The website you are about to enter is about Happiness and its pursuit, a primary area of interest to members of our species.
My goal in this project is to share the key points I have learned (so far) about the pursuit of happiness over more than 30 years of practicing psychiatry.
This work draws heavily on Buddhist psychology. The pairing of Western Psychiatry with Buddhist principles is less unlikely than it may sound. Psychiatrists have been studying the pursuit of happiness (whether they realize it or not) for a little over a hundred years. Buddhist thinkers have been at it for more than twenty-five hundred. Not tapping into that body of knowledge seems inexcusable.
The material is organized into three sections. The Definitions section offers a glossary of terms (e.g., happiness, freedom, meaning, forgiveness, acceptance) relevant to the discussion — defined with the precision their importance warrants. The Theory section examines the logic and laws that govern the pursuit of happiness. Both are freely available here. The Practice section, which translates the theory into a structured set of mental exercises, is available for purchase as a book.
Over the years of my clinical practice, I developed a deep appreciation for the foundational medical ethics principle: “First, do no harm” (primum non nocere). It is a precious guideline and, as I discovered, following it is much more challenging than it may seem. I am confident that this work meets the challenge — I trust you will find it harmless; I hope you’ll find that it surpasses that bar.
[ Sidebar: Here’s my attempt, in verse, to bring the two traditions together:
My Freudian Poem
The Id said, “I feel, therefore I am.”
The Ego said, “I think, therefore I am.”
The Super-ego said, “I am value-driven, therefore I am.”
And the Buddha smiled. ]