Buddhism and Psychiatry: Moving Beyond Mindfulness in Mental Health Care

Jun 2025 · Springer Nature

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This Open Access book explores the emergence of mindfulness from Buddhist tradition and its incorporation into contemporary mental health and social care. Mindfulness is a powerful technique, but it needs to be applied mindfully. Buddhist thought has older links with psychiatry and mental health care, prior to the current embrace of mindfulness, and these have not been articulated clearly over recent decades. These links are intrinsically valuable and have added relevance in an era of mindfulness. This book seeks to bring these associations and connections back to light and contextualise recent enthusiasm for mindfulness-based interventions. This book is aimed at readers who are interested in mental health, psychiatry, Buddhism, and mindfulness. These are all growing areas of interest and inquiry. This book is distinctive owing to its focus on links between psychiatry, mental health care, and Buddhism that include, but also move beyond, mindfulness. This book is also distinctive by virtue of the fact that it is written by someone who is both a psychiatrist in clinical practice and a researcher, as well as being qualified in Buddhist Studies (MA, University of Sunderland, 2010) and Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MSc, University College Dublin, 2023), and publishes across all of these fields.

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About the author

Brendan Kelly is Professor of Psychiatry at Trinity College Dublin, Consultant Psychiatrist at Tallaght University Hospital, Dublin, and Visiting Full Professor at the School of Medicine at University College Dublin. In addition to his medical degree (MB BCh BAO), he holds masters degrees in epidemiology (MSc), healthcare management (MA), Buddhist studies (MA), and mindfulness-based interventions (MSc); doctorates in medicine (MD), history (PhD), governance (DGov), and law (PhD), and a higher doctorate in history (DLitt). Professor Kelly has authored and co-authored over 350 publications in peer-reviewed journals, over 750 non-peer-reviewed publications, 27 book chapters and book contributions, and 21 books. In 2024, he was elected to membership of the Royal Irish Academy.

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