Thinking's bad rap: the uses and Misuses of Zen Buddhist meditation in psychoanalytic therapy.
American journal of psychoanalysis – March 24, 2025
Source: PubMed
Summary
Zen Buddhism offers unique insights for therapy, particularly through Dōgen’s radical non-dualistic and all-inclusive perspective. This study explores how shikantaza, or "just sitting," can enrich psychoanalytic encounters. It highlights both the clinical uses and misuses of contemplative practices, emphasizing the importance of understanding their underlying principles for effective therapy.
Abstract
The author makes a distinction between the expressive Soto Zen practice of shikantaza (just sitting, only sitting) that was promulgated by Eihei Dōgen, (1200-1253) the founder of the Soto Zen Buddhist school in Japan and various instrumental/facilitative and "quietist" contemplative practices. Different contemplative practices reflect and express the underlying assumptions, guiding principles and goals of different traditions. How clinicians understand and relate to any contemplative practice will in turn influence how such practices influence the clinical encounter. Instrumental/Facilitative and "Quietist" assumptions and approaches to practice continue to exert an influence on the practitioner both consciously and unconsciously. The ensuing discussion describes and provides a review from a psychoanalytic perspective, the advantages and disadvantages of these different approaches to contemplative practice with a specific focus on shikantaza in relation to the psychoanalytic encounter.