Mind, Consciousness, and the Self in Buddhism and Psychodynamics

Both Buddhism and psychoanalysis (and psychotherapy) share an interest into the nature of the mind, consciousness, and the self. While Buddhism attaches soteriological significance to its mapping of the human mind and consciousness, with the ultimate aim of Awakening to the realization of ‘no-self,’ psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic theories and practices developed in Western cultures are framed as secular, and focus on the actualization of one’s self. Over the past century, both Western and Eastern thinkers have been interpreting, comparing, distinguishing, and integrating Buddhist and psychoanalytic (and psychotherapeutic) systems, and in the process, transforming them. This course is an interdisciplinary study of these cross-cultural engagements between Buddhism and psychodynamics with an emphasis on conceptions of the mind, consciousness and self, especially as they relate to psychoanalysis and psychotherapy.