The Great Within: The Transformative Power and Psychology of the Spiritual Path

Han F. de Wit received his PhD in psychology from the University of Amsterdam in 1977. On an honorary Fulbright scholarship in 1976 he worked as a research fellow at the University of California (Berkeley). In 1983 he was connected to Naropa University (then Naropa Institute) as a visiting scholar. There he began to study the psychological insights and theories that can be found in the contemplative traditions of the world religions, which brought him international acclaim as the founder of a new branch of psychology called contemplative psychology. In 1985, at the Department of Theoretical Psychology of the Free University in Amsterdam, he continued his research and presentation of the insights and methods of this psychology in a form that enables a dialogue with contemporary psychology and psychotherapy. Trained as a Buddhist teacher by Chögyam Trungpa and Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, he is also involved through his writings in the dialogue of Buddhism with Western psychology, philosophy, and religion.