Intersections of Feminist and Transpersonal Thought

7/30/2019 Intersections of Feminist and Transpersonal Thought

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International Journal of Transpersonal Studies 33Feminist and ranspersonal Tought

Unidentifed Allies:Intersections o Feminist and ranspersonal Tought

and Potential Contributions to Social Change

Christine BrooksInstitute o ranspersonal Psychology

Palo Alto, CA, USA

Contemporary Western eminism and transpersonalism are kaleidoscopic, consisting ointerlocking inuences, yet the elds have developed in parallel rather than in tandem.Both schools o praxis developed during the climate o activism and social experimentationo the 1960s in the United States, and both share a non-pathological view o the humanexperience. Tis discussion suggests loci o synthesized theoretical constructs between thetwo disciplines as well as distinct concepts and practices in both disciplines that may servethe other. Ways in which a eminist-transpersonal perspective may catalyze social change onpersonal, regional, and global levels are proposed.

Contemporary Western eminism (which will be

dened below) and the transpersonal movement

both came o age in the climate o activism

and experimentation in the United States during the

late 1960s, and both movements continue to evolve

today. As with many schools o thought that blossomed

during the height o modernism and then transormed

during the postmodern turn, both eminism and

transpersonal studies1 are kaleidoscopic disciplines made

up o interlocking yet distinct inuences and sources.

However, as evidenced in the literature o both elds and

demonstrated herein, eminism and transpersonalism

have moved in parallel rather than in tandem over the

course o their development. Feminist thought, and even

the voices o women scholars, are woeully lacking in

transpersonal literature. Hartelius, Caplan, and Rardin

(2007) devoted an entire section o their discussion o

a contemporary working denition o the transpersonal

eld to evaluating gender diversity in the literature; it

is interesting to note that they ound that only 25% o

the 182 articles published in 30 years in the key journal

o the eld, theJournal o ranspersonal Psychology, wereattributed to women. Tis led the authors to conclude

that, i transpersonal psychology is to stand or human

wholeness and transormation, it needs to embody what

it teaches; there can be no lasting human transormation

without inclusiveness, nor holism without diversity (p.

19). Te absence o womens voices in the proessional

literature takes on political and social signicance

in relation to such burning questions: who among

transpersonalists is publishing in the proessional

literature, and what barriers continue to exist in

transpersonal circles that maintain the invisibility and

silence o many women? Te ongoing diversity work at

the core o eminist movements, described below, may

serve as a rich resource as transpersonalism moves, as

Rothberg (1999) and Hunt (2010) urged, into a more

socially-engaged phase.

Michael Daniels (2005) suggested that the

eld o transpersonal psychology has relied heavily on

aspects o theory and practice historically related to

an ascending (transcendent) model o psychospiritualdevelopment rather than adescending(immanent) model.Daniels went on to argue that ascending models value

the masculine while descending models are oten related

to aspects traditionally related to eminine qualities. Teproblematics o gendering psychospiritual qualities (i.e.,

using terms such as masculine and eminine to describe

psychological or spiritual qualities) is a topic worthy o

scholarly inquiry in its own right; though it will be a

running question throughout this piece, the ull attention

that this burning issue deserves within the eld is put

o or a uture inquiry. It must sufce here to note that

the requent utilization o binary gendered language (i.e.,

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 29(2), 2010, pp. 33-57

Keywords:feminism, feminist psychology, transpersonalism, transpersonal psychology,social justice, spiritual development, spirituality, interdisciplinarity.


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International Journal of Transpersonal Studies34 Brooks

masculine and eminine qualities)notably common in

transpersonal psychologyis an area ripe or additional

critique, research, and theory in the uture o the eld.

As a researcher and educator who straddles the

two disciplines in my own work, I began my exploration

o the relationships between eminist and transpersonal

thought with a series o questions: What are the

intersections between eminism(s) and transpersonal

studies? Where do these progressive movements align?

How do they dier? What does it mean to identiy as

both eminist and transpersonal? It is not my intention

herein to trace the entirety o the complex and compelling

histories o both transpersonal and eminist thought,

although excellent sources or both are noted below.

My goal is to highlight a ew locations o synthesized

theoretical constructs and practice between the two

disciplines. Additionally, initial proposals o how a

eminist-transpersonal perspective may catalyze social

change will be addressed.

Te ranspersonal errain

As the eld o transpersonal psychology matures,histories o its origins and continuing researchseeking to dene the boundaries o this eld o inquiry

and practice have become more prevalent (Daniels, 2005;

Hartelius et al., 2007; Hastings, 1999; Lajoie & Shapiro,

1992; Luko, Lu, & urner, 1996; Shapiro, Lee, &

Gross, 2002; Walsh & Vaughan, 1993). Hastings (1999)2

placed the birth o the eld o transpersonal psychology

in the late 1960s with the publication o Maslows

(1968/1999) second edition o oward a Psychology o Being. Originally published in 1962, Maslows workexplored peak experiences and how such experiences

promote a transcendence rom a doing level o sel to

the level o being (Hastings, 1999, p. 193). Additional

inuences in the development o the discipline include

the work o Anthony Sutich and the Palo Alto Group

who associated transpersonal theory with the eld o

psychology to establish what Maslow viewed as the

Fourth Forceo psychology. However, many concepts at

the core o transpersonal psychology pre-date this era andreect ancient wisdom traditions such as Buddhism and

Susm as well as theories about spirituality developed by

earlier psychologists such as William James (1902/1997)

and Carl Jung (1934/1954).

Citing William James approach to the

psychology o religious experience, transpersonal scholar

William Braud (2006) reerred to James concept o

becoming conscious o and in touch with a More (p.

135) in the human experience. In short, in transpersonal

psychology there is an explicit acknowledgement o the

spiritual nature in human consciousness and recognition

that the study and understanding o the spiritual

experiences in peoples lives deepen a psychologists

comprehension o the human condition. Building upon

the work o humanists such as Abraham Maslow and

Carl Rogers, the eld has devoted much o its theory

building and scholarship to understanding concepts

such as exceptional human experience, higher states o

consciousness, and altruistic behaviors and attitudes

such as compassion, mindulness, and orgiveness.

ranspersonal psychology additionally chal-

lenges the rigid, materialist epistemology o traditional

schools o psychology in avor o a system that is exible

enough to hold many perspectives at once (Mack, 1993,

p. xi). As Mack noted: Psychology in this [materialist]

paradigm, has limited its healing potential by ollowing a

therapeutic model in which one person treats the illness or

problems o another, separate, individual, whose relevant

world is conned to a ew principle relationships (p.

xii). Te burgeoning transpersonal eld has oered an

alternative view:

In the transpersonal universe or universes, we seek

to know our worlds close up, relying on eeling and

contemplation, as well as observation and reason, to

gain inormation about a range o possible realities.

In this universe we take subjectivity or granted

and depend on direct experience, intuition, andimagination or discoveries about the inner and outer

worlds. A transpersonal epistemology appreciates

the necessity o ordinary states o consciousness

or mapping the terrain o the physical universe,

but nonordinary states are seen as powerul means

o extending our knowledge beyond the our

dimensions o the Newtonian/Eisensteinian [sic]

universe. (p. xii)

Tis epistemology values multiple ways o

knowing, moving beyond scientism and embracingthe complex and diverse voices comprising the

transpersonal eld to date. Additionally, Macks (1993)

view o transpersonal psychology suggested the validity

o the subjective experience. As will be noted below,

the primacy o the subjective voice is a major locus o

intersection between transpersonal psychology and

eminism. However, it is important to note, albeit briey,

that a distinction is to be made between individualism


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and subjectivity. For the present purposes, individualism

considers the individual as a discrete whole, an entity aware

o and intentionally participating in its own growth and

development, a process that is decontextualized and not

dependent upon others. Subjectivity is rather the state o

awareness o inner and outer events as ones own experience,the experience o a contextualized, bodily-located sel.

Such a distinction is important to consider with regard

to the evolution o both the eminist and transpersonal

elds over the course o the past our decades.

As noted above, the eld o transpersonal

psychology (much like the social movement o eminism

and the eld o eminist psychology) has multiple aces.

Over the more than 40-year course o the development

o the eld, denitions o transpersonal psychology have

evolved rom Maslows early ocus on peak experiences.

In 1992, Lajoie and Shapiro published a synthesized

denition rom more than 40 denitions o transpersonal

psychology: ranspersonal psychology is concerned with

the study o humanitys highest potential and with the

recognition, understanding, and realization o unitive,

spiritual, and transcendent states o consciousness (p. 91).

As I examine this denition almost two decades ater its

publication through my own eminist lens, two elements

stand out: 1) a privileging o transcendence and higher

states o human potential and consciousness rather than

an acknowledgement o the complexity and depths o all

lived experience (c. Daniels 2005); and 2) a seemingly

exclusive ocus on the decontextualized individual.

So much has changed in the intervening years

since this denition was developed: the internet alone has

expanded the capacity to network, connect, and interact

with one another at levels never dreamed possible, while

also highlighting the increasing isolation elt by many in a

world too ast and demanding to encourage actual person-

to-person interaction. Increasing globalization o the

marketplace has created opportunities or extreme levels

o wealth or a very ew while simultaneously threatening

ecological and economic disaster as human and material

resources continue to be consumed at unsustainablelevels. Te renzy o capitalism and consumption has led

to the explosion o the sustainability movement that seeks

to restore a healthy relationship to the planet and replace

entitlement with respect or the relationships needed to

ulll the most basic levels in Maslows (1943) hierarchy

o needs: ood, water, shelter, and love.

In this climate, transpersonal psychology has

needed to evolve in order to stay relevant. Mainstream

psychology is beginning to embrace its own roots in

spirituality, re-engaging with both psyche and spirit in

both practice and research.3 In the United States positive

psychology (e.g., Snyder & Lopez, 2007) and health

psychology (e.g., Sheridan & Radmacher, 1991) are now

established elds o research and clinical intervention,

and spiritual practices such as mindulness meditation

are studied and taught as mainstream psychological

treatment to minimize stress and promote healing

(e.g., Kabat-Zinn, Lipworth, & Burney, 1985; Stahl &

Goldstein, 2010).4

A contemporary denition o the transpersonal

eld addresses these cultural changes and the evolution

o the eld. Following the example o Lajoie and

Shapiro (1992), Hartelius et al. (2007) conducted a

thematic analysis o 160 denitions and concluded

that transpersonal psychology is comprised o three

interacting themes: Beyond-Ego Psychology; Integrative/Holistic Psychology; and ransormative Psychology.Hartelius et al. wove the themes into a new denition

o the transpersonal eld: An approach to psychology

that 1) studies phenomena beyond the ego as context

or 2) an integrative/holistic psychology; this provides a

ramework or 3) understanding and cultivating human

transormation (p. 11). While this denition may be

viewed as individualistic in scope, the authors stressed

that the transormation o the individual is but one

important aspect o creating change in the world:

Te three aspects o the eld complete ratherthan compete. As beyond-ego aspects o human

experience become understood, a view emerges

in which human individuals are integrally

interconnected with much larger contexts. Tis larger

vision, in turn, allows glimpses o how to become a

greater, deeper humanity. As humanity transorms,

individually and collectively, it cultivates more

beyond-ego development worthy o study. ogether,

the three themes o transpersonal psychology orm

an interdependent, mutually supportive cycle o

inquiry. (p. 11)

Tis statement seems to mirror the oten-

paraphrased quote by Gandhi: Be the change you want

to see in the world. Such a comparison is not meant

to diminish either the nuanced complexity o the above

denition, nor to rame Gandhis quote in a reductivist

manner. Rather, it is to point out that both concepts ocus

on the vital importance o individual agency and action


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as catalysts or personal as well as social transormation:

moving rom rigid individualism to the embracement

o unique subjective experiences within intersubjective

milieus. As will be discussed later, it is important to

highlight that transormation begins with the individual

in this rame, and thus subjectivity is reafrmed as the

locus or starting point o the process. Te sel is the place

where transormation begins, though not its ull and

nal purpose.

Te Feminist errain(s): A Brie History o Western

Academic and Activist Feminism

Western (or Euro-American) eminism,5 generally

understood to include the movements developed

in the late 60s through early 80s in the United States,

Western Europe (notably the United Kingdom), and

Australia, has contemporary roots, as well as a deeper

lineage reaching back to the rst wave o women-

centered activism ocused primarily on surage (womens

right to vote) that took place in the late 19th and early

20th centuries in the United States and United Kingdom

(Freedman, 2002). What is generally understood as

Western eminism is one action among many in the

broader global womens rights movements that ocus

on issues such as human trafcking, reproductive

and amily planning rights, violence against women,

women impacted by war, womens representation in

government and the workplace, and povertyto name

but a ew o the crucial areas o concern (Morgan, 1996).

Consideration o the complexities, nuances, and rich

history o the myriad womens movements that now

span the globe and interlock in multiple ways through

scholarship (e.g., Bhavnani & Phoenix, 1994), activist

endeavors (e.g., Women in Black and Code Pink, two

international war protest groups), social media (e.g.,

websites such as Facebook and GlobalSister that seek

to connect and inorm women) and non-government

organizations (e.g., Sisterhood is Global Institute and the

Global Fund or Women) are beyond the scope o this

work; thus, it is not possible to provide a comprehensive

overview o eminism here. Major concepts describingkey schools o thought and evolutions o the Western

eminist movement that have inuenced my perspectives

on eminisms will be briey noted to provide context

or the considerations at hand (but see Freedman, 2002;

LeGates, 2001).

Te Western eminist movement o the 1960s

to 1980s, now reerred to in many eminist academic

circles as second wave eminism and understood as the

modern origin o contemporary Western eminism(s),

was greatly inuenced by the civil rights, anti-war, and

youth activism movements in the United States during

the 1960s (LeGates, 2001); its development paralleled

the counter-cultural inception o contemporary

transpersonalism. Te movement was driven by

a wide variety o womens concerns, including sex

discrimination; limited opportunities in employment;

restraints on reproductive reedom; and concerns about

domestic violence, sexual victimization, and womens

unpaid labor (Biaggio, 2000, p. 3). Early activism and

political action ocused on women as a distinct class

(dierentiated rom men) who shared the common

experience o dominance and oppression simply

by being women (Lerner, 1986; Spivak, 1988). Te

construct o a monolithic class o women has become

increasingly complexied as the rise o diverse voices

in the movement(s) has demonstrated the problems

that come with conceptualizing women as a class.

Nonetheless, early eminist thought demonstrated the

need to delineate a starting point or the movement that

starkly highlighted the extreme inequity and disparity

o privilege that women have experienced due to gender

and/or sex roles associated with biological sex (Jehlen,

1990; Kessler & McKenna, 1985).

Tis early activism began to dismantle

assumptions about womens position in society as well

as what had traditionally been assumed as xed gender

roles. Te eminist movement grew through grassroots

eorts, notably the ormation o consciousness-raising(CR) groups. Tese groups were collectives o women

gathered together, ocused on acilitating personal

awareness o a central tenet o the movement: the

personal is political (Biaggio, 2000, p. 6)6:

All across the [U.S.], as i by spontaneous

combustion, women were meeting to discuss

their personal plights and arriving at the same

conclusion: that their problems were not unique

or isolated phenomena, but rather reections o a

political environment that devalued and subjugatedwomen . Tis is how the movement caught re;

women bonded around the new insight that they

were being treated like second-class citizens. Tey

realized that they had grown so accustomed to this

status that they had been blind to its very existence.

Tis awareness and the ervent sense o sisterhood it

gave rise to ueled the movement. (p. 6)


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Acts o consciousness-raising oten also led to personal

and public conrontations o long-held views on race,

class, and social injustice, along with protests o gender

inequality. Women began to write personal narratives o

their own experiences as subjective accounts o such issues

(Friedan, 1963/2001; Pratt, 1984; Rich, 1979/1995). Tis

early work became the heuristic ground o qualitative

inormation that coalesced into eminist theory through

various maniestos and anthologies (e.g., Morgan, 1970;

Redstockings, 1969/2010).

Te Spectrum o Feminism

Feminism is, and has been rom its inception,

a collection o many movements. What is generally

reerred to as second wave eminism developed out o

our major sub-categories: liberal eminism (or equalityeminism), radical eminism, socialist eminism (or materialeminism), and cultural eminism. Radical eminismand cultural eminism have been greatly inuential in

contemporary eminist psychology and warrant brie

explication herein.

Radical eminism. Radical eminists believe

that the patriarchal structure o society oppresses

women. Radical eminists have conducted research and

created theory demonstrating how some o the most

sacred cultural institutions, including marriage and

child-bearing/care, operate as mechanisms o control and

domination over women (Rich, 1979/1995; Firestone,

1970). Psychologist Laura Brown (1994) is dedicated

to dismantling and restructuring theory, practice, and

even the patriarchy inside ourselves in an eort to

create a vision o the just society in which oppression

and domination are no longer the norm (pp. 233-234).

Browns voice displays the intermingling o theory and

politics that most oten characterizes the radical eminist

perspective. Te prominent social and political work o

radical eminism pursues the elimination o violence

against women and highlights issues o sexualitymost

notably the issues o rape and pornographyand the

eects these two elements have on women (Dworkin,

1981; MacKinnon 1982/1993). Amid the criticism ounrealistic separatism leveled at some o their political

stances, radical eminists nonetheless have been at the

oreront o antiviolence legislation and were among the

rst to develop rape crisis centers and battered womens

shelters (Echols, 1989) and have had a lasting impact in

eminist psychology.

Cultural eminism. Cultural eminists are

generally credited with seeking to resurrect, reconsider,

and re-vision the cultural meanings o emale qualities

such as the concept othe eminineas it is used in areassuch as Jungian analytic work (e.g., Woodman, 1990,

1997; see also Downing, 1992/2003) and eminist

spirituality (e.g., Christ, 1992, 1997). A core assertion

o many cultural eminists is that women have been

oppressed due to inherent unique qualities such as

intuition, emotionality, and relationality (Alpert, 1973;

Donovan, 1992; Noddings, 1984; Wilshire, 1989).

Cultural eministshave tended to embrace the

biological and psychological understandings o the

dierences between men and women. From their

perspective, the social problem women encounter is

not the dierences per se, but rather the dierential

value placed on those dierences. (Whalen, 1996,

p. 23)

Or, as Wilshire (1989) noted in her explication o how

ancient philosophers laid the groundwork or ongoing

oppression o women qua women:

One sees that the more things change, the more

they stay the same, or philosophic tradition

continuesto extol things culturally perceived as male(e.g., knowledge in the mind) and suppress things

cultural ly perceived as emale (e.g., knowledge in the

body). Note here, briey but pointedly, that malenessand emaleness in this context oten have nothing to dowith being a woman or a man. (pp. 94-95)

Tree major contributions o cultural eminism are:

(a) the celebration and honoring o motherhood; (b)

a resurgence o womens spirituality, including the

resurrection o goddess traditions; and (c) re-evaluations

and reormations o traditional philosophies o

knowledge such as strict empiricism, materialism, and

logical positivism (Alpert, 1973; Starhawk, 1979/1999;

Wilshire, 1989; Lips, 1999).

A Tird Wave in Feminist Tought and Action

As in political parties, each branch o eminism

has a particular platorm and mandate upon which themembers o the group operate. However, the boundaries

between these ideologies are uid, and many eminists

hold belies rom more than one group and/or create

hybrid platorms such as ecoeminism, a usion o ecologyand eminism (e.g., Daly, 1978; Grifn, 1978/2000;

Shiva, 1988), womanism, an Arican-American eministmovement highlighting the strengths o women o color

(e.g., Higgenbotham, 1992; Walker, 1983), and post-


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colonialand critical race theories, schools o thought criticalo mainstream American eminism or universalizing the

experience o women and thus attening the complexity

o identity (e.g., Ahmed, 2006; McClintock, 1995;

Sandoval, 2000; Spivak, 1988). Additionally, the voices

o lesbian, queer, and transgender women continue to

impact eminist endeavors through the exploration o how

sexuality (including sexual orientation and aectional

orientation), gender orientation, and biological sex

interplay in multivalent ways and urther complexiy

and dierentiate the experiences o women (Ahmed,

2006; Bornstein, 1995; Butler, 1990, 1993, 1997; Rich,

1979/1995).

Contemporary U.S. political, social, and

academic eminism o the late 20th and early 21st

centuries has come to be called the third wave(Findlen,1995; Gillis, Howie, & Munord, 2007; Heywood &

Drake, 1997; Walker, 1995). Tis movement is a pastiche

o history, politics, and pop culture (Baumgardner

& Richards, 2000) and embraces the contradictions

o identity and the subjective voices o a variety o

perspectives to demonstrate the diversity and complexity

o womens experience in response to perceived earlier

essentialist stances taken in some eminist activism.Essentialism is understood here as adhering to the beliethat there are unique attributes that women possess that

are dierent rom men; thus, this perspective is also

reerred to as dierence eminism. While third wavevoices are prevalent in the elds o womens studies and

philosophy, many o the rhetorical and conceptual devices

employed in this school o thought have yet to penetrate

into the institutional structures o psychologyand are

notably absent in transpersonal psychology. Tese oer

promise or uture theory and research.

Te Evolving Voices o Feminism:

Considerations o Diversity

heorizing and research in eminist work continuesto evolve the eld, notably in relation to continuedeorts to understand the complexity o identity. Some

third wave eminists have viewed the stance o culturaleminists as essentialist. Much work in third wave

eminism argues or the varying utility o this stance,

and questions whether the essentialist view contributes

importantly to the eminist goal o liberating women

rom oppression grounded in devaluation (Bohan,

1993, p. 6). However, the point remains that these

[essentialist] theories have been criticized or presuming

universality and ignoring diversity in human experience

(DeLamater & Hyde, 1998, p. 13; or additional critique

o such essentialism in eminism, see also Bohan 1993;

Lorber & Farrell, 1991; Stone, 2007).7 Te ongoing

dialectic around the concept o essentialism underscores

the challenging work o exploring the socio-cultural

nature o identity and demonstrates the vital need to

keep issues o diversity at the ore o research and theory-

building.

Te critique against essentialism arose within

eminist camps because early theory and research in

the second wave years was primarily conducted by and

generally included an overwhelming majority o white,

middle-class women (Yoder & Kahn, 1993). As eminism

has continued to evolve in the past three decades,

scholars such as Patricia Hill Collins (1990), bell hooks

(1981, 1989, 2000), and Johnnetta B. Cole (1986) have

highlighted the absence o the voices o women o color

in second wave eminist theory and research. Cole noted

the chauvinism among white women, that takes the

orm o attitudes and behaviors which ignore or dismiss

as insignicant dierences in class, race, age, sexuality,

ethnicity, and physical ability (p. xiii). Peggy McIntosh

(2002) wrote about white chauvinism, the weightless

knapsack (p. 358) o white privilege that is, as McIntosh

wrote o her own racial awakening to whiteness, the

invisible package o unearned assets which I can count

on cashing in each day, but about which I was meant to

remain oblivious (p. 10):

[Tis privilege] leads white women to make theassumption that their experiences are universal,

normative, and representative o others experiences,

although well-motivated, white, middle-class

eminist scholars have allen into the trap o

presenting the experiences o mainstream women

as the yardsticks o womens experiences. Tereore

the impacts o racial, cultural, and class-based

actors are ignored, not only or women o color, but

also or white women. (Espin & Gawalek, 1992, p.

91)

Over the past three decades, eminist

psychological theory has begun to move beyond a

consideration o gender in a vacuum, recognizing that

the intersections and interplay o gender, race, class,

physical ability, sexual orientation, other socio-cultural

actors, and personal identity create matrices through

which people experience their lives (Ballou, Matsumoto,

& Wagner, 2002; Brown, 1994; Crenshaw, 1991;


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Espin & Gawelek, 1992; hooks, 1989). A contextual

consideration o identity is especially urgent in the eld

o transpersonal psychology, which has sidestepped the

mundane sel in much o the literature, relegating that

discussion to traditional orms o personality psychology

(see Daniels, 2005). However, new work is beginning

to appear that addresses the concept o a transpersonal

sel (see MacDonald, 2009), and urther theoretical and

empirical work will need to continue to esh out such a

concept, as described urther in sections below.

Te ongoing revelations o the complexity o

emale experienceon national and global levelshave

led to continuing, lively debates in eminist camps. Spivak

(1988) suggested early on that at times it is necessary to

rely on strategic essentialism in order to ocus directly onrealities that impact the lives o women. She suggested

that one must not lose sight o harm against women in

the process o creating philosophy or theory, and that

alliances must be created across ideological dierences

in order to achieve social justice. Since Spivaks early

statements, others have suggested more sophisticated

models o coalition-building (Anzaldua, 2007; Anzaldua

& Keating, 2002), bridge identities(Ferguson, 1997), andcomplex models that better represent the intersectionality(Crenshaw, 1991)8 o identity. Te intention is to create

eminist theory and practice that embraces contradiction,

multiplicity, and dierence (Gillis et al., 2007, p. xxiv) so

that activism on behal o womens rights and saety may

continue without relying on an exclusively essentialist

understanding o women as a monolithic class.

I see parallels in this critique o essentialism

to questions Ferrer (2000, 2002) has raised in

transpersonalism with regard to the perennial

philosophy. Ferrer argued against the universalization o

understanding concerning religious/spiritual experience.

In the context o eminist discourse, i universalizing

constructs are relied upon, then which classes or

categories o (emale) experience become oregrounded,

and which experiences are erased or backgrounded?

Questions related to who has the right or power to nameand legitimize their own experiences are at the heart o

much eminist work and also at the core o Ferrers work

through the past decade.

Who Speaks or Women?

While the rhetorical and philosophical stance

o postmodernism is at risk o being dismissed by some

as a utile, nihilistic project,9 the core understanding o

the power o language (and other orms o signication)

is nonetheless valuable in a consideration o pluralistic

movements such as transpersonalism and eminism.

Postmodern theory, a term conated and interchangedwith social constructionism in the eld o psychology,seeks to deconstruct the very categories (e.g., sex, gender,

masculine/eminine, disorder) that have achieved truth

status within psychology (Cosgrove & McHugh, 2002,

p. 22). Some scholars argue or a distinct dierence

between strict postmodern theory and the principles o

social constructionism (Butler, 1990). However, the two

schools o thought hold ast to a common understanding

that we have no way o knowing with certainty the

nature o reality (Bohan, 1993). Bohan dened the

basic structure o this theory and how it may ameliorate

the assumptions promoted by essentialism:

So-called knowledge does not reect the discovery o

a ree-standing reality, existing apart rom the knower

and revealed by careul application o procedures.Rather, what we purport to know, what we see as

truth, is a construction, a best understanding, based

upon and inextricably intertwined with the contexts

in which it is created. Among the most orceul

actors that shape our constructions o knowledge

are the modes o discourse by which we exchange

our perceptions and descriptions o reality. Tus,

knowledge is a product o social interchange; what

we call knowledge is simply what we agree to call

truth. (pp. 12-13)

In a detailed account o potential intersections

and understood contradictions o postmodern and

eminist schools o thought, Cosgrove and McHugh

(2002) underscored the tension between wanting

to explore the subjective expressions o research

participants while adhering to postmodern tenets.

Language thus becomes a primary tool o a combined

eminist/postmodern method in that language (the

term discourseis requently used because o its inclusive

connotation) is seen as constitutingrather than revealing

reality. Language aects what we do (and dont) notice,what we do (and dont) experience (p. 24). Holding

the tension between eminist identity politics and a

postmodern perspective as described above allows a

theorist, researcher, or practitioner to examine the

relationship between ontology (being) and epistemology

(knowing) (p. 25).

While language is o central importance to

postmodern thought, scholars such as Butler (1990,


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9/25


Feminist work has been primarily ocused

on identity politics and conceptualizations o what it

means to be a socially-constructed sel, dierentiating

these models rom the psychospiritual models generally

utilized in the eld o transpersonal psychology,

which have historically placed primacy upon spiritual

experience and the importance o ego-transcendence

as a move toward wholeness (Wilber,12 1973, 2000; see

also Washburn, 1995, 2003; Ruumet, 2006). In overly-

simplied terms, the political orientation o much

eminist theory has served well the motto noted above,

the personal is political (Hanisch, 1969/2006). Just as

it was suggested above that Gandhis exhortation to be

the change might signiy the gestalt o contemporary

transpersonalism, this simplication o a classic eminist

slogan is not meant to be reductive; rather it is to

suggest that the core ocal strength o eminism(s) is

that it values subjectivity while acknowledging that the

socio-political reality o such lived experience impacts

the lives o actual individuals. In my own work as an

educator, theorist, and researcher, I nd that eminism

inorms the transpersonal, and vice versa, to create new

synergistic lived spiritual activism. It may be that this

sort o mutually-inspiring relationship can also evolve

between the elds themselves.

Feminism and Spirituality

Troughout the varied and voluminous

anthologies o academic eminist theory,13 research

literature,14 and textbooks on eminism and psychology,15

issues o spirituality or religion are oten noticeably

absent. Womens studies and political science proessor

Leela Fernandes (2003) devoted an entire work to

highlighting the lack o ocus onarguably even

avoidance othe issue o spirituality in mainstream

Western academic eminism and womens studies

programs. In her work, ransorming Feminist Practice:Non-Violence, Social Justice, and the Possibilities o aSpiritualized Feminism, Fernandes posited that academiceminists have been wary o religious institutions that

have sought to control womens bodies and sexualitiesand that this wariness had inadvertently allowed

conservative religious and political organizations

and movements to colonize spirituality (p. 9). She

urther suggested that secular, urban, middle-class

eminists (p. 9) would benet rom an exploration o

the possibility o social transormation through a

spiritual revolution, one which transorms conventional

understanding o power, identity, and justice (p. 11).

Te author recounted that the students in her womens

studies courses are loath to discuss spirituality in the

context o eminism, and her work is oered as a bridge

between these academic circles and the lived spiritual

reality o most women.16

While Fernandes makes the case that spiritu-

ality has oten been missing rom mainstream

eminist academic discourse, she has not addressed the

interdisciplinary eminist scholars who ocus attention

on aspects o spirituality, most specically issues related

to womens religious and spiritual experience. Her work

circumvented the act that the relationship between

eminism and spirituality is not absent, but ambivalent;

while her point may be valid in the eminist circles in

which she resides, it does not take into consideration

the richly complex vista o eminist spirituality that

aords interesting locations o intersection between

transpersonal and eminist schools o thought.

Te eld o eminist spirituality developed

alongside the activist and academic camps o the

movement since the inception o the second wave

and also has deep roots in the religious motivations

espoused by rst-wave eminists such as Elizabeth

Cady Stanton (1895/2003). Accounts o the history

o eminist spirituality are available, including an

overview o eminist inuence in monotheistic religion

and goddess worship by Stuckey (2010) and the

history o womens spirituality as researched by Eller

(1995). Much scholarship has been written concerning

institutional religions, especially, in the United States,

Catholicism, Protestantism, and Judaism; notable works

include Plaskow (1979/1992, 1991), Gross (1979/1992),

Schssler-Fiorenza (1983, 1984), Reuther (1983, 1985),

and Daly (1978, 1968/1985). Some o these works

(including Schssler-Fiorenza) seek to re-establish

women as active participants in the living traditions

o religion, while some scholars seek to re-vision the

sacred scripture, liturgy, and ritual o religion to make

it more inclusive or practicing women (as in the work

o Reuther, Gross, and Plaskow). Dalys work arguedor women to abandon patriarchal religious institutions

altogether due to the inability o such religions to truly

value and honor women and womens experiences.

Goddess traditions, Wicca, paganism, shamanism,

earth-based spiritual traditions, and womens circles are

also present in prominent literature in the eld (Christ,

1979/1992, 1997; Noble, 2001; Starhawk, 1979/1999;

eish, 1988). Activist and emancipatory spirituality


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are continuing to evolve and diversiy, and one such

example among many is the work o Lillian Comas-

Diaz (2008) on Spirita, a spiritual perspective ocusedon collective liberation and social justice, grounded

in mujerista, or Latin womens spiritual and liberatorywork.

Several core constructs are central to eminist

spirituality theory and practice: women-centeredness,processes o reclaiming or renaming,praxis, and educatingother eminists. Prime examples o these constructs can beound in the Womens Spirituality masters program at

the Institute o ranspersonal Psychology in Palo Alto,

Caliornia.17 Te program is explicitly woman-centered:18

placing womens experience as the central ocus o study

and research (D. Jenett, personal communication,

April 6, 2009). Te program is interdisciplinary and

ocuses on the archeological and mythological roots

o matriocal culture and goddess worship, as well as

contemporary social and political issues aecting how

and whom women worship (thus, reclaiming and

renaming). Courses in the program include the use o

ritual, and women enrolled are required to engage in

an applied learning practicum in a community setting

(praxis). Finally, the program is an excellent resource

or eminists who have not encountered spiritually-

oriented eminism beore (educating other eminists).

Similar accounts o parallels to these core concepts

can also be ound throughout the eminist spirituality

literature (e.g., Christ & Plaskow, 1979/1992; Plaskow

& Christ, 1989; Powers, 1995). Te concepts noted rom

the eminist spirituality research and literature above,

grounded primarily in the elds o womens studies,

history, archeology, mythology, religious studies, and

social and political activism, have recently begun to

contribute to the eld o psychology.

Feminist Spirituality

and Psychotherapeutic Practice

Te academic journal Women & Terapy hasdevoted two ull issues to the topic o women and spirituality

in the past two decades (Kaschak, 2001; Ochshorn &Cole, 1995). Both o these volumes explored the multiple

ways in which spirituality aects the therapeutic process,

including the use o spiritual elements such as ritual in

therapy, and the place spirituality holds within the realm

o mainstream eminist psychology. Te 1995 issue

had three articles o note: Ballous Women and Spirit:

wo Nonts in Psychology, Bewleys Re-membering

Spirituality: Use o Sacred Ritual in Psychotherapy, and

Hunts Psychological Implications o Womens Spiritual

Health. Te articles in the 2001 issue had a similar

theme, building upon the platorm established in the

ormer issue: namely, the vital importance o spirituality

in the development o a holistic understanding o the

sel (Funderburk & Fukuyama, 2001; Perlstein, 2001;

Weiner, 2001). While none o the articles in either issue

mentioned transpersonal theory specically, Noble

(2001) utilized alternative nonrational knowledge

techniques (p. 193) and ancient healing techniques

(p. 193) in her conception o bringing spirituality into

the therapeutic setting. Such techniques included

ritual, dreams, oracles, hands-on healing, and other

orms o shamanistic technique that are applied in hopes

o disrupting the entrenched pathological patter and

simultaneously stimulating a rebalancing to take place on

its own (pp. 194-195). ranspersonal psychotherapeutic

literature is thick with analogous sentiments as evidenced

in the works o authors such as Fox (1990) and Vaughn

(1993).

Te language used to introduce the later issue

(Kaschak, 2001) also demonstrated compatibility with

much transpersonal thought:

Spiritual practice contributes to a dimension o

consciousness untouched by psychodynamic and

other approaches that emphasize awareness. It

also demands a proound level o responsibility or

onesel, to onesel, to others, and, nally, to all beings

and to the earth hersel, thereby acknowledging andmaking visible the inevitability o our mutuality

and connectedness. We need not create connection;

we need simply to awaken to it. (p. xxii)

Te absence o specic transpersonal voices indicates a

place or exploration and potential research and theory-

building that may urther illuminate intersections o

eminist and transpersonal perspectives and generate

transormative proessional conversations.

Contributions that transpersonal psychotherapy

could make to eminist therapists work include expertisein techniques that assist in the discernment between

pathology and spiritual emergency (Gro & Gro, 1989;

Luko et al., 1996), the integration o spiritual techniques

such as meditation in clinical practice (Vaughan, 1993)

and personal wellness (Stahl & Goldstein, 2010), non-

pathological language to better understand exceptional

human experiences (Palmer & Braud, 2002), and

applications o orgiveness in therapeutic practice or work


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with groups in conict (Luskin, 2002; Lewis, 2005).

Additionally, the Institute o ranspersonal Psychology

has developed excellent models o whole-person clinical

training programs that illustrate the importance o the

integration o personal and proessional development

as orms o transormational learning (Braud, 2006;

Frager, 1974; see also Ferrer, Romero, & Albareda, 2006;

Meizrow, 1997).

Terapists, scholars, researchers, and educators

in both eminism and transpersonalism tend to be

eclectic and interdisciplinary. Tus, the act that these

elds may already share some common vernacular,

as tentatively illustrated above, may serve as a bridge

between them. Additionally, o course, there are

already eminist-oriented transpersonal practitioners

and transpersonally-oriented eminist practitioners, as

evidenced by the other transpersonal/eminist works

included in this special issue o IJS, as well as a litany o

excellent dissertations produced by doctoral students in

schools such as IP, the Caliornia Institute o Integral

Studies, Saybrook University, the Pacica Graduate

Instutite, and other similar schools globally.19 Tese

works serve as a tentative beginning to the mapping o

such intersections.

Feminism and ranspersonal Psychology:

Intersections

Similar to many eminist psychologists, includingthe work o Ballou and Brown (2002), Hare-Mustinand Maraceck (1990), Maraceck, (2001) and others, the

pioneers in the eld o transpersonal psychology ound

the emphasis on pathology and malady in mid-20th

century psychology only representative o a raction o

human experience and sought to create a eld o study

that would honor the ullness o humanitys multiple

ways o being, knowing, and experiencing the world

around us. While sel-proclaimed eminists are active

clinicians, researchers, theory-builders, educators,

and spiritual guides within the transpersonal milieu,

the relative absence o eminist voice is problematic

with regard to theory-building and models o eectiveclinical interventions. Tis lack threatens to perpetuate

sexism in the eld o transpersonal psychology through

silence.

It is possible that some o this gender gap may

be attributable to what Ferrer (2002) has pointed to as

an over-reliance on the perennial philosophy during the

rst quarter century o the elds development. Ferrer

described perennialism as:

the idea that a philosophical current exists that

has endured through centuries, and that is able to

integrate harmoniously all traditions in terms o a

single ruth which underlies the apparent plurality

o world views. . . . this unity in human knowledge

stems rom the existence o a single ultimate reality

which can be apprehended by the human intellectunder certain conditions. (p. 73)

As Ferrer observed, despite their proessed inclusivist

stance, most universalist visions distort the essential

message o the various religious traditions, covertly avor

certain spiritual paths over others, and raise obstacles or

spiritual dialogue and inquiry (p. 71). Just as perennialist

views homogenize the topography o human spiritual

experience, they may atten the plurality o lived experience

that results rom inhabiting a gendered body, and overlook

the need or participation by women scholars.

As noted earlier, eminist postmodern scholars

employ dialectics that continually question the validity

o universal truths or monolithic theories claiming to

represent all human experience. Te inclusion o womens

voices generally, and eminist voices in particular, can

support the elds eorts to overcome unexamined

presuppositions and, through embracing diversity,

achieve a greater degree o plurality in the philosophical

oundations o the discipline.

Louchakova and Lucas (2007) have recently

written a critique that also suggests that the avoidance o

the examination o the sel in transpersonal psychology

is linked to the roots o the eld in the personal growth

endeavors o the 1960s, which sought to dierentiate rom

other mainstream schools o thought and relied heavily on

Eastern conceptions ono-selas a template or enlighten-ment. As ego-transcendence was and still is a core value o

the eld, the question o sel (as identity or contextualized

subjectivity, which includesthe ego) has been a problematicconundrum that has only recently been addressed in

transpersonal circles (see also MacDonald, 2009). Te

deep and skillul socio-cultural analytic tools developed in

eminist psychology may be essential to help transpersonal

theorists and clinicians ground solid denitions o growth

and transormation beyond (or through) ego, but in situ,in cultural context. While spiritual experiences are oten

described as ineable, decontexualizing the individuals

experiencing such ineability risks creating essentialist

models that may not t diverse experience, as Ferrer

(2002, 2009) has suggested.


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Epistemologies and Research Methods:

Explicit Intersections

Feminist perspectives have greatly inuenced a

body o scholarship exploring alternative epistemologies

that challenge the positivist position held in science or

more than a century (Lips, 1999). Feminist theorists

have explored and critiqued the ways in which

knowledge is collected, interpreted, and transmitted

(Chelser, 1972; Chodorow, 1978; Gilligan, 1982; Jaggar

& Bordo, 1989). As Ballou and Brown (2002) pointed

out, epistemologies deriving rom psychologies such

as postmodern, multicultural, and ecological are more

commonly utilized and more broadly understood (p.

xiii) to be more inclusive and exible, and thus better

tools or the study o models such as Relational-Cultural

Teory (Jordan, Kaplan, Miller, Stiver, & Surrey, 1991)

or the eminist ecological model o the sel (Ballou et al.,

2002).

Te above epistemological rames complement

and, in some instances, intersect with some o the core

constructs that have been developed in transpersonally-

grounded research methods (Anderson, 2004; Braud,

2004; Braud & Anderson, 1998, 2011; Clements,

2004). Both eminist research methods (grounded

oten in the perspective o social constructionism) and

transpersonal research methods seek to move beyond

exclusive reliance on experimentally or objectively

gathered data, demonstrating an early valuing o and

condence in qualitative research methods, including

the use o heuristics, hermeneutics, and phenomenology

(Anderson, 2004; Ballou, 1992; Braud & Anderson,

1998). As noted, neither eld seeks to do away with

empirical methods o data gathering (Bohan, 1993),

but rather to select a method that best ts the research

questions at hand (Braud, 1998). However, in the case

o a social constructionist stance one is reminded o

the dierentials o power in all research endeavors, and

is urged to remain skeptical o received truths and

taken-or-granted rames o reerence . . . knowledge is

never innocent, but always value-laden and predicatedon specic sociopolitical conditions that it serves to

legitimize (Maraceck, 2002, p. 6).

In the case o a transpersonal stance toward

research, the transormative and liberating potential o

doing research is highlighted, while close care is paid

to the integrity and reexivity o the researcher (Braud,

2004; see also Anderson, 2000; Clements, 2004).

Research is not to be taken lightly and attention is to

be paid to vigilant sel-development in order to create

as clear a vision in data analysis as possible. A researcher

with a eminist orientation may be inuenced by the

values o egalitarianism, mutuality, multiple viewpoints,

and a respect or subjective experience (Reinharz, 1992).

Additionally, emphasis may be placed on lived experience

and the subjective voice o research participantsoten

reerred to as co-researchers in both eminist- and

transpersonally-oriented models.

Within the transpersonal eld, two research

methods embrace explicitly eminist epistemologies:

intuitive inquiry and organic inquiry. Intuitive inquiry is

a process through which objective and subjective data is

analyzed through successive hermeneutic cycles o data

collection and reection (Anderson, 2000). According

to Anderson (2004), this method is rooted in both

eminist and transpersonal concepts; she identied the

process o intuition as a transpersonal act that may take

several orms and is admittedly difcult to quantiy. In

one moment, intuition seems vibrant and breathtaking

to beholdand then it disappears (p. 4), yet Anderson

nonetheless purported that intuition is a viable orm o

knowingan argument also made in eminist work

(Wilshire, 1989). Symbolic processes, sensory modes o

intuition, and empathetic identication are all orms o

knowing that are valuedindeed, encouragedwithin

the method. Anderson (2001) also encouraged embodied

writing as a technique that:

brings the nely textured experience o the body tothe art o writing. Relaying human experience rom

the inside out and entwining in words our senses

with the senses o the world, embodied writing

afrms human lie as embedded in the sensual world

in which we live our lives. As a style o writing,

embodied writing is itsel an act o embodiment.

Nature eels close and dear. Writers attune to the

movements o water, earth, air, and re, which

coax our bodily senses to explore. When embodied

writing is attuned to the physical senses, it becomes

not only a skill appropriate to research, but a path otransormation that nourishes an enlivened sense o

presence in and o the world. (p. 83)

In intuitive inquiry, the subjectivity o the researcher is

valued equally to the voices o the co-researchers. Tese

research methods and techniques demonstrate models o

conducting research that value transormation, personal

responsibility, and a researchers capability, and are


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useul or understanding human experience through a

transpersonal lens.

Another method valued in transpersonal research

is organic inquiry, which:

stands at the intersection o eminine spirituality

and transpersonal psychology. Organic studies to

date seem to be motivated by a desire on the part othe researcher to investigate and share the meaning

o her or his own deeply-held experience in order to

improve the lie o another, by a desire or socia l and

individual transormation, a goal which mirrors the

high ideals o both the eminist and transpersonal

movements. (Clements, Ettling, Jenett, & Shields,

1999, p. 5)

Like intuitive inquiry, the organic method

seeks to understand and legitimize ways o knowing

traditionally dismissed in mainstream psychological

research (Clements, 2004). Tis method utilizes nature

metaphor such as the cycle o planting, growth, and

harvest to highlight non-rational processes available

to the researcher as well as synchronistic experiences

that may arise while the research is being conducted

and reported. Additionally, there is an explicit social

justice mandate or research conducted in this manner:

not only should the research transorm the researcher,

it should also positively impact the co-researchers and

the readers o the research, and should lead toward

social transormation or all exposed to the material

(Clements, 2004). Additionally, the method encourages

the reporting o ndings through the actual voices o

the co-researchers: the researcher uses as much o each

participants story as possible to esh out the ndings.

Tus, organic inquiry is a technique that values the

subjective nature in qualitative research and eminist

theory in general.

Te explicit ways in which eminist theory

is utilized in the aorementioned transpersonally-

oriented methods may serve as an excellent template

or additional ways in which eminist perspectivesmay support and enhance continued development in

transpersonal methods. Ongoing development may

include considerations o the unique nature o power,

relationship, and identity, and how socio-political and

personal actors impact the generation and production o

research ndings. Such eminist critique could contribute

to the already-existing gits o the spiritual ocus o

transpersonal research methods and techniques.

A Rare Published Example

o Feminist Critique in ranspersonal Psychology

In the areas o transpersonal developmental

theory, an early (and solitary) example o a deconstruction,

based upon gender, o one widely-accepted model o

transpersonal development was produced by Peggy

Wright in the mid-1990s.20 Wright (1995, 1998) sought

to explore, critique, and engage with Ken Wilbers pre/

trans allacy model, which privileges transcendence o

the ego as the ultimate goal o spiritual development.

Wrights critique and reevaluation o Wilbers model

is o note because she, like Karen Suyemoto (2002),

raised questions and alternate perspectives in order to

bring to the ore the supposition o universal human

experiencea task central to the eminist model o

theory-building (Lerman, 1986) and, as noted, not oten

seen in transpersonal psychology.

Wrights (1995, 1998) primary assertion was

that much o Wilbers theoretical ramework hinged on

an understanding o the sel in which the development

o higher states o consciousness are universal across not

only culture, but also gender. Wright made the argument,

based upon the work o Chodorow (1978) and Jordan

(1984), that womens ego development and conception

o the sel dier rom the developmental experience

o men. Reerring to the relational aspects o womens

development, Wright (1995) relies on permeable

boundaries to allow the simultaneous experience o sel

and other. Te sel-boundaries are permeable in the

sense that they are open to the ow between sel and

other (p. 6). Due to this experiential dierence, Wright

postulated the ollowing:

Because womens prepersonal development diers

rom mens, it is not much o a stretch to postulate

that womens transpersonal development may also

dier. I propose that the connected sel, with its

permeable boundaries, cuts across developmental

lines in the prepersonal, personal, and transpersonal

stages. Permeability aects all levels o experience.

In terms o how it aects transpersonal development,it may subtly change the developmental path.

I speculate that because o permeable sel-

boundaries, womens experience o an isolated,

unitary sel already may be diminished. Awareness

may naturally ocus on the holographic, interwoven

nature o reality. In this awareness, the hierarchical

structures that the mind uses to reduce experience


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into comprehensible packets o reality can be more

easily dissolved, and ormlessness and ambiguity are

better tolerated.

Boundary permeability may ease the path

to union with a spiritual sel. Te merging and

embedding o the sel into God or Sel may not

always be experienced as a loss o sel. Instead it mayreect a coming to sel/Sel. (p. 7)

Building upon her theoretical constructs, Wright

(1998) urther suggested alternative visions to Wilbers

assessment o how contemporary Western culture must

undertake its own healing. Drawing upon the sel-in-

relation models o emale development, Wright (1998)

suggested that we, as people, must heal the splits between

mind/body and culture/nature not as individuals only,

but also in community. In addition, she disagreed

with Wilbers conception o the dierences between

transcendence and regression, insisting that, at times, one

must regress in order to heal. Wright posited:

A diagnosis o what needs to be healed in our

culture and the process o healing can be claried

through theoretical models, but the healing itsel

requires lived experience. Tis healing is sometimes

an exceedingly difcult and unpleasant process.

Coming back into the individual and collective

bodies to heal trauma oten means reliving our

suering. Without healing, we may ascend, but

we cannot be whole. Healing the split at timesrequires messy, emotive, and nonrational regressive

experiences. In addition, it requires developing

personal, empathic relationships with the elements

o the biosphere and with each other, as well as with

Spirit. Ultimately, individual and social healings

acilitate our spiritua l development. (p. 225)

Wrights theoretical stance (1995) called or multiple

approaches to transpersonal development that may

be needed to keep a balanced perspective (p. 10). Like

Ferrer (2002), Wright (1995, 1998) brought into questionthe rigid adherence to perennialist models that may not

adequately represent the experience o non-dominant

groupsin Wrights case, the category o women.

However, Wright did not address issues o

essentialism, and her work is now more than a decade old.

A contemporary development o her critique into theory

would be o value in order to explore how a eminist

critique o essentialism, as well as o other developmental

models (e.g., Washburn, 1995; Ruumet, 2006), would

enhance transpersonal psychology as a eld by exploring

assumptions in models that tend towards generalization

across gender or other aspects o identity. Such a critique

might demonstrate ways in which some models ail

to represent non-dominant experience, which in turn

might highlight the need or expanding and revising

those models in ways that increase inclusivity. Tis

might enhance the potential relevance and applicability

o the models.

A Contemporary Opportunity or Dialogue:

Te Work o Jorge Ferrer

As noted throughout this exploration, intersectionsin the ways eminists and transpersonalists viewcommon psychological and spiritual phenomenon

have yet to be explicitly ormulated. Te work o Jorge

Ferrer (2002, 2009) may be a ripe place to begin ormal

conversation on the richly complex matrix o potential

agreement and contradiction that can be ound

in exploring transpersonal studies relationship to

eminism. A specic place to initiate this inquiry may

be the tension between a postmodern skepticism or the

acceptance o universals and the pursuit o or universal

human experience ound in some transpersonal theory.

Most notably, such universalization relies on works

such as Huxleys (1945) and Schuons (1953/1984)

explication operennial philosophy, which, at its mostbasic level, holds belie in an ultimate reality or

ruth.21 Debate on this issue can be ound in Ferrers

(2002) work, who put orth a concept o aparticipatorynature o spiritual knowing; this perspective seeks tore-vision and broaden transpersonal theory beyond

either postmodernism or perennialism. Ferrer critiques

transpersonal psychologys roots in a perennialist

paradigm in which specicity and diversity are

eschewed in avor o a search or common spiritual

ground. As an alternative view, Ferrer suggested it is

time to deconstruct transpersonal models that adhere

to the validity o monolithic ruth in search o a more

exible theoretical model able to hold a participatoryspiritual pluralism (p. 189).

Ferrer (2002) believed that transpersonal

phenomena are not solely individual inner experiences,

but are rather multilocal participatory events (p. 117).Tus, transpersonal phenomena are:

(1) events, in contrast to intrasubjective experiences;

(2) multilocal, in that they can arise in dierent loci,


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such as an individual, a relationship, a community,

a collective identity, or a place; and (3) participatory,

in that they can invite the generative power and

dynamism o all dimensions o human nature to

interact with a spiritual power in the cocreation o

spiritual worlds. (p. 117)

Ferrer criticized the eld o transpersonal psychologyor reiying the inner experience o spiritual and

transpersonal phenomena, which leads to intrasubjective

reductionism (p. 23). Such reication, Ferrer suggested,

holds back the evolution o the eld:

Te task o emancipation o spirituality set orth

by the transpersonal project will be incomplete as

long as transpersonalists remain committed to the

experiential vision. We need to ree transpersonal

theory rom its modern experiential prejudices and

expand the reach o spirituality out o its connement

to the subjective space to the other two worlds, that

is, the objective and the intersubjective. (p. 23)

In his vision o transpersonal psychology,

grounded in participatory, pluralistic perspectives,

Ferrer (2002) sought to move transpersonal thought

and practice into a stance o active engagement and

embracement o the wide variety and expressions o

spiritual experience. Tis participatory turn does not do

away with the individual or with individual experience,

but rather honors contextualized experience and

subjective reality; the participatory turn aims to osterour spiritual individuation in the context o a common

human spiritual amily, but also turns the problem o

religious plurialism into a celebration o the critical spirit

o pluralism (Ferrer, 2009, p. 140). From this starting

place, it may be interesting to inquire how Ferrers (2002,

2009) participatory concepts could create an important

dialectic o theory and praxis with a eminist construct

such as the Relational-Cultural concept ogrowth-in-relation (Jordan & Hartling, 2002; Jordan et al., 1991;Miller, 1987). Judith Jordan (2001) succinctly summed

up the clinical application and utility o this model:

Terapy based on the relational-cultural model

suggests that the primary work is to bring people

back into healing connection, where they begin to

reconnect with themselves and bring themselves

more ully into relationship with others. We posit that

growth occurs in connection and that we grow, learn,

expand, and gain a sense o meaning in relationship.

Tis does not mean that we are in actual physical

relationship with people at all times, but that there is

an attitude o relatedness, o mutuality, o openness,

o participating in experience. Tis can occur in

solitude, in nature, when we eel connected and in

relationship with our surroundings. In isolation, we

are not in relationship, we are cut o, we are not in

mutual responsiveness. (p. 97)

Te emancipatory and relational/participatory

sentiments o the above constructs (both the work o

Ferrer and Jordan et al.) suggest a place o opening or

conversation about how socio-cultural realities such

as gender and other intersectional identities impact

participatory events. Ferrer (2000) sought to break

through the long-held perennialist viewpoint in the

hope that the exposition and airing o the presuppositions

o perennialism will help create an open space in whichtranspersonal theory need not subordinate alternative

perspectives but can enter into a genuine engagement

and a ertile dialogue with them (p. 25). Ferrers (2002)

vision o transpersonal psychology, rmly grounded

in participatory, pluralistic perspectives, seems closely

aligned to eminist principles and suggests several

intersections in theory and practice that may contribute

to a eminist transpersonal perspective.

Conclusion:

oward a Socially-Engaged

Spiritual Future

So what might this all mean or a socially-engaged,spiritually-ocused psychological paradigm o humanexperience? Both the eminist and transpersonal elds

are concerned with the concept o consciousness-raising,

which is clearly an elemental aspect o their shared

counter-cultural roots, as noted above. However, the

orms o this consciousness-raising seem to have taken

somewhat divergent paths over time, with eminism

and eminist therapy doing an exceptional job with

socio-cultural analysis and political action in support o

groups and individuals who traditionally have not hadvoice in dominant cultures. Concurrently, transpersonal

psychology has ostered orms o consciousness-raising

with regard to altered states, alternative ways o knowing,

sel-knowledge, and personal growth: concepts related to

Jungs models o psychological health, which includes the

process o individuation, or moving toward wholeness

and integration.


16/25


In the transpersonal camp, Elgin (1993) wrote

that the evolution o our consciousness (and supportive

social orms) is not a peripheral concern; rather, it is

o central importance to our human agenda (p. 249).

Rothberg (1999) spoke o the need or a socially-engaged

spirituality that is concerned with ethics and action

(p. 41). Tus, in the transpersonal world there exists a

call or social engagement and the recognition that one

cannot stop change at the personal growth stage, and also

that one must use that change to transorm the world

(thus, back to Gandhis exhortation be the change).

However, eminist expertise in social organizing and the

long history in eminism o critique, analysis, and personal

reection as social action (e.g., Hanischs (1969/2006)

the personal is political) would serve as a rich model or

the applied ethics and action Rothberg (1999) sought.

Conversely, transpersonal studies may oer new

insights into conceptualizations o spiritual development,

novel approaches to integrating spiritual interventions

into clinical practice, and reminders that psychology

encompasses the beauty and richness o the ull range

o human experience in each client seen and each

student educatednot to mention in ones own lived

experience. As early as 1994, Laura S. Brown saw eminist

psychological theory moving toward considerations o the

spiritual or existential realms (p. 233). Leela Fernandes

(2003) and others (Flinders, 1999; Klassen, 2009) have

demonstrated the deep hunger in academic eminist

circles or a more spiritually-inused orm o activism. Te

conversation between the two elds has barely begun.

Readers who seek to integrate the sacred, the mundane, the

social, the personal, and the righteous into a holographic

understanding o psychology and human consciousness,

are invited to contribute their eorts in orging paths

that lead to urther intersections o thought and practice

between transpersonal studies and eminism.

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Intersections of Feminist and Transpersonal Thought

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