Self‐Compassion as a Mediator of Mindfulness and Compassion for Others

Mindfulness and self‐compassion have garnered interest as tools for improving counselor wellness and performance, yet little is known about how they relate to compassion. Compassion—for oneself and others—is considered important to counselor well‐being and effective counseling. In Buddhist and current models, mindfulness is theorized to increase self‐compassion and, subsequently, compassion for others, but the study of these proposed relationships is limited. Using mediation analysis, the author confirmed self‐compassion as a mediator of mindfulness and compassion for others among 152 master's‐level counseling interns. Implications and practical application of mindfulness and self‐compassion for counselor development are discussed.     

Enhancing Compassion: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Compassion Cultivation Training Program

Psychosocial interventions often aim to alleviate negative emotional states. However, there is growing interest in cultivating positive emotional states and qualities. One particular target is compassion, but it is not yet clear whether compassion can be trained. A community sample of 100 adults were randomly assigned to a 9-week compassion cultivation training (CCT) program (n = 60) or a waitlist control condition (n = 40). Before and after this 9-week period, participants completed self-report inventories that measured compassion for others, receiving compassion from others, and self-compassion. Compared to the waitlist control condition, CCT resulted in significant improvements in all three domains of compassion—compassion for others, receiving compassion from others, and self-compassion. The amount of formal meditation practiced during CCT was associated with increased compassion for others. Specific domains of compassion can be intentionally cultivated in a training program. These findings may have important implications for mental health and well-being.     

Exposing Mammon: Devotion to Money in a Market Society

Abstract : The recent financial crisis has exposed the extent to which the contemporary global economy is driven by credit. Yet credit is the obverse of debt, and where overspending threatens instability through an increasing debt spiral, austerity measures also threaten instability through reducing growth, also leading to an increasing debt spiral. Humanity is increasingly exposed to the force of money, which is created as debt with a given expiration date. Yet to place our credit or faith in the power of debt itself is to place faith in a world of shadows, in estimations of the value of things as perceived by others or market prices. Redemption from debt involves a restoration of our capacity to judge intrinsic values rather than mere prices.     

Resurrection as Insurrection: Potential Space and the Subversion of Political Totalities

In this article, I depict the shared belief in resurrection as subversive vis-à-vis political totalities. More particularly, I argue that the idea of resurrection as insurrection emerges against the background of the political realities of the Roman Empire and its diverse tools for controlling people through public spectacles of terror that heighten fear, helplessness, and indifference, thwarting motivations for resistance and insurrection. From this context, resurrection reveals a present-future possibility of an embodied care, hope, and freedom in spite of and not subject to principalities that aim to subjugate bodies and minds. Given this idea of resurrection, I use an emended version of Winnicott’s (1953, 1967, 1971) concept of potential space and Arendt’s (1958) space of appearances to portray the interpersonal and psychosocial dynamics that make it possible for people to retain care, hope, and freedom in resisting and subverting the political totalities that undermine each.     

On the Suffering of Compassion

Compassion is often described in terms of suffering. This paper investigates the nature of this suffering. It is argued that compassion involves suffering of a particular kind. To begin with a case is made for the negative claim that compassion does not involve an ordinary, or afflictive, suffering over something. Secondly, it is argued that the suffering of compassion is a suffering for someone else’s sake: If you feel compassion for another person, P, then you suffer over P:s suffering for P:s sake, and if that is all you do, then you are not affected with an afflictive suffering over something. The final section identifies and addresses a problem concerning self-pity, and a suggestion is made on how to specify the proposed account so as to cover both self-directed and other-directed compassion.     

Rethinking Compassion: Toward a Political Account of the Partisan Gender Gap in the United States

Scholarship on the political gender gap in the United States has attributed women's political views to their greater compassion, yet individual‐level measures of compassion have almost never been used to directly examine such claims. We address this issue using the only nationally representative survey to include psychometrically validated measures of compassion alongside appropriate political variables. We show that even though women are more compassionate in the aggregate than men in some respects, this added compassion does not explain the gender gap in partisanship. Female respondents report having more tender feelings towards the less fortunate, but these empathetic feelings are not associated with partisan identity. Women also show a slightly greater commitment to a principle of care, but this principle accounts for little of the partisan gap between men and women and has no significant relationship with partisanship after accounting for gender differences in egalitarian political values.     

There are no Degrees in a Bodhisattva's Compassion

This paper is to argue that there are no degrees in a Bodhisattva's compassion and also to explore the Western account of compassion, which suggests that there are degrees in our compassion. After analyzing and comparing both positions, I affirm that they are opposite views.     

Cruelty to Compassion: the Poetry of Teaching Transformation

Two complementary bodies of literature either claim explicitly or imply that human cruelty is rooted in asymmetrical relationships. The first describes and analyzes various forms of domination and acquiescence, including colonialism, racism, imperialism, sexism, and interpersonal power dynamics, among others. The second attempts to describe what would constitute the antidote, namely symmetrical relationships of mutuality and equality. Both of these literatures counsel abandoning asymmetrical relationships in favor of the symmetrical. To the contrary, this paper argues that it is only in the context of asymmetrical relationships that humans can learn the basics of equality and mutual regard that undergird democracy. More particularly, the moral use of asymmetrical relations would be to help the young acquire, inter alias, the kinds of self-awareness and self-understanding that would enable them to function as responsible parties in symmetrical relations.     

The Impostor Phenomenon in Mental Health Professionals: Relationships Among Compassion Fatigue,Burnout, and Compassion Satisfaction

Imposter phenomenon is defined as a sense of intellectual fraudulence and an inability to internalize success and competency. Although imposter phenomenon has been noted in several populations, literature is sparse that focuses on mental health professionals. In addition, little is known about the relationships between imposter phenomenon, compassion fatigue, and compassion satisfaction for mental health workers. Using a survey design with a convenience sample of 158 mental health workers, this study found that imposter phenomenon was positively associated with compassion fatigue, as well as negatively associated with compassion satisfaction, when controlling for years of work and age. Further, the combination of lower levels of compassion satisfaction and higher levels of burnout predicted higher levels of imposter phenomenon. Implications and preventative measures are discussed.

     

Compassion Predictors in Undergraduates: A Catholic College Example

Compassion is sorely needed in contemporary society, including within faith-based colleges. Past research has examined the prevention of compassion fatigue in healthcare professions, but relatively little research exists on the predictors of compassion, particularly among student populations. This study examines the factors associated with higher compassion levels in graduating college seniors, revealing demographic, experiential, and belief-related factors contributing to compassion. Results suggest that the general profile of a highly compassionate graduating college senior is a student who is female, politically liberal, religious, studying the natural or social sciences, actively involved in community service or volunteering, and who has undergone workshops on racial/cultural awareness and sensitivity.     

组织中的关爱：概念界定、结果与影响因素

关爱就是注意到他人痛苦, 经过对当前情况评估之后, 对他人痛苦产生共情感受, 最终采取行动帮助他人脱离困境的过程。目前, 关爱已经成为积极组织行为学关注的热点问题。关爱的测量主要有4种方法：行为编码、量表、自我报告和定性评估。关爱对积极情绪、焦虑、员工满意度、组织承诺、组织公民行为、离职意向、组织合作能力等有积极的影响。组织成员之间的关系质量、组织文化、组织领导者与制度化的组织关爱措施对关爱具有预测作用。未来关于关爱的研究需加强对结构测量、影响因素与作用机制的进一步探讨。     

和谐社会与市场规范理性

和谐社会的建构离不开市场经济的发展与完善.进一步规范市场经济,大力培植和张扬市场规范理性,乃是促进社会和谐的重要任务.当代中国市场经济的发展呼唤着市场规范理性,探讨市场规范理性的构成要素及其形成确立的途径与机制,对于促进社会的和谐具有重要意义.     

Jeong as the Paradigmatic Embodiment of Compassion (Hesed): A Critical Examination of Disparate and Dispostional Jeong

In this article I argue that while jeong is a particular Korean cultural expression, it is also a paradigmatic embodiment of compassion that can enhance the Christian practice of compassion for both Koreans and non-Koreans. Utilizing self psychology, I examine the psychological dynamics behind jeong and demonstrate that jeong is the outward manifestation of the self-selfobject relationships that can facilitate the development of the self and can be seen as developing from an immature to a mature state. This in-depth approach to the psychological examination of jeong also brings forth a more comprehensive understanding of jeong as the distinctions between disparate experiences and the dispositional aspects of jeong and between the life-forming and life-threatening aspects of jeong. I also demonstrate jeong in the relationship between Ruth and Naomi.     

Ethics as a Beneficial Trojan Horse in a Technological Society

This article explores the transformation of ethics in a globalizing technological society. After describing some basic features of this society, particularly the primacy it gives to a special type of technical rationality, three specific influences on traditional ethics are examined: (1) a change concerning the notion of value, (2) the decreasing relevance of the concept of axiological hierarchy, and (3) the new internal architecture of ethics as a net of values. These three characteristics suggest a new pragmatic understanding of ethics. From a pragmatic perspective, the process of introducing ethical values into contemporary society can be regarded as a beneficial Trojan horse, a metaphor that will be developed further.