Integral Psychology: Consciousness, Spirit, Psychology, Therapy Paperback – May 16, 2000

This book is one of my favorite books. I say that because it represents a higher paradigm, actually the ultimate paradigm, which means it's continually subject to even higher paradigms. Behind all teachings, concepts, ideology, religion and science is psychology. Even though there are methods of psychology restricted to particular schools of thoughts, psychology itself exists behind that. And integral psychology is the higher of paradigms. Another wards, every book read, every concept, teaching, every system, no matter how accurate, significant, reliable, and proven empirically and so forth, when taken alone as the "one truth," amounts to reductionism. In most cases, empirical observation is known as flatland, as the observable facts are without the "forgotten truth" (Huston) and subjective reality which cannot be "proven" in objective terms.Wilber is very detailed and the pages of footnotes confirms this, each point painstakingly laid out, many times repeatedly with emphasis on another particular angle. I've read the "Atman Project," "Theory of Everything," "Eye of The Spirit," and it's recommended to also read, "Sex Ecology and Spirituality" (you should see all the footnotes in that book!), "Spectrums of Consciousness," .....Eden," "History of Everything," "A Sociable God," "Sense and Soul," there's some more too, every book is connected to the Integral psychology. This book is really an eye opener and I highly recommend it. When to comes to the transformation and development of consciousness, Wilber's is an expert on the subject, devouring all other authors on this subject, either complimenting or criticizing it in one of his publications. I used to think I perceive all of my paradigms from a larger liberal paradigm and yet now I question such simplicity. And yet can I call this book that? After all, it will not take in one model as "all," but transcend it into another.Pardon this over simplification, especially when it comes to Wilber - It's the four quadrants that I think can be weighed against every teaching. For instance I love Fijof Capra's "Tao of Physics," and it is an awesome analysis of the web of relational links found in physics and the Eastern counterparts. And yet, the book itself is monological, another wards it's an important work but only from the Upper Right Quadrant or objective lens. And so this needs to be taken in account with the other quadrants, the individual subjective, the collective subjective molds of thoughts we think through and the collective objective systems we perceive reality through as well. So every book, whether it's Freud's awesome repression psychoanalysis, which is limited to the Upper Left Quad or individual subjective, or Jung's archetypes which is limited to mostly the Lower Left Quad or collective subjective, or Marx's manifesto, which is limited to the Lower Right Quad or collective objective social system, or David Bohm's Implicate Order, which is limited to the Upper Right , which is the Individual Objective, all these are greatly significant, yet taken alone as dominant act in reductionism. His four quadrant approach is just fantastic in relations to evaluating fairly what ever it is you are reading. I was reading the Tao of Physics and it relates so well the outline of the web of relational links in quantum and eastern thoughts and yet it only falls within the upper right quadrants. I was reading Marx - lower right, Freud - upper left and so on. No matter how wonderful the theory in psychology, in political science, in neurology or biology, in cultural linguistics - they all fall within one or maybe two of the quadrants, all pieces, but never the whole and that is the point here. None can claim absolute, as this is reductionism, while each part is a whole makes up a larger whole/part which is part of a whole/part and so forth.Now there are streams and levels within each quadrant and Wilber can get exhaustive here if he wants to - most of the footnotes are as significant as the chapter they are noted in and he loves going on footnote tangents, worthy of every morsel.I'm impressed in the way Wilber defines much of the grown of consciousness in Sheldrake's theory of morphic fields or collective forces, waves and streams and various levels, which can be advanced more rapidly through altered states and yet cannot be omitted or overridden but most be personally developed and experienced in all.The chapters on premoderism to modernism, but of more significance to myself, the chapter on modernism to postmodernism was the best I've had explained. using the deconstructuralism and both the validity and reductionist aspects - truly enlightening! Wilber is a special writer and personally, I think will go down in history as significant and prolificThere are many facets to this book. One is the pre-trans fallacy, where Wilber argues against his former teaching of romanticism of returning to the pre-ego self, as here he now teaches that the later development, as in the subtle and casual realms of consciousness are areas that include and transcend the ego, a whole/part within a larger whole, as opposed to the trashing of the ego and returning to the pre-ego. It is here that Jung's archetypes represent the subtle and if a collective consciousness relating to before the ego then a pre and not a trans development.Also argued are Stan Grof's adaptation of Rankian analysis incorporated into his analysis of the LSD experience in the return to the pre-ego and what's more argued is the ideas of returning to the birth process psychologically or having to be re-born as in a return. Instead it is a return only to re-experience in the sense of re-living or returning only to loosen the particular repression and to then move back forward to both include and transcend the ego development. You must first fully develop the ego to the strongest or highest extent before transcending it to the higher development.I just purchased books by Jenny Wade, Michael Murphy, Jurgen Habermas, Pappa Free John, Stan Grof, and a few more in conscious development and influences on Wilber.

Ken Wilber provides the foundation for applying integral theory in psychology. A must have for developmental therapists and coaches.

It was really fascinating. I read this for a class or else I think I might have had a harder time really understanding it. I would STRONGLY advise against NOT getting the kindle version. Charts are hard to read because the words are so small. Especially if you are getting it for school and writing a paper on it, SOOO annoying to go back and forth. It was my mistake to get a book for school on kindle but I waited too long and needed it instantly.

As a student of Depth Psychology and a former professor of Developmental GeneticsI can only say, wow, thanks. For anyone that has taken the courses that cover some the terrain that Wilber covers, Freud, Jung, object relations, Self psychology, "spiritual" psychology, Social Psychology, etc. etc. and especially tried to orient themselves within the swamp of opinion on epistemology, ontology, approach, and method, this is a God send. There is so much hubris in many of those disciplines simply because they do not see the truths of other disciplines above, below, and to the left and right of their own narrow perspective. They do not see the RELATIONSHIPS between their various domains, and that is crucial, because it qualifies specialness, humbles grandiose ego. And that is exactly what Wilber gives us, an understanding of the RELATIONSHIP between these various fields that is truly profound and remarkable, especially given the level and depth of each particular field that he covers, and the promise it holds for each individual that reads it- not to say for the collective. I could write much more on the validity of his approach and his condensing so many expansive and deep fields but it would be a waste of time because either you will take the time to go understand all of those fields and perspectives in order to appreciate the value of the integral perspective, or you will be like many of the jealous critiques on Amazon who are so over inflated in their self importance and enamored with their socially-constructed-attached view to honor work well done. These childish personas would seem to rather try to outdo Mr. Wilber than to offer constructive feedback, or be an adult and offer something better or more valid. After all, if you are not humbled by this work, then you are probably not capable of being humbled. That being said, I do not think it is what Wilber claims it is after reading Jeff Meyerhof's outstanding critique "Bald Ambition". Most problematic is that the rationale for one stage being more advanced than another is weak and it tends in this way to hubris, perhaps even extreme hubris. Nonetheless, if you want to see connections between many areas that you never thought about it stands out as a tour de force.

Person I bought it for finds this book a bit prohibitive for people that don’t have a super strong grip on the English language but it has a lot of valuable information in it :)

This is the best presentation and combination of the almost too many psychological systems. It is clear and well writen, But it could be a dificult reading for those who does not studied the psychological systems and theories before to attemp this book. I use it a lot while I was working as a psychotherapist and as a parallel reading the first years of my buddhist practice. It was really helpfull.

This is the most comprehensive view of the field of psychology that I have come across. Wilber's a bit too critical of systems theory, but shows how various psychological paradigms fit together nicely in a complementary way. Additionally, he opens higher levels of consciousness as legitimate topics for scientific research, and although he doesn't mention them specifically, I can see how paranormal and near-death studies can formally enter into legitimate psychological study.