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Meditation and the unconscious

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Abstract

This paper begins by describing the practice of meditation. It goes on to discuss George Kelly's view of the unconscious and uses meditation to illustrate this view. Some similarities between meditation and psychotherapy are also described within their mainly Kellian perspective. It is concluded, inter alia, that meditation practice sensitizes the world within, which includes subverbal and unconscious material. With increased adeptness its practice may lead to the temporary suspension of our habitual, dualistic, cognitive construing, and thus facilitate the experience of “no-thought,” tranquility and a sense of oneness or unity. In the long-term, meditation practice may elaborate both subverbal and transverbal construing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, St. Patrick's Hospital, James's Street, P.O. Box No. 136, Dublin 8, Ireland

    Michael M. DelMonte M.Sc., M. Psych. Sc., Ph.D.

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  1. Michael M. DelMonte M.Sc., M. Psych. Sc., Ph.D.
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DelMonte, M.M. Meditation and the unconscious. J Contemp Psychother 25, 223–242 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02306630

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