Mindfulness and Therapy: A Skeptical Approach

Abstract

Mindfulness-based approaches are the current mental health zeitgeist, shaped into therapeutic application through alignments with ‘third wave’ approaches such as mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). The fact that they are, at present, accepted more or less univocally raises several questions, one of which pertains to the potential elevation of these approaches to the realm of the undisputed. Opening a discussion on the origins of skepticism in meditation practice and the field of therapy, I will suggest that the complementary relationship between the ancient philosophies of Pyrrhonian skepticism (Empiricus, 1990) and the Buddhist Madhyamaka school (Nāgārjuna, 1995) might provide a practical challenge to what may easily turn, if passively accepted, into a form of dogmatism. I will argue that the above offer the parameters for the construction of a therapeutic alliance that shifts us from a behavioral understanding of the self towards one encouraging a greater embodiment of the lived experience of both therapist and client. Both philosophies encourage a way of life that embodies the suspension of one’s judgment and beliefs. This attitude potentially leads to freedom from mental conflict, or anxiety—an attitude that, as I will suggest, can be lacking in contemporary therapeutic applications of mindfulness-based approaches.