Darsan (to See) Lord Shiva in Varanasi. Visual Processes and the Representation of God by Seven Ricksha-Drivers

In spite of its effort to be transculturally relevant, the psychology of religion is quite ethno- or rather Western-centric. This becomes very clear when one tries to "translate" Indian folk religiosity into concepts taken from mainline theories; i.e. social, cognitive or psychoanalytical psychology of religion. Not only do the norms and values differ, but the very ontological assumptions underlying the categories in which the researcher understand differs fundamentally from the internal Hindu anthropological and epistemiological apriori. For example, their words of the psyche include contextuality, from time to space, to ethics to groups. The subtle interrelatedness of the divine, spiritual and the mundane is obvious It includes the flows and exchanges of substances within and between persons with minimal outer boundaries. The author discusses the role of the visual and behavioural dimensions of the Indian religiosity

Liturgy as Experience - the Psychology of Worship. A Theoretical and Empirical Lacuna

This article has three aims: 1) to plead for an approach to the study of the liturgy based on the psychology of religion, 2) to draw up a preliminary theoretical model for how the liturgy can be interpreted, and 3) to narrow down the field for further interdisciplinary development and empirical analysis. People undergo more or less strong experiences during and in conjunction with church services. Perhaps people are moved, experience holiness, reverence, fellowship or closeness to the risen Christ. The problem is what factors during the service strengthen such a religious experience. What is the role played by the music, symbols, the place or building where the service is held, the number of participants and the liturgical event

Possession as a clinical phenomenon: a critique of the medical model

The focus of this article is on the individual's specific experience of his personality being possessed, either partially or completely, momentarily or for an extended period of time, by evil spirits. It must be seen as necessary to supplement the narrow medical model for interpreting states of possession. The clinically interested psychologist of religion, in particular, needs consider aspects of the phenomenology of religion and clinical psychology in order to gain a broader understanding of this phenomenon. To declare that possession experiences are "nothing but psychosis, mania, epilepsy or schizophrenia, are examples of this type of over-simplification. The structure of possession can above all be understood as an interaction between a cognitive, linguistic level, and an emotional, affective level. Only if one unites these two levels can one attain a deeper understanding of the individual's possession experience. It is, in other words, important to remember that to increase understanding of the structure of possession, we must relate the individual's (bio-chemically conditioned) intensive feeling experience to the surrounding subculture's way of defining these intensive feelings. Religious language provides one way of dealing verbally with the unstructured and terrifying aspects of a developing psychosis. It is, for example, possible to describe the personal transformation as a dynamic relationship between the verbal representatives for evil or the Evil One in the world of mythological language, and the intrapsychic, anxiety-filled emotive state, regardless of whether this inner state is considered to be the result of neurosis, psycho-sis, or the consequence of intensive suggestion

Darsan (to See) Lord Shiva in Varanasi. Visual Processes and the Representation of God by Seven Ricksha-Drivers

In spite of its effort to be transculturally relevant, the psychology of religion is quite ethno- or rather Western-centric. This becomes very clear when one tries to "translate" Indian folk religiosity into concepts taken from mainline theories; i.e. social, cognitive or psychoanalytical psychology of religion. Not only do the norms and values differ, but the very ontological assumptions underlying the categories in which the researcher understand differs fundamentally from the internal Hindu anthropological and epistemiological apriori. For example, their words of the psyche include contextuality, from time to space, to ethics to groups. The subtle interrelatedness of the divine, spiritual and the mundane is obvious It includes the flows and exchanges of substances within and between persons with minimal outer boundaries. The author discusses the role of the visual and behavioural dimensions of the Indian religiosity

Roles and relations in Bach's Actus Tragicus (BWV 106) - a Psychologiacal interpretation

No abstract availabl

Attribúció, szerepek, vallás

Hjalmar Sundén [1908] 1967-től 1975-ig volt az Uppsalai Egyetem Valláspszichológiai Tanszékének tanára. Tudományos karrierjét az Ótestamentum és az Újtestamentum tanulmányozásával kezdte, majd a vallástörténettel foglalkozott; doktori disszertációját Henri Bergsonról írta 1940-ben. Előadásain és tanítása során többször is kiemelte, mennyire fontos, hogy a vallás pszichológiai értelmezésének nézőpontja túllépjen a kulturális és történelmi kereteken. Koherens elméletet alakított ki a vallásos élmények dinamikájáról és struktúrájáról, amelyben különös hangsúlyt fektet a vallásos élményre mint perceptuális folyamatra. Ugyanakkor nyitott az alternatív elméleti modellek irányába, mint a pszichoanalízis vagy a tudásszociológia. Fő elméleti művei (1966, 1967, 1974) mellett hozzájárult olyan személyiségek jobb megértéséhez is, mint svédországi Szent Brigitta (1973), vagy ávilai Teréz (1971). Továbbá elmélete segítségével ma már jobban megérthetünk olyan történelmi alakokat, mint Wesley (Källstad, 1974) és Newman (Capps, 1982a), vagy jobban látjuk a glosszolália élményét (Holm, 1976; Malony, Lovekin, 1985), Isten útmutatását (Wikström, 1975), az „Isten unokái" konfliktust (Holmberth, 1980), a meditációt (Van der Lans, 1985), a vallás pszichopatológiáját (Wikström, 1980, 1982a, 1982b). Sundén szerepelméletével kapcsolatban Unger (1976) és Pettersson (1977) végzett elméleti és kísérleti kutatásokat. Jelen cikkem célja, hogy bemutassa Sundén elméletének alapfogalmait, és rámutasson, mennyiben járult hozzá a vallás pszichológiájához az attribúciós elmélet és a szerepátvétel-elmélet (role-taking theory) által (Spilka, Shaver, Kirkpatrick, 1985). Befejezésként olyan filozófiai kutatási eredményeket szeretnék bemutatni a miszticizmusról, amelyek szerint az intenzív vallási élményt meghatározzák a kulturálisan kialakított referenciakeretek

Possession as a clinical phenomenon: a critique of the medical model

The focus of this article is on the individual's specific experience of his personality being possessed, either partially or completely, momentarily or for an extended period of time, by evil spirits. It must be seen as necessary to supplement the narrow medical model for interpreting states of possession. The clinically interested psychologist of religion, in particular, needs consider aspects of the phenomenology of religion and clinical psychology in order to gain a broader understanding of this phenomenon. To declare that possession experiences are "nothing but psychosis, mania, epilepsy or schizophrenia, are examples of this type of over-simplification. The structure of possession can above all be understood as an interaction between a cognitive, linguistic level, and an emotional, affective level. Only if one unites these two levels can one attain a deeper understanding of the individual's possession experience. It is, in other words, important to remember that to increase understanding of the structure of possession, we must relate the individual's (bio-chemically conditioned) intensive feeling experience to the surrounding subculture's way of defining these intensive feelings. Religious language provides one way of dealing verbally with the unstructured and terrifying aspects of a developing psychosis. It is, for example, possible to describe the personal transformation as a dynamic relationship between the verbal representatives for evil or the Evil One in the world of mythological language, and the intrapsychic, anxiety-filled emotive state, regardless of whether this inner state is considered to be the result of neurosis, psycho-sis, or the consequence of intensive suggestion