BV - May 2015 Yr 2 Issue 6 E

emotional intelligence. Rogers (1961)
indicates that empathy and unconditional
positive regard for the client create a growth
promoting climate. Rogers thought that
accurate empathy was one of the three core
conditions of effective psychotherapy (Dowd
& McCleery, 2007). Empathy strengthens the
therapeutic alliance. Vyskocilova and
Colleagues (2011) highlight that empathy
helps to understand both emotional reactions
and the meanings of experience for the client.
Buddhism is a practical philosophy that
advocates providing empathic responses to
humans as well as other living beings. In
Buddhist psychotherapeutic approach
empathy has a special status. Buddhistic
empathy is a state of mind that is filled with
wisdom, tolerance and loving-kindness.
According to Buddhism, compassion is an
aspiration, a state of mind, wanting others to
be free from suffering. It's not passive -- it's
not empathy alone -- but rather an
empathetic altruism that actively strives to
free others from suffering (Dalai Lama, 2005).
Psychoanalytic Technique and Buddhist
Psychotherapy
In his famous lecture series at the Clark
University in 1909 Sigmund Freud
highlighted that psychoanalysis is a method
of treating nervous patients medically. In
classical psychoanalysis, unconscious
defense mechanisms such as denial,
splitting, and projection are identified as
preventing psychic equilibrium and the
genuine expression of self. In this method,
defenses are made conscious, rendering them
superfluous and health is achieved when one
develops new, more appropriate ways of
accessing validation, love, and connection
(Neale, 2012). Safran (2012) describes
psychoanalysis as a new way of looking at
inner life.
The psychoanalytical components in
Buddhism have been emphasized by many
scholars like Martin Wicramasinghe D.Lit,
Laurence W. Christensen etc. (Jayatunge,
2011). Some contemporary psychologists see
parallels between the Zen Buddhism and
psychoanalysis. The primacy of experiencing
for both disciplines, particularly concerning
the experiencing subject’s momentary state of
consciousness, forms a central theme for
both Zen and psychoanalysis (Cooper 2001).
“…[W]hat can be said with more certainty is
that the knowledge of Zen, and a concern with
it, can have a most fertile and clarifying
influence on the theory and technique of
psychoanalysis. Zen, different as it is in its
method from psychoanalysis, can sharpen the
focus, throw new light on the nature of insight,
and heighten the sense of what it is to see,
what it is to be creative, what it is to overcome
the affective contaminations and false
intellectualizations which are the necessary
results of experience based on the subjectobject
split” (Zen Buddhism and
Psychoanalysis Eric Fromm p. 140).
The psychoanalytical module in Buddhism is
very much evident. Buddhism provides
psychological methods of analyzing human
experience and inquiring into the potential
and hidden capacities of the human mind.
According to Buddhism mind precedes its
objects. They are mind-governed and mindmade.
The verse 37 of the Dhammapada
explains the dynamics of human mind thus
The mind is capable of travelling vast
distances – up or down, north or south, east or
west – in any direction. It can travel to the
past or the future.
Existential - Therapy and Buddhist
Psychotherapy
Buddhism and Existential-humanistic
psychology share common grounds with
realm of representation, realm of action and
reality of self. Both psychotherapies are
based on mindful awareness and directed
towards growth potential. Both consider the
human condition as a whole.
Existential Psychotherapy is aimed to
enhance self knowledge and search for
meaning. Frankl (1946) believed that man’s
main concern is not to seek pleasure or to
avoid pain, but rather to search meaning in
his life. Search for meaning help individuals
to construct connections, find wisdom and
experience healthy transformation when
dealing with trauma. Individuals surviving a
traumatic event often demonstrate a need to
create meaning around events to make sense
and regain coherence to their lives, thereby
reestablishing the biographical continuity
which had been lost (Abernathy, 2008).
Search for meaning is parallel to Buddhist
philosophy. Buddhist psychotherapy
encourages clients to search for meaning
hence allowing posttraumatic positive growth.
Tedeschi & Calhoun (1996) define
Eric Fromm suggests that Zen Buddhism has
a prolific influence on theory and technique
of psychoanalysis.
Posttraumatic growth (PTG) as positive
● Year – 2 ● Issue – 6 ● May 2015 ● Buddhist Voice ● www.buddhistvoice.com ● Email: indian.buddhistvoice@gmail.com 18