The Compassionate Mind (Compassion Focused Therapy)

by Paul A. Gilbert

It is important to see how easily the archetypes that live through us are ‘summoned’ by the values and passions of the groups we live in. Once we know this, we can start to think about how we can recognize different patterns of activation in our brains, and the strategies that might be underpinning them, in order to refocus our minds. Do we really want our minds to be taken over by the archetypal in us? Shouldn’t we object to how our passions are so easily aroused? To pull back and offer resistance is not going to be easy because the patterns and strategies stir emotions and passion. But there is also choice. Psychologists suggest that the more our ‘new brains/minds’ are able to think, reflect and understand the emotions and passions flowing through them and stand back from them, the more we’ll be able to take control and make conscious choices of what to act out and what not. Indeed, that’s the whole premise of psychotherapy on the one hand and meditative practices on the other. They seek to help us become more aware of and familiar with our minds and thus more in control. It’s not going to be full control, of course, because all kinds of things can be going on outside our awareness, but it’s a step in a useful direction.