Notes toward a coming backlash

Per Drougge

pp. 167-179

in: Ronald E. Purser, David Forbes, Adam Burke (eds), Handbook of mindfulness, Berlin, Springer, 2016

Abstract

In recent years, there has been an upsurge in critical engagement with mindfulness and the mindfulness industry. The critique is manifold and includes concerns about the marketing and presentation of mindfulness, its relation to the Buddhist tradition and cultural appropriation, conceptual fuzziness and exaggerated claims, methodological insufficiencies in studies of meditation and mindfulness, and the ideological function of mindfulness practices. The chapter summarizes and discusses a number of critical articles that have appeared on Web sites and in popular media during the past few years, and the responses they have elicited.