Thursday, January 15, 2009

Handbook of Indian Psychology


New Delhi, India; Foundation Books; 2008; 8175966025 / 9788175966024;
First Edition; Paperback; New, New 190 x 250 Mm,648 pages, $41.00
Hardcover , BF108

In this first volume, academics, therapists, educators, and others set the tone for the series Indian Psychology Book Project, which is intended to help rejuvenate the field. Covering systems and schools, topics and themes, and applications and implications, they discuss such matters as a Buddhist theory of unconscious mind, motivation, organizational psychology, and altered states of consciousness and the spiritual traditions. The pronunciation and transliteration of the Sanskrit alphabet is provided. Foundation Books is an imprint of Cambridge University Press India Pvt. Ltd.
Synopsis :Indian psychology is a distinct psychological tradition rooted in the native Indian ethos। It manifests in the multitude of practices prevailing in the Indian subcontinent for centuries। Unlike the mainstream psychology, Indian psychology is not overwhelmingly materialist-reductionist in character. It goes beyond the conventional third-person forms of observation to include the study of first-person phenomena such as subjective experience in its various manifestations and associated cognitive phenomena. It does not exclude the investigation of extraordinary states of consciousness and exceptional human abilities. The quintessence of Indian nature is its synthetic stance that results in a magical bridging of dichotomies such as natural and supernatural, secular and sacred, and transactional and transcendental. The result is a psychology that is practical, positive, holistic and inclusive. The Handbook of Indian Psychology is an attempt to explore the concepts, methods and models of psychology systematically from the above perspective. The Handbook is the result of the collective efforts of more than thirty leading international scholars with interdisciplinary backgrounds. In thirty-one chapters, the authors depict the nuances of classical Indian thought, discuss their relevance to contemporary concerns, and draw out the implications and applications for teaching, research and practice of psychology.
Contents
Contributing Authors
Preface Prologue: Introducing Indian Psychology Indian Thought and Tradition: A Psychohistorical Perspective
PART I - SYSTEMS AND SCHOOLS
1. Jaina Psychology 2. The Foundations of Early Buddhist Psychology 3. Varieties of Cognition in Early Buddhism 4. A Buddhist Theory of Unconscious Mind ( Alaya-Vijñana ) 5. Indian Buddhist Theories of Persons 6. Buddhist Psychology: A Western Interpretation 7.Transpersonal Psychology in the Bhagavad-Gita : Reflections on Consciousness, Meditation, Work and Love 8. Yoga Psychology: Theory and Application 9. Patañjali Yoga and Siddhis : Their Relevance to Parapsychological Theory and Research 10.Yoga Psychology and the Samkhya Metaphysic 11. Psychology in the Advaita Vedanta 12. The Nyaya-Vaisesika Theory of Perceiving the World of our Experience 13. Psychological Theories and Practices in Ayurveda
PART II - TOPICS AND THEMES
14. Indian Theories of Perception: An Inter-School Dialogue from Buddhist Perspective 15. Indian Psychology of Motivation 16. Personality in Indian Psychology 17. “Giving” as a Theme in the Indian Psychology of Values 18. The Making of a Creative Poet: Insights from Indian Aestheticians 19. Anchoring Cognition, Emotion and Behavior in Desire: A Model from the Bhagavad-Gita 20. Consciousness 21. Freedom from Knowledge

PART III - APPLICATIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
22. Therapeutic Psychology and Indian Yoga 23. Towards an Indian Organizational Psychology 24. Research on Indian Concepts of Psychology: Major Challenges and Perspectives for Future Action 25. Meditative Traditions and Contemporary Psychology 26. Consciousness Evolution of the Buddha until He Attained Satori 27. William James on Pure Experience and Samadhi in Samkhya Yoga 28. Sri Ramana Maharshi: A Case Study in Self-Realization 29. Altered States of Consciousness and the Spiritual Traditions: The Proposal for the Creation of State-Specific Sciences Pronunciation and Transliteration of Sanskrit Alphabet
Glossary of Sanskrit Terms
Index. Price: 22.95 USD