TY  - JOUR
AU  - Hede, Andrew
PY  - 2018
DA  - 2018/12/23
TI  - Binary Model of the Dynamics of Active versus Passive Mindfulness in Managing Depression
JO  - OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine
SP  - 037
VL  - 03
IS  - 04
AB  - Background: Meditation has developed over many centuries within a diverse range of religious traditions including Middle-Eastern, Indian, and East-Asian. Of these, mindfulness meditation from the Buddhist (Indian) tradition, has been the most extensively adopted in the Western secular world primarily with applications in health and well-being as pioneered by Jon Kabat-Zinn. Review: While originally developed to treat chronic pain and stress in the U.S., mindfulness training was later coupled with cognitive-behavioral therapy to treat depression in the U.K. and beyond. The present review of the literature confirms the effectiveness of mindfulness meditation in these medical applications. The various models of mindfulness that have been advanced in the literature are here reviewed and are shown to be based on an underlying unitary model of the human psyche. By contrast, the present model distinguishes between two modes of mindfulness, an active form and a passive form. Theory: The structural foundations of these two modes of mindfulness are established types of self within the psyche, namely, the ‘intra self’ (underpinning ‘active mindfulness’) and the ‘supra self’ (underpinning ‘passive mindfulness’). The binary model advanced here shows how these two kinds of self (and their corresponding modes of mindfulness) can form the basis of an effective approach to managing depression. Application: By combining both cognitive decentering using active mindfulness and existential disidentification using passive mindfulness, individuals can learn to manage their cognitive dysfunction and distorted self-identity and thereby reduce the effects of depression in their lives. A design for an empirical study is provided to test the model.
SN  - 2573-4393
UR  - https://doi.org/10.21926/obm.icm.1804037
DO  - 10.21926/obm.icm.1804037
ID  - Hede2018
ER  -