ABSTRACT
Buddhism is a spiritual approach, developed 2500 years ago and aimed at enlightenment; psychoanalysis is a general psychology and a form of therapy, having its roots in the nineteenth century, and aimed at understanding and remedying psychological problems. While many distinguishing aspects can be named, we can also be aware of similarities in Buddhist psychology and psychoanalysis. Both psychoanalysis and Buddhism concern themselves with dissatisfaction, human suffering, and its alleviation; both offer a kind of ‘diagnosis’ and a ‘treatment plan’. They both take place within an important personal emotional relationship: the relationship of therapist-client, and the relationship of teacher-student. They emphasize the importance of comparable experiential processes: in analysis evenly hovering attention and free association, in Buddhism the method of meditation. The obstacles in these processes are recognized and have an important function in the transformation-process: defence and resistance in psychoanalysis and what are called ‘hindrances’ in Buddhism.
