Reading Gurdjieff
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(Published version)
Date
2005
Authors
Cescato, Mark
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thesis
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Abstract
This dissertation is aimed at a contemporary reading of certain aspects of the teaching brought to the West by George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff. In particular it focuses on enunciating relevant aspects of this teaching in the idiom of modern day psychology so as to create spaces for conversations between some of the ideas of the modern schools thought in psychology and the coinciding resonances of those same ideas in Gurdjieff's teaching. It is argued that there are many such resonances, and given this, there is great potential for a meeting of the ideas of contemporary psychology and those of Gurdjieff's teaching through such conversations. It is further argued that Gurdjieff's teaching, or at least certain aspects of it, hold the potential to help extend our understanding of many matters of a psychological nature, and possibly in some instances to give psychologists new or different understandings of various phenomena of which we have limited or restricted understandings.
Aspects of Gurdjieff's pedagogy and teaching methodologies are also examined, and where there are relevant coinciding resonances, they are analysed with respect to ideas from contemporary instructional psychology. Gurdjieff's major written exposition of his teaching, Beelzebub's tales to his grandson, is also examined, as is other major written expository work, in particular that of P. D. Ouspensky, who is arguably the best known and most widely read expositor of Gurdjieff's teaching. Additionally, the workings of a contemporary Gurdjieff group in Adelaide, South Australia, are discussed by way of examination of data gathered from a conversational survey conducted with several group members. In conclusion, some of the possibilities of Gurdjieff's teaching are examined and discussed in terms of their potential fruitfulness for informing and extending our knowledge and understanding of psychology as well as other disciplinary areas.
School/Discipline
School of Communication, Information and New Media
Dissertation Note
Thesis ([PhDSoSc(Communic,InformatStud)])--University of South Australia, 2005.
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Copyright 2005 the author. This item has been reproduced by the University of South Australia here in good faith. Attempts to contact original copyright owner(s) are ongoing. We would be pleased to hear from copyright owner(s).
Description
xii, 387 leaves
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506 0#$fstar $2Unrestricted online access