Mindfulness in the Self-pattern

Abstract

Abstract Buddhist meditation practices have personal or existential significance and are relevant to treatment of psychiatric disorders. On the one hand, meditation-based interventions (MBIs) have been shown to have general health benefits, including stress reduction, the reduction of depression relapse, and improved wellbeing. This chapter explores the idea that rigidity or inflexibility in the self-pattern is a transdiagnostic symptom that can be addressed by MBI therapies. On the other hand, there is data showing that such practices are not always good for everyone, and may lead to adverse effects such as depersonalization. This chapter also considers that although the concept of the self-pattern correlates to some degree with the Buddhist psychology of the aggregates, philosophically, MBI practices that aim for the experience of no-self may seem to challenge the concept of the self-pattern.