Fr. Bulatao
Fr. Jaime C. Bulatao, SJ was a Jesuit and one of the pioneers of Psychology in the Philippines. Read more about his life in this section!
EDUCATION & ACHIEVEMENTS
Graduating high school as valedictorian of class 1939 in Ateneo de Manila, he returned to Ateneo after finishing his MA in Experimental Psychology and PhD. in Clinical Psychology at Fordham University, New York. He headed the Central Guidance Office and established the Psychology Department of the Ateneo de Manila University. He later co-founded the Psychological Association of the Philippines as well as the Philippine Guidance and Personnel Association with colleagues from various local universities.
Some of his most famous works are Techniques of Group Discussion (1965); The Self and the Group (1967); Split Level Christianity (1966); Phenomena and their Interpretation: Landmark Essays 1957 – 1989 (1992) and Consciousness Mapping: Understanding your Relationships through the Star Matrix (2010) together with Gilda Lopez, PhD.
Fr. Jaime C. Bulatao, SJ was a Jesuit and one of the pioneers of Psychology in the Philippines. Read more about his life in this section!
EDUCATION & ACHIEVEMENTS
Graduating high school as valedictorian of class 1939 in Ateneo de Manila, he returned to Ateneo after finishing his MA in Experimental Psychology and PhD. in Clinical Psychology at Fordham University, New York. He headed the Central Guidance Office and established the Psychology Department of the Ateneo de Manila University. He later co-founded the Psychological Association of the Philippines as well as the Philippine Guidance and Personnel Association with colleagues from various local universities.
Some of his most famous works are Techniques of Group Discussion (1965); The Self and the Group (1967); Split Level Christianity (1966); Phenomena and their Interpretation: Landmark Essays 1957 – 1989 (1992) and Consciousness Mapping: Understanding your Relationships through the Star Matrix (2010) together with Gilda Lopez, PhD.
IMMERSION AND PRACTICE
Father Bulatao’s immersion in the Filipino Psyche colored his theories and writings with mystical narrations of faith healing, poltergeist, and possession, among others. Together with this, he was always in conversation with the academic community, writing about modes of mind, consciousness mapping, and methodological considerations in paranormal research. In practice, Father Bulatao did not hesitate to enter the culture of the client. According to his niece, Cristina Montiel, her uncle believed that “true healing takes place by entering the subjective world of those who ask for help.”
Father Bulatao himself was famous for inducing hypnotic trances with the help of Tibetan chimes, tapping into what he explained as the collective singularity of humanity. He bridged the psychological divisions among and within humans through mind-reading. He would even do hypnosis during his undergraduate classes! For his clients, they would leave finding themselves with less pain and with more peace.
MENTORSHIP AND LEGACY
For all his awards and citations for his contributions to the field of Psychology in the Philippines, he was simply known as Father Bu by friends, faculty, and coworkers. For this generation’s leading clinicians, he was not only a professor but also a mentor. He trained and inspired countless students, faculty, and practitioners who would go on and provide psychological services to people from all walks of life as he did.
In setting up the Bulatao Center, we have actualized Fr. Bulatao’s life and dream—that of developing exemplary psychologists who serve the nation.
Knowing Father Bu
Learn more about Fr. Bulatao in this 3-part documentary
Part 1: Fr. Bu as a Teacher
Part 2: Father of Philippine Psychology
Part 3: Seer of Minds and Hearts