Eastern philosophy in clinical psychology

Eastern philosophy in clinical psychology refers to the influence of Eastern philosophies on the practice of clinical psychology.

Historical clinical psychologists

 * Carl Jung read the German translations by Richard Wilhelm of The Secret of the Golden Flower, the I Ching.


 * Karen Horney studied Zen-Buddhism.


 * Fritz Perls also studied Zen Buddhism.


 * Erich Fromm collaborated with D. T. Suzuki in a 1957 workshop on "Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis"; wrote the foreword to a 1986 anthology of Nyanaponika Thera's essays.
 * Akhilananda explain Mental health through Eastern Philosophy.

Contemporary clinicians

 * Marsha M. Linehan incorporates mindfulness techniques (particularly Zen practices) in her Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) which has been found to be particularly effective with Cluster-B personality disorders.


 * Jon Kabat-Zinn incorporates Buddhist mindfulness techniques in his Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program. Kabat-Zinn describes the program in his book Full Catastrophe Living.

Techniques used in clinical settings

 * Vipassana - trains one to perceive the momentary arising and dissipating of all phenomena, nurturing the calm, detached recognition of all things' impermanence and interdependence.