Stop, breathe, and hurry up!

Mindfulness meditation in the age of its technological reproduction

Paper presentation by Laisha Dewina Chlouba and Thomas Slunecko at the 18th biennial conference of International Society for Theoretical Psychology (ISTP) in Copenhagen, Denmark, 19-23 August 2019

When asked for solutions to stress- or anxiety-related problems, contemporary psychology may point at a range of mindfulness-based interventions. Apart from specific mindfulness programs in schools, hospitals, military, and companies, there is a growing field of mindfulness products for everyone. Especially when practiced with the help of new media technologies like smartphone applications, the new call for mindfulness is regularly accompanied by self-tracking and gamification features. In striking contrast to the context in which classic meditation originated (as a non-purposeful tool for becoming more present of oneself), mindfulness training 2.0. tends to amplify the objectification, quantification, and perhaps commodification of human behaviour.

In the light of Foucault’s concept of governmentality, we analyse and discuss popular mindfulness apps such as Stop, Breathe & Think and buddhify as technologies or dispositifs of power that mediate the requirements of neo-liberal governance with the self-governance of individuals. I.e., we understand them as sociocultural artefacts fostering exactly such forms of subjectification that match and do the legwork for the neoliberal state of world affairs. By amalgamating psychological, Buddhist, and economic ‘knowledge’ they orient self-government towards competition, optimization, enhancement, and acceleration. Their users are interpellated as autonomous, empowered subjects responsible for alleviating their symptoms of stress and pursuing well-being, happiness, or good relationships rather than addressing systems change.