Defense Date

3-31-2006

Graduation Date

2006

Availability

Immediate Access

Submission Type

dissertation

Degree Name

PhD

Department

Clinical Psychology

School

McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts

Committee Chair

Daniel Burston

Committee Member

Roger Brooke

Committee Member

Stanton Marlan

Keywords

alan watts, alfred adler, buddhism, carl jung, d. w. winnicott, daniel burston, depression, e. graham howe, eric graham howe, existentialism, gnosticism, ian suttie, inferiority, krishnamurti, love, meditation, mysticism, nyanaponika thera, phenomenology, psychoanalysis, psychology, psychotherapy, r. d. laing, sigmund freud, spirituality, vedanta, war

Abstract

Dr. Eric Graham Howe (d. 1975) was one of the most important psychologists in early 20th century Britain. Yet, for the most part, his work is relatively unknown. Howe was unjustly dismissed by the psychoanalytic community of his time. Howe was not only left out of the history of psychoanalysis, but also the history of psychology. Because of Howe's uninhibited eclecticism, because both the psychoanalytic and psychological literatures have ignored his work, and because he contributed to his own posthumous neglect, it was necessary to write a comprehensive survey of Howe's writings. Such a survey demonstrated the depth of his thought, as well as addressed, for example, his ambivalent relationships with Freud, Jung and their followers; his relationship to existential phenomenology; and his relationship to Asian philosophy. Howe utilized existential phenomenology and Asian philosophy to elucidate the nature of his ambivalence as well as to critique the doctrinaire approach of many analytically oriented psychotherapists of his day. Moreover, Howe took hold of the very spirit of his ambivalence as a means to propel him toward a profound exploration of the human psyche, an exploration that often led him outside the realms of psychoanalysis and analytical psychology. In Part II, Howe was situated in relation to the better-known psychodynamic theorists, i.e., Freud, Adler, Jung, Winnicott, and Suttie, as well as Laing, via Daniel Burston's typology of psychoanalytic theorists. Extensive discussions of Howe's views on depression, the inferiority complex, the psychology of love, and the psychology of the self were also provided. Part III demonstrated Howe's remarkable ability to bring together Psychoanalysis, Jungian psychology, the Wisdom Traditions, Esoteric Philosophy, and Existential-Phenomenology to form a truly integrated view of man, as well as a form of psychotherapy that treats what Howe called, "the whole man." This work constituted the first attempt to provide a comprehensive overview and critical appraisal of Howe's thought, an appraisal that was long overdue.

Format

PDF

Language

English

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