Meditative Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis by B. Rubin, Jeffrey;

Short description:

This work—the culmination of four decades immersed in psychoanalysis and Eastern mind-body disciplines—introduces a unique method uniting these wisdom traditions. Rubin demonstrates how therapy and meditation compensate for each other's blind spots, providing richer understanding and opening unexpected pathways to healing and transformation.

Long description:

Dr. Jeffrey Rubin's work—the culmination of four decades immersed in psychoanalysis and Eastern mind-body disciplines—introduces a unique method uniting these wisdom traditions. While both aim to alleviate suffering, their attempts at integration often remain superficial. Rubin demonstrates how therapy and meditation compensate for each other's blind spots, providing richer understanding and opening unexpected pathways to healing and transformation.

There's growing interest in blending Eastern meditative and Western psychotherapeutic traditions among practitioners and those seeking deeper self-understanding. In response, Rubin illuminates how these practices, when pursued together, create synergies and offer profound depths of insight impossible to achieve through either discipline alone.

Meditative Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis provides the conceptual framework underlying the author's Psychotherapy Case Studies, offering a comprehensive theoretical foundation that enriches its practical companion volume. Together, these works create a powerful resource for therapists, spiritual seekers, and anyone interested in personal growth, offering a natural path to psychological healing and a more meaningful life.

‘In this wise and humane book, psychoanalyst and meditation teacher Jeffrey Rubin shows how the complementary insights of psychoanalysis and Buddhism can be creatively combined in both therapy and daily life. This is a book that will benefit not only therapists—but also everyone seeking to transform legacies of pain and trauma, emerge from self-defeating relational patterns, and live rich, satisfying, and fulfilling lives.’

Seth Zuihō Segall, PhD, clinical psychologist and Zen Buddhist priest. Contributing editor for Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, science writer for the Mindfulness Research Monthly, and author of Buddhism and Human Flourishing: A Modern Western Perspective (2020).

‘Jeff Rubin has been at the forefront of the conversation between Psychoanalysis and Buddhism for many years. He reviews that conversation with his usual fluent style, thorough scholarship and open hearted personal and clinical candor that will benefit both experienced practitioners and interested newcomers. The book is particularly helpful because Rubin offers actual practice suggestions that bring together Buddhist mindfulness and the best of contemporary psychoanalytic invitations to greater emotional depth and intimacy.’ 

Mark Finn, PhD, clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst. Co-editor of Object Relations Theory and Religion (1992) and a contributor to numerous edited collections on Buddhism and psychotherapy, New York, and Manhattan.

‘This thoughtful, provocative, insightful work illuminates the enormous potential of a genuine marriage between psychoanalytic and Buddhist traditions.  Based on decades of experience as a gifted psychoanalyst and diligent meditation student, Dr. Rubin lucidly brings both traditions alive with a clear-eyed understanding of what each offers and lacks. Scholarly yet accessible, and full of relatable personal and clinical examples, this book will enrich the lives and practices of psychotherapists, meditation students, and psychotherapy patients alike.’

Ronald D. Siegel, Psy.D. Author of The Extraordinary Gift of Being Ordinary: Finding Happiness Right Where You Are, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Part Time, Harvard Medical School

'Jeffrey Rubin has the courage to look deeply at the intersection of Zen and psychoanalysis – not settling for a simple Venn diagram but asking hard questions about how each wisdom tradition can complement,  penetrate, and complete the other. Meditative Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis will expand your thinking and breathe new life into your work with yourself and others.'

Robert Waldinger, MD, professor of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Roshi, Living Vow Zen.

Table of Contents:

Part I Meditative Psychoanalysis  1. The Roots of Meditative Psychoanalysis  2. Deepening Listening: The Marriage of Buddha and Freud  3. The Incomparable Power of Human Understanding  4: Liberating Intimacy  Part II. Examples of Meditative Psychoanalysis  5. Psychoanalysis and Zen: Partners in Healing  6. Dancing with Desire: Shining a Psychoanalytic Light on Scandals in Buddhism  7. Practicing Meditative Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy  Part III. Meditative Psychoanalysis in the World: Love and Hate, Transience and Well-Lived Lives  8. Fools in Love: Zen and Intimacy  9. Hate Hides Where We Are Hurting: Psychoanalytic-Meditative Contemplations  10. Death, Transience, and an Ethics of Mortality  11. A Well-Lived Life: Psychoanalytic and Buddhist Perspectives  Part IV: Recommended Resources