Mindfulness and the Psychology of Oppression

This book offers a comprehensive, evidence-based and engaging inquiry into women’s oppression and contemplative practices like meditation. It combines scholarly depth with embodied experiences and practices that interweaves individual, interpersonal and public relationships.  

Locating oppression as an internalized psychological response to toxic social messaging, the author distils research from multiple sources - cognitive science, philosophy, psychology, feminism, and Buddhist psychology - to consider how mindfulness might be deployed to help women navigate misogyny. The book draws on cross-cultural data from historical and contemporary sources, as well as interviews with longstanding women meditators and accounts from the author’s own life, and illustrates misogyny through cases ranging in severity from overt violence to covert micro-aggressions and gaslighting. Introducing new theories and insights on the role of emotions and consciousness in oppression, the author proposes an anti-oppressive mindfulness agenda to help women navigate misogyny and recover from the aftermath of oppression.

 Mapping out a vision for how meditation might become a more effective path for women’s liberation and wellbeing, this is an invaluable resource for educators, social workers, clinicians, and contemplative practitioners alike. It will also be highly relevant reading for students, educators, clinicians, and researchers of psychology, mindfulness and gender studies.