Integral Psychology:
The psychological aspects of Sri Aurobindo's work
 
SAICE, Puducherry
 

• This undergraduate course has been given at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, Puducherry, more or less in the same format, since 2002.
• It is an optional course that can be taken by students without any other psychology or social science background.
• It consists of 2 periods a week throughout the academic year.
• The various topics are taken up through short introductions, group-discussions, self-observation exercises, literature study and individual projects in which each student can work out a different aspect of the topic at hand. The details of the topics covered are adjusted to the interest of the students.
• There is a strong focus on self-observation and self-guided learning.
• There is no formal (and hardly any informal) evaluation of the student's work by the teacher.

 

What?	What is Psychology? What is the basic subject-area of psychology? How is it related to other disciplines?	The different schools of Psychology Different worldviews, aims and methodologies
Who?	Who am I?   1. The personality What makes us who we are? names; possessions; group-memberships; relationships “character”; traits and dispositions family and other influences	A “roughly constituted chaos” Being conscious; sensing; feeling; willing; thinking Planes and parts of the being the vertical system: body, vital, mind, and beyond the concentric system: outer, inner, and true being
	Who am I?    2. The self Ego, self and psychic being Prakriti and Purusha Witness consciousness	Is there more? The temporary and the eternal The transcendent; cosmic; immanent & personal
How?	How do we know? What is consciousness? What is knowledge? The role of introspection Consciousness, mental processes, information, and the brain Conscious and subconscious processes Dreams Epistemology and methodology in psychology	4 stages of knowledge: information, experience, realisation, transformation 4 types of knowledge: from sense-based knowledge to knowledge by identity perception, thinking and memory; making subjective knowledge reliable mental silence
Why?	Why do we think, feel, act the way we do? Motivation in the individual and in Nature choice: freedom and levels of determination subconscious drives and desires; likes and dislikes; fear and courage the conscious will; equanimity	emotions the role of suffering attitudes relationships love, human and divine
How?	How do we change? basic processes aspiration: the role of agni, aims in life faith: fore-knowledge of the soul self-observation; the need for detachment rejection/purification, surrender resistance	what is perfection? effecting change in personal growth and yoga psychotherapy education management