Member Publications
Spirituality and Indian psychology: Lessons from the Bhagavad-Gita
Author(s) Dharm P. S. Bhawuk
2011, Springer
Tags Indigenous, Religion
Price $169 | Pages 261 | ISBN 978-1441981097
From the Back Cover
In recent years, globalization, multiculturalism, and Western interest in Eastern thought have contributed to the growth of cross-cultural psychology. Paradoxically, however, while spirituality plays such a major role in non-Western cultures, it tends to occupy only a minor area of cross-cultural research.
Its roots in ancient philosophical texts such as the Bhagavad-Gita make Indian psychology not only an especially rich tradition and one deserving of close study, but also a template for how Western researchers can better understand indigenous spiritual perspectives. From this vantage point, Spirituality and Indian Psychology: Lessons from the Bhagavad-Gita provides accessible models for this understanding, from issues on the individual level (cognition, behavior, emotions, the self) to larger concerns such as intergroup relations and world peace, rarely-encountered concepts of work, bondage/liberation, and desire as well as the more familiar karma and dharma. In addressing the question of whether universals exist in psychology, this thought-provoking book:
- Presents indigenous psychologicalperspective in terms of one representative worldview.
- Contrasts the Indian worldview with Western scientific culture.
- Analyzes an indigenous research methodology based on culturally relevant concepts.
- Offers spirituality-based models for mapping basic psychological processes and their relationships.
- Clarifies relationships among indigenous, cross-cultural, and Western psychologies.
Cross-cultural psychologists, sociologists, researchers in Indian psychology and culture‚-anyone involved in the continuing dialogue across the psychologies of the world and advancing the indigenous research agenda will find Spirituality and Indian Psychology a volume of rare interest and insight.