Beyond Health and Normality: Explorations of Exceptional Psychological Well-Being

by Roger Walsh

Everyone strives to achieve it. Entire schools of psychology and psychotherapy are based on it. Yet, until now, no one has ever produced a comprehensive picture depicting the highest levels of human potential. Here is the first reference source to throughly explore the nature of psychological well-being. It examines major Western and Eastern psychologies, philosophies, and religions, then compares and assesses their fascinating visions of human capabilities. This book evaluates recent thinking and research that lends support to the claims of many Eastern schools of thought. Altered states of consciousness, peak experiences, meditation, psychedelics, and certain aspects of quantum physics are among the areas investigated. Buddhist, Hindu, Sufi, and shamanistic perspectives on the nature of human potential and the development of consciousness are compared to Western views. Psychological study of the healthy as opposed to just the disturbed represents a new and challenging phase in Western psychology. Beyond Health and Normality is the first investigation into the highest levels of psychological health. It points the way to theories of human capacity and potential that are far different from those we've adhered to until now.

516 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Dr. Roger N. Walsh, MD, Ph.D., is an Australian professor of Psychiatry, Philosophy and Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine, in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, within UCI's College of Medicine. Walsh is respected for his views on psychoactive drugs and altered states of consciousness in relation with the religious/spiritual experience, and has been quoted in the media regarding psychology, spirituality, and the medical effects of meditation.