Does Self-Compassion Entail Reduced Self-Judgment, Isolation, and Over-Identification? A Response to Muris, Otgaar, and Petrocchi (2016)

I read with interest the critique of the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) published in Mindfulness titled “Protection as the Mirror Image of Psychopathology: Further Critical Notes on the Self-Compassion Scale” (Muris et al. 2016). The critique is based in large part on a recent article I published in Mindfulness (Neff 2016) titled “The Self-Compassion Scale is a Valid and Theoretically Coherent Measure of Self-Compassion” and readers interested in the topic should probably read this article in addition to the critique to make sense of the issues involved. Although I do not agree with most of the authors’ criticisms, it is my hope that an objective discussion can be had of the merits and drawbacks of using the SCS as it is currently designed. I will therefore consider each substantive issue in turn, briefly outlining the issues and providing my response, so that readers can decide for themselves. …