Psychotherapy, Spirituality, and the Evolution of Mind

An Interdisciplinary Symposium

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Friday Eve. May 15 - Keynote Address: Robert Thurman, Ph.D.

The Drop and the Diamond: The Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Inner Science of the Living Self and Our Contemporary Life and Death Crisis

What Buddha taught was that our notion of self is a false assumption. We erroneously superimpose a view of self as independent, fixed, absolute and virtually dead upon a self which is everchanging, constantly evolving, relative, and living. Our illusory definitions of Self and Other engender an agonizing interior suffering which often leads us to inflict horrendous torment on others; our failure to understand and control our inner worlds makes us unable to restrain our destructive tampering with the outer world and has led us to the brink of planetary destruction. To overcome this crisis requires us to accelerate on a world scale the development of inner sciences and technologies. What can western psychology learn from the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist tradition?

7:30 - 8:30 Registration and Welcome Reception
8:30 - 10:00 Keynote Address: Robert Thurman, Ph.D.


Saturday A.M. May 16 - Evolution of Mind and Self: What is a Self For?

Evolution has brought human beings to the point of self-reflexive awareness. This aspect of consciousness entails the capacity for experience of self and is one of the most important aspects of human cognition. Also implicit in this level of conscious experience is the capacity for spiritual awareness. What does spiritual experience imply about our understanding of the evolution of self, and vice versa?

8:00 - 8:45 Continental Breakfast - Registration Continues
8:45 - 9:15 Opening Remarks - Fernando Mata, D.C.
9:15 - 10:00 The Evolution of Mind: Cognitive Science Meets Lived Experience - Evan Thompson, Ph.D.
Mind is not grounded on an independent Self, but rather on evolving patterns of relationship. How does the experience of self emerge as mind evolves? The synthesis of cogntive science, western phenomenology, and Buddhist psychology provides new perspectives on this question.
10:00-10:15 Break
10:15-11:00 Neurophenomenology, Consciousness and the Evolution of Mind - Eugene d'Aquili, M.D.
Mind must be understood from the perspectives of biological evolution, culture, and social process. The evolution of human cognition as well as spirituality as an alternate-state experience must be taken into account for a fuller understanding of human mind and self.
11:00-11:45 States of Consciousness and Western Psychology - Charles Tart, Ph.D.
All aspects of subjective experience, including the experience of self, is relative to the state of consciousness in which it is experienced. "Normal waking consciousness" both creates and is created by an egoic experience of self. Is the "normal waking state" of consciousness evolving?
11:45-12:00 Discussion
12:00 - 1:30 Lunch (on your own)



Saturday P.M. May 16 - Psyche and Spirit: Healing the Split

In dismissing religion as essentially neurotic, Freud created a split between psyche and spirit which is implicit in the field of psychotherapy today. Can western psychotherapy re-think the vitally important domain of spiritual experience and find new ways to include spirituality within its established conceptual frawework?

1:30-2:15 Knowing Connection: The Intersection of Psychotherapy, Spirituality, and Evolution - Arthur Deikman, M.D.
The connected aspects of reality are inaccessible to ordinary consciousness. Service enables us to shift our basic intention, thereby enabling a greater experience of connectedness and an expanded sense of self.
2:15-3:00 Psyche and Spirit in the Psychoanalytic View of the Mind: Eros and the Quest for Wholeness - Jonathan Lear, Ph.D.
Spirituality can be included within the domain of psychoanalytic meaning in terms of the universal striving for wholeness. What is the significance, in psychological terms, of subject-object duality as a developmental achievement, and why is there a universal striving to transcend it?
3:00-3:15 Break
3:15-4:00 Buddhism, Mind, and Experience - Stephen Batchelor
What is the relevance of Buddhist practice/dharma to an authentic confrontation with our experience, and to psychological constructs and processes such as self and self-transformation?
4:00-4:30 Discussion


Sunday A.M. May 17 - Psychotherapy and Eastern Thought

How can views of knowing, being, and self in eastern thought enhance western psychotherapy? Can western understanding of the self and its suffering enhance the traditional wisdom of the east?

8:00-8:45 Continental Breakfast
8:45-9:15 Opening Remarks - Marjorie Schuman, Ph.D.
9:15-10:00 What is This Thing Called Self? - John Suler, Ph.D.
Throughout human history, thinkers from western and eastern traditions have conceptualized the "self" in a variety of ways - as a psychic structure, pure awareness, an initiator of action, the source of experience, a superordinate or transcendental entity, and as something beyond conceptualization. How we define it determines how we think about its transformation, its evolution, and how (or if) we can know its essence.
10:00-10:45 Thoughts Without a Thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective - Mark Epstein, M.D.
Buddhism in its pscyhological aspect is a depth psychology with a clear prescription for the alleviation of suffering. Translating these understandings into the language of psychoanalytic theory illuminates the practice of psychotherapy; reciprocally, psychoanalytic concepts enrich our understanding of the spiritual transformation envisioned in Buddhist teachings.
10:45-11:00 Break
11:00-11:45 To Be and Not To Be: That is the Challenge - Jeffrey Rubin, Ph.D.
Psychoanalysis and Buddhism are complementary; each illuminates and each obscures a different facet of subjectivity. The "far-sightedness" of psychoanalysis and the "near-sightedness" of Buddhism are considered in a bi-focal conception of self which is more encompassing than either view alone.
11:45-12:00 Discussion
12:00-1:30 Lunch (on your own)



Sunday P.M. May 17 - Spiritual Narrative: Waking Up From the Story of One's Life

Spiritual experience has important implications for our understanding of psychological change. Instead of thinking of the self as the constant in a shifting pattern of mental and physical experience, we can see the self as a narrative which elaborates these experiences into an unfolding story. What does this shift in perspective on the self mean for the process of psychotherapy?

1:30-2:15 The Self Narrates Itself - Judith Welles, Ph.D.
Psychotherapy and psychoanalysis entail a narrative process in which changes occur in the story which both creates and is created by the self. How can psychoanalytic narrative include spiritual experience?
2:15-3:00 Stories of Transformation - Mark Finn, Ph.D.
How does spiritual experience enhance psychological change/development? What are the similarities and differences between "spiritual change" and "therapeutic change?" Individual and group change will be illustrated from Tibetan Buddhist accounts.
3:00-3:15 Discussion
3:15-3:30 Break
3:30-5:00 Symposium Panel: Psychotherapy, Spirituality, and the Evolution of Mind
The heart of the conference is this panel discussion, which will provide an opportunity for presenters to exchange ideas and to address selected questions from the audience.



Monday A.M. May 18 - Post-Conference Clinical Workshop (optional, ticketed event)

9:00-1:00 This session will provide an opportunity for clinical supervision around the issues of spirituality in psychotherapy. Two of the conference faculty, Jeffrey Rubin, Ph.D. and Judith Welles, Ph.D., will lead separate supervisory workshops for small groups limited to 15 people. The clinical orientation of these workshops will be primarily psychoanalytic. While licensed clinicians at all levels (MFCC, social work, and psychologist) will be welcome, instruction will be tailored to the postdoctoral psychologist.



* Please note: speakers and agenda confirmed but subject to change as necessary. *