is felt as a continuity or oneness between oneself and one’s environment. This sense of continuity is based on the realization (or the laying bare) of nondual consciousness. Although several important studies have applied Buddhist practices to psychotherapy (Epstein, 1998; Rubin, 1996; Safran, 2003; Suler,

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