Evolution and Consciousness, Revised Edition

From a Barren Rocky Earth to Artists, Philosophers, Meditators and Psychotherapists

Series: 

This volume is a newly revised and updated edition of Evolution and Consciousness (Brill, 2019) and provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the emerging concept of the evolution of consciousness. The simple, but dynamic, theory of evolving consciousness blends the powerful insights of modern science with the deep wisdom of age-old cultures, synthesising the traditions of East and West, of the head and heart, of male and female and of science and spirituality. To borrow a phrase from American philosopher Ken Wilber, it is a concept that “transcends and includes” all that has gone before. By integrating diverse multi-disciplinary approaches, it provides an overarching and transcending model that moves us to a new level of meaning and understanding of our place in the world, and in so doing deepens our work as psychotherapists.
Copyright Year:
2023
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ISBN:
978-90-04-52934-2
Publication:
27 Feb 2023
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Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-52374-6
Publication:
02 Mar 2023
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Michael (Michelo) DelMonte, Ph.D. (1982), Trinity College Dublin. Michael was Principal Clinical Psychologist at St. Patrick’s University Hospital, Dublin. He is Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Trinity College. He co-founded “The Transnational Network for Physical, Psychological and Spiritual Well-Being” (1990) in Tokyo.

Maeve Halpin is a Chartered Counselling Psychologist (PSI), clinical supervisor and founder-manager of the Appletree Health and Wellness Therapy Centre in Dublin. She is a co-founder of the Theravadan Irish Sangha Trust (IST, 2011). She compiled and published How to be Happy and Healthy: the Seven Natural Elements of Mental Health in 2014.
"This book is absolutely breathtaking in the extent of its exploration of concepts and theories, ranging from the Western psychotherapies to Eastern traditions of mindfulness and meditative practice. But even more amazing and exciting is that it weaves interconnections with a range of other disciplines, including physics, cosmology, genetics, neuroscience and philosophy. In so doing, it questions much of currently accepted wisdom. These ideas are presented clearly and coherently, accessible to the general reader as well as to clinicians, therapists and scientists."
- Ray Fuller, PhD, Professor of Psychology and Fellow Emeritus, Trinity College Dublin, Author of Life of Brain and Six Confessions of the Self-serving Brain (2021).
Foreword
Preface to the Revised Edition
Acknowledgements
Notes on Authors
Summary

Introduction:The Evolution of Consciousness: A New Perspective on Our Search for Meaning
 1 Models of the Evolution of Consciousness
 2 The Goal of the Journey
 3 Evolution and Consciousness: An Incredible Journey

1 The Evolution of Matter and Mind
 1 Introduction
 2 Methods of Inquiry: The Search for Meaning
 3 Evolutionary Psychopathology
 4 Consciousness and Learning
 5 Ultimate Causes
 6 Is Evolution Really Blind?
 7 The Evolution of Matter
 8 The Emergence of Life on Earth
 9 The Anthropic Principle
 10 The Evolution of Proteins and of Higher Forms of Life
 11 Quantum Biology
 12 From Rocks to Musicians, Engineers and Philosophers:The Problem of Entropy
 13 The Primacy of Mind over Matter?
 14 From Matter to Culture: A Co-operative Journey?
 15 The Animal Mind - Ethology
 16 The Missing Ingredient: Evolving Mind?
 17 Are There Limits to Darwinian Theory?
 18 Wallace’s Perspective: Teleological Considerations
 19 Evolutionary Patterns
 20 Circular Causality: A Systemic Approach
 21 Panpsychism: A Systemic Approach
 22 The Mind/Brain Issue: A Systemic Approach
 23 Genetic Expression: A Systemic View
 24 Evolution: A Systemic Approach
 25 Relevance to Psychotherapy
 26 Conclusions

2 Awareness: Constructivist, Psychodynamic and Eastern Perspectives
 1 Introduction
 2 Language and Awareness
 3 The Continuum of Experience
 4 The Experience of Meditation
 5 Maps and Territory: Kelly and Piaget
 6 Levels of Awareness: Kelly and Freud
 7 Reality: Kelly and Lacan
 8 Group Construing
 9 The Unconscious
 10 Pre-verbal and Somatic Construing
 11 Suspension
 12 Constriction and Dilation
 13 Submergence
 14 Loosening and Tightening
 15 Constructivism, Buddhism and Duality
 16 The Healing Essence of Buddhism
 17 Transcendence, Ascendance and Descendance
 18 Somatoform Disorders
 19 Catharsis, Insight and Integration
 20 Non-dual States
 21 Critique and Conclusions

3 Consciousness and Mindfulness
 1 Summary
 2 Introduction
 3 Suffering
 4 The Talking Cure
 5 The Inner Observer
 6 The Role of Meditation
 7 Mindfulness and Dis-Identification
 8 Awareness Training
 9 Attention, Awareness and Self-Regulation
 10 Somatisation versus Symbolisation
 11 Attachments
 12 Attachment and Loss
 13 Defensive Detachment
 14 Adaptive Dis-Identification
 15 Non-Attachment Techniques of the Orient
 16 More Advanced Mindfulness Meditation Practice
 17 The Silence of Meditation
 18 Mindfulness in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
 19 Psychoanalysis as Mindfulness
 20 Gestalt Therapy Perspective
 21 Abreaction, Insight and Integration
 22 Potential Problems with Detachment and Dis-Identification
 23 Pathological Regression
 24 Suitability
 25 Conclusions

4 The Development of Symbolisation from the Pre-verbal to the Trans-verbal: An Evolving Consciousness
 1 Introduction
 2 Individual Development of Symbolisation
 3 Symbolisation and Communication
 4 Levels of Symbolic Development
 5 Pre-verbal Symbolisation: An Evolutionary Perspective
 6 Projective Identification
 7 Hysterical Identification
 8 Co-ontogeny, Identification and Transference
 9 Failures of Symbolisation: Somatisation
 10 Transitional Objects
 11 Symbolic “Castration”
 12 Sublimation
 13 Dreaming and Verbal Symbolisation
 14 Lacan and the Symbolic Order
 15 Society and Verbal Symbolisation
 16 Para-verbal Symbolisation
 17 Trans-verbal Symbolisation
 18 Summary and Conclusions

Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
Endorsement
Psychotherapists, psychoanalysts, practitioners/teachers of meditation and mindfulness, psychologists, academics, researchers/students (mind/brain domain), researchers/students of the evolution of consciousness, psychiatrists, anthropologists, biologists, cosmologists, teachers/students of Eastern and Western Philosophy, ethologists and the curious reader.
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Publisher:
Brill
Language:
English
Pages:
xviii, 166 pp.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004529342

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