'The Compassionate Mind' Description
Compassion and particularly compassion towards oneself can have a significant impact on our wellbeing and mental health. Developing our sense of compassion can affect many areas of our lives, in particular our relationships with other people. In this book, Professor Paul Gilbert explores how our minds have developed to survive in dangerous and threatening environments by becoming sensitive and quick to react to perceived threats. This can sometimes lead to problems in how we respond to life's challenges and scientific evidence has demonstrated that compassion towards oneself and others can lead to an increased sense of happiness and wellbeing - particularly valuable when we are feeling stressed. Based on evolutionary research and scientific studies of how the brain processes emotional information, this compassionate approach offers an appealing alternative to the traditional western view of compassion, which sometimes sees it as a sign of weakness and can encourage self-criticism and a hard-nosed drive to achieve.
Professor Paul Gilbert is the author of the bestselling Overcoming Depression and was previously Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Derby and Head of Specialty, Adult Mental Health for the Southern Derbyshire Mental Health Trust. He is currently based at the Mental Health Research Unit, Kingsway Hospital, Derby.