| This comparative and syncretic theoretical research makes explicit how psychology's contribution to the preservation of the dominant idea of the self as detached, self-referential, and oriented toward itself, derives from an ontological problem with historical origins when humans began to insist on subjectivity and separation from the natural world. The scientific method, the epitome of this rationalistic mindset, strictly and uncritically assumed by mainstream psychology, compounded those ontological distortions. Psychological phenomena not suitable to be accommodated within this framework have been consistently and categorically denied. Consequently, psychological conceptualizations are not clearly defined and distinguished since they do not have a strong ontological basis and thus remain hypothesized offering circular arguments to support their assumptions.;The review of research in cosmology, physics, biology, evolutionary thought, and of different traditional cosmological visions not affected by the rationalistic mindset, provided important insights leading to the conclusion that the basic realities of the universe are dynamism, interconnectedness, intelligent energy, meaning, and structure whose ground seems to be a subtle but powerful field of consciousness. Although there have been individuals and movements in the field of psychology that somehow have sensed this reality, none of them was able to escape the power of institutionalized science or the influence of the rationalistic mindset.;Pointing to the resolution of this ontological problem, this dissertation proposes more accurate redefinitions of human nature and human mind, and consequently of the subject matter of psychology as well as a more appropriate epistemology. The focus of inquiry would have to be the interconnected whole and the nature of its information and meaning content, form, and dynamical structure. The basic units of study of psychological phenomena would be dynamics of interaction patterns within an interconnected whole and how the human organism interacts with, evaluates, adjusts, responds, and changes, according to the order, values, and meaning of that greater whole. Some simple examples of basic dynamics and corresponding reconceptualizations of psychological phenomena are provided. |
