Name of Theory
Eastern Philosophy in Couple and Family Theory
Introduction
Psychotherapy is often regarded as the connecting point between the East and West. Many of the core concepts in psychotherapy can be traced back to the key elements within the three main Eastern philosophical schools of thought – Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. In particular, the global movement of mindfulness, which stems from Buddhist thinking, has influenced the development of couple and family therapy in the twenty-first century.
Prominent Key Figures
Gautama Siddhartha, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Liezi, Confucius, Jay Haley, Milton Erickson, Gregory Bateson
Description
Eastern thought was first formally introduced to Western philosophy and psychology when British scholars began to translate Indian spiritual texts such as Bhagarard Gita in the 1700s (Germer et al. 2013, p. 11). Western philosophy is broadly defined as striving to find and prove the “truth,” while Eastern philosophy accepts the truth as given and...
References
Bateson, G. (2000 reprint. First published 1972). Steps to an ecology of mind: Collected essays in anthropology, psychiatry, evolution, and epistemology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-03905-6. Retrieved July 29, 2016.
Bateson, G. (1979). Mind and nature: A necessary unity, Advances in systems theory, complexity, and the human sciences. Cresskill: Hampton Press.
Bishop, S. R., Lau, M., Shapiro, S., Carlson, L., Anderson, N. D., Carmody, J., Segal, Z. V., Abbey, S., Speca, M., Velting, D., & Devins, G. (2004). Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. Clinical Psychology Science and Practice, 11(3), 230–241. doi:10.1093/clipsy.bph077.
Capra, F. (2010). The Tao of physics: An exploration of the physics between modern physics and Eastern mysticisim. Boston: Shambhala Publications, Inc.
Carr, A. (2012). Family therapy: Concepts, process and practice (3rd ed.). Manchester: Wiley.
Carson, J. W., Carson, K. M., Gil, K. M., & Baucom, D. H. (2004). Mindfulness-based relationship enhancement. Behavior Therapy, 35, 471–494.
Gambrel, L. E., & Keeling, M. L., (2010). Relational aspects of mindfulness: Implications for the practice of marriage and family therapy. Contemporary Family Therapy, 32, 412–426. doi:10.1007/s10591-010-9129-z
Gehart, D., & Collum, E. E. (2007). Engaging suffering: Towards a mindful re-visioning of family therapy practice. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 33(2), 214–226. doi:10.1111/j.1752-0606.2007.00017.x.
Germer, C. K., Siegel, R. D., & Fulton, P. R. (2013). Mindfulness and psychotherapy. New York: The Guilford Press.
Goyal, M., Singh, S., Sibinga, E. M. S., Gould, N. F., Rowland-Seymour, A., Sharma, R., Berger, Z., Sleicher, D., Maron, D. D., Shihib, H. M., Ranasinghe, P. P. P. D., Linn, S., Saha, S., Bass, E. B., & Haythornthwaite, J. A. (2014). Meditation programs for psychological stress and well-being: A systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Internal Medicine, 174(3), 357–368. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.13018.
Greenan, D. (2015). Resiliency-focused couple therapy: A multidisciplinary model. AEDP Transformance Journal, 5(1). https://www.aedpinstitute.org/transformance/resiliency-focused-couple-therapy/. Accessed 3 September 2016.
Haley, J. (2013). Jay Haley on Milton J. Erickson. New York: Routledge.
Imber-Black, E. (1993). Secrets in families and family therapy. New York: Norton.
Kabat-Zinn, J. (2013). Full catastrophe living. New York: Random House LLC.
Langer, E. J. (2000). The construct of mindfulness. Journal of Social Issues, 56, 1–9. doi:10.1111/0022-4537.00148.
Wachs, K., & Cordova, J. V. (2007). Mindful relating: Exploring mindfulness and emotion repertoires in intimate relationships. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 33, 464–481. doi:10.1111/j.1752–0606.2007.00032.x.
Wylie, M. S. (2015). The mindfulness explosion. Psychotherapy networker. Retrieved from https://www.psychotherapynetworker.org/magazine/article/66/the-mindfulness-explosion
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Lee, W.Y., Cheng, V. (2017). Eastern Philosophy in Couple and Family Therapy. In: Lebow, J., Chambers, A., Breunlin, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_523-2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_523-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-15877-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-15877-8
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences
Publish with us
Chapter history
-
Latest
Eastern Philosophy in Couple and Family Therapy- Published:
- 29 May 2017
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_523-2
-
Original
Eastern Philosophy in Couple and Family Therapy- Published:
- 25 April 2017
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_523-1