WHAT IS TRANSPERSONAL ?

« What is Transpersonal?

"Transpersonal is the transcendence of the notion of person, everything that is beyond. It is one of the most direct paths to access spirituality without necessarily having to go through religion.
This word, used by Emmanuel Mounier as early as 1947, gained universal success in the 1970s with the study of altered states of consciousness.

The term 'transpersonal' was chosen in 1969 by Abraham Maslow and defined very precisely by him in his books and articles (1964, 1968, 1971).

He begins with a study of human motivations which he classifies hierarchically into five levels: physiological, safety, integration, self-esteem, and self-actualization.
It is then, after a study of peak experiences, that he discovers a sixth need, that of self-transcendence.

This higher level encompasses all experiences of transcendence of the human person towards Transcendence, which he calls transpersonal.

Beyond the fifth need for self-actualization, there thus lies an inalienable need for transcendence, the need for a meaningful life (value-life) which, beyond the usual limits of human identity, drives one to place oneself in the service of others.
This supreme level is so important to Maslow that one can no longer speak of it in terms of need or motivation, but of metaneeds or Being-needs (B-needs).

These are the needs for Truth, Beauty, or Transcendence, which thus constitute the experience of Values. This is the foundation and basis of psychotherapy.
And this constitutes a New Psychology: Transpersonal Psychology.

It is a transcendence of all methods devoted to self-realization, to the actualization of the person, to the strengthening of the ego, to personal development, etc. (fifth level).
This sixth level, which is that of sacrifice and devotion in the realization of Values and no longer of self-realization egotistically, provokes a radical change."

Extract from: "Transpersonal Therapies" (ed. Bernet-Danilo 1999) by the Honorary President of the French Association of Transpersonal Studies and the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Marc-Alain Descamps, Doctor of Psychology, psychoanalyst. »