Apilotexplorationoftheuseofcompassionateimagesin a group of self-critical people Paul Gilbert and Chris Irons Kingsway Hospital, Derby, UK Self-criticism has long been associated with a variety of psychological problems and is often a key focus for intervention in psychotherapy. Recent work has suggested that self-critics have underelaborated and underdeveloped capacities for compassionate self-soothing and warmth. This pilot study developed a diary for monitoring self-attacking and self-soothing thoughts and images. It also explored the personal experiences of a group of volunteer self-critics from the local depression support group who were given training in self-soothing and self-compassion. Although using small numbers, this study suggests the potential value of developing more complex methodologies for studying the capacity for self-compassion, interventions to increase self-compassion including imagery techniques), and their effects on mental health. Self-criticism and shame have been proposed to play a key role in anger Tangney & Dearing 2002), social anxiety Cox, Rector, Bagby, Swin- son, Levitt, & Joffe, 2000), mood disorder Blatt & Zuroff, 1992; Gilbert & Miles, 2000; Gilbert, Clarke, Hempel, Miles, & Irons, 2004b), suicide Blatt, 1995), alcoholism Potter-Efron, 2002), post-traumatic stress disorder Brewin, 2003), psychotic voice hearing Gilbert et al., 2001), affect regulation and personality disorders Line- han, 1993), and interpersonal difficulties Zuroff, Moskowitz, & Cote 1999). Vulnerability to shame-based self-criticism is commonly rooted in feeling memories of the self being rejected, criti- cised, and shamed Gilbert 1989, 1998, 2002; Kaufman, 1989; Tomkins, 1987), and/or abused Andrews, 1998). Shame memories can be intru- sive Kaufman, 1989). Reynolds and Brewin 1999) found that depressed people often have intrusive memories of being shamed, rejected, and/or abused. Internalising these experiences can result in seeing and evaluating the self in the same way others have; that is as flawed, inferior, rejectable, and globally self-condemning Gilbert, 1998, 2002; Tangney & Dearing, 2002). Irons, Gilbert, Baldwin, Baccus, and Palmer 2004a) found a significant association between recall of parents as rejecting and low in warmth, and level of self-criticism in students. When self-criticism emerges from a sense of a shamed self, people can feel beaten down and depressed by their own self-criticisms Greenberg, Elliott, & Foerster, 1990). Indeed, intense self- criticism has been viewed as a form of internal harassment that is stressful and undermining of the self Gilbert, 2004). Gilbert et al. 2001) explored self-critical thoughts in depressed people and malevolent voices in voice hearers, in regard to their ``critical'' qualities such as anger, intru- siveness, and the ``felt power'' of a criticism/ attack. The study reported here expands on that methodology by piloting the use of a diary for self- critical people to monitor and report on the trig- gers and forms of their daily self-criticisms. A less MEMORY, 2004, 12 4), 507±516 # 2004 Psychology Press Ltd http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/pp/09658211.html DOI:10.1080/09658210444000115 Correspondence should be sent to Professor Paul Gilbert FBPsS, Mental Health Research Unit, Kingsway Hospital, Derby DE22 3LZ, UK. Email p.gilbert@derby.ac.uk We would like to acknowledge the enormous help of the Derby Depression Alliance Self-Help Group for their advice and participation in this study. We would also like to thank Rakhee Bhundia for her help with collating and analysing the diaries. This project was supported by NHS Executive funding.