East vs. West in Healing: Integration or Transcendence?

When it comes to healing the human psyche, East and West offer two distinct—yet deeply complementary—approaches. Western psychology largely focuses on building a healthy, integrated sense of self. Eastern contemplative traditions, on the other hand, often aim to dissolve the very sense of self altogether.

At first glance, these approaches may seem to contradict each other. One seeks to make the self stronger and more whole; the other seeks to transcend it entirely. But in truth, both are essential. Healing doesn’t mean choosing one path over the other. It often means travelling through both.

Western Psychology: Healing Through Integration

In Western psychological models—from Freud to Jung to contemporary psychotherapy—the self is central. Our task is to understand it, nurture it, and make peace with it.

We explore our inner world to uncover:

• Childhood wounds

• Limiting beliefs

• Internal conflicts

• Unmet needs

• Dissociated parts of the psyche

Therapies like Internal Family Systems (IFS), psychodynamic therapy, somatic therapy, and attachment-focused work help us re-integrate the fragmented parts of ourselves. We learn to form healthy relationships, regulate our nervous systems, and develop a stable sense of identity.

Western healing asks:
Who am I?
What happened to me?
How can I become more whole?

This work is essential, especially for those who’ve experienced trauma, neglect, or identity confusion. Without a stable self, spiritual insight can become destabilizing rather than liberating.

Eastern Wisdom: Freedom Through Transcendence

Eastern spiritual traditions—such as Vedanta, Buddhism, Zen, and Taoism—point to a radically different goal: liberation from the self altogether.

They teach that the “self” we work so hard to fix or protect is not ultimately real. It’s a collection of thoughts, memories, habits, and identifications that arise in awareness. The suffering comes not from the content of the self, but from clinging to it as who we are.

Practices like meditation, mindfulness, self-inquiry, and non-dual contemplation guide us to look beyond the constructed identity and realize:

“I am not the body, mind, or personality. I am awareness itself.”

This doesn’t mean the personal self disappears, but that we no longer identify with it as our core. We become more spacious, less reactive, and more able to meet life with equanimity.

Eastern healing asks:
Who is aware of this self?
What am I beyond thought?
What remains when the mind is still?

The Danger of Splitting the Paths

Some seekers get stuck by choosing one approach at the expense of the other.

• If we only integrate the self, we may become well-adjusted, but still feel a spiritual hunger—a sense that something deeper is missing.

• If we only transcend the self, we risk spiritual bypassing—using non-dual insights to avoid unresolved pain, trauma, and relational wounds.

True healing embraces both dimensions: the personal and the transpersonal, the psychological and the spiritual.

Integration and Transcendence: A Whole Human Path

The deepest transformation occurs when we combine the insights of both East and West.

We do the personal work—meeting our pain, healing attachment wounds, developing emotional resilience. At the same time, we open to the spiritual truth that we are not limited to this personal identity. We are also timeless awareness, the stillness beneath all experience.

When integrated skillfully, these paths support and enrich each other:

• Psychological work provides the stability needed to surrender into the unknown.

• Spiritual practice offers the spaciousness needed to hold our pain with compassion.

• Together, they allow us to be fully human and deeply free.

Final Reflections

You don’t need to choose between healing the self and transcending it. You can learn to love your story and also see that you are not your story. You can build a healthy ego and know that the ego is not ultimately who you are.

In the end, the journey is not linear. We cycle between personal healing and spiritual insight—each deepening the other.

This is the beauty of being human:
We are the wound and the healing.
The wave and the ocean.
The self… and what lies beyond it.