Buddhism and the Art of Psychotherapy

Carolyn and Ernest Fay Series in Analytical Psychology

by Hayao Kawai, David H. Rosen (Foreword)

In this engaging and intriguing work, renowned Japanese psychologist Hayao Kawai examines his own personal experience of how a Japanese became a Jungian psychoanalyst and how the Buddhism in him gradually reacted to it.

Kawai reviews his method of psychotherapy and takes a fresh look at I in the context of Buddhism. His analysis, divided into four chapters, provides a new understanding of the human psyche from the perspective of someone rooted in the East.

Kawai begins by contemplating his personal “Am I a Buddhist and/or a Jungian?” His honest reflections parallel Jung’s early skepticism about Buddhism and later his positive regard for Buddha’s teachings. He then relates how the individuation process is symbolically and meaningfully revealed in two philosophical and artistic picture series, one Eastern and one Western.

After exploring the Buddhist conception of the ego and the self, which is the opposite of to the Western view, Kawai expands psychotherapy to include sitting in silence and holding contradictions or containing opposites.

Drawing on his own experience as a psychoanalyst, Kawai concludes that true integration of East and West is both possible and impossible. Buddhism and the Art of Psychotherapy is an enlightening presentation that deepens the reader’s understanding of this area of psychology and Eastern philosophy.

Genres: Buddhism, Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, Nonfiction

184 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Bartosz · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intimate and sincere testimony of personal experience of blending analytical psychology with the Japanese soul by Hayao Kawai, the first Jungian Analyst in Japan and a former Japanese Minister of Culture. Among other discussions, Kawai asks how can a psychology that grew on the Western ego soil relate to the Buddhist no-self experience. He says in the West, we have personal psychology, interpersonal psychology and transpersonal psychology. In Japan, there is only one - a non-personal psychology. Kawai pursues it by teaching his patients "how to be like a stone". I have used the ox-herding pictures described in this book in my own therapeutic practice, with good results. The Hua Yan philosophy is nowadays widely discussed as Jungian psychology advances into China, Japan and other Eastern countries and as quantum theory is becoming more and more understandable to psychologists.

[Cristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesante trabajo del primer psicoterapeuta jungiano en Japón, donde el autor nos ofrece un análisis comparativo entre cultura oriental y occidental; así como examina su propia experiencia en relación a cómo el budismo influyó (directa o indirectamente) en su elección de rama psicoterapéutica.

Entre las reflexiones que Kawai comparte, mi favorita es:
"Estamos totalmente acostumbrados a pensar en términos de tecnología moderna. Si está roto, lo arreglas. Tendemos a pensar de una forma manipuladora, en un modo operativo."

Lo que más me gustó:
▪ Sugiere habilidades que debe cultivar el profesional para lograr una intervención exitosa.
▪ Nos ofrece una reseña de su método psicoterapéutico.

[Yc Liao · Rating 4 out of 5]

- 在日本，學習藝術的各種形式，不需要特別的資質，好的藝術家意思是掌握到恰到好處的“形”，而能夠良好的掌握形便可成爲“行易”，過程中勤苦修煉是必須的，然而人最終突破“形”在其中獲得了一個“動搖”yurameki，而這就是人們在藝術中所追尋的。
- 十牛圖與牛變白的故事！
- 我是什麽？仔細思索我，發現是很多部分組合起來的，當我們表達一種感覺或是想法，那到底是哪一個我？
- 西方自我、東方真如。
- 科學是顯性的因果，然而生活與世界則是必須看到弱性的因素。
- 語言的重要，與沒用。
- 千縷微風

[Matthew Salesses · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really excellent book

[Ami Iida · Rating 3 out of 5]

Junge Psychology is relative with Buddhism .