AN OVERVIEW OF THE THERAPEUTIC EFFECTS OF MEDITATION
Michael Delmonte, Vincent Kenny
PSYCHOLOGIA 1985 DOI: 10.2117/psysoc.1985.189 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Review Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Intervention | Meditation |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Citations | 9 |
| Key findings | The review concludes that meditation may be associated with useful skills, physiological relaxation, enhanced hypnotic induction, reduced anxiety, insomnia, and drug usage, and increased self-actualization, but there is no compelling evidence that it produces unique state effects compared with other relaxation procedures. The author argues that those who benefit most appear to have milder disorders and that the clinical value of meditation appears limited, with meditation's long-term goals not generally congruent with mainstream psychotherapy. |
Abstract
This review seeks to address the usefulness of meditation as a therapeutic intervention in the framework of conceptual models of the meditation experience.It is concluded that meditation practice may be associated with the acquisition of some useful skills (e.g., focussed attention), that practice may be physiologically relaxing, that meditation may enhance hypnotic induction and decrease anxiety, insomnia and drug usage, and increase self-actualisation.However, there is no compelling evidence that meditation is associated with unique state effects compared with other relaxation procedures.Those who appear to benefit most from practice appear to be those who present with milder disorders.The clinical value of meditation appears to be limited.The long-term oqjectives of meditation are not in general congruent with those of mainstream psychotherapy as they go beyond therapeutic gain in the clinical sense.