TY - JOUR
T1 - The (In)flexible self
T2 - Psychopathology, mindfulness, and neuroscience
AU - Giommi, Fabio
AU - Bauer, Prisca R.
AU - Berkovich-Ohana, Aviva
AU - Barendregt, Henk
AU - Brown, Kirk Warren
AU - Gallagher, Shaun
AU - Nyklíček, Ivan
AU - Ostafin, Brian
AU - Raffone, Antonino
AU - Slagter, Heleen A.
AU - Trautwein, Fynn Mathis
AU - Vago, David R.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors
PY - 2023/10/1
Y1 - 2023/10/1
N2 - Clinical and neuroscientific evidence indicates that transdiagnostic processes contribute to the generation and maintenance of psychopathological symptoms and disorders. Rigidity (inflexibility) appears a core feature of most transdiagnostic pathological processes. Decreasing rigidity may prove important to restore and maintain mental health. One of the primary domains in which rigidity and flexibility plays a role concerns the self. We adopt the pattern theory of self (PTS) for a working definition of self. This incorporates the pluralist view on self as constituted by multiple aspects or processes, understood to constitute a self-pattern, i.e. processes organized in non-linear dynamical relations across a number of time scales. The use of mindfulness meditation in the format of Mindfulness Based Interventions (MBIs) has been developed over four decades in Clinical Psychology. MBIs are promising as evidence-based treatments, shown to be equivalent to gold-standard treatments and superior to specific active controls in several randomized controlled trials. Notably, MBIs have been shown to target transdiagnostic symptoms. Given the hypothesized central role of rigid, habitual self-patterns in psychopathology, PTS offers a useful frame to understand how mindfulness may be beneficial in decreasing inflexibility. We discuss the evidence that mindfulness can alter the psychological and behavioral expression of individual aspects of the self-pattern, as well as favour change in the self-pattern as a whole gestalt. We discuss neuroscientific research on how the phenomenology of the self (pattern) is reflected in associated cortical networks and meditation-related alterations in cortical networks. Creating a synergy between these two aspects can increase understanding of psychopathological processes and improve diagnostic and therapeutic options.
AB - Clinical and neuroscientific evidence indicates that transdiagnostic processes contribute to the generation and maintenance of psychopathological symptoms and disorders. Rigidity (inflexibility) appears a core feature of most transdiagnostic pathological processes. Decreasing rigidity may prove important to restore and maintain mental health. One of the primary domains in which rigidity and flexibility plays a role concerns the self. We adopt the pattern theory of self (PTS) for a working definition of self. This incorporates the pluralist view on self as constituted by multiple aspects or processes, understood to constitute a self-pattern, i.e. processes organized in non-linear dynamical relations across a number of time scales. The use of mindfulness meditation in the format of Mindfulness Based Interventions (MBIs) has been developed over four decades in Clinical Psychology. MBIs are promising as evidence-based treatments, shown to be equivalent to gold-standard treatments and superior to specific active controls in several randomized controlled trials. Notably, MBIs have been shown to target transdiagnostic symptoms. Given the hypothesized central role of rigid, habitual self-patterns in psychopathology, PTS offers a useful frame to understand how mindfulness may be beneficial in decreasing inflexibility. We discuss the evidence that mindfulness can alter the psychological and behavioral expression of individual aspects of the self-pattern, as well as favour change in the self-pattern as a whole gestalt. We discuss neuroscientific research on how the phenomenology of the self (pattern) is reflected in associated cortical networks and meditation-related alterations in cortical networks. Creating a synergy between these two aspects can increase understanding of psychopathological processes and improve diagnostic and therapeutic options.
KW - Cognitive neuroscience
KW - Neuroimaging
KW - Pattern theory of self (PTS)
KW - Rigidity
KW - Transdiagnostic processes
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85150252008&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ijchp.2023.100381
DO - 10.1016/j.ijchp.2023.100381
M3 - Article
C2 - 36969914
AN - SCOPUS:85150252008
SN - 1697-2600
VL - 23
JO - International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology
JF - International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology
IS - 4
M1 - 100381
ER -