Buddhism as therapy: the instrumentalisation of mindfulness in Western Psychotherapy

Abstract

This dissertation explores the integration of Buddhism and the practice of mindfulness into Western psychotherapy, starting with a sketch of the cultural and historical factors that shaped the beginnings of these institutions, and gives consideration to some of the major themes that have influenced the development of both psychotherapy and Buddhism which have given rise to the current proliferation of interest in Buddhism and mindfulness in the West. A secondary objective is to give voice to the obstacles, criticisms and concerns that have challenged the integration of Buddhism in the West, particularly in the amplification of mindfulness practices, which in having been appropriated into Western culture, have met with consumerism, competition and a culture of narcissism, all of which have subjected the practice of mindfulness to commodification and commercialisation. A revisiting of the original practices of Theravāda Vipassanā meditation to gain a deeper understanding of its original practices opens discussion around how Buddhism could then be selectively adapted, modified and reinterpreted to fit in with mainstream Western psychology, not as a religion, or as a philosophy, but rather as psychotherapy with a defined model and categorisation within a constructivist postmodernist epistemology. A third objective is to critically explore a detailed application of mindfulness as it is currently being applied alongside existing Western psychotherapy to ascertain its true efficacy in a clinical therapeutic context. Finally this dissertation highlights the need to move beyond the Eurocentrism in psychoanalysis by the automatic, unquestioning pathologising and marginalisation of religion and spirituality on the one hand; to the other of Orientocentrism as deification and idealisation of religion and the spiritual quest, on the other hand.