Clarifications about Lonergan's “authenticity” for application in psychology

Publication date: April 2020Source: New Ideas in Psychology, Volume 57Author(s): Daniel A. Helminiak, Barnet D. Feingold, Michael J. DonahueAbstractBernard Lonergan's analysis of intentional human consciousness—in contrast to “psyche,” another aspect of human mentality—stretches toward precision that is generally lacking in the social sciences. Incorporated into current psychology, this analysis could advance this field and other social sciences to the status of genuine science: explanatory and even normative or prescriptive. Built on that analysis, the notion of authenticity encapsulates the supposed “native spontaneities and inevitabilities of our consciousness” in four “transcendental precepts”—“Be attentive, Be intelligent, Be reasonable, Be responsible”—which parallel the four “levels” of conscious functioning: experience, understanding, judgment, and decision. This argument about authenticity rests on numerous highly debated philosophical presuppositions, which this article discusses to contextualize Lonergan's theory among others and to ground its claims: the theory's empirical basis; its naturalistic, non-theological, nature; its affirmation of spiritual (non-material) reality; its characterization of human consciousness as conscious as well as intentional, as dynamic, and as normative; and its status as explanatory. Against this background this article explicates authenticity as a key construct provocatively relevant to psychology.

Source: New Ideas in Psychology - December 4, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research