COMMENT
Nobel (1987) reports a need for information relating to "the type of psychological support that would be most helpful" to individuals reporting transcendental experiences. In addition she calls for information regarding "individuals for whom the pursuit of the transcendent may be contraindicated." Finally, she expresses concern about the absence of guidelines that "allow us to differentiate between the presence of an underlying disorder and a serious adjustment reaction to the [transcendental] experience."
Kohut's (1971) theory would suggest that the ability to assimilate transcendent or mystical experiences lies in a structuralized, internal psychological capacity. This capacity fosters an experience of connection between one's self, one's ideals and values, and the world at large. Without such a capacity, more sublime experiences of the world and one's relation to it can become disturbing or overwhelming. Here disruptive transcendental experiences are experiences that are inimical to one's basic values or ideals about life or are particularly threatening to one's ability to relate the experience of inner self to outer experience.
Based on Kohut's (1977) work and clinical experience, experiences of transcendence could be conceptualized on a continuum, with sublime experiences of unity with reality as it exists outside of us on one end. In the middle of this continuum exist experiences of unity and oneness that are unsettling and disruptive because of some lack of cohesion within the self of the individual experiencing them. But these experiences are also positive because of a developing capacity to integrate such experiences from prior developmental successes, previous training, or both. On the other end of this continuum are truly disruptive, terrifying, and disintegrative experiences in individuals who are unprepared and whose self does not contain the requisite developmental structure to integrate these experiences.
The greatest area of professional concern should be for individuals who either have difficulty integrating transcendental experiences into their experience of themselves, who continue to be fearful of possible future experiences of this sort, or who pursue these experiences as an end in themselves rather than as one aspect of the totality of life. These individuals may require more extensive professional help to understand the nature of their unfulfilled needs in this area of their life. With these individuals a positive, accepting therapeutic environment (Kohut, 197 1, p. 88) could help them begin to restore positive functioning within this particular sphere of human experience and allow them to delve further into the vicissitudes of transcendence and their ability to sustain a cohesive sense of self.
Kohut, H. (1971). The analysis of the self. New York: International Universities Press.
Kohut, H. (1977). The restoration of the self. New York: International Universities Press.
Nobel, K. D. (1987). Psychological health and the experience of transcendence. The Counseling Psychologist, 15, 601-615.
THE COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGIST, Vol. 16 No. 4, October 1988 676-677 c 1988 by the Division of Counseling Psychology.
Krapu / TRANSCENDENTAL EXPERIENCES 676-677