Compassion

Paul Gilbert brings together an international line-up of leading scholars and researchers in the field to provide a state-of-the-art exploration of key areas in compassion research and applications. Compassion can be seen as a core element of prosocial behaviour, and explorations of the concepts and value of compassion have been extended into different aspects of life including physical and psychological therapies, schools, leadership and business. While many animals share abilities to be distress sensitive and caring of others, it is our newly evolved socially intelligent abilities that make us capable of knowingly and deliberately helping others and purposely developing skills and wisdom to do so. This book generates many research questions whilst exploring the similarity and differences of human compassion to non-human caring and looks at how compassion changes the brain and body, affects genetic expression, manifests at a young age and is then cultivated (or not) by the social environment. Compassion: Concepts, Research and Applications will be essential reading for professionals, researchers and scholars interested in compassion and its applications in psychology and psychotherapy.

Paul Gilbert, OBE, is Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Derby, and has been actively involved in research and treating people with shame-based and mood disorders for over 30 years. He is a past President of the British Association for Cognitive and Behavioural Psychotherapy and a fellow of the British Psychological Society. He was awarded the OBE for contributions to mental health in 2011.

PART I: EVOLUTION AND THE NATURE OF COMPASSION 1 Compassion: Definitions and controversies 2: Prehistoric origins: The compassion of far distant strangers 3 Compassion as a Social Mentality: An evolutionary approach 4: Mindfulness and Compassion: Similarities and differences PART II: COMPASSION AND ITS PHYSIOLOGIES 5: The body of compassion 6: The psychobiological foundation of prosocial relationships: The role of oxytocin in daily social exchanges 7: Compassion in the Autonomic Nervous System: The role of the vagus nerve 8: Compassion and the Brain 9: Behavior Genetics of Prosocial Behavior PART III: COMPASSION AND RELATIONSHIP 10: Evolution, Child Raising and Compassionate Morality 11: An Attachment Perspective on Compassion and Altruism 12: Broaden-and-Build Theory Meets Interpersonal Neurobiology as a Lens on Compassion and Positivity Resonance PART IV: APPLYING COMPASSION 13: Positive Leadership, Power and Compassion 14: Compassionate Leadership for Compassionate Health Care 15: The Emergence of the Compassion Focused Therapies