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New Book Summary: McMindfulness by Ronald Purser
Ronald Purser takes aim at the commoditisation of mindfulness in his book McMindfulness — How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality. This one's a short one because the book is rather repetitive and not worth the careful, slow read I normally give to books.
The key takeaways are below and, as usual, you can find the full summary here.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Purser doesn’t object to mindfulness per se, or even to people who promote it. He accepts that mindfulness can help people. He just objects to “McMindfulness”, which he calls the form of mindfulness popularised by Jon Kabat-Zinn.
Purser’s main objections to McMindfulness are:
- The promoters “switch” Buddhism on and off to suit their needs.
- However, McMindfulness does not truly reflect Buddhist teachings as it has been decontextualised and commoditised.
- McMindfulness perpetuates the status quo by blaming individuals for problems like stress and anxiety instead of broader societal causes like neoliberalism, greed and individualism. Contrary to what some of its proponents belief, McMindfulness will not create a more just society.
- The science behind mindfulness is far weaker than commonly believed.
Read the full detailed summary including my thoughts on the book at ToSummarise.com
ToSummarise.com
I summarise non-fiction books with more detail and critical analysis than you'll find elsewhere. Join my newsletter to get new summaries delivered straight to your inbox!
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