Description
Inspired by Buddhist teachings and psychoanalytic thought, this book explores gentleness as a way of being and a developmental achievement. It offers reflections on the unique position of "gentle people", as well as certain gentle layers of the psyche in general, as they meet the world. Examining the perceptual-sensory-conscious discrepancy that often exists between a gentle person and their surroundings, it follows the intricate relationship between sensitivity and fear, the need for self-holding, and the possibility of letting go.
Incorporating theoretical investigation, clinical vignettes, and personal contemplation, the book looks into those states of mind and qualities of attention that may compose a favorable environment, internal and interpersonal, where gentleness can be delicately held. There, it is suggested, gentleness may gradually shed the fragility, confusion, and destructiveness that often get entangled with it, and serve as a valuable recourse.
Offering a unique perspective on a topic rarely discussed, the book has broad appeal for both students and practitioners of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy, as well as Buddhist practitioners and scholars.
Table of Contents
Chapter One: On Gentleness
- To Be in the World Unheld
- The Gap
- Sensitivity and Gentleness
- Gentleness, Violence and the Drive toward the Good
Chapter Two: The Path of Gentleness
- Behavior, Meditation, and Wisdom
- The Necessary Equipment
- Gentleness and Destructiveness
- Nina: An Unconscious Struggle between the Gentleness of Mind and Internalized Social Norms
- Beyond Mindfulness
- Some Reflections on the Attitude to Truth
Chapter Three: Between Pain and Pleasure
- Kha盪㌢sutta: The Opportunity
- The Mind窶冱 Substrate
- The Good Object
- A Good Environment
- Nourishment
- Holding a Gentle Baby
- Louise: A Choreography of Nuances
- Necessary Goodness and Instinctual Gratification
- The Adult Mind
- From Prince to Ascetic
- Sensation and Thirst
- The Mind that Sees Itself
- The Objects of Desire
- Subtle Pleasantness
Chapter Four: A Home in the Universe
- Becoming, Separation, and Fear
- The Big Bang
- Truth and Faith: Following the Signs of Existence
- Some Words about Memory, Desire, and Knowledge
- Faith as a Scientific State of Mind
- Saddhﾄ�: Sober Faith
- Holding and Surrender
- Non-Clinging
- Dwelling in the Unsettled Space of Not-Knowing
Chapter Five: Attention as an Environment
- Conditioned Arising: Self-Environment Relations
- Associating: Examining the Elements in the Environment
- A Sense of Environmental Toxicity
- Discord and Harmony
- Two Species of Accuracy
- Inner Attentional Environment: The Mental Space
- The Interpersonal Attentional Environment: Quiet Love and Openness to Truth
- Marina: To Lend an Ear to the Feeble, To See the Hidden Through a Veil
- Holding and Letting Go
- Non-Clinging and Movement
- Instrumental vs Non-Instrumental Thinking
- Rigidity, Flexibility and Dissolution
- Giving up on a Sense of Expertise
- Out of Chaos, Form Arises
- Conditioned Arising: An Environment within the Self within the Environment
Epilogue: Reflections on Time and Space
