1st Edition

The Dynamic Psychology of Early Buddhism

By Rune Johansson Copyright 1979
238 Pages
by Routledge

238 Pages
by Routledge

Originally published in 1979, The Dynamic Psychology of Early Buddhism was a psychologist’s attempt to understand what the Buddha meant by “dependent origination” ( paticcasumappāda , sometimes translated as “causality”). Those who are familiar with Theravada Buddhism have met the famous series of twelve links in the chain of causation ( nidanas ) of which each is said to be the condition of... Read more

Preface.  1. The Psychological Background  2. The One Reality  3. The Dynamic Act  4. Consciousness  5. Growth and Development  6. Perception and Feeling  7. Motivation  8. Personality  9. The Influxes  10. The Intellectual Superstructure  11. Understanding.  Summary.  Notes.  References.  Index of Technical Terms.  Index of Quotations from Nikāya Texts.

Biography

Rune E. A. Johansson (1918–1981) was born in Sweden. At the University of Lund he studied psychology and languages, among them Sanskrit and Pali, obtained his Licentiate Degree in 1954, and lectured there in psychology for some years. He travelled and studied extensively in the Orient, studying Sanskrit at the University of Calcutta and Pali at the University of Ceylon. During 1966–7 he was visiting Professor at the University of Tel Aviv, and later head of the Biotechnical Section of the Research Institute of the Swedish National Defence. He was also closely associated with the University of Uppsala, Sweden.