Humanistische und transpersonale Psychologie an der Grenze zu holistischen Formen der Spiritualität

Zur Semantik von Selbstverwirklichung/Persönlichkeitsentwicklung in der zweiten Hälfe des 20. Jhd.

Abstract

In cultural and religious studies discourses, a certain dynamic field of contemporary late-modern religious culture in "Western" societies is often referred to as a "holistic milieu". This term is based on the terminology of Paul Heelas, who primarily identified the emphasis on holism as a common component of the many different practices, ideas, and "new-religious" orientations. It was also Heelas who summarized the actors of the diverse practices as a holistic milieu (Heelas 2007: 63-80). This article focuses on a specific area of holistic-spiritual mindsets: the ideal of personality development or self-realization towards a higher self in the sense of an authentic personality or a higher consciousness. This is based on the hypothesis that what Höllinger and Tripold describe as the ideal of developing an authentic personality and a higher consciousness (human potential ethic) has undergone some far-reaching impulses, influences, reinforcements, semantic changes and expansions in the process of the development of a humanistic and transpersonal psychology in the second half of the 20th century.  In order to demonstrate this, the article first describes the ideal of personality development and the idea of realizing the "true self" or an authentic personality, as it circulates in the holistic milieu, according to religious studies research. Subsequently, the concepts of self-realization/personality development as developed in the discourses and interactions of humanistic psy­chology and transpersonal psychology will be examined to illustrate the semantic range of the diverse concepts and ideas on this topic within the relevant discourses. For this purpose, some representative and particularly prominent representatives and authors of these currents are selected, and some central passages are analyzed.