Negative mental factors can lead a person to experience intense distress. For example, aversion can lead to envy and contempt, whereas attachment can lead to dependency.

The Impact of Negative Mental Factors on the Individual

one of the most salient correlates of mindfulness practice, it refers to  a subjective quality characterized by an absence of fixation on ideas, images or sensory objects, as well as an absence of internal pressure to obtain, hold, avoid or change circumstances or experiences. It has been proposed as one of the main adaptive action mechanisms in the improvement of well-being linked to mindfulness interventions and has been used as a measure of the detached perspective of the self. It is related to an individuals's amount of meditation practice and is used  to differentiate between clinical populations, healthy people and meditators.  

Non-attachment 

Attachment, or desire, happens when an individual experiences a selfish desire for an object. The person's reality is altered because they want something so much that they idealize it and fixate on it.

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There are three basic negative mental factors:

- Illusion/ignorance
- Attachment/desire
- Aversion/hostility

Examples of Negative Mental Factors

Fabrizio, D. (ed.). (2009). Clinical handbook of mindfulness. Springer. 

Clinical Handbook of Mindfulness

Illusion, or ignorance, is a mental factor that involves having faulty perception of reality. The individual is not able to see things clearly when they experience illusion.

Illusion/Ignorance

Attachment/Desire

Aversion, or hostility, is a mental factor that describes what happens when a person becomes so angry that they perceive everything around them negatively. 

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