Perception Of Present Psychology And Yoga

Few words Since the birth of modern psychology a little over a hundred years ago views regarding the nature of the human being have followed a certain progressive trend which maybe conceived as a dimensional development. Psychology began with a lateral view of the human being as an essentially animal organism capable of certain superior psychological functions which have generally been labeled as mind. To this surface view was added a new dimension by the depth psychologies which discovered the unconscious ascribing to it a greater role than the conscious mind in determining behavior. During the past few decades yet another dimension that of height has been discovered through experiences of higher states of consciousness which have been termed transpersonal. With this dimensional progression of views about the human constitution psychology has been drawing increasingly closer to the many dimensional concept of the human being found in Yoga. Since notions of mental health stem from theories regarding on personality structure the emerging convergence of psychology and yoga is reflected also in the field of mental health. The purpose of this book is to present some salient features of psychological thought and its implications for mental health in order to bring out some points of convergence as also of divergence between psychology and mental health on the one hand and yoga on the other.