The Compassionate Mind (Compassion Focused Therapy)

by Paul A. Gilbert

These social ecologies also impact on child-rearing practices, which can be harsh and punitive.19 So the way you come to think of yourself as a person, the values that you believe are important to you are actually created for you in your social contexts. If you grow up in a safe, loving environment, your values will be different than if you grow up in the back streets, where violence and the threat of violence are never far away. If you grow up in a Buddhist monastery, your values regarding a whole range of things will be different than if you grow up in a fundamentalist Christian or Muslim family. We like to focus on individuals and target them if they do right or wrong, but the challenge is to recognize that we are far more created than we are the creators of our own identities and senses of self.