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Creator |
1e2e29666fc25f7fbcd3d554f9878294 |
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Date |
2014-03-19 |
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Is Part Of |
repository |
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abstract |
The proliferation and popularity of mindfulness therapies in recent years has enabled
many people to access Buddhist theories and practices which are helpful in reducing
suffering. However, most of the therapies which have been developed so far adopt the
dualistic western way of understanding experience rather than taking seriously the
non-dualistic approach in which Buddhist understandings are embedded. In this paper
I argue that a biopsychosocial perspective is more in keeping with the theoretical
foundations of mindfulness, whilst also being in line with more recent western theory.
Such a perspective requires giving serious attention to the social context in which
we struggle, because this has been largely neglected by the internal focus of most
psychotherapy. Specifically we need to engage with the self-monitoring culture of
acquisition and avoidance which currently pervades western society.
This paper illustrates these points with the example of sex and relationship therapy.
So far, the focus of mindfulness in this area has been on applying techniques to complement
conventional therapies which, broadly speaking, aim at enabling couples to have conventional
sex and to stay together. If sex and relationship therapies are to be fully mindful
then they need to go further than this: addressing the cultural understandings of
sex and relationship that people draw upon. In particular, the need to address the
approach/avoidance patterns which are encouraged, for example, by mainstream media
and many psychiatric, psychological and psychotherapeutic understandings of sex and
relationships. We need to ask what kinds of sex and relationships people are trying
to have and why, rather than accepting these as taken-for-granted. Long-term, a better
aim for mindful sex and relationship therapy (in terms of both individual suffering
and the wider world) would be helping people to 'swim against the stream' of problematic
social norms and cultural assumptions rather than continuing to work towards enabling
them to fit these. |
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authorList |
authors |
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editorList |
editors |
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status |
peerReviewed |
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uri |
http://data.open.ac.uk/oro/document/258846 |
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uri |
http://data.open.ac.uk/oro/document/259289 |
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uri |
http://data.open.ac.uk/oro/document/259290 |
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uri |
http://data.open.ac.uk/oro/document/259291 |
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uri |
http://data.open.ac.uk/oro/document/259292 |
| 40968 |
uri |
http://data.open.ac.uk/oro/document/259293 |
| 40968 |
uri |
http://data.open.ac.uk/oro/document/259294 |
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uri |
http://data.open.ac.uk/oro/document/259839 |
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uri |
http://data.open.ac.uk/oro/document/651777 |
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type |
Article |
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type |
BookSection |
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label |
Barker, Meg (2014). How social is your mindfulness? Towards a mindful sex and
relationship therapy. In: Bazzano, Manu ed. After Mindfulness: New Perspectives
on Psychology and Meditation. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 81–100.
|
| 40968 |
label |
Barker, Meg (2014). How social is your mindfulness? Towards a mindful sex and relationship
therapy. In: Bazzano, Manu ed. After Mindfulness: New Perspectives on Psychology
and Meditation. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 81–100. |
| 40968 |
Publisher |
ext-a233f55d72060f29ddd4b6c6c98ceb57 |
| 40968 |
Title |
How social is your mindfulness? Towards a mindful sex and relationship therapy. |
| 40968 |
in dataset |
oro |