Last week I attended the talk, “Mindfulness in Psychiatry”, which investigated the use of Buddhist meditation and Mindfulness practices in Western medicine.  The lecture was given by Jason Clower, assistant professor of Religious Studies; and Tracy Peng, assistant professor of Clinical Psychiatry.  When I heard about the topic for this talk, I couldn’t help but become a little interested.  I really like the exploration of Eastern practices for Western medicine.  I think that they have some amazing things to offer that could greatly complement our current repertoire.  I also just took Buddhism in the Religious Studies department last semester and I’ve been keeping my eye out for more. 

[Mindfulness is a Buddhist meditation practice focused on awareness of the current moment, which is achieved through various breathing or visualization exercises.  It focuses on awareness of your own consciousness as well, and the reality of things around you.]  

The speakers began by talking about the positive use of mindfulness and how it can fit into the therapy setting.  They said that mindfulness is useful in psychiatry because it can be used to effectively treat depression, anxiety, and addiction.  The way it works is through the use of meta-cognitive awareness.  It makes the user or patient aware of their negative thoughts.  Jason and Dr. Peng said that mindfulness can “reverse the cycle of negativity towards yourself, as well as self-loathing”.  This can be extremely helpful in the treatment of depression and anxiety.  The trend of using this as a complement to current treatment has been steadily growing, and showing very positiveeffects.  They mentioned that the demographic of those who choose to use Mindfulness as a treatment method, is disproportionately middle-aged women.  But it is impossible to deny the positive effects, and the fact that it is gaining in popularity. 

Their next segment was the part that struck me as very interesting.  Clower posed the question, what has been lost and what has been gained from taking this Buddhist method and putting it into the American therapy setting?  It becomes a question of how can you throw out the scripture and philosophy by plucking out this specific form of Buddhist meditation practice for use as treatment?  Clower would say that they are, “denaturing”, it by doing this.  But at the same time, he said that in his study of Mindfulness use in therapy, he has found many positive effects as well.  The main thing he asserted was the fact of availability.  Not every average American citizen can spend 4 months in China learningthe Dharma.  But they can devote a few hours a week, which still produces positive effects in treatment.  It makes it more available for those who cannot devote that much time to it.  He also said that there was a profound difference in learning Mindfulness from an American teacher.  He said the way they think and connect to you through language is very powerful and that the teachings resonate with him far more.  This is probably true for everyone and their respective native languages.  Another quality to the Americanized version of Mindfulness that he appreciated was uniform of quality.  Clower said that this was a direct product of the therapy being involved with medicalinstitutions, and that this was a very good change for Mindfulness.  Though in the comodification of Mindfulness, something will surely be lost in the process.

I think this topic is very interesting and that it could really gain some steam in the medical world.  Dr. Peng mentioned that in West vs. East people like to get stuck in their camps and develop polarized views.  As long as we all keep an open mind there can only be positive directions for us to move in.  You wouldn’t meditate yourself out of a broken leg, but there can be some positive uses for the use of meditation in Western medicine.  We think in language, our depression is in language; Mindfulness can help us become aware of our own negative thought processes so that we can change them.  I think this is an interesting field that will keep developing. 

I really liked this talk and thought it was very well done.  There were a few technical difficulties due to the fact that Dr. Peng was talking via the Internet webcam, but other than that it went very smoothly.  There were a few doctors and professors from the community in attendance and they asked good questions as well.  Overall this was a good experience and an interesting topic.         

Post A Comment