Mindfully Managing Anxiety and Uncertainty
A Mindful Response to Ronald Purser
We are writing to take exception to many of the claims made by Ronald Purser in his June 14, 2019 piece entitled “The mindfulness conspiracy.” Our critique extends to The Guardian itself, which appears to be supporting his book and making it available for sale. Overall, there is no empirical evidence and little substantiation for his claims that mindfulness and the mindfulness movement are engendering passivity and compliance in practitioners facing social systems of oppression. We would go so far as to say that it is irresponsible on the part of the author and of The Guardian to publish something so ill-informed and misleading about a practice with so much promise in the struggle against global epidemics of mental illness, depression, and stress. More…
