Mixing Minds: The Power of Relationship in Psychoanalysis and Buddhism
Pilar Jennings is a psychoanalyst in New York who also trained in Tibetan Buddhism, and Mixing Minds grew out of her practice with patients who are meditators and her own long study with teachers. She looks at where the two traditions overlap, especially in the emphasis on close attention to mind, and where they diverge, especially around the role of another person in healing. Jennings weaves in stories of her own teachers and her patients to show how the therapeutic relationship functions as its own path. She is clear that meditation alone often cannot reach the wounds that only appear in relationship. The book has become a quiet favorite among therapists and Buddhist teachers who see clients bringing both traditions into their offices. Elizabeth Gilbert has recommended it as a rare book that speaks honestly across both worlds.
What you might want to know about Mixing Minds: The Power of Relationship in Psychoanalysis and Buddhism
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Psychoanalyst and Buddhist practitioner Pilar Jennings examines what happens when two traditions of inner work meet inside a single relationship.
Gilbert has cited Mixing Minds in her writing on spirituality and healing as one of the best treatments she has read of the gap between meditation practice and the wounds that surface in relationship. She recommends it to readers who feel their practice has plateaued.
No. Jennings writes for general readers curious about both fields, and she introduces the vocabulary of psychoanalysis and Buddhism as needed.
Mixing Minds: The Power of Relationship in Psychoanalysis and Buddhism was written by Pilar Jennings, published in 2010 by Wisdom Publications.
Mixing Minds: The Power of Relationship in Psychoanalysis and Buddhism is 232 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Mixing Minds: The Power of Relationship in Psychoanalysis and Buddhism takes most readers 3 to 5 hours to finish.
Mixing Minds: The Power of Relationship in Psychoanalysis and Buddhism is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.