[Reatclaplen]

I found this article:

Buddhism and Western Psychology

by Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche



"Buddhism and western psychology and western psychotherapy have a somewhat long history, which I am sure many of you are familiar with. It is in some respects an uneasy relationship because, on the one hand, many people actually believe Buddhism is a form of psychology. I am sure you have heard this before: ‘Buddhism is not a religion; it is more like a psychology.’

On the other hand, the very people also say Buddhism is not complete and that we need western psychology and psychotherapy because to follow Buddhism may cause us to develop all kinds of neuroses. They say Buddhism actually can cause us to become neurotic and we would then need to rush to a therapist. After visiting a Buddhist teacher or doing a ten-day intensive meditation course, your mind is stretched to the limit with all kinds of thoughts that were not there before doing the course. Many of the people who say those things also say while Buddhism and psychotherapy are sort of complimentary, we need western psychology.

One of the common arguments used to support of that idea is that Buddhism does not encourage individual development and freedom while western psychology does support them. However, we have to really think about these things carefully, because from what I understand, that is not true.

It is not true that western psychology promotes the idea of individual development, freedom and liberty while Buddhism is restricted by its belief in some kind of karmic determinism and things of that kind. Most of sociological thought and psychological theories of human nature—including Freudianism and all kinds of psychologies and psychotherapies—have their own idea of determinism."

continued :

ralegrinpoche.typepad.com/my_weblog/buddhism-and-western-psychology-traleg-kyabgon-rinpoche.html