Can merely changing one's perspective on one's past lead to the alleviation of mental and physical suffering? Are our personal pasts an inviolable terrain, or are they capable of reinterpretation and revision? This book explores the Japanese practice of Naikan, a psychotherapeutic method which combines meditation-like body engagement with the recovery of memory and the reconstruction of one's autobiography in order to bring about healing and a changed notion of the self. Although it arose out of a Shin Buddhist self-cultivation practice, Naikan has achieved success in Japan, in both hospitals...