ITP Faculty Members Co-author Article on 9/11 Attack and Cultural Consciousness
ITP Core Faculty members Kathleen Wall and Olga Louchakova co-authored an article devoted to the 9/11 terrorist attack, cultural consciousness, and the evolution of consciousness. In this paper, published in the most recent issue of the Humanistic Psychologist journal (the journal of the Humanistic Psychology Division [Division 32] of the APA), the authors--through analyses of responses to the Sept. 11th attacks--interpret trauma as a catalyst of transformation of cultural consciousness and the American self, and articulate the foundations for a transpersonal theory of cultural evolution.
Accounts feature positive values, humanistic and spiritual aspirations, direct intuition of the evolution of consciousness, and instances of new type of integral consciousness identified with both oneness and multiplicity. The authors use the theory of emergent evolution of Sri Aurobindo and Jean Gebser, and the spiritual psychology of M. Ibn Arabi, as opposed to positivist and critical theory evolutionary perspectives. Imaginative responses to complexity and trauma, refocusing attention on spiritual values, and transpersonal dialog are indicated as components of the new cultural strategies.
