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Mindlessness: The Corruption of Mindfulness in a Culture of Narcissism
A contemplative practice with Buddhist roots, mindfulness is "the awareness that arises from paying attention, on purpose, in the present-moment, non-judgmentally." Practicing mindfulness can be an effective adjunct in treating psychological disorders such as depression, anxiety, and addiction. But have we gone too far with mindfulness? Recent books on the topic reveal a troubling corruption of mindfulness practice for commercial gain, with self-help celebrities hawking mindfulness as the next "miracle drug." Furthermore, common misunderstanding of what mindfulness really is seems to be fueled by a widespread cultural trend toward narcissism, egocentricity, and self-absorption.
Thomas Joiner's Mindlessness chronicles the promising rise of mindfulness and its perhaps inevitable degradation. Giving mindfulness its full due, both as a useful philosophical vantage point and as a means to address various life challenges, Joiner mercilessly charts how narcissism has intertwined with and co-opted the practice to create a Frankenstein's monster of cultural solipsism and self-importance. He examines the dispiriting consequences for many sectors of society (e.g., mental health, education, politics) and ponders ways to mitigate, if not undo, them. Mining a rich body of research, Joiner also makes use of material from popular culture, literature, social media, and personal experience in order to expose the misuse of mindfulness and to consider how we as a society can back away from the brink, salvaging a potentially valuable technique for improving mental and physical wellbeing.
Thomas Joiner's Mindlessness chronicles the promising rise of mindfulness and its perhaps inevitable degradation. Giving mindfulness its full due, both as a useful philosophical vantage point and as a means to address various life challenges, Joiner mercilessly charts how narcissism has intertwined with and co-opted the practice to create a Frankenstein's monster of cultural solipsism and self-importance. He examines the dispiriting consequences for many sectors of society (e.g., mental health, education, politics) and ponders ways to mitigate, if not undo, them. Mining a rich body of research, Joiner also makes use of material from popular culture, literature, social media, and personal experience in order to expose the misuse of mindfulness and to consider how we as a society can back away from the brink, salvaging a potentially valuable technique for improving mental and physical wellbeing.
224 pages, Hardcover
Published August 1, 2017
13 people are currently reading
151 people want to read
About the author
Thomas E. Joiner
20 books52 followersJoiner, Thomas.
Joiner, Thomas E.
Joiner, Thomas E. Jr
Thomas Joiner is an American academic psychologist and leading expert on suicide. He is the Robert O. Lawton Professor of Psychology at Florida State University, where he operates his Laboratory for the Study of the Psychology and Neurobiology of Mood Disorders, Suicide, and Related Conditions. Joiner holds a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.
Joiner, Thomas E.
Joiner, Thomas E. Jr
Thomas Joiner is an American academic psychologist and leading expert on suicide. He is the Robert O. Lawton Professor of Psychology at Florida State University, where he operates his Laboratory for the Study of the Psychology and Neurobiology of Mood Disorders, Suicide, and Related Conditions. Joiner holds a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 13, 2017
Ultimately, this book has almost nothing to do with mindfulness - at heart, it's the author's cri du coeur over the growth of shallow narcissism and loss of virtue in our world.
Why the attack on what he terms "faux" mindfulness? He writes as if there's some sort of black and white delineation between the authentic and false types of practice.
In the process of this book - which at times felt respectful and nuanced and at others contemptuous and hateful - the author also manages to attack yoga, psychoanalysis and our culture of self-regard.
Is that concerning? I think so. Following one day at a medicalized mindfulness course, the author is hardly prepared to pronounce himself an expert on meditation, and that is reflected throughout the book. His caustic attack on psychoanalysis is based on a footnote Freud wrote in Civilization and its Discontents. As far as his attacks on yoga goes, the author shares that the people he knows who go to yoga classes seem to annoy him. That hardly provides grounds for his blanket dismissal.
Oddly enough, I found this book while searching for material for a talk I was preparing on the "heart and shadow of mindfulness" ... odd because I found almost nothing in this book to support my own critique of the mindfulness movement in mental health care. Instead I seemed to have found the shadow of the author. It was hard not to read much of the middle of this text, which felt disorganized, ranting and chaotic at times, and not see the workings of shadow.
My other criticism of this book is the uneven presentation of research. The author quite blatantly references studies that support his argument, while ignoring those that challenge it - is this awful? Probably not, as it is such common practice these days.
I enjoyed the final chapter. It felt sincere, and it read as the heart of the argument, that we have lost values and valour in ways that imperil our world and debase our society.
At the end of the day, I'm most disappointed with the publisher. The attack on the mindfulness culture seems primarily guided by the profit motive, as does the uneven use of references and the dubious attacks on other disciplines.
I started practicing yoga seriously long before the so-called mindfulness revolution in mental health care took off. In my experience - which if nothing else is considerably more extensive than the author's - practitioners of yoga and mindfulness are certainly no more narcissistic or evil than the rest of the world (in fact I'm filled with respect for so much of the goodness emerging from the yoga/meditation world and what its brings to us - embodiment and compassion for instance). This world does not deserve to be specifically targeted; in their attacks, the author and publisher do a disservice to the world.
I'm left with the sense that we do best to make the unconscious conscious, to process our disowned pain. If community and valour were enough, we would already be living in peace and abundance. Yet darkness continues to erupt because of our inability to stay with our own pain and vulnerability, with our ensuing need to blame and attack others. So that is for me where the author loses me. I don't believe we can knuckle through trauma and pain and create a happy, healthy world. Meditation is not the whole answer, but I believe it can be part of the answer, and I hope (and believe) that for the most part, it will evolve and rise to the occasion rather than offer another escape and diversion.
Time will tell.
Why the attack on what he terms "faux" mindfulness? He writes as if there's some sort of black and white delineation between the authentic and false types of practice.
In the process of this book - which at times felt respectful and nuanced and at others contemptuous and hateful - the author also manages to attack yoga, psychoanalysis and our culture of self-regard.
Is that concerning? I think so. Following one day at a medicalized mindfulness course, the author is hardly prepared to pronounce himself an expert on meditation, and that is reflected throughout the book. His caustic attack on psychoanalysis is based on a footnote Freud wrote in Civilization and its Discontents. As far as his attacks on yoga goes, the author shares that the people he knows who go to yoga classes seem to annoy him. That hardly provides grounds for his blanket dismissal.
Oddly enough, I found this book while searching for material for a talk I was preparing on the "heart and shadow of mindfulness" ... odd because I found almost nothing in this book to support my own critique of the mindfulness movement in mental health care. Instead I seemed to have found the shadow of the author. It was hard not to read much of the middle of this text, which felt disorganized, ranting and chaotic at times, and not see the workings of shadow.
My other criticism of this book is the uneven presentation of research. The author quite blatantly references studies that support his argument, while ignoring those that challenge it - is this awful? Probably not, as it is such common practice these days.
I enjoyed the final chapter. It felt sincere, and it read as the heart of the argument, that we have lost values and valour in ways that imperil our world and debase our society.
At the end of the day, I'm most disappointed with the publisher. The attack on the mindfulness culture seems primarily guided by the profit motive, as does the uneven use of references and the dubious attacks on other disciplines.
I started practicing yoga seriously long before the so-called mindfulness revolution in mental health care took off. In my experience - which if nothing else is considerably more extensive than the author's - practitioners of yoga and mindfulness are certainly no more narcissistic or evil than the rest of the world (in fact I'm filled with respect for so much of the goodness emerging from the yoga/meditation world and what its brings to us - embodiment and compassion for instance). This world does not deserve to be specifically targeted; in their attacks, the author and publisher do a disservice to the world.
I'm left with the sense that we do best to make the unconscious conscious, to process our disowned pain. If community and valour were enough, we would already be living in peace and abundance. Yet darkness continues to erupt because of our inability to stay with our own pain and vulnerability, with our ensuing need to blame and attack others. So that is for me where the author loses me. I don't believe we can knuckle through trauma and pain and create a happy, healthy world. Meditation is not the whole answer, but I believe it can be part of the answer, and I hope (and believe) that for the most part, it will evolve and rise to the occasion rather than offer another escape and diversion.
Time will tell.
December 27, 2017
Another must-read, especially for mindfulness practitioners (in the age of McMindfulness). Great erudition (which also makes it hard to read at times), lots of references, also very amusing in many places (and I mean it in a good way). There’s no mindfulness without mindlesness. And mindfulness is not about cognitive enhancement, better productivity. If it’s about any type of enhancement – it’s the moral type. That's what I think has been pointed out here.
What's missing for me is one last chapter "what to do about it?". Still, I highly recommend it.
What's missing for me is one last chapter "what to do about it?". Still, I highly recommend it.
October 25, 2022
we love thomas and learned a lot from this book but also had no idea he was such a grumpy old man who hates selfies!!
April 3, 2022
This was a very well-written book in that the author really gets you to think more deeply about the implications of popular culture adopting the mindfulness construct. However, the author does not demonstrate adequate experience or understanding of what mindfulness actually is, which makes it difficult for me to fully agree and take his writings seriously.
March 28, 2018
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is
Mindfulness is all the rage! You’ve probably heard that meditation is pretty much a cure all for physical and mental health ailments but does it live up to the hype? Using wonderful prose, Joiner closely examines the evidence and shows why mindfulness may not be all that its proponents claim and may even encourage some of our more selfish traits. I’ve been open to mindfulness but I’m also already a skeptic so the author’s perspective spoke to me. Mindfulness being promoted as a consumer product, utilized by the military to make better soldiers, and integrated into the workplace by massive corporations to create better workers already stand out to me as major red flags to heed this message.
Mindfulness is all the rage! You’ve probably heard that meditation is pretty much a cure all for physical and mental health ailments but does it live up to the hype? Using wonderful prose, Joiner closely examines the evidence and shows why mindfulness may not be all that its proponents claim and may even encourage some of our more selfish traits. I’ve been open to mindfulness but I’m also already a skeptic so the author’s perspective spoke to me. Mindfulness being promoted as a consumer product, utilized by the military to make better soldiers, and integrated into the workplace by massive corporations to create better workers already stand out to me as major red flags to heed this message.
December 16, 2022
Despite my best efforts, I just couldn't finish this book. While Joiner presents some interesting ideas, his overuse of jargon and seeming contempt for technology and anything he doesn't agree with made it unreadable.
April 2, 2021
Couldn't get past the first section. Not what I was expecting, and as others have pointed out not actually about cultivating mindfulness.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews