Beyond Happiness: Deepening the Dialogue between Buddhism, Psychotherapy and the Mind Sciences

This book attempts to open out the discussion between Buddhist thought and psychotherapy and the new findings of neuroscience in the context of our search for wellbeing. Buddhist teachings are concerned with a way of living and engage most resonantly with practice rather than with theory. Thus the conversation between Buddhism and psychotherapy has been a particularly fruitful one for as long as dialogue has existed between Buddhist and Western disciplines. Today, ideas arising from Buddhism and from contemporary cognitive science may encourage us to engage anew with our experience, our embodiment and our relationships.

Table of Contents:
Contents1 Introduction View from within and without. First and third person perspectives2 The contemporary explanation; the view from the mind sciences3 Explanation in action; psychotherapy4 The earliest explanation; the Buddhist view5 Embodiment6 Emotion7 Environment8 Selves and non-selves9 Attention, awareness and receptivity10 Inconclusion: creativity, imagination and metaphorAppendix 1 The enactive viewAppendix 2 Mind and life institute

About the Author :
Gay Watson PhD trained as a psychotherapist with the Karuna Institute of Core Process Psychotherapy, a Buddhist-inspired psychotherapy. Concurrently she attained a first class honours degree followed by a doctorate in the field of Buddhist Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies of London University. She is the author of "Resonance of Emptiness: A Buddhist Inspiration for a Contemporary Psychotherapy" (Routledge Curzon 2001) and co-editor of "The Psychology of Awakening" (UK: Rider 2000, U.S.A.: Samuel Weiser 2001). She is currently associated with The Karuna Institute and Sharpham College of Buddhism and Contemporary Inquiry, and a member of the editorial board of Contemporary Buddhism. She lives in Devon, UK and is a Trustee of the Dartington Hall Trust.

Review :
Contemporary mind sciences are revealing facts about the brain and its development that have much to teach us about health and happiness. For a greater part of the twentieth century psychology and psychotherapy had little to say to one another. Despite Freud's early wish to consider psychoanalysis as a science, academic psychology had scant time for what it considered at best an 'art' form, while psychotherapy found little of interest in psychology's lack of concern with subjective experience. Since the rise of the interdisciplinary fields of cognitive science, neuroscience and consciousness studies and the growth of new technologies, all this has changed. This new knowledge challenges many of our common sense and long held beliefs. It has important implications for education and health, and illuminates both natural optimal development and the way later therapy may heal early insufficiency. What is perhaps more surprising is that these findings engage with the 'first' psychology, that of Buddhism. Long in dialogue with all forms of psychotherapy for its training in awareness, Buddhist practices are now seen to be of value not only for their transformative potential in individual lives, but also as research tools for subjective exploration.This is the moment to bring neuroscience into the long-established dialogue between psychotherapy and Buddhism to explore a potential path informed by all three disciplines towards mental and physical health and happiness.'A compelling and original synthesis of psychotherapy, Buddhist meditation, neuroscience, ecology and feminism that points to a more sane and compassionate way of living in this world at this critical juncture in human history.' - Stephen Batchelor, author of Buddhism without Beliefs. Contents1 Introduction View from within and without. First and third person perspectives2 The contemporary explanation; the view from the mind sciences3 Explanation in action; psychotherapy4 The earliest explanation; the Buddhist view5 Embodiment6 Emotion7 Environment8 Selves and non-selves9 Attention, awareness and receptivity10 Inconclusion: creativity, imagination and metaphorAppendix 1 The enactive viewAppendix 2 Mind and life instituteAbout the AuthorGay Watson PhD trained as a psychotherapist with the Karuna Institute of Core Process Psychotherapy, a Buddhist-inspired psychotherapy. Concurrently she attained a first class honours degree followed by a doctorate in the field of Buddhist Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies of London University. She is the author of "Resonance of Emptiness: A Buddhist Inspiration for a Contemporary Psychotherapy" (Routledge Curzon 2001) and co-editor of "The Psychology of Awakening" (UK: Rider 2000, U.S.A.: Samuel Weiser 2001). She is currently associated with The Karuna Institute and Sharpham College of Buddhism and Contemporary Inquiry, and a member of the editorial board of Contemporary Buddhism. She lives in Devon, UK and is a Trustee of the Dartington Hall Trust.