This old chestnut, again

@fmf said
I interpret "spirituality" to mean those metaphysical aspects of our human condition ~ the "human spirit" perhaps, or what religious people might refer to as our "souls" ~ where our capacity - as unique individuals - for abstraction allows us to question who we are and affect one another in non-physical ways.

So you are starting to use spiritual in a way that corresponds to psychological.

@philokalia said
So you are starting to use spiritual in a way that corresponds to psychological.

Well, personally, I think your recent conversion to the Orthodox Catholic Church, if it is to be understood, is perhaps best seen through a prism that combines psychology and anthropology, if that is the sort of thing you're getting at?

@philokalia said
So you are starting to use spiritual in a way that corresponds to psychological.

Fundamentally, psychology is the study of the psyche, which itself relates to the sense of self, of conscious personality, of spirit. (Or even the soul).

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It relates to a paper written by Christine Clavien on altruistic emotional motivation and specifically her focus on psychological altruism.

Altruism is where a person acts for the benefit of another and where self-interest is not the primary motivator, a selfless concern for the well-being of others. This is reflected in dictionary definitions (such as the Cambridge Dictionary, for example) which states a 'willingness to do things that bring advantages to others, even if it results in disadvantage for yourself.'

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I believe in spirit and soul in an entirely non-religious context and flag the word you used yourself 'complex' as particularly significant. It is the complexity of the brain (which we barely understand the workings of) that gives the psyche its je ne sais pas.

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Some sort of emotional self-reward (or a warm fuzzy feeling) doesn't negate or undo the act of altruism, that's my point. Primary motivator allows for such secondary feelings.

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The complexity of the brain has a dimension that we don't fully understand. It is this unknown dimension that contains the spirit, the sense of self. I am not looking to the heavens for an explanation. I fully accept biological reasons beyond our current understanding. I am not dipping my toes into non-scientific origin.