Buddhism and the art of psychotherapy

About this book

In this engaging and intriguing work, renowned Japanese psychologist Hayao Kawai examines his own personal experience of how a Japanese became a Jungian psychoanalyst and how the Buddhism in him gradually reacted to it. Kawai reviews his method of psychotherapy and takes a fresh look at "I" in the context of Buddhism. His analysis, divided into four chapters, provides a new understanding of the human psyche from the perspective of someone rooted in the East. After exploring the Buddhist conception of the ego and the self, which is the opposite of the Western view, Kawai expands psychotherapy to include sitting in silence and holding contradictions or containing opposites. Drawing on his own experience as a psychoanalyst, Kawai concludes that true integration of East and West is both possible and impossible. Buddhism and the Art of Psychotherapy is an enlightening presentation that deepens the reader's understanding of this area of psychology and Eastern philosophy.