Psychologists should help fix mind-problems like a good mechanic, not act like a bossy priest or guru.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved master, I heard you say that the psychologist is slowly taking the role of the priest. Group leaders tend to become arrogant and often hallow themselves as authorities, well-disguised in humbleness. They thus give juice to their participants' dependency on authority, even though that is what they came to therapy to grow out of. Isn't this exploitation of trust even more dangerous than any other exploitation?
It is happening around the world. The therapist, the psychoanalyst, the psychiatrist -- they are the new priests. The old priests are out of date with the new generation. The gap between the old people and the new generation is widening every day. The gap is widening, but your conditioning is done by the older generation: your parents, your teachers, your priests. So now you are in a situation where you have to find new priests, new father figures, and that is being fulfilled by the psychologists of different schools. One of the functions here in our university is to destroy this role. The therapists have to be aware not to become authoritative. But they can become nonauthoritative only if you are ready to drop the idea of authority. So it depends on both the therapist and the people who are participating in the therapy. The persons who are participating…
Osho, why does there seem to be so much conflict between the world and God?
It is as if someone were sleeping deeply in this garden. The cuckoo comes and sings, birds are chattering, the sun rises, breezes dance through the trees; but someone is fast asleep. The breezes touch him, the birds’ songs echo at his ears, the sun’s rays play on his face, but he knows nothing. Then someone comes and shakes him awake. His eyes open—the glory of the sun is revealed, the song of the passing breeze is heard, suddenly the cuckoo’s call, the fragrance of flowers. Do you think something new has happened? Everything was already there, just as it is. Only this man has become new—nothing else has changed. The same garden, the same sun, the same flowers, the same birds—everything the same; only a small difference: he was asleep; he is awake. The meaning of “world” is: you are asleep in God. The meaning of “God” is: you…
Beloved master, I am a psychologist. I was hoping that studying psychology would help to change my life, but nothing like that has happened. What should I do now?
After three years, one day when he came, the psychoanalyst received him with great joy and said, "I am glad to declare, after three years' research on you, that you don't suffer from an inferiority complex. I have come to this conclusion after such a long effort that it can't be wrong. You don't suffer from an inferiority complex -- simply forget all about it." The politician was very happy and he said, "I am grateful to you, but can you tell me how you arrived at this conclusion?" The psychoanalyst said, "Because you ARE simply inferior -- how can you suffer from an inferiority complex?" Nagesh, you need not be worried. If sitting silently you start feeling madness arising, don't be worried -- you can't be more mad than you already are. Man cannot fall more. He has fallen to the rock bottom. Now there is no further to…
Often it seems that a successful therapeutic relationship results in spiritual growth for both client and therapist. Please explain: to what extent is the relationship between client and therapist similar to that of disciple and master?
They are the modern version of the priest. In the ancient days the priest used to serve the same function. He used to keep people under rule, under control. He was serving the king. There was a conspiracy between the priest and the politician. The politician would touch the feet of the priest and the priest was enforcing a certain kind of society on people -- in the name of God. Then by and by God died. Naturally the priest became unemployed. The kings disappeared. Now there are only five kings -- four of playing cards and one of England. Others have disappeared. The king disappeared, the priest disappeared, the God disappeared, the society became democratic. But the society needs the priest. Without the priest the politician cannot function. The priest has come back with a new name -- the psychotherapist is the new priest and psychotherapy is the new…
Beloved Osho, is taking the role of a therapist dangerous to my own spiritual growth? Is it possible to help people and still let my own ego dissolve at the same time? I feel that a subtle fight goes on inside me between one part that is clear and another part that wants nothing to do with clarity. Under your guidance I have learned not to dominate others when I use my capacity to see, but am I still dominating myself?
But these people have not gone inside; they have looked from outside. And this is the problem: from the outside you can only see objects, and love is not an object, bliss is not an object, enlightenment is not an object, understanding is not an object, wisdom is not an object. All that is great in human existence and life is subjective, not objective. But from the outside you can see only objects. That gives a tremendous urgency to fill your hollow inside with any rubbish. There are people who are filling it with borrowed knowledge; there are people who are filling it with self-imposed torture -- they become saints. There are people who are beggars to become the prime minister, to become the president. Everywhere the hollow people are in tremendous need to dominate others. That gives them the feeling that they are not hollow. A sannyasin begins by…