| Titel: | Psychopathology, Psychosis and the Kundalini: Postmodern Perspectives on Unusual Subjective Experience |
|---|---|
| Autor: | House, Richard |
| Mediengruppe: | chapter |
| Herausgeber: | --- |
| Zeitschrift: | --- |
| Jahr: | 2001 |
| Band: | --- |
| Heft: | --- |
| Seiten: | 107-125 |
| Sprache: | English |
| Abstract: | (from the chapter) Starting from a critique of the concepts of psychopathology and (ab)normality, and the assumptions that underpin diagnosticism in the mental health field, the author argues that what is commonly called 'psychotic' experience may typically constitute (1) a struggle towards meaning-making; (2) a meaningful process, typically operating at many levels, rather than some kind of 'abnormal malfunction' of the physical brain; or (3) a harbinger, albeit often a highly distressing one, of qualitative advances in human consciousness which, as yet, the 'ordinary' Cartesian ego consciousness of modernity finds it difficult if not impossible to make sense of. The author draws extensively on the 'kundalini awakening experience' to illustrate these arguments. It is suggested that the distinctions between 'psychotic', 'unusual' and 'mystical/transpersonal' experience are not only far from clear-cut, but might well be fundamentally misguided and philosophically unsustainable. It is maintained that a radical shift in world view, from naive technocratic scientism and towards a postmodern, more spiritually informed 'new paradigm' perspective opens up creative, liberating and potentially healing avenues for thinking about and understanding the widest spectrum of human subjective experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved) (chapter) |