Esforços da psicolgia occidental

Earlier Efforts
of Western Sciences

One of the main motives of OIDA-therapy is emphasizing the phenomena of faith in human existence, and the role of faith in human health.

During the development of OIDA-therapy, - at a certain moment - we found it important to investigate the work of the principle psychological thinkers of the 20th century Western world from the point of view of OIDA-therapy.

We were curious to see, what kind of role, if any, the phenomena of faith and love played in the work of these psychologists, whose influence reached not only a narrow professional public, but also a much broader one. Did they recognize the role of faith and love in human health? Did they synthesize it in their work? Were their efforts acknowledged by mainstream psychology? How far could they integrate psychology and spirituality?

We looked at the work and the life of C. G. Jung, Viktor Frankl, Erich Fromm and Abraham Maslow.


Kurt Godel and Albert Einstein

We found that these outstanding men – besides their differences – had many similarities.

Faith, spirituality – or whatever you may call it – played a crucial role in their work (and in their personal lives as well).

Among their contemporaries they never belonged to the mainstream. This being different from the mainstream resulted from striving to view all available knowledge about human nature, the human situation and human problems as a whole, and not solely according to the given separate disciplines.

They also all had (different forms of) personal faith, although – very consciously – they did not let it become very obvious, due to being afraid of losing their scientific reputation. This cautiousness was not without a well-grounded reason; the science of psychology developed in the 20th century was based on a materialistic worldview.

Besides that, the notion of an “objective science” demanded a mostly “exclusive concentration” on a subject. It was, and probably still is, obligatory that a scientist accepts this basic stance.

Therefore all these men – even while they wrote deliberately about the importance of spirituality in human development – they avoided the possibility that they could be called religious because continuing to be religious and being scientific was considered contradictory,. Even Victor Frankl, whose psychotherapy was all based on faith, emphasised this.

The work of Frankl played a special role in the development of OIDA-therapy, and we are happily acknowledging it. It was a kind of a starting point in the development of OIDA-therapy.

Swami Bhakti Aloka Paramadvaiti says the following about Frankl:

“Searching for help in assisting addicted people I asked for different views beyond Freud. In Brazil I was put in contact with logo-therapy as a cure through embracing a meaning of life. Frankl and his story amazed me and I tried to connect what I learned from him with the mystical teachings of the Vedas. The knowledge of “one truth and many ways to approach it”, provided me with the openness to go beyond sectarian limitations and rather see OIDA-therapy as an answer. As faith is given by God, to cure us, in every true mystical tradition. Here started my research on faith - the underlying current of all convictions or claims to know something.”