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Open Mind, Open Heart: An Anthropological Study of the Therapeutics of Meditation Practice in the US

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Abstract

Based on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews collected with meditation teachers and students in the United States, this article will argue that active training in meditation-based practices occasions the opportunity for people with traumatic stress to develop a stronger mind–body connection through heightened somatic awareness and a focus on the present moment that they find to be therapeutic. Three important themes related to healing through meditation for trauma emerged from the data and centered around the ways our interlocutors attempted to realign their sense of self, mind and body, after a traumatic experience. The themes helped explain why US women perceive meditation as therapeutic for trauma, namely that the practice of meditation enables one to focus on the lived present rather than traumatic memories, to accept pain and “open” one’s heart, and to make use of silence instead of speech as a healing modality. As meditation practices increasingly enter global popular culture, promoted for postulated health benefits, the driving question of this research—how meditation may perpetuate human resilience for women who have experienced trauma based on their own perspectives of meditation practices—is a critical addition to the literature.

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Notes

  1. All names used in this article are pseudonyms.

  2. Using Damasio’s argument, Pagis claimed that one’s body has a basic central nervous system that is always monitoring one’s self, and which generates a powerful non-verbal message when it relates to an external stimulus in such a way that prompts a reaction from us (Damasio 1999).

  3. For a good discussion of therapeutic practice in the US in everyday life, see Bellah et al. (1996); and for more on psychotherapy as an intervention, see Frank (1973); and for an ethnographic perspective on psychotherapeutic practice, see Luhrmann (2001).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, PO BOX 750336, Dallas, TX, 75275-0336, USA

    Neely Myers

  2. University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA

    Sara Lewis

  3. Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA

    Mary Ann Dutton

Authors
  1. Neely Myers
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  2. Sara Lewis
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  3. Mary Ann Dutton
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Correspondence to Neely Myers.

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Myers, N., Lewis, S. & Dutton, M.A. Open Mind, Open Heart: An Anthropological Study of the Therapeutics of Meditation Practice in the US. Cult Med Psychiatry 39, 487–504 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11013-014-9424-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11013-014-9424-5

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