Mark Epstein, M.D.:
The Buddha’s Self-Analysis: Meditation as a Path From Object Relating to Object Usage
(September 18, 2009)

CONFERENCE DESCRIPTION:
Before the Buddha became the Buddha he underwent a six-year self-analysis. While it is not often emphasized, a careful reading of the historical record suggests that the Buddha was struggling, in this analysis, to come to terms with early loss. Important parallels exist between the Buddha’s struggles and those described by D.W. Winnicott in his most important paper, “The Use of an Object and Relating through Identifications” (1969), in which he charted the path from object relating to object usage, from self-centeredness to a capacity for concern. This progression is one that Winnicott felt a therapist could facilitate for a patient whose own parenting was not ‘good-enough.’ In the Buddha’s case, he had to find his own path, and his own technique, creating favorable conditions for a psychic transformation that went beyond the conceptual standard of the day. An examination of the Buddha’s self-analysis reveals the underlying mechanism of therapeutic action in meditation, an action that is understandable in psychodynamic terms and of potential benefit to all still wrestling with the infantile residue. In this presentation Dr. Epstein described the Buddha’s self-analysis and presented the method of mindfulness, or bare attention, that he found to be the key agent of mental transformation. The relevance of the Buddha’s findings to contemporary psychotherapy was emphasized.

Mark Epstein, M.D.

ABOUT MARK EPSTEIN, M.D.:
Mark Epstein, M.D. is a psychiatrist in private practice in New York City and the author of a number of books about the interface of Buddhism and psychotherapy, including Thoughts without a Thinker, Going to Pieces without Falling Apart, and Open to Desire. A new work, Psychotherapy without the Self, published by Yale University Press, is now available in paperback and a revised version of his Going on Being is just out from Wisdom. He received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Harvard University and is currently Clinical Assistant Professor in the Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis at New York University.

“Mark Epstein gets better and better with each book ... He weaves a mindful cartography of the human heart, tying together insights from Buddhism and psychoanalytic thought into an elegant, captivating tapestry.” -- Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence

“A calm comes over me when I read Mark Epstein’s work. His integration of Buddhist wisdom and meditative practice with the concerns and struggles of contemporary Western life reflects a seemingly impossible combination of rich, intricate texture with simplicity and vividness.” -- Stephen A. Mitchell, founding editor, Psychoanalytic Dialogues, author of Relationality and Freud and Beyond

“Mark Epstein’s book is inspired in its lucidity. ... After Thoughts Without a Thinker, psychotherapy without a Buddhist perspective looks like a diminished thing.” -- Adam Phillips, author of On Kissing, Tickling, and Being Bored

Audience at the Epstein conference.