ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Buddhist psychological concepts of conditionality and identity formation. It explores the three types of attachment, known in Buddhism as greed, hate and delusion, or, in therapeutic language, clinging, aversive and ambivalent. According to Buddhist psychology, the mind is conditioned by the objects to which it gives attention. In Buddhist psychology the conditioned nature of perception is referred to in terms of patterns of 'attachment'. Attachment behaviours define the boundaries of the sense of identity, dividing experience into 'like me' and 'not like me'. The Sanskrit word rupa describes the power in which objects have to condition the sense of identity. According to Buddhist psychology, the drive to distort perception is strong because it creates an illusion of permanence. The human tendency towards grasping and acquisition, characteristic of greed-type behaviours, underpins many global problems. Society has become more consumer-driven, with huge advertising industries feeding the impulse to acquire material possessions.
