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Eastern Philosophy in Couple and Family Therapy

Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy

Name of Theory

Eastern Philosophy in Couple and Family Theory

Introduction

Psychotherapy is often regarded as the connecting point between the East and West. Many of the core concepts in psychotherapy can be traced back to the key elements within the three main Eastern philosophical schools of thought – Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. In particular, the global movement of mindfulness, which stems from Buddhist thinking, has influenced the development of couple and family therapy in the twenty-first century.

Prominent Key Figures

Gautama Siddhartha, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Liezi, Confucius, Jay Haley, Milton Erickson, Gregory Bateson

Description

Eastern thought was first formally introduced to Western philosophy and psychology when British scholars began to translate Indian spiritual texts such as Bhagarard Gita in the 1700s (Germer et al. 2013, p. 11). Western philosophy is broadly defined as striving to find and prove the “truth,” while Eastern philosophy accepts the truth as given and...

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References

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Correspondence to Wai Yung Lee .

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Lee, W.Y., Cheng, V. (2017). Eastern Philosophy in Couple and Family Therapy. In: Lebow, J., Chambers, A., Breunlin, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_523-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_523-2

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Eastern Philosophy in Couple and Family Therapy
    Published:
    29 May 2017

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_523-2

  2. Original

    Eastern Philosophy in Couple and Family Therapy
    Published:
    25 April 2017

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_523-1