Abstract
The chapter recalls what was lost when psychology broke away from philosophy and became medicalized, comparing this loss to Freud’s die Seele becoming “the mind” in English translations. It explores how Langer’s research confirms a concept of mindfulness with a rich history in the humanities. Langer’s skill in translating scientific work in psychology for a general audience reflects that humanistic heritage: In Mindfulness (1989), The Power of Mindful Learning (1997) and in On Becoming an Artist (2005), she offers arguments evolving as stories mixing personal anecdote and research summary. In these, Langer often challenges major philosophical perspectives—Decartes’s separation of mind and body, for example—more often she affirms the value of long-standing ideas which previously had only philosophical support. Freud wrote of “the soul” and the unconscious; Langer writes of “the authentic self” and its mindless inhibitions. Her emphasis on the critical awareness that context constantly changes empowers a general audience with a useful understanding of Langerian mindfulness.
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Notes
- 1.
Blake’s answers to the assertions that the body and mind are separate and that the body is evil and reason good in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell seem especially worth recalling in the context of Langer’s “counterclockwise” experiments:
1. Man has no Body distinct from his Soul for that call'd Body is a portion of Soul discern'd by the five Senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age.
2. Energy is the only life and is from the Body and Reason is the bound or outward circumference of Energy.
References
Langer, E. J. (1989). Mindfulness. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company Inc.
Langer, E. J. (1997). The power of mindful learning. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books.
Langer, E. J. (2005). On becoming an artist: Reinventing yourself through mindful creativity. New York: Ballantine Books.
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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
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Rhem, J. (2016). Ellen Langer: Philosophy, Autobiography, and a Healing Quest. In: Fatemi, S. (eds) Critical Mindfulness. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30782-4_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30782-4_12
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