The Holistic Depth Psychology of Ira Progoff

273 Pages·2017·7.66 MB·English

by  James P. Armstrong

LLooyyoollaa UUnniivveerrssiittyy CChhiiccaaggoo
LLooyyoollaa eeCCoommmmoonnss
Dissertations Theses and Dissertations
1984
TThhee HHoolliissttiicc DDeepptthh PPssyycchhoollooggyy ooff IIrraa PPrrooggooffff
James P. Armstrong
Loyola University Chicago
Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss
Part of the Education Commons
RReeccoommmmeennddeedd CCiittaattiioonn
Armstrong, James P., "The Holistic Depth Psychology of Ira Progoff" (1984). Dissertations. 2256.
https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/2256
This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons.
It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more
information, please contact [email protected].
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Copyright © 1984 James P. Armstrong
THE HOLISTIC DEPTH PSYCHOLOGY
OF IRA PROGOFF
by
James P. Armstrong
A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School
of Loyola University of Chicago in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
May
1984
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author would like to express his thanks to Dr. Manuel
Silverman, Chairman, and Drs. Marilyn Susman and John Wellington,
members of the dissertation committee. Their willingness to support
research in uncharted territory was most appreciated. Also, thanks are
offered to Mr. Thomas Duffy of Dialogue House for his comments and
critiques and to Rev. Jerome O'Leary, former Director of the Institute
of Pastoral Studies, at Loyola University, much gratitude is expressed
for the opportunity to develop a series of courses based upon Progoff's
work.
Words of gratitude and ~ppreciation are also offered to all the
students who participated in the classes and workshops which provided
the working laboratory for this research.
The author is indebted to Dr. Michael Schnur and to Sr. Irene
Dugan for reading the manuscript, to Irene Lydia Strack and Forrest
Hazard for editorial assistance, and to Miss Irene Schneider for typ-
ing the final manuscript. Special thanks also go to Dr. Donald
La Magdeline and Mr. Youssef R. Yacoub for their support and encour
agement along the way.
Finally, the author wishes to borrow John Cage's dedication in
his book Empty Words and to dedicate this work "to the students in the
school from which we'll never graduate."
ii
Acknowledgment is made to Shambala Publications, Inc., for
permission to reprint the figures "The Spectrum of Consciousness-" and
"Therapies and the Levels of the Spectrum."
Acknowledgment is made to McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc. for
permission to reprint the figure "The Developmental and Structural
Spectrum of Consciousness."
Acknowledgment is made to Addison Wesley Publishing Co. , for
permission to reprint "Multilevel Learning in the Human World"; "An
Ontogenetic Model of Human Consciousness - The Double Learning Spiral";
"The Interpenetration of Processes of Differentiation (History) and
Integration (Re-ligio) in the Human World" and "Hypothesized Phase
Relationship Between Dominant :I:mages and Sociocultural Development."
Acknowledgment is made to Harvard University Press for permis
sion to reprint "Influences on the Cognitive Epigenesis of an Indi
vidual."
Acknowledgment is made to Schocken Books, for permission to
reprint the "Graphic Summary of the Psycho-historical Conception of
Cultural Dynamics."
Acknowledgment is made to Doubleday and Company, Inc. for per
mission to reprint "A Model of Psychosocial Development."
Acknowledgment is made to Anchor Press/Doubleday for permission
to reprint "Basic Structures of Consciousness" and "Epistemological
Relationships of Knowledge."
Acknowledgment is made to Dialogue House Library, for permis
sion to quote extensively from Ira Progoff's publications.
iii
VITA
The author, James P. Armstrong, is the son of James P.
Armstrong and Helen (Silk) Armstrong. He was born October 17, 1946, in
Queens, New York.
He received his elementary education in both the public and
parochial schools of Wantagh, New York. He graduated from Wantagh High
School in 1964.
His undergraduate education was completed at the University of
Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia. He graduated in August 1968,
receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in psychology.
Concurrent with his graduation, he was commissioned in the United
States Navy. He served with both the Sixth and Seventh Fleets and left
military service in 1970 after serving in Vietnam. In May 1971, he
graduated from the University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, Colorado,
with a Master of Arts degree in counseling psychology.
From 1971 to 1973 he held the position of Director of Counsel
ing for Catholic Boys High School in Quincy, Illinois. During this
time he was also a staff member of the Suicide and Crisis Intervention
Program of Adams County Mental Health Center. In 19 73, he became a
faculty member of Quincy College where he was a staff member of the
Counseling Center and taught in the psychology department.
In the fall of 1974, he began his doctoral studies at Loyola
University of Chicago, where he was awarded a research assistanship in
iv
1975. He served as a member of a research team at the Neuropsychiatric
Institute, University of Illinois Medical Center, in 1976. From 1977
to 1979, he served consecutive one-year internships with the Social
Service Department of the Circuit Courts of Cook County, The Student
Counseling Center at Loyola, and with the Department of Psychiatry at
the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Concurrent with completing his doctoral program, he has been on
the faculty of Loyola since 1977 and on the faculties of both the
Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine and Garrett Theological Semi
nary at Northwestern University since 1980. He is also a consultant
with Dialogue House of New York. He is a member of the American
Association of Counseling an&' Development, the World Association of
Social Psychiatry, and the Society of Neuro-linguistic Programming. He
has published "Psyche Evoking Techniques--A Path to Transpersonal
Experience" in the Journal of the Academy of Religion and Psychical
Research, Vol. 3, No. 4, 1980.
He has made presentations at the North Central Educators and
Supervisors Conference in Chicago in 1978; The American Association of
Holistic Medicine Conference in La Crosse, Wisconsin, in 1979; Arts in
the Image of Man Conference in San Rafael, California, in 1980; the
Quincy X Educational Conference in Quincy, Illinois, in 1981; and the
Gestalt Institute of St. Louis in 1982.
He is currently engaged in private practice, teaching and
research.
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i i
VITA ..................................................... iv
LIST OF FIGURES viii
Chapter
I . INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Origins of Progoff's Thought ............ 1
Value of Holistic Depth Psychology ...... 6
Purpose of Study ........................ 14
Assumptions ............................. 14
Additional Terms ......................... 22
Cautions and Limitations ................ 26
Organization of Study ................... 27
II. PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS. OF HOLISTIC
DEPTH PSYCHOLOGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Introduction ............................ 28
Jung ............................... 29
Bergson ............................ 30
Smuts .............................. 34
Sinnott ............................ 39
Eckhart ............................ 44
Zen ................................ 46
Taoism ............................. 47
Veblen ............................. 49
James .............................. 52
Eliade, Tillich, Buber ............. 53
The Emergence of Holistic Depth
Psychology - Survival Forms and
the Organic Psyche .................... 59
Shift in Paradign - From Psycho-
analysis to Psyche-Evoking ............ 62
III. REVISIONING PSYCHOLOGY - FROM ANALYZING TO
EVOKING THE PSYCHE ... . .. ... ..... .. . .. .. .. .. 64
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Origins of Progoff's Metamorphic Model
for Holistic Depth Psychology......... 66
vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS (continued)
PAGE
The Organic Psyche . .. . . . ... . . ... .. ... . . . 75
Dynamics of Unfoldment--The Dream Frame.. 84
Modern Initiation Experience ....... ..... 94
Initiation, Artwork, & Selfhood ... . ..... 99
Progoff's Concept of Archetypal Patterns. 104
Inner Alchemy--Psychological Dimensions
of Time and Meaning ................... 109
The Utopian Personality ................. 116
Self as Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Holistic Depth Psychology's Hypothesis
of Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
IV. THE INTENSIVE JOURNAL METHOD .... ........... 128
~
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Structure of the Intensive Journal ...... 130
Context -- The, Task of Modern Psychology. 134
The Development of the Intensive Journal. 136
The Method of Workshop in the Intensive
Journal Process ....................... 143
Journal Feedback Procedures ............. 162
V. SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF PROGOFF'S PSYCHOLOGY ... 170
Introduction ..' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Transformational Processes of Symbols . . . . 173
A Transpersonal View of Development,
The Role of Initiation and Creativity . . 185
Process Thinking, Imagination and Social
Renewal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Transcultural Phenomena .................. 202
Scope and Limitations of Holistic Depth
Psychology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
VI. CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY................................... 252
vii
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure PAGE
1. The Spectrum of Consciousness and Therapies
and the Levels of the Spectrum ................ 65
2. The Developmental and Structural Spectrum
of Consciousness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
3. Multilevel Learning in the Human World .......... 178
4. An Ontogenetic Model of Human Consciousness -
The Double Learning Spiral .................... 179
5. The Interpenetration of Processes of
Differentiation (History) and Integration
(Re-ligio) in the Human World ................. 183
6. Basic Structures of Consciousness 186
,,
7. Model of Psychosocial Development 197
8. Graphic Summary of the Psycho-historical
Conception of Cultural Dynamics ............... 209
9. Influences on the Cognitive Epigenesis
of an Individual .............................. 212
10. Hypothesized Phase Relationship Between
Dominant Images and Sociocultural
Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
11. Epistemological Relationships of Knowledge ...... 224
12. Levels of the Intensive Journal Process ......... 238
viii
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Origins of Progoff's Thought
Ira Progoff was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1921. The son of
Russian Jews, his family heritage is rooted in Talmudic study. He was
educated at Brooklyn College of the City College of New York as an
undergraduate. After serving in the army during World War II, he went
to the graduate faculty of the New School of Social Research in New York
City, for his doctoral studies. The atmosphere of the New School was
heavily influenced by the European scholars in exile at the time, and
this perspective is very much evident in Progoff's thinking. The
atmosphere of the New School was also highly influenced by Marxist
thought, and, while Progoff acknowledges Marx's debt to Jewish mysti
cism, Progoff himself was not involved in the Marxist movement of that
time. In taking both an anti-Marxist and anti-materialistic stance,
Progoff developed an organismic model of psychology initially based upon
Jung which gradually came into his own. This thought model moved beyond
the notion of material entities having form, discrete and fixed spatial
configurations, and endurance, (a continuous sustenance through time) to
the notion of process, a dynamic act of continuous evolution. In
Progoff's psychological model material entities assume the character of
an event; apart from process, there is no being.
Progoff's psychological model is rooted in his Jewish heritage
as well as his early interest in the Oriental books of wisdom. Progoff