Chapter 1: Introduction and Overview: Favor the Penguin and Fear
the "Selfie"
Chapter 2: Sane Mindfulness
Chapter 3: Our Culture of Self-Regard: The Stare of Narcissus
Chapter 4: Mindless Mindfulness: The Adam of Your Labors
Chapter 5: Every Citizen a Self-Argus: Societal Consequences of
Mindless Mindfulness, I
Chapter 6: All Must Have Prizes: Societal Consequences of Mindless
Mindfulness, II
Chapter 7: Carthage Must Be Destroyed: Combating Mindless
Mindfulness
Chapter 8: Conclusion: Goliath Perished (In Praise of a Mindless
Future)
Thomas Joiner, PhD, is the Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor
in the Department of Psychology at Florida State University (FSU),
Tallahassee, Florida. Dr. Joiner's work is on the psychology,
neurobiology, and treatment of suicidal behavior and related
conditions. Author of over 480 peer-reviewed publications, Dr.
Joiner was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship and the Rockefeller
Foundation's Bellagio Residency Fellowship. He is a consultant
to
NASA's Human Research Program, and is the Director of the
DoD-funded Military Suicide Research Consortium. Dr. Joiner has
authored or edited seventeen books, including The Perversion of
Virtue: Understanding
Murder-Suicide .
"In Mindlessness, Thomas Joiner provides a cogent critique of the
mindfulness craze that permeates the contemporary cultural scene.
He not only debunks the common misconception that research
demonstrates the uniquely effective nature of mindfulness practice
and mindfulness-based treatments, but also demonstrates the way in
which the more valuable dimensions of the mindfulness based
traditions are undermined by the narcissistic turn that
contemporary
culture has taken. Joiner argues that what he terms authentic
mindfulness has been replaced by a corrupted form of mindfulness
that emphasizes an egoistic preoccupation with gratifying our own
needs, desires, and
fantasies.
In its place he argues for the importance of a more fundamental
reorientation of our approach towards life that emphasizes a stoic
emphasis on accepting life in its own terms and holds that
happiness is a byproduct of the pursuit of virtue." --Jeremy D.
Safran, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, New School for
Psychotherapy Research
"There is a point in the evolution of all great ideas when-by
virtue of their utter domination of the cultural zeitgeist-they are
liable to become parodies of themselves. Thomas Joiner's incisive
polemic, Mindlessness: The Corruption of Mindfulness in A Culture
of Narcissism, convincingly argues that the venerable practice of
mindfulness has undergone just such a transformation into
unintentional self-satire; however, Joiner isn't laughing. With
equal
parts curmudgeonly bewilderment and righteous indignation, Joiner
sets up a mirror to the legions of self-obsessed, "faux"
mindfulness aficionados (whom he dubs the "Narcissi"), indicting
them for their
misguided smugness and intellectual hypocrisy...Prudent, sincere,
and occasionally hilarious, Joiner fills the role of social
dissenter with gusto. And--at a moment when mindfulness is being
peddled as an effective treatment for everything from trauma to
tinnitus--it is a role that desperately needed filling."
--PsycCRITIQUES
Ask a Question About this Product More... |