The word psychosophy has etymological roots in the Greek words ψυχή (psychē) and σοφίᾱ (sophiā), which are often interpreted as "soul" and "wisdom," respectively. It was used in a wide variety of contexts from 1743 to the 1920s but fell out of use in the 20th century.
Contents
There are several distinct contexts in which the word has been employed, including:
- Early historical uses
- Theosophical and neo-theosophical and Anthroposophical
- The contemporary school of psychology founded by the American teacher, Scott Hamilton.
Theosophical and neo-theosophical
The word psychosophy was utilized in several articles published in the Theosophical journal The Theosophist:
The term was also used by William Wilberforce Juvenal Colville in an obscure 1914 publication entitled "The New Psychosophy." The following year, in 1915, Cora L.V. (Scott) Richmond employed the word as the title of her 436-page book exploring various metaphysical subjects. These two writings are examples of the approach that could broadly be considered neo-theosophical.
The term was used by the Austrian philosopher and scholar Rudolf Steiner in a three part series of twelve lectures given in Berlin in 1910, two years before he left the Theosophical Society, but was not apparently used again in Steiner's extensive published works. The lectures lay almost dormant for nearly 90 years until their publication. The four lectures on psychosophy discuss Steiner's perspective on the primary aspects of the human soul, the activities and interactions of various soul forces, the dynamics of love and hate, and the process of judging. Steiner distinguished psychosophy from anthroposophy (wisdom of the human being) and pneumatosophy (wisdom of the spirit).
Steiner states; "Psychosophy is to be a deliberation on the human soul, beginning with the soul's experiences here in the physical world. It then rises to higher realms to demonstrate that whatever we encounter in the physical as the manifest soul-life leads to the perspective where the light of Theosophy comes to meet us." He continues; "every aspect of the soul is either a making of judgments or a life in love or hate. Basically, these are the only concepts that pertain to the soul; all others refer to a vehicle for something coming into the soul, either from without through the body, or (due to causes we will learn later) from the spirit within. Thus, on the one hand, we have judgment, and, on the other, love and hate ... My characterization is not about logic, but about the psychosophic nature – strictly from the perspective of inner activity, or soul processes – of judging. Everything you can learn about judgment through logic is ruled out. I am not speaking of 'judgment' but of judging, the activity of judging, using the word as a verb."
Scott Hamilton
The American teacher Scott Hamilton has trademarked the United States for his contemporary school of psychology offering coaching, consulting and education and synthesizes psychology, philosophy, spirituality, growth technology, and creative actualization. The synthesis unites common elements of past schools of psychology with new research methodology and models of human nature, development, relationships, creativity, coaching, consulting and education. Placing these in causal sequence, psychosophy can be viewed as:
- A new interior research method generating
- An experimentally verified model of inner human nature, which leads to
- A new understanding of human development,
- A new understanding of human relationships, and
- A new understanding of human creativity, all of which are integrated into
- New coaching, consulting and educational systems
Hamilton began developing and sharing the central principles and techniques underlying psychosophy in 1987, following a vision experience of the project. In 1994 he combined the first part of psychology with the second part of philosophy to create the term psychosophy. It was only years later that he discovered that the term had been used in a variety of other contexts in the early 20th and prior centuries. In 1999 Hamilton began formally offering Psychosophy Coaching and Consulting Services. He trained the first group of Psychosophy coaches and consultants from 2005–10, all of whom have launched private practices. In 2008 peer-reviewed research into one of psychosophy's foundational practices—Holding Loving Space—was conducted by Nicholas Hedlund and published in Ken Wilber's and Sean Esbjörn-Hargens' Journal of Integral Theory and Practice. In 2010 psychosophy's model of human consciousness, the Consciousness Coordinate System, was presented at the Integral Theory Conference at John F. Kennedy University in Northern California.