Ron Leifer, MD Releases ENGAGEMENTS WITH THE WORLD

In life, emotional pain can inflict far more anguish than physical injuries, and while wounds can heal, emotional damages can linger on for years, festering unseen until they manifest debilitating psychological symptoms that can leave a person crippled. Their intangible nature means that they are much harder to diagnose and treat than conventional ailments, but author and Doctor Ron Leifer offers his readers a way to soothe their hurts and improve their lives through a method that blends Tibetan Buddhism, psychology and psychiatry, which he presents in his new book, Engagements With The World.

One of the ironies of the present human condition is that people think of themselves as rational beings, yet they are obviously driven by emotions that science only vaguely understands. After more than a century of interest in the mind and behavior, psychologists are now turning their attention to emotional states. Dr. Leifer's Engagements With The World: Emotions And Human Nature has two related aims. Firstly, it presents a new, scientifically sound paradigm, based on a view of human nature that is consistent with the Buddhist view that accounts for the variety and characteristics of particular human emotions. Secondly, it presents it in a way that readers can understand and apply to achieve a balanced emotional life.

The ideas Dr. Leifer presents have their origins in, and synthesize, the four streams of thought that have shaped his life experience: medicine and biology, psychiatry and psychotherapy, philosophy and Western thought, and Buddhism and Asian wisdom. His work aims to help readers understand themselves and others around them, in order to navigate the difficulties of living in complex, modern societies, and come to terms with the painful emotions they harbor within themselves.

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About the Author
Ron Leifer, MD, MA, is a psychiatrist with fifty years' experience as a nonmedical, noncoercive psychotherapist. He received his psychiatric training at the Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse. While he was a resident, Leifer earned a master's degree in philosophy at Syracuse University where his mentor was the Cambridge philosopher of language, A. R. L. Louch. At the same time, Leifer received his first meditation instruction from the Hindu monk Ahehananda Bharati, who was chairman of the department of anthropology. Noticing Leifer's interest in Buddhism, Bharati suggested that he find a Tibetan lama teacher. Leifer then became the student of Khenpo Khartar Rinpoche, abbot of the Karma Triyana Dharmachakra Monastery in Woodstock, New York. He later became a full-time student at Namgyal Monastery in Ithaca, New York, where he studied Buddhism in the Tibetan language. His interest then turned to a synthesis of Western psychology and Buddhist psychology, the result of which was the publication of his second book, The Happiness Project (Snow Lion, 1996), and Vinegar into Honey (Snow Lion, 2006). This book is the third of the trilogy.

Engagements With The World * by Ron Leifer MD MA
Emotions And Human Nature
Publication Date: May 16, 2013
Trade Paperback; $19.99; 156 pages; 978-1-4836-1998-9
Trade Hardback; $29.99; 156 pages; 978-1-4836-1999-6
eBook; $3.99; 978-1-4836-2000-8

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