Modes of Attention and the Clinical Mind: Distinguishing Meditation, Mindfulness, and Contemplation in Psychiatry
European Psychiatry June 1, 2026 J. B. French, J. Kar, B. R. Carr
Introduction The psychiatric incorporation of mindfulness has advanced without a parallel precision in definition. Within both clinical and lay discourse, mindfulness is often conflated with meditation broadly, or with forms of contemplation oriented toward ethical or spiritual ends. This conceptual slippage obscures distinct phenomenological structures and risks importing unexamined...