Mindfulness i självhjälpskulturen – en svårtolkad motsägelse

Abstract

This article sheds light on the ways that mindfulness self-help literature carries with it a number of built-in tensions. First, mindfulness questions whether there exists a fixed self, yet the self-help genre’s focus on a You that is encouraged to change – a self that is performing work on itself – seems to reinforce the notion of a self. Second, though mindfulness is demarcated as something different than quick-fix techniques for self-improvement, the reader is presented with numerous techniques and methods for observing, assessing, testing and documenting the self. Third, while destructive thoughts and emotions are not to be “fixed” or resisted, the explicit goal is to become free of them. Finally, although mindfulness refers to our stressful and self-absorbed culture as a problem, part of its cultural dissemination has been through a genre that more than others emphasize self-investigation as a pathway to self-improvement.