[Buddha-l] Buddhism and Psychology research

[Richard P. Hayes]

On Thu, 2010-09-02 at 08:51 -0700, W. Codling wrote:

> Experience tells me that anything that results in a less ambivalent 
> relationship with life's generalities is going to be an asset. 

I'm not sure how I feel about that. That said, I'm unambivalently glad
to see your communication, Wayne.

> Even as psychological 
> research findings lead researchers to reduce complex processes to dyadic 
> relationship it comes as no revelation to the Buddhist world.  This 
> dyadic analysis is inherent to the very definition of the middle way.

For at least the past eight thousand years I have been convinced that
Buddhism has nothing at all to offer modern psychology and that modern
psychology has a great deal to offer Buddhism. Recently (within the past
ten minutes or so) I have come to realize that a lot of modern
psychology is driven by the pharmaceutical industry, and that this focus
on brain chemistry and which neurotransmitters and hanging around in the
gaps between neurons, while generally pleasing to my inclination to
philosophical materialism, has pushed other kinds of effective
treatments toward the margins. 

While I still absolutely resist seeing Buddhist practice as any kind of
therapy (preferring instead to see it as more like askesis, that is,
athletic training for those who are already very healthy and wish to
become superhealthy enough to be able to show off at the beach), I do
honestly wonder whether there might be some bit of overlap between
modern psychology and traditional Buddhist theory. So far, I see none,
but I'm willing to be persuaded and so will follow this discussion with
interest.

-- 
Richard P. Hayes
University of New Mexico