Sufism and the Way of Blame Hidden Sources of a Sacred Psychology

The Sufi Way of Blame (Ar. Malamatiyya) began in ninth-century Persia as a practice focusing on self-critique and the psychology of egoism. Later, it labeled those who were ôblame-worthyö for shunning Islamic literalism. Dr. Toussulis definitively addresses this controversial movement within Sufism and the entire Islamic culture. Explaining Sufism as the practice to become a ôperfect mirror in which God contemplates Himself,ö he offers contemporary insights by G. I. Gurdjieff, J. G. Bennett, Idries Shah, Frithjof Schuon, Martin Lings, and Seyyed Hossein Nasr. He also offers private interviews with Mehmet Selim Öziç, a leading representative of the way of blame in Turkey today. Closing chapters present the stages of spiritual development unique to this little-known path that has been largely inaccessible until now. Book jacket.

Yannis Toussulis, Ph.D., is the current director of The Center for Human Inquiry in Emeryville, California where he teaches and conducts research in the practice of cross-cultural negotiation, leadership skills, and contemplative practices. In this and other endeavors Dr. Toussulis combines academic qualifications in intercultural psychology and human science research with practical expertise gained from his thirty-year long experience in Mental Health Services. He conducts a separate private practice as a family psychotherapist (M.A., LMFT #11962) in Emeryville, Califronia. Dr. Toussulis earned his doctoral degree in Psychology with an emphasis in human science research from the Saybrook Institute (1995). His dissertation was entitled Faith as A Lived-Experience: A Phenomenological Study. Dr. Toussulis also holds an M.A. in Psychology with an emphasis in Existential Counseling and Psychotherapy from Lone Mountain College (1975). While teaching Psychology, Mythology, Comparative Religion, and Culture Studies at Antioch University/West for over fourteen years, Dr. Toussulis served five of those years as the Co-Director of the Consciousness Studies Program in the Graduate Department of Psychology. For the past ten years he taught the psychology of intercultural conflict as an Adjunct Professor at the Graduate School of International Policy Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies, and he has also served as an Associate Faculty Member at the Starr King Divinity School at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. Dr. Toussulis has over twenty-five years experience in designing and directing workshops and seminars. His offerings have been sponsored by Esalen Institute, the Association for Humanistic Psychology, the Association for Transpersonal Psychology, and numerous other organizations. He has held led traveling workshops in Greece, Turkey, Egypt, and Indonesia. Dr. Toussulis has also lectured for organizations as diverse as The United Nations Development Project, the University of California Extension Program, Global Majority (a non-violent conflict resolution group) and the Egyptian Society for Scientific Research (Cairo). Today Dr. Toussulis resides in Emeryville, CA and can be reached via Facebook.