Scope, Substance, and Methods of Study

Abstract

This chapter is devoted to explaining what Indian psychology is, and to clarify what it is not. It is not psychology as it is most commonly practiced in India, nor is it about people in India. Rather, it is a broad approach to psychology which is informed and shaped by the long and rich intellectual and spiritual traditions of India, and by the predominant ethos of the Indian cultural tradition. Although Indian psychology is influenced by its cultural origin just as “indigenous” psychology of India is, it is different from the latter in being potentially applicable across cultures, and not being restricted to people of India. Indian psychology involves the study of the person, and the person is conceived as a composite of body, mind and consciousness. Leaving a discussion of this basic theme to later chapters, we offer an overview of the sources of ideas in ancient texts as well as a brief discussion of more recent publications about historical contributions. We then turn to a discussion of methods of study appropriate for studies in Indian psychology. The applicability of various methods currently in vogue is examined along with the limited relevance of the grounding of many of them in the physicalist world view of logical positivism. Finally, we point out how Indian psychology is different from the currently prevailing Western approaches.