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The meeting of meditative disciplines and western psychology: A mutually enriching dialogue

The meeting of meditative disciplines and western psychology: A mutually enriching dialogue
American Psychologist
Short Title: The meeting of meditative disciplines and western psychology
Format: Journal Article
Publication Year: 2006
Pages: 227-239
Library/Archive: (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved
Sources ID: 22249
Visibility: Private
Abstract: (Show)

Meditation is now one of the most enduring, widespread, and researched of all psychotherapeutic methods. However, to date the meeting of the meditative disciplines and Western psychology has been marred by significant misunderstandings and by an assimilative integration in which much of the richness and uniqueness of meditation and its psychologies and philosophies have been overlooked. Also overlooked have been their major implications for an understanding of such central psychological issues as cognition and attention, mental training and development, health and pathology, and psychological capacities and potentials. Investigating meditative traditions with greater cultural and conceptual sensitivity opens the possibility of a mutual enrichment of both the meditative traditions and Western psychology, with far-reaching benefits for both.

Subjects: 
Psychiatry and Contemplation
Health Care and Contemplation
Psychotherapy and Contemplation
Psychology and Contemplation
Interreligious Contemplation
Science and Contemplation
Contemplation by Applied Subject
Contemplation by Tradition