Abstract

Several Western psychotherapeutic practices have incorporated the use of the mandala into their diagnostic and healing practices. Often, references to the Tibetan Buddhist mandala as being a sort of mandala prototype are found in the writing of Jungian psychoanalysts, art therapists and self-help instructors. This is especially intriguing given that Jungian psychotherapy is based upon the idea of a "Self" and the achievement of self-realization, whereas the inherent existence of any such "Self" is denied in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, with the mandala being employed to aid in this realization. Ultimately, this thesis brings together Tibetan Buddhist and Western psychotherapeutic scholarship regarding the mandala in an effort to determine how these two contexts conflict and/or conform to one another, and to shed light on how they may be reconciled despite their differences.