Samuel Bendeck Sotillos, PsyD
Carmel Valley, California
The monopolistic tendency of modern science in asserting itself as the exclusive
interpreter of the human psyche or mind through its psychology does so while negating the most
crucial dimension that makes it a complete psychology, the metaphysical order as is found across
the world in all times and places. The reductionistic turn of modern Western psychology away
from its metaphysical roots has deformed the original ‘‘science of the soul’’ rendering it null and
void. That spirituality and metaphysics have been marginalized and deemed irrelevant in modern
science was assumed to be the logical course of progress. Ironically, however, their fundamental
absence is the reason contemporary psychology is in disarray. Numerous individuals may see this
as preposterous and think that to suggest this is to turn back the clock to the dark ages of
knowledge. However, if psychology is returned to its origin in metaphysics, sacred science, and
spiritual principles, it can again become worthy of being called a ‘‘science of the soul.’’ This
interview with Islamic philosopher, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, on the discipline of psychology
explores the original meaning of the ‘‘science of the soul’’ as it is understood across the diverse
cultures of the world.
