NCJ Number
91753
Journal
Corrective and Social Psychiatry and Journal of Behavior Technology Methods and Therapy Volume: 29 Issue: 4 Dated: (1983) Pages: 105-111
Date Published
1983
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This study assesses the usefulness of meditation as a facilitator of the goals of the Patuxent Institution in Maryland, where a combination of psychotherapeutic and rehabilitative approaches are practiced with inmates.
Abstract
The facility attempts to combine aspects of a psychiatric hospital and a prison, serving 'defective delinquents' who, though legally sane, reveal 'persistent aggravated antisocial or criminal behavior.' Experimentals learned and practiced a Yogic discipline from a choice of Zen concentration; attentiveness and imagery; Christian and Islamic prayer; and Tibetan, Zen, and other Buddhist meditations. Participants were encouraged to exercise an attitude of gentleness towards themselves during meditation and aim for a mental and physical state of relaxed alertness. When not meditating formally, they were to nurture a quality of present-centered immediate awareness. Subjects in the control group were merely recruited and posttested. Both groups were evaluated at entry in the program and after 6 months through self-report, institutional records, and reports from the group therapists. Pre-post change scores indicated significant differences between experimentals and controls, with greater symptom reduction for the experimentals. Relative to the control group, experimentals became more forthright, relaxed and less schizophrenic, manifesting less anxious depression and more high energy euphoria. Because of the small sample size (11), the results are not widely generalizable, but the results indicate that certain meditative practices can be useful in the psychotherapy and rehabilitation of the population. Two notes and five references are given.