"In Buddhism, the idea of conditioning by the environment is recognised, but only for what it is worth. Past Kamma, current volitional activity, time delays in kamma bearing fruit even after the stimulus has vanished, variable spatial possibilities for the fruition of kamma away from the scene of the stimuli, are totally different yet related ideas in Buddhism."
by Rahu Sarath-Chandra
(October 14, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Strictly speaking Buddhism should not be compared with Western psychology. The aims, interests and methods are very different. Buddhist psychology is about 2600 years old whereas Western psychology is barely over 100 years old. However, as Western systems are better known and more in vogue at the present time, it is of some use to look at a few comparisons between selected theories in the different schools of psychology and apparent parallels in Buddhist psychology. No conclusions are suggested and the comparisons are merely tentative and indicative.
Buddhism is essentially and clearly based on an integrated homogenous body of knowledge called Buddhist philosophy, and therefore the study of Buddhist psychology necessarily involves references to philosophical considerations. At least some schools of Western psychology derive strength from Western philosophical ideas. However in this chapter minimal reference is made to philosophy, as it is not a major point of interest in this work.
The comparison is arranged by the different schools of psychology restricting the discussion to the following types of thinking:
1 Psychoanalytical
2 Cognitive
3 Developmental
4 Gestalt
5 Neuropsychology
6 Behavioural
7 Cognitive behavioural therapy
8 Other types of thinking
(1) Psychoanalysis recognised the existence of powerful inner forces. Sigmund Freud spoke of the conscious, subconscious and the unconscious minds, in describing the layers that form the mind. The conscious is a small part of the mind, like the tip of an iceberg. The unconscious part holds past experience, memories of actions, events and reactions, feelings and other emotions that are normally unknown to the conscious part of the mind. The subconscious part is close to the aware mind, or the conscious mind. This description amounts to a theory of human behaviour, stages of development of the individual, and suggests a make up of personality. The development of defence mechanisms is explained. Freud was able to set up therapies for disorders of the mind using this approach and analysis.
The emphasis placed on the inner forces residing in the mind are taken so far as to suggest that a human being lives as a victim of the creations of his subconscious mind. On this basis the behaviour of a human being is more or less automated. There is little he can do about it.
Feelings are of primary importance, not so much cognition. Even in therapeutics Freud used the types and strengths of feelings as an indication of the nature of the past trauma. This was looked upon as expert analysis.
The subconscious and the unconscious parts of the mind are full of unhappy memories of bad experiences, suppressed or repressed.
Carl Jung and many others adapted and extended Freudian theories.
. The essentials of this type of analysis go somewhat close to the Buddhist analysis of the being. The Buddha treated the being as a bodymind combined process. The mind was treated as the forerunner that eventually determines all actions. The Buddhist analysis dealt mainly with reasonably normal people, seeking help to improve or to move out of a difficulty. Freudian thinking lays more emphasis on abnormal behaviour and hence suitable therapies to bring about normalcy.
Further, the Buddha emphasised that free will and the exercise of the conscious mind can achieve almost anything including enlightenment. This is far from suggesting that the person is helpless. He may be helpless to begin with, but a minute trigger is capable of bringing about a total change. The story of Angulimala is just one example.
In the Buddhist analysis, the resident memories are not always bad. In fact these could be good memories, very wholesome ones that can be used as stepping-stones to progress. The balance can be changed so that useful memories eventually dominate
The therapies suggested by the Buddha in cases like Patacara and Kisagotami, appealed to the cognitive aspects of the mind, inviting them to observe and understand a situation. The guided cognition resolved their problems. In more normal cases, the Buddha always guided people through morality, mental development and the resulting higher levels of wisdom. In short, he got people to change their conscious behaviour to their advantage and for the good of the world.
However Buddhist psychology has no place for a concrete unit forming part of the person such as a psyche. This position is a key consideration in Buddhist philosophy.
(2) In cognitive psychology attention is again drawn to the mental processes. George Miller dealt with the limitations of immediate memory using experiments. Jerome Bruner held the view that our perceptions are determined by our expectations. Frederic Bartlett's experiments regarding remembering a story led to the theory of schemas which effectively suggested that we reinvent the stories learnt in the past as best suits our own needs. Cognitive psychology has also examined the value of attention and icons in memory comparing the mind with a computer.
Again, somewhat similar ideas are found in Buddhist psychology when memory, perceptions, perpetual mental formations, and the sign aspect of perception are considered. The important difference is the coherence of the Buddhist ideas with hardly any contradictions. The idea of schemas in cognitive psychology could indicate oneway traffic. According to Buddhist psychology, the manipulation of a story in memory can be reversed through the development of mental states.
(3) Developmental psychology according to its basic idea that human beings keep developing throughout life is quite close to the Buddhist viewpoint. However the theoretical explanation of development is not unified to enable a comparative study. For instance a theory like mechanistic development has little in common with psychoanalytic development. Jean Piaget's idea of assimilation (meaning the intake of information from the environment), and the idea of accommodation (meaning the creation of new information) in the mind of a person, is of special interest.
According to Buddhist psychology assimilation is true provided the word 'environment' is not restricted to the external environment. The idea of accommodation is easily explained by the interplay of perceptions using the process of thinking. At least to that extent there is agreement.
(4) Gestalt psychology emphasises the experience of the whole as the prime fact. A detail is like a pop up from the total of the prime fact. The sum of the parts together is greater than the whole. Group dynamics in a common enterprise illustrates this principle. This system presumes that a person is capable of self direction. In fact a person needs self realisation, and does take responsibility for his own actions.
One of the Gestalt laws of organisation states that we tend to group things together that are similar.
In learning theory, Gestalt psychology states that learning is more effective when principles and generalisations are learnt before the details, specifics and applications. Transposition of knowledge has also been suggested. Knowledge gained in one situation can be generalised and applied to deal with another situation.
The ease of learning disturbed by an interruption, looking at yourself as others see you, looking at a person as a whole and not in parts or singled attributes are connected with gestalt psychology.
Kurt Koffka held the idea that people tend to convert the real environment into a perceived environment, and that real stimuli are converted to perceived stimuli or proximal stimuli.
The phi phenomenon, an apparent motion (for instance between two lights looked at in turn by an observer) recognised by Max Wertheimer, postulated that a person does not actually see the external world as it is, but rather perceives a picture that is simplified and coherent to his thinking.
In this system just as in Buddhist psychology, the significance of the idea of the present is emphasised.
Some of the ideas in this system derive credence from the idea of perceptions created by oneself.
These considerations lead us to conclude that there are many similarities between Gestalt psychology and Buddhist psychology. Most of the above ideas are connected with memory, perceptions, mental states and thought patterns recognised in Buddhist psychology.
The common thread of the whole and not the part is vividly seen in many discourses. For example, a specific theory becomes meaningful in practice only as a part of a set of theories. Certain practices are discarded as rituals when they do not form part of a meaningful goal oriented system of practice. Seeing oneself as others see him is mentioned in the discourse on loving-kindness. The Buddha admonishes that a person should think how wise sages will see him and adjust his behaviour accordingly.
While gestalt psychology emphasised structure, Buddhist psychology laid emphasis on both the functional and the structural aspects of the contents of the mind.
(5) In Neuropsychology, human behaviour is linked to the activities of the brain, which in turn are treated as a complex, efficient, well organised operating unit. The system attempts at following the scientific method. The complex and organised processes of the mind are presumed to be occurring in the head, the brain and the nervous system being associated with the brain. Attention is focused on mental processes as a product of the brain attempting to correlate responses to stimuli.
In this context the mind gets too close to being treated as a physiological phenomenon.
There is a belief that all behaviour is affected by sensation all the time.
Recent experiments indicate that as certain mental processes take place, neurons are shot off from defined areas of the brain, ultimately causing physical responses. In this connection it is of interest that the lasting effects of meditation on parts of the brain have been demonstrated.
Individual behaviour is broadly of three types, the first being sense dominated; here the response to a stimulus is produced through the activity of the central nervous system. The brain acts as a centre of the system. The second type is also sense dominated, but will not involve the activity of the brain, as the response is generated at some other point in the nervous system, not the brain. These are reflex actions helpful in impending danger where absolutely quick action is necessary. The third type involves a longer duration of mediative activity within the brain, involving thinking and the formation of ideas and concepts.
When thinking and delayed action is involved, it is suggested that a sort of higher behaviour arises. So, it is not that a stimulus prompts a response, but the mediation in the brain produces the response.
It is also suggested that the response is not the result of a specific single stimulus coupled with thinking, but rather a complex of stimuli generating a complex of thought processes, culminating in a complex of responses.
There is a level of selectivity in producing responses. As the mind is applied to the stimuli, attention is drawn to one or more in a set of stimuli. Attention is formed and selectivity begins at this point. The selectivity follows through to the thinking process, and then to the selection of responses. Hence selectivity is not an isolated phenomenon. Attention cuts off stimuli of low interest. Thinking selects the responses and their timing.
These views go very close to the Buddhist approach in some ways but are inadequate in comparison. The main similarity is acceptance of the prevalence of mental activity as a forerunner to human behaviour, although it is treated as brain activity. However the value of this approach is diminished by the emphasis placed on physiological aspects in dealing with mental processes. In Buddhist psychology the mind remains supreme and is attributed the power to influence the physiological processes. Physiological changes are simply a material outcome of an immaterial process, according to Buddhist thinking. The brain and other relevant parts of the body are merely facilitating mechanisms. In fact, neuropsychology experiments seem to support Buddhist thinking. The fact meditation can cause physical changes in the brain illustrates this point.
The inadequacies of neuropsychology seem to stem from the absence of the significance of mental states and related perceptions, the tendencies and collective tendencies of perceptions as key factors in guiding the mind in exercising its selective operations.
Another inadequacy in neuropsychology is that it starts from birth and ends in death, with no reference to the state before and the state after. A debatable difference is that the idea of volitional activity producing Kamma is absent in neuropsychology.
According to Buddhism, past kamma has a major bearing on the behaviour and future experience of a being, though future kamma, or the current exercise of volition has the ability to influence future experience and future behaviour. This mediating influence of past kamma has no place in neuropsychology, and this can be considered a major shortcoming in neuropsychology, specially in the face of experiments in hypnosis and regression throwing light on past lives and their bearing on the current life.
Neuropsychology of course has no room for the no-self theory or the idea of enlightenment. Both of these do explain the behaviour of many human beings. It is interesting that physical science produces a parallel to the noself theory, as matter and energy are all treated as a flux devoid of any ultimate, substantial and permanent 'thing' in either of these. Will neuropsychology follow science and accept the noself theory?
Again, in neuropsychology the brain and the central nervous system seem to guide the mind to determine responses to stimuli. In Buddhism it is the mind that guides the brainand the other body systems to produce responses. There are references to the heart in connection with the activities of the mind. In fact even when the brain dies, the being can still live but not so when the heart stops. It is quite possible that the mind operates in association with the heart, while the brain is a vital mechanism relevant to the activities of the mind, and the nervous system as a communication and control network.
In modern power stations, there is an integrated control system, but that is not the unit that produces electrical energy. It is the turbine turned with the help of a boiler in coal powered powerstations that generates the energy. In the case of the mind the heart could be the centre of energy, and the brain the control system.
In discussing mental activity, Buddhist psychology does not refer to this detail, but on many an occasion, reference is made to the heart rather than the brain. This requires further research.
The author suggests that some mental states are closely connected to the brain while most of them are closer to the heart. This can be seen as the heart beat changes as certain mental states change. As extreme greed or extreme hatred occurs, the heartbeat becomes very pronounced. Lustful excitement is another example.
(6) The behavioural schools of psychology see behaviour simply as responses to external stimuli. It is again claimed to be a scientific approach. In these systems everything connected to the mind, as we know it, is irrelevant. Thus, consciousness, thinking, ideas, concepts, states of mind, emotions, cognition, value systems, traits of personality, hidden motives and the like do not exist. The environment has conditioned us to be what we are today. Watson, Thorndike, Skinner and others followed this trend of argument. The individual is treated sometimes as a passive organism. The person has little control over his behaviour; there is therefore no sense of responsibility cast on the individual.
In classical behaviourism, attributed to John B. Watson, conditioning takes place when a new stimulus is paired with a previous connection between a stimulus and a response. What does the pairing? It is not clear. Buddhism explains this through perceptions in memory, an aspect of the mind. This Buddhist idea would have been anathema to B.F. Skinner, the proponent of radical behaviourism.
Systematic modification of behaviour through the technique of systematic desensitisation runs as a parallel to the methods of dealing with perceptions taught in Buddhism but the reasoning is entirely different.
In Buddhism, the idea of conditioning by the environment is recognised, but only for what it is worth. Past Kamma, current volitional activity, time delays in kamma bearing fruit even after the stimulus has vanished, variable spatial possibilities for the fruition of kamma away from the scene of the stimuli, are totally different yet related ideas in Buddhism.
Perhaps Buddhism differs most from the behavioural schools of psychology despite the fact that the impact of the environment is recognised in Buddhism in a different way.
However, consider a Buddhist thinking deeply with reasonable understanding of the no-self theory, and the way the self-concept we have is thickened with every encounter we experience with the world around us, through sensations, perceptions, likes, dislikes, ignorance and confusion. It would not be difficult for him to see a fundamental truth in behavioural psychology running parallel with Buddhist thinking. Still, the essential denial of the mental processes espoused in behavioural theory still remains a major divergence from Buddhist psychology.
(7) Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) draws material from various types of thinking in psychology, particularly cognitive and behavioural, and attempts to apply these using scientific methods. The clinical approach is emphasised. CBT facilitates research via scientific methods.
The express therapeutic inclination of CBT has attracted the attention of government and health funds. It is popular in academia at the present time.
One might argue whether this is a separate school of psychology, a separate type of thinking or whether it is a defined method of application.
Albert Ellis discussed the interaction among thinking, feeling and doing, as a primary consideration. The beliefs and perceptions of a person ultimately determine the consequences or outcomes of an activating event.
Buddhist psychology fully agrees with this position. Moreover, Buddhist psychology goes on to say that perceptions actually create one's world and therefore determine responses to stimuli presented by the world outside as well as the responses to older perceptions resurfacing and energising time and again. Buddhist psychology looks at perceptions as the root cause of all mental tendencies and in some cases, insanity. Buddhist psychotherapeutics revolves around this idea. The common perception of a permanent 'soul' is ultimately central to all our problems.
(8) Under other types of thinking we can consider functionalism. Here the mechanistic nature of stimulus-response is modified to allow for the view of the person regarding the function or goal or purpose of the entire action due to the stimulus, as far as that person is concerned. Hence, ten people can have ten different responses to one single stimulus.
According to the ideas of perceptions, mental states and thought processes, Buddhist psychology is much in agreement with the basic idea of functionalism. It does not mean that Buddhist psychology can support Frederick Taylor's ideas of scientific management or the work motivation theories of Elton Mayo relating to the Hawthorne Effect.
It is suggested that the Buddhist idea of the sense platform mentioned in the chapter on consciousness offers a more meaningful explanation of the phenomena under consideration. The human being needs to be treated as a whole and not in parts.
In Buddhist psychology however, both functional and structural aspects of the contents of the mind are given their due places. - Sri Lanka Guardian
(October 14, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Strictly speaking Buddhism should not be compared with Western psychology. The aims, interests and methods are very different. Buddhist psychology is about 2600 years old whereas Western psychology is barely over 100 years old. However, as Western systems are better known and more in vogue at the present time, it is of some use to look at a few comparisons between selected theories in the different schools of psychology and apparent parallels in Buddhist psychology. No conclusions are suggested and the comparisons are merely tentative and indicative.
Buddhism is essentially and clearly based on an integrated homogenous body of knowledge called Buddhist philosophy, and therefore the study of Buddhist psychology necessarily involves references to philosophical considerations. At least some schools of Western psychology derive strength from Western philosophical ideas. However in this chapter minimal reference is made to philosophy, as it is not a major point of interest in this work.
The comparison is arranged by the different schools of psychology restricting the discussion to the following types of thinking:
1 Psychoanalytical
2 Cognitive
3 Developmental
4 Gestalt
5 Neuropsychology
6 Behavioural
7 Cognitive behavioural therapy
8 Other types of thinking
(1) Psychoanalysis recognised the existence of powerful inner forces. Sigmund Freud spoke of the conscious, subconscious and the unconscious minds, in describing the layers that form the mind. The conscious is a small part of the mind, like the tip of an iceberg. The unconscious part holds past experience, memories of actions, events and reactions, feelings and other emotions that are normally unknown to the conscious part of the mind. The subconscious part is close to the aware mind, or the conscious mind. This description amounts to a theory of human behaviour, stages of development of the individual, and suggests a make up of personality. The development of defence mechanisms is explained. Freud was able to set up therapies for disorders of the mind using this approach and analysis.
The emphasis placed on the inner forces residing in the mind are taken so far as to suggest that a human being lives as a victim of the creations of his subconscious mind. On this basis the behaviour of a human being is more or less automated. There is little he can do about it.
Feelings are of primary importance, not so much cognition. Even in therapeutics Freud used the types and strengths of feelings as an indication of the nature of the past trauma. This was looked upon as expert analysis.
The subconscious and the unconscious parts of the mind are full of unhappy memories of bad experiences, suppressed or repressed.
Carl Jung and many others adapted and extended Freudian theories.
. The essentials of this type of analysis go somewhat close to the Buddhist analysis of the being. The Buddha treated the being as a bodymind combined process. The mind was treated as the forerunner that eventually determines all actions. The Buddhist analysis dealt mainly with reasonably normal people, seeking help to improve or to move out of a difficulty. Freudian thinking lays more emphasis on abnormal behaviour and hence suitable therapies to bring about normalcy.
Further, the Buddha emphasised that free will and the exercise of the conscious mind can achieve almost anything including enlightenment. This is far from suggesting that the person is helpless. He may be helpless to begin with, but a minute trigger is capable of bringing about a total change. The story of Angulimala is just one example.
In the Buddhist analysis, the resident memories are not always bad. In fact these could be good memories, very wholesome ones that can be used as stepping-stones to progress. The balance can be changed so that useful memories eventually dominate
The therapies suggested by the Buddha in cases like Patacara and Kisagotami, appealed to the cognitive aspects of the mind, inviting them to observe and understand a situation. The guided cognition resolved their problems. In more normal cases, the Buddha always guided people through morality, mental development and the resulting higher levels of wisdom. In short, he got people to change their conscious behaviour to their advantage and for the good of the world.
However Buddhist psychology has no place for a concrete unit forming part of the person such as a psyche. This position is a key consideration in Buddhist philosophy.
(2) In cognitive psychology attention is again drawn to the mental processes. George Miller dealt with the limitations of immediate memory using experiments. Jerome Bruner held the view that our perceptions are determined by our expectations. Frederic Bartlett's experiments regarding remembering a story led to the theory of schemas which effectively suggested that we reinvent the stories learnt in the past as best suits our own needs. Cognitive psychology has also examined the value of attention and icons in memory comparing the mind with a computer.
Again, somewhat similar ideas are found in Buddhist psychology when memory, perceptions, perpetual mental formations, and the sign aspect of perception are considered. The important difference is the coherence of the Buddhist ideas with hardly any contradictions. The idea of schemas in cognitive psychology could indicate oneway traffic. According to Buddhist psychology, the manipulation of a story in memory can be reversed through the development of mental states.
(3) Developmental psychology according to its basic idea that human beings keep developing throughout life is quite close to the Buddhist viewpoint. However the theoretical explanation of development is not unified to enable a comparative study. For instance a theory like mechanistic development has little in common with psychoanalytic development. Jean Piaget's idea of assimilation (meaning the intake of information from the environment), and the idea of accommodation (meaning the creation of new information) in the mind of a person, is of special interest.
According to Buddhist psychology assimilation is true provided the word 'environment' is not restricted to the external environment. The idea of accommodation is easily explained by the interplay of perceptions using the process of thinking. At least to that extent there is agreement.
(4) Gestalt psychology emphasises the experience of the whole as the prime fact. A detail is like a pop up from the total of the prime fact. The sum of the parts together is greater than the whole. Group dynamics in a common enterprise illustrates this principle. This system presumes that a person is capable of self direction. In fact a person needs self realisation, and does take responsibility for his own actions.
One of the Gestalt laws of organisation states that we tend to group things together that are similar.
In learning theory, Gestalt psychology states that learning is more effective when principles and generalisations are learnt before the details, specifics and applications. Transposition of knowledge has also been suggested. Knowledge gained in one situation can be generalised and applied to deal with another situation.
The ease of learning disturbed by an interruption, looking at yourself as others see you, looking at a person as a whole and not in parts or singled attributes are connected with gestalt psychology.
Kurt Koffka held the idea that people tend to convert the real environment into a perceived environment, and that real stimuli are converted to perceived stimuli or proximal stimuli.
The phi phenomenon, an apparent motion (for instance between two lights looked at in turn by an observer) recognised by Max Wertheimer, postulated that a person does not actually see the external world as it is, but rather perceives a picture that is simplified and coherent to his thinking.
In this system just as in Buddhist psychology, the significance of the idea of the present is emphasised.
Some of the ideas in this system derive credence from the idea of perceptions created by oneself.
These considerations lead us to conclude that there are many similarities between Gestalt psychology and Buddhist psychology. Most of the above ideas are connected with memory, perceptions, mental states and thought patterns recognised in Buddhist psychology.
The common thread of the whole and not the part is vividly seen in many discourses. For example, a specific theory becomes meaningful in practice only as a part of a set of theories. Certain practices are discarded as rituals when they do not form part of a meaningful goal oriented system of practice. Seeing oneself as others see him is mentioned in the discourse on loving-kindness. The Buddha admonishes that a person should think how wise sages will see him and adjust his behaviour accordingly.
While gestalt psychology emphasised structure, Buddhist psychology laid emphasis on both the functional and the structural aspects of the contents of the mind.
(5) In Neuropsychology, human behaviour is linked to the activities of the brain, which in turn are treated as a complex, efficient, well organised operating unit. The system attempts at following the scientific method. The complex and organised processes of the mind are presumed to be occurring in the head, the brain and the nervous system being associated with the brain. Attention is focused on mental processes as a product of the brain attempting to correlate responses to stimuli.
In this context the mind gets too close to being treated as a physiological phenomenon.
There is a belief that all behaviour is affected by sensation all the time.
Recent experiments indicate that as certain mental processes take place, neurons are shot off from defined areas of the brain, ultimately causing physical responses. In this connection it is of interest that the lasting effects of meditation on parts of the brain have been demonstrated.
Individual behaviour is broadly of three types, the first being sense dominated; here the response to a stimulus is produced through the activity of the central nervous system. The brain acts as a centre of the system. The second type is also sense dominated, but will not involve the activity of the brain, as the response is generated at some other point in the nervous system, not the brain. These are reflex actions helpful in impending danger where absolutely quick action is necessary. The third type involves a longer duration of mediative activity within the brain, involving thinking and the formation of ideas and concepts.
When thinking and delayed action is involved, it is suggested that a sort of higher behaviour arises. So, it is not that a stimulus prompts a response, but the mediation in the brain produces the response.
It is also suggested that the response is not the result of a specific single stimulus coupled with thinking, but rather a complex of stimuli generating a complex of thought processes, culminating in a complex of responses.
There is a level of selectivity in producing responses. As the mind is applied to the stimuli, attention is drawn to one or more in a set of stimuli. Attention is formed and selectivity begins at this point. The selectivity follows through to the thinking process, and then to the selection of responses. Hence selectivity is not an isolated phenomenon. Attention cuts off stimuli of low interest. Thinking selects the responses and their timing.
These views go very close to the Buddhist approach in some ways but are inadequate in comparison. The main similarity is acceptance of the prevalence of mental activity as a forerunner to human behaviour, although it is treated as brain activity. However the value of this approach is diminished by the emphasis placed on physiological aspects in dealing with mental processes. In Buddhist psychology the mind remains supreme and is attributed the power to influence the physiological processes. Physiological changes are simply a material outcome of an immaterial process, according to Buddhist thinking. The brain and other relevant parts of the body are merely facilitating mechanisms. In fact, neuropsychology experiments seem to support Buddhist thinking. The fact meditation can cause physical changes in the brain illustrates this point.
The inadequacies of neuropsychology seem to stem from the absence of the significance of mental states and related perceptions, the tendencies and collective tendencies of perceptions as key factors in guiding the mind in exercising its selective operations.
Another inadequacy in neuropsychology is that it starts from birth and ends in death, with no reference to the state before and the state after. A debatable difference is that the idea of volitional activity producing Kamma is absent in neuropsychology.
According to Buddhism, past kamma has a major bearing on the behaviour and future experience of a being, though future kamma, or the current exercise of volition has the ability to influence future experience and future behaviour. This mediating influence of past kamma has no place in neuropsychology, and this can be considered a major shortcoming in neuropsychology, specially in the face of experiments in hypnosis and regression throwing light on past lives and their bearing on the current life.
Neuropsychology of course has no room for the no-self theory or the idea of enlightenment. Both of these do explain the behaviour of many human beings. It is interesting that physical science produces a parallel to the noself theory, as matter and energy are all treated as a flux devoid of any ultimate, substantial and permanent 'thing' in either of these. Will neuropsychology follow science and accept the noself theory?
Again, in neuropsychology the brain and the central nervous system seem to guide the mind to determine responses to stimuli. In Buddhism it is the mind that guides the brainand the other body systems to produce responses. There are references to the heart in connection with the activities of the mind. In fact even when the brain dies, the being can still live but not so when the heart stops. It is quite possible that the mind operates in association with the heart, while the brain is a vital mechanism relevant to the activities of the mind, and the nervous system as a communication and control network.
In modern power stations, there is an integrated control system, but that is not the unit that produces electrical energy. It is the turbine turned with the help of a boiler in coal powered powerstations that generates the energy. In the case of the mind the heart could be the centre of energy, and the brain the control system.
In discussing mental activity, Buddhist psychology does not refer to this detail, but on many an occasion, reference is made to the heart rather than the brain. This requires further research.
The author suggests that some mental states are closely connected to the brain while most of them are closer to the heart. This can be seen as the heart beat changes as certain mental states change. As extreme greed or extreme hatred occurs, the heartbeat becomes very pronounced. Lustful excitement is another example.
(6) The behavioural schools of psychology see behaviour simply as responses to external stimuli. It is again claimed to be a scientific approach. In these systems everything connected to the mind, as we know it, is irrelevant. Thus, consciousness, thinking, ideas, concepts, states of mind, emotions, cognition, value systems, traits of personality, hidden motives and the like do not exist. The environment has conditioned us to be what we are today. Watson, Thorndike, Skinner and others followed this trend of argument. The individual is treated sometimes as a passive organism. The person has little control over his behaviour; there is therefore no sense of responsibility cast on the individual.
In classical behaviourism, attributed to John B. Watson, conditioning takes place when a new stimulus is paired with a previous connection between a stimulus and a response. What does the pairing? It is not clear. Buddhism explains this through perceptions in memory, an aspect of the mind. This Buddhist idea would have been anathema to B.F. Skinner, the proponent of radical behaviourism.
Systematic modification of behaviour through the technique of systematic desensitisation runs as a parallel to the methods of dealing with perceptions taught in Buddhism but the reasoning is entirely different.
In Buddhism, the idea of conditioning by the environment is recognised, but only for what it is worth. Past Kamma, current volitional activity, time delays in kamma bearing fruit even after the stimulus has vanished, variable spatial possibilities for the fruition of kamma away from the scene of the stimuli, are totally different yet related ideas in Buddhism.
Perhaps Buddhism differs most from the behavioural schools of psychology despite the fact that the impact of the environment is recognised in Buddhism in a different way.
However, consider a Buddhist thinking deeply with reasonable understanding of the no-self theory, and the way the self-concept we have is thickened with every encounter we experience with the world around us, through sensations, perceptions, likes, dislikes, ignorance and confusion. It would not be difficult for him to see a fundamental truth in behavioural psychology running parallel with Buddhist thinking. Still, the essential denial of the mental processes espoused in behavioural theory still remains a major divergence from Buddhist psychology.
(7) Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) draws material from various types of thinking in psychology, particularly cognitive and behavioural, and attempts to apply these using scientific methods. The clinical approach is emphasised. CBT facilitates research via scientific methods.
The express therapeutic inclination of CBT has attracted the attention of government and health funds. It is popular in academia at the present time.
One might argue whether this is a separate school of psychology, a separate type of thinking or whether it is a defined method of application.
Albert Ellis discussed the interaction among thinking, feeling and doing, as a primary consideration. The beliefs and perceptions of a person ultimately determine the consequences or outcomes of an activating event.
Buddhist psychology fully agrees with this position. Moreover, Buddhist psychology goes on to say that perceptions actually create one's world and therefore determine responses to stimuli presented by the world outside as well as the responses to older perceptions resurfacing and energising time and again. Buddhist psychology looks at perceptions as the root cause of all mental tendencies and in some cases, insanity. Buddhist psychotherapeutics revolves around this idea. The common perception of a permanent 'soul' is ultimately central to all our problems.
(8) Under other types of thinking we can consider functionalism. Here the mechanistic nature of stimulus-response is modified to allow for the view of the person regarding the function or goal or purpose of the entire action due to the stimulus, as far as that person is concerned. Hence, ten people can have ten different responses to one single stimulus.
According to the ideas of perceptions, mental states and thought processes, Buddhist psychology is much in agreement with the basic idea of functionalism. It does not mean that Buddhist psychology can support Frederick Taylor's ideas of scientific management or the work motivation theories of Elton Mayo relating to the Hawthorne Effect.
It is suggested that the Buddhist idea of the sense platform mentioned in the chapter on consciousness offers a more meaningful explanation of the phenomena under consideration. The human being needs to be treated as a whole and not in parts.
In Buddhist psychology however, both functional and structural aspects of the contents of the mind are given their due places. - Sri Lanka Guardian
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