Hitchin CMHT, Hertfordshire Partnership Foundation Trust, Hitchin, UK.
Psychol Psychother. 2010 Jun;83(Pt 2):129-43. doi: 10.1348/147608309X471000. Epub 2009 Sep 25.
The objective of this study was to explore the meaning and experiences of compassion and self-compassion for individuals with depression and anxiety.
An interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) epistemology and methodology were adopted as the study was focused on understanding the meaning and experiences of participants towards self-compassion from existing theory.
Ten participants were selected based on a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Ed.-text revision diagnosis of depression or an anxiety disorder. Individuals were excluded from this study if they had additional diagnoses which impacted significantly on their disorder or on ethical grounds if participation was seen as psychologically distressing. Participants completed a semi-structured interview with questions were based on existing self-compassion research. Interviews lasted an hour and were analysed using IPA methodology.
Participants' reflections suggested that they saw compassion having two central qualities: kindness and action. Participants reported that they thought having compassion for themselves felt meaningful in relation to their experiences and useful in helping with their depression or anxiety. However, participants reflected that they felt being self-compassionate would be difficult either because the concept itself felt challenging to enact or their experience of psychological disorder had negatively impacted on their ability to be self-compassionate.
Participants' positive perceptions of self-compassion offer encouragement to clinicians as it appears people can connect with the concept meaningfully as well as seeing it as being useful. Clinicians focusing on self-compassion may gain greater efficacy when they incorporate both aspects within interventions. Findings about the difficulties associated with self-compassion provide valuable information as to why people find it difficult to adopt which can be used in the development of future clinical interventions.
本研究旨在探讨抑郁和焦虑个体对同情和自我同情的意义和体验。
采用解释现象学分析（IPA）认识论和方法论，因为该研究侧重于从现有理论理解参与者对自我同情的意义和体验。
根据《精神障碍诊断与统计手册》第 4 版修订版（DSM-IV-TR）的抑郁或焦虑障碍诊断，选择了 10 名参与者。如果参与者有其他诊断会显著影响其障碍或基于参与被视为心理困扰的伦理原因，则将其排除在本研究之外。参与者完成了一项基于现有自我同情研究的半结构化访谈，访谈问题。访谈持续了一个小时，并使用 IPA 方法进行分析。
参与者的反思表明，他们认为同情有两个核心品质：善良和行动。参与者报告说，他们认为对自己有同情心与他们的经历有关，并且有助于缓解他们的抑郁或焦虑。然而，参与者反思说，他们觉得自我同情会很困难，要么是因为这个概念本身很难实施，要么是因为他们的心理障碍经历已经对他们的自我同情能力产生了负面影响。
参与者对自我同情的积极看法为临床医生提供了鼓励，因为人们似乎可以有意义地理解这个概念，并认为它是有用的。当临床医生将这两个方面都纳入干预措施时，他们可能会获得更大的疗效。关于自我同情所面临的困难的发现提供了宝贵的信息，说明为什么人们觉得难以采用，这可以用于未来临床干预的发展。
