Creatively exploring the points of confluence and conflict between Western psychology and Buddhist teachings, various scholars, researchers, and therapists struggle to integrate their diverse psychological orientations -- psychoanalytic, humanistic, cognitive-behavioral, transpersonal -- with their diverse Theravada and Mahayana Buddhist practices. By investigating the degree to which Buddhist insights are compatible with Western science and culture, they then consider what each philosophical/psychological system has to offer the other. The contributors reveal how Buddhism has changed the way they practice psychotherapy, choose their research topics, and conduct their personal lives. In doing so, they illuminate the relevance of ancient Buddhist texts to contemporary cultural and psychological dilemmas.

Encountering Buddhism: Western Psychology and Buddhist Teachings , Seth Segall, SUNY Press, Paperback, 2003, 214 pages, $19.95

Seth Robert Segall is Assistant Clinical Professor at Yale University School of Medicine, Director of Psychology and Psychology Training at Waterbury Hospital, and Vice President of Lotus: The Educational Center for Integrative Healing and Wellness.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Buddhist Psychology
Andrew Olendzki

2. Close Encounters of a New Kind: Toward an Integration of Psychoanalysis and Buddhism
Jeffrey B. Rubin

3. The Buddha Teaches an Attitude, Not an Affiliation
Belinda Siew Luan Khong

4. On Being a Non-Buddhist Buddhist: A Conversation with Myself
Seth Robert Segall

5. Finding the Buddha/Finding the Self: Seeing with the Third Eye
Jean L. Kristeller

6. Awakening from the Spell of Reality: Lessons from Nagarjuna
Kaisa Puhakka

7. Reflections on Mirroring
Robert Rosenbaum

8. Psychotherapy Practice as Buddhist Practice
Seth Robert Segall

9. Buddhism and Western Psychology: An Intellectual Memoir
Eugene Taylor

Glossary

Contributors

Index