Spirituality and Indian Psychology / International and Cultural Psychology (PDF)

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 psychological perspective 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.