[Buddha-l] Personality disorders and anatta

[Stefan Detrez]

That's a bold generalization. I feel however uncomfortable with the idea
that non-Western psychotherapies are in every way better than all Western
psychotherapies. Not wanting to generalize, I think some Western
psychotherapies have, with trial and error, produced good results. How ideas
of atta and anatta are involved is unknown to me. Can you point me to
Buddhist-grounded therapies which deal with for instance psychotic
personality disorders or adhd? Can such therapies deal with these fine
spectra? How do you say to a psychotic person he or she's self-obsessed and
should develop bodhicitta. Do you think it will cure that person?

2010/11/25 Dante Rosati <danterosati at gmail.com>

> i have no idea. based on what ive seen of the "benefits" of "western
> approaches to psychotherapies", i wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole.
> ive only seen people get worse under their guidance.
>
> On Nov 25, 2010, at 2:34 PM, Stefan Detrez <stefan.detrez at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Ok, thank you, Dante. Is the practice of bodhicitta adopted in Western
> > approaches of psychotherapies? Can you tell me if and how this has been
> > done?
> >
> > 2010/11/25 Dante Rosati <danterosati at gmail.com>
> >
> >> the diagnosis does nothing. the practice of bodhicitta does everything.
> >>
> >> On Nov 25, 2010, at 1:55 PM, Stefan Detrez <stefan.detrez at gmail.com>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>> How would the diagnosis of self-obsession and mental illness help
> someone
> >>> who has developed a personality disorder as a consequence of underage
> >> sexual
> >>> abuse and exposure to extreme violence? People with such pasts have
> been
> >>> known to have an unstable self image. Just a question.
> >>>
> >>> Stefan
> >>>
> >>> 2010/11/25 Dante Rosati <danterosati at gmail.com>
> >>>
> >>>> low self esteem, like most forms of mental inbalance, is caused by
> >>>> self-obsession. mental illness = narrowing horizon. generating
> >>>> bodhicitta is probably the most immediately effective treatment,
> >>>> although anatta meditations proabably wouldn't hurt either.
> >>>>
> >>>> Dante
> >>>>
> >>>> On Thu, Nov 25, 2010 at 1:36 PM, Stefan Detrez <
> stefan.detrez at gmail.com
> >>>
> >>>> wrote:
> >>>>> Hi,
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Psychotherapy based on Buddhist understandings of the workings of the
> >>>> mind
> >>>>> look promising from a scientific point of view. However, I have often
> >>>>> wondered how such therapeutic approach works on patients who suffer
> >> from
> >>>> low
> >>>>> self esteem, have no stable sense of a self, don't 'know how they
> >> really
> >>>>> are', etc. Wouldn't the notion of anatta be 'nothing new' to them, or
> >> the
> >>>>> very problem itself, being that the sense of the absence of a self IS
> a
> >>>>> contributing factor to the existence of the personality disorder?
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Thank you,
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Stefan
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-- 
'In some awful, strange, paradoxical way, atheists tend to take religion
more seriously than the practioners' - Sir Jonathan Miller.