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The relationship between psychoanalysis and Eastern meditative disciplines has intrigued me for many years. I have immersed myself in both disciplines since the late 1970s in the hope of ascertaining what light they might shed on the art of living. Judiciously integrating them can open up new vistas that might ultimately enrich our lives and the lives of the people in pain with whom we work.
Imagine the following scenario. A person is in a room with a minimum of sensory stimulations and distractions. She is still, alert, and relaxed. Her eyes are closed. She pays careful attention to whatever she experiences moment after moment…. I could be describing an analysand in psychoanalytic treatment. In this particular instance I am actually depicting a person meditating. What I hope to do in this paper is interest you in the possibility that experience on the meditative cushion might enrich experience in the psychoanalytic consulting room and experience in the psychoanalytic consulting room might aid experience on the meditative cushion.
An increasing number of people who I know both in and out of therapy complain of being too burdened and distracted. They feel oversaturated with e-mails, faxes, and pagers. They frenetically juggle multiple and conflicting roles and responsibilities—parent, therapist, spouse, lover, friend. They often feel a hollowness in their lives. Those of you who feel more grounded and less depleted may still long for a life of greater inner peace and equanimity.
Imagine that you could find a sanctuary in your daily experience from the cognitive overstimulation and the frenetic pace that all too often consumes us. Imagine that within this safe haven you might quiet the inner maelstrom and gain a measure of clarity and focus about what you feel and