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âReligionâ and âsecularâ in U.S. psychotherapistsâ approaches to Buddhist traditions

Psychotherapistsâ interest in Buddhist traditions, once described as a new popular trend, should today be considered an established feature of the mental health field in the United States. Recognizing their religio-cultural import, religious studies scholars increasingly attend to cliniciansâ approaches to Buddhist teachings and practices. However, existing literature on this topic frequently overlooks therapistsâ own reportage about their activities. As a consequence, the variety of approaches that clinicians have taken to Buddhist traditions are often lost in the sweep of totalizing interpretations. Scholars declare these phenomena to be cases of either secularization or religious transmission. Commentators who herald a âspread of the Dharmaâ do not sufficiently acknowledge those who believe they are successful in secularizing Buddhist practices for audiences unaware of their origins. Meanwhile, those who describe the âsecularization of Buddhismâ brush over therapists who advance a Buddhist qua religious path as superior source of psychological healing. Moreover, such analyses do not account for recent scholarship demonstrating that categories like âreligionâ and âsecularâ have been socially co-constructed by particular communities for particular purpose. I conduct textual analysis, personal interviews with formative published clinicians, and ethnographic observation at continuing education conferences where therapists receive training on aspects of these approaches. I show that psychotherapists are molded by their own understandings of what defines âreligionâ and âsecular.â Therapistsâ relative levels of investment in preserving psychotherapyâs qualification as a secular biomedical discipline produce a multiplicity of treatments of Buddhist traditions. I delineate six overlapping sets of approaches that therapists take to Buddhist teachings and practices. Clinicians have (1) therapized, (2) filtered, (3) translated, (4) personalized, (5) adopted, and (6) integrated those elements of Buddhist traditions they view as religious. My study offers a more accurate description of these phenomena. It also clarifies how the ongoing re-construction of categories like âreligionâ and âsecularâ function âon-the-ground.â I demonstrate that these concepts are not only abstract categories for scholarly classification but concrete determinants of behavior for contemporary communities.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-07262016-201838
Date29 July 2016
CreatorsHelderman, Ira Philip
ContributorsDavid L. McMahan, Volney P. Gay, Robert Ford Campany, Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore, Ruth Rogaski
PublisherVANDERBILT
Source SetsVanderbilt University Theses
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-07262016-201838/
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