Labeling Mindfulness Narcissistic: Right or Wrong?

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In a timely article entitled “The Trouble with Mindfulness,” published last month on Psychology Today, Dr. Thomas Plante summarizes recent criticisms of mindfulness, including the idea that mindfulness is “oversold,” and that mindfulness is often used for “narcissistic reasons.” In this post, I share my opinion regarding these criticisms of mindfulness, with a particular focus on the common conceptualization of mindfulness.

Defining Mindfulness

What does mindfulness mean? Mindfulness is usually conceptualized as a certain quality of awareness, and mindfulness meditation as a method to train the mind to reach this state of awareness.

What state of awareness? One in which we pay attention using all our senses while maintaining a non-reactive and stable presence. Or, according to more recent definitions, a state characterized by paying attention in a curious, open, objective, nonjudgmental, compassionate, or accepting way.¹

The next question we need to answer is whether mindfulness is more than another health-related or personal-improvement product.

Mindfulness as a Product

To understand what it means to view mindfulness as a product, let us look at an example from Dr. Plante’s article. His example refers to companies that recommend meditation in response to employees complaining about work-related issues. The message behind these recommendations, he says, is: “If you’re not happy, meditate, but don’t complain.”

Indeed, such messages appear to view complaints not as legitimate grievances, but as symptoms of mismanaged stress. In such a context, mindfulness meditation is a product to be used for a particular purpose: reducing work-related stress or stress from other sources that might affect work behavior.

But what if using mindfulness-the-product resulted in something the owner of the company did not expect? What if it increased awareness of the unfair treatment at work, and thus resulted in even more complaints? Would the owner be justified in concluding that mindfulness is useless?

Of course, the uses of mindfulness-the-product are not limited to reducing work complaints. Some people have promoted mindfulness as a way to become, say, more relaxed, confident, happy, and healthy; to overcome anxiety and depression and many other mental health issues; to study more effectively; to make more money; to have a better sex life; etc.

Note that rarely do popular books on mindfulness promote the use of mindfulness-the-product for purposes related directly to benefiting others. And this brings me to the question of narcissism and mindfulness.

Is Mindfulness Narcissistic?

Many writers, both professional and lay people, have suggested mindfulness is narcissistic. See, for instance: “Mindfulness Would Be Good for You. If It Weren’t so Selfish.” and “Forget Mindfulness, It’s Boring and Narcissistic.”

In his discussion of the link between mindfulness and narcissism, Dr. Plante recalls the time he was asked to read a manuscript written by a researcher and mindfulness advocate, and his surprise that the manuscript only focused on self-help and not on helping others.

To give further evidence for the narcissistic nature of mindfulness, he notes that many mindfulness gurus “ask for enormous fees and perks, have glamorous photos of themselves to promote their work, and only offer training at posh and expensive hotels, retreat centers, and spas.”

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So, given this evidence, are we to conclude that mindfulness encourages us to become more self-preoccupied, self-centered, and self-obsessed?

Perhaps. The common way mindfulness has been packaged and promoted in Western countries makes it easy for us to use mindfulness as yet another personal-improvement product and another form of self-preoccupation.

As we shall see below, the “self-help mindfulness” we have been encouraged to practice is, to a great extent, decontextualized from its tradition, values, religion, culture, and history.

The Origins of Mindfulness

In Buddhist writings, the concept of mindfulness can be found in a number of places, but particularly in the Eightfold Path to liberation from suffering. These eight paths are sometimes grouped into the following three categories, with “right mindfulness” placed in the “meditation” category.

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• Wisdom (right view, right intention)
• Ethical conduct (right speech, right behavior, right livelihood)
• Meditation (right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration).

These eight principles work together and can be considered different dimensions of the same path.

What does it mean to view mindfulness only as a nonjudgmental awareness of the here and now? Doing so is a “secularization of one interpretation of the traditional concept of Sati [i.e. mindfulness]” This contemporary definition “limits or asseverates bare awareness from related practices traditionally connected with mindfulness as ‘the guarantor of correct practice of all the other path factors’”(p. 75).²

Simply put, the mindfulness we commonly practice is no longer linked with the Buddhist worldview and its principles, with wisdom and morals, with purposeful action based on right judgment.

The popular form of mindfulness we do practice is one that does not threaten our religious values and traditions (or lack of them), nor challenges our culture’s emphasis on personal freedom, individualism, competition, consumption, narcissism, etc.

Naturally, authors who emphasize Buddhist ethics or encourage mindfulness practice for the purpose of benefiting others are sometimes accused of having a hidden agenda and pushing moral or religious values.

In short, if we conceptualize mindfulness meditation as a form of clinical treatment or secular self-help practice (e.g., for better health, more happiness, greater success), then we should not be surprised when people use it mainly for that purpose.

Concluding Thoughts

If you believe mindfulness is an ineffective treatment and an over-hyped product—failing to deliver on promises of health, happiness, and success—or if you believe it promotes narcissism, then spend a little time learning about mindfulness in the context of Buddhism.

Study the Eightfold Path, the five precepts, the Four Noble Truths, the three poisons, etc. You will notice that mindfulness does not exist in a vacuum. The Buddhist mindfulness practice is part of a bigger whole. Mindfulness meditation is more than the equivalent of a pill or a mind trick to help us achieve predetermined goals shaped by our worldviews or desires. It is a piece of a worldview that has much to say regarding the purpose and meaning of life, morality, truth, etc. So get a sense for that big picture before denouncing mindfulness as useless or even championing it as a panacea.