The Lost And Reversion Of The Theory Of Human Nature Of The Mindfulness Psychotherapy

Mindfulness therapy which includes Mindfulness-based stress reduction, Mindfulness-based Cognitive therapy, and Dialectical behavior therapy is a new kind of psychotherapy. The main method of the mindfulness therapy is meditation and contains two aspects. The first aspect is paying attention to present. The second one is not evaluating any thought emerging in mind. The origin and development of the mindfulness therapy in America, is not only because of the wide spreading of Zen in America, but also because of the trend of the traditional psychotherapies. There are two basic characteristics of the mindfulness therapy. The first one is that it advocates the goal of treatment is to achieve a well being of physical and mental, not just the elimination of disease. The second one is that it advocates the approach of treatment is self-directing and self-healing, rather than a kind of passive acceptance. Because these two characteristics are new trends of the development of contemporary psychotherapy, so mindfulness therapy is very popular.However, the theory of the mindfulness therapy has three shortcomings. Firstly, it lacks a systematic theoretical basis. It has no theoretical explanation about the cause of the disease and the mechanism of healing. Secondly, it has a vague attitude about the status of cognition. On the one hand it has stressed the aspect of cognition in the therapeutic process. On the other hand, it has excluded the aspect of cognition by the method of"do not judging". Thirdly, it has a vague attitude about the status of self. On the one hand it has stressed the self-liberation and self-forgetting. On the other hand, it has highlighting and emphasizing the self by the method of"paying attention to present". These shortcomings have hindered the development of mindfulness therapy. The theoretical shortcoming of the mindfulness therapy is essentially a lost of the theory of human nature. The mindfulness therapy emerged in western culture, but its main idea originated in eastern culture. There are many huge differences between the humanism in western culture and eastern culture. The theory of human nature in western culture stresses the essence or instinct of human. And the theory of human nature in eastern culture emphasizes the current life state and original face of human. The theory of human nature of the mindfulness therapy is the latter. However, many western psychologists could not comprehend this kind of humanism, so they have abandoned the idea of humanism of eastern culture and only introduced the techniques and methods of meditation when they founded the mindfulness therapy. However, the humanism of western culture could not explain the mindfulness therapy, so the psychologists have only stressed the methods and techniques and abandoned the theoretical basis. So there is a lost of the theory of human nature.We must return to the theoretical basis and humanism in order to develop and improve the mindfulness therapy. The original humanism of the mindfulness therapy advocated that human nature is the original face or the current life state of people. There are two characteristics of the current life state. The first one is that there is not distinguishing awareness. It advocated that we should not distinguish the goodness and evil, the good and bad, the right and wrong, and we should believe that every one is equal. The second one is that there is not obsession awareness. It advocated that we should not be limited and obsessed by any notion, idea and thought. The distinguishing and obsession awareness are the reasons why people have all kinds of mental illness. So the main purpose of psychotherapy is to remove the distinguishing and obsession awareness.The mindfulness therapy should be reconstructed according to the original theory of human nature. The first aspect is the reconstruction of the theoretical basis. The new mindfulness therapy advocates that the distinguishing and obsession awareness are the reasons why people have mental illness, so the purpose of psychotherapy is to remove the distinguishing and obsession awareness. The second aspect is the reconstruction of the methods. The new mindfulness therapy includes two approaches to treat all kinds of mental disease. The first one is the cognition approach. Psychiatrist helps patient to realize his distinguishing and obsession awareness and his original face and current life state. The second one is the behavior approach. The patient should experience and maintain his original face and current life state, and remove the distinguishing and obsession awareness by some methods like meditation and relaxation. These two approaches should be applied at the same time.Finally, the mindfulness therapy has an important value to Chinese psychology. There are many systematic psychological theories and meaningful psychological thoughts in Chinese culture. So it is important to pay attention to the psychological thoughts in Chinese culture.