Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness

Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Full Catastrophe Living is considered a pioneering work for introducing meditation and mindfulness to English language readers and helping to establish a new approach to mind-body health. Originally published by Bantam Books in 1990, this work was among the first to explore meditation as a tool for physical and psychological health, with a revised edition released in 2013 with updated statistics and other new commentary from the author. In the 1970s Kabat-Zinn learned from several Buddhist teachers, including the famed Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. A Vietnamese activist and author of the 1975 work The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation, Thich Nhat Hanh helped to introduce meditation and Buddhist principles to readers around the world. Thich Nhat Hanh’s influence helped to inspire Kabat-Zinn to develop the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program he describes in this work, and Thich Nhat Hanh wrote a preface to both editions in which he praises Kabat-Zinn’s contributions to the genre.

In Full Catastrophe Living Kabat-Zinn credits the ancient traditions of Buddhism, Taoism, and yoga with developing meditation and mindfulness practices, and explains how these traditions and philosophies have informed the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program which he developed in the 1970s. Kabat-Zinn’s work helped bring terms such as “mindfulness” into common usage in American society and introduced a concept of meditation, which traditionally requires devotion to a certain religion, such as Buddhism or Hinduism. Kabat-Zinn’s secular approach to meditation deviates from its religious origins and makes it more accessible to the average Western reader.

Kabat-Zinn built on the success of this work by exploring the same topic in more detail in his following books Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World, Mindfulness for Beginners and Wherever You Go, There You Are, among others. Since Kabat-Zinn’s book first came out over 25 years ago numerous other meditation experts have contributed to the growing discourse on this ancient approach to wellness. The popularity of Full Catastrophe Living encouraged the publishing of similar works. Recent best-selling works on meditation including, The Mind Illuminated, Mindfulness in Plain English, Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much, and The 6 Phase Meditation Method. Eckhart Tolle’s bestselling work The Power of Now similarly focuses on living in the present moment and using mindfulness tools to tune in to the present and overcome compulsive thinking. Deepak Chopra, another household name and wellness author, expresses similar beliefs about the value of meditation in his 2020 work Total Meditation.

Many experts credit Kabat-Zinn with helping to instigate the acceptance of mindfulness in American society. Today, Full Catastrophe Living has sold over 400,000 copies, and Kabat-Zinn continues his work in sharing his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program with individuals and organizations, such as prisons, schools, and workplaces. The concept of mindfulness has become well known outside of Buddhist circles and is increasingly validated by scientific studies, as Kabat-Zinn discusses in this work.