Discovering Transpersonal Identity

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
As we grow toward wholeness and become more conscious, the concept of the self goes through a series of transformations. The sense of self that emerges from a healthy integration of mind and body is the "real" or existential self that forms a coherent, organismic whole and interacts with the environment as an open living system. The self at this stage is concerned with authenticity, integrity, and self-determination. The problem at this level of identification is the inevitable confrontation with death and aloneness, alienation and despair in the face of meaninglessness. When existential identity is accepted and faced without self-deception, exclusive identification with the separate existential self may be transcended in awareness of the transpersonal self. The transpersonal self is not identified exclusively with the separate self, but has, by virtue of direct experience and disidentification from ego, discovered the universal ground of being that sustains it. Qualities of the transpersonal self are contrasted with qualities of the superego, and the necessity of facing the transpersonal shadow also is considered. Finally, the limitations of transpersonal identity are discussed in the light of possible transcendence of subject/object dualism. Identification with the transpersonal self as a guiding principle that gives unity to the mind is conceived as the final identification stemming from the duality perceived between self and other.

This publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit: