Evaluation of Ken Wilber's Integral Psychology From a Scientific Perspective

Abstract

Ken Wilber's integral psychology (WIP) is a combination of a coherent spiritual philosophy and an abstract psychological theory. WIP sets development as a key element and it aims to synthesize a wide range of ethical, epistemological, and philosophical approaches as well as psychological theories and traditions. The authors distinguish metatheoretical and theoretical parts of WIP, and suggest that the theoretical part of WIP is implicitly individual, neglecting important notions of social psychology. Further, it is claimed that spiral dynamics, a core element of WIP, contains idealistic, arbitrary, and moralizing categories, which in turn imposes a strong limitation over the whole work and confines it to remain a closed system. WIP in general lacks the methods for validation and/or falsification failing, therefore to fulfill the criteria of scientific theories and the ground for scientific research. Yet by identifying the central elements of various abstract psychological theories in a coherent system and by offering a coherent categorization, the authors believe that WIP may deliver value to epistemology, sociology of science, and spiritual philosophy.

Keywords:

• Wilberian integral psychology
• metatheory
• critique
• abstraction
• spirituality
• Ken Wilber
• experimental psychology

Acknowledgments

Zoltan Brys thanks Professor Bela Buda, whose guidance and support enabled a deeper understanding of the subject. The author is also indebted to Bence Ganti and David P. Bartha for their help.