Exploring Thought Processes from a Buddhist Perspective: A Guide to Psychotherapy Without the Thinker

Amelie: Ich fand das Buch sehr interessant. Teilweise habe ich es nicht so gut verstanden. Vielleicht weil ich keine Therapeutin bin, vielleicht weil ich mich mit dem Thema Buddhismus noch nicht so viel beschäftigt habe. Dennoch konnte ich immer wieder eine gute Einsicht aus dem Buch ziehen

Germany on Nov 03, 2023

Stargazer: This is no doubt a book intended for psychiatric professionals with a Buddhist background, or the other way around. I am neither. Not only that, but English is not my first language. Nevertheless I have gotten so much out of this book that I felt compelled to write a review.
First, the book is written in a language easy to understand. It is divided in a way that takes you by the hand from beginning to end. I loved that.
I am an 80-year old lady. I have spent most of my life trying to understand the hurts done to me and by me, reading books galore and being in therapy for ten years or more.
It was not until I read this book that I started to understand the whys of everything. It is just a start but now that I have read the book from beginning to end I will read it over one more time. But now I have a goal in mind. I will be dissecting each and every part of me to arrive at the place I have been looking for all these years. Thanks to Mark Epstein for this incredible book!

United States on Nov 22, 2021

Jaime: I remember reading this book 20 years ago in grad school… it was gratefully remembered over time. Reading it again underscores its significance given the deepening of my practice and therapeutic experience. I look forward to sharing it with young therapists as it was shared with me.

Canada on Aug 29, 2021

doug hone: While not every chapter 'knocked it out of the park', in my opinion this is a must read for anyone looking for answers in their life. You will come away wanting to dig deeper into meditation. The book's relevance is proven in that the topics covered in this book are fundamental concepts used in helping societies that I am familiar with.

Canada on Jul 11, 2019

Michael: ... ist eine Frage, die sich mir stellt / offen bleibt, nachdem ich das Buch gelesen habe.
Psychotherapie wird vom Autor gleichgesetzt mit Psychoanalyse (was beim ersten Hinschauen vielleicht nicht auffällt).
Das Buch beschäftigt sich - nach meinem Dafürhalten - zu viel mit dem Versuch psychoanalytische Theorien so zu interpretieren, dass sie auf Konzepte der buddhistischen Philosophie und Psychologie passen. Auf der anderen Seite wird die buddhistische Philosophie teilweise sehr eigenwillig ausgelegt: "The Truth of Suffering" (Dalai Lama) wird da zu "Humiliation: The First Noble Truth" (in diesem Buch).
Das ganze Denken / die Einstellung mit welcher der Autor hier an die Sache ran geht, ist deutlich durch die psychoanalytische Sichtweise eingefärbt. Für den nicht mit allen psychoanalytischen Theorien vertrauten Leser entsteht hier das Problem, dass die jeweilige Passage schwer verständlich ist - und vielleicht am besten einfach übergangen werden sollte. Z.B. bei den Ausführungen zur Regression und zum Narzissmus (in psychoanalytischer Deutung) besteht das Problem, dass das in zeitgenössischer Fachliteratur (z.B. Safran - "Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic...

Germany on Feb 07, 2019

J. Bell: To be fair I'm only halfway through it right now. It examines in great detail the similarities and differences of Buddhist ideology and perspective and western psychology - but it does so in such great detail that it is quite a challenging read. I am an avid reader with a university education, and have a strong interest in the subject matter, but I still glaze over halfway through every paragraph. I have to go back and re-read everything 3-4x before I get the point. It is taking me forever to read this book. It reads like a very dry university textbook. There is some great information in here, but none of it is particularly memorable to me - and if it's not memorable, it's not useful. The only paragraphs I actually remember and understand are the anecdotal ones that start with "I had a patient who..." because unless I understand concepts better when they are put in real-world context. If you have an education in psychology and/or psychotherapy and want to hash out the details of Buddhism as it applies to western psychology, it's a great book. If you're looking for inspiration or bedtime light reading, maybe not.

Canada on Dec 17, 2015

Trisha Lord: I loved Mark's other book on the intersection of psychotherapy and Buddhism. This one, written earlier, I found less easy to access and have not yet finished it many months after starting. What I will say, though, is that his writing is always deeply and profoundly thought-provoking, and I learn and grow every time I read his writing

United States on Oct 28, 2015

LFM: Excellent book. The author is a faithful, well trained (seemingly; I am not, so he could be full of it, but he's convincing!) Buddhist, and he makes clear, compelling ties between Buddhist concepts, psychiatric issues and addressing said issues. It is worth noting that I, someone who does _not_ buy some of the more mystical claims of some Buddhist sects and finds mystical notions to be off-putting, do not recall finding anything objectionable or ludicrous; that is, if there is any discussion of rebirth or god-like monks doing physically impossible things, or gods born into infants, etc, it is rare enough that I didn't toss the book in the recycling bin... and that move has a hair trigger!

It's not necessarily an "easy read," however -- it's more technical than many pop-press, feel-good books (if a book taking religion as truth can be technical). Further, iif one is inclined to disregard the faithful, it could be tough to get through. But, while I like a lot of what they have to say, I am not a Buddhist, yet I enjoyed, learned from, grew from, and found some peace in this book. It provides a tremendous amount to chew on, and I have it dog-eared, underlined, and annotated...

United States on Apr 29, 2015

Joyce: Epstein, who was exploring Buddhism and studying psychotherapy at the same time, is an ideal person to relate the two. His book is both scholarly and personal as he presents his own struggle to reconcile them.

Stating that the Buddha may have been the original psychoanalyst, Part I of the book, "The Buddha's Psychology of Mind," introduces the Buddha's psychological teachings in the language of Western psychodynamics. To begin with, Freud and the Buddha agreed that we can't "find our enlightened minds while continuing to be estranged from our neurotic ones." We must have the courage to experience our suffering. The first truth of the Buddha is (in Epstein's words) "the inevitability of humiliation." Doubts about the self are inevitable. The maturational process is to go into the doubt rather than away from it. Finally, the Buddha had a "vision of a psyche freed from narcissism." Epstein weaves stories of himself and his patients throughout this section.

In part II, "Meditation," he explains, in psychodynamic terms, the basic Buddhist strategy of bare attention, showing the relevance these techniques still have for us. "It is the fundamental tenet of Buddhist...

United States on Nov 13, 2012

Jocelyn & Christopher Gerrits: This book can be tough to read in spots if you don't have a basic grasp of psychology and know some of the big names in psychology and what their theories were, but that doesn't take away from the insight and inspiration that this book delivers.

I'm an engineer by degree and career path. I know very little about Frued, Winnicott and others, but the way the Buddhist principles were related to all of the scientific theories in the book drove me to do some low level wikipedia research to expand my understanding of what the book talks about. It unlocked a deeper level of understanding to this material.

I am analytical and mathematical by nature, but my spiritual side has always longed to come out. This book provides another bridge in between these two seemingly opposite things and shows how they can work together to achieve a better understanding of my place in the world.

United States on Oct 25, 2011