Thoughts Without a Thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective

by Mark Epstein

Thoughts Without a Thinker is the landmark book that brought the worlds of Buddhism and psychotherapy into contact with each other, and changed thousands of lives. Drawing upon his own experience as therapist, meditator, and patient, Mark Epstein, a New York-based psychiatrist trained in classical Freudian methods, integrates Western psychotherapy and the teachings of Buddhism.In accessible, intimate language, this enlightening guide explains the unique psychological contributions of the teachings of Buddhism, describes the path of meditation in contemporary psychological language, and lays out the possibility of a meditation-inspired psychotherapy. Mark Epstein's new introduction reflects on the impact of the book and on the evolving relationship between psychotherapy and Buddhism.

Genres: Psychology, Buddhism, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Philosophy, Self Help, Religion

Audio CD

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Mark Epstein, M.D. is a psychiatrist in private practice in New York City and the author of a number of books about the interface of Buddhism and psychotherapy. He received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Harvard University and is currently Clinical Assistant Professor in the Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis at New York University.

Reviews

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Flat out the most brilliant thing I have read in some time. I think it's a must-read for any serious meditator in the West. Whether or not you are interested in psychotherapy or not, Freud has left an indelible impression on our collective cultural consciousness, and no doubt most have some muddled sense of what the ego is, or what narcissism is , or even neurosis - and perhaps you have always had questions that point to your conceptual confusion like I did, such as - if one of the goals of psychotherapy is to help patients develop a healthy or strong "sense of self", how then does this square with a meditative discipline, the goal or effect of which may be to see the felt sense of self as an illusion and of no real substance? Are these practices not at cross-purposes? Epstein makes clear that it is not the ego that is to be eradicated - and he takes pains to make clear that the ego should not be thought of as an entity but rather a dynamic process - yet a process that does not require an assignation of self in order to function, though many meditators fall into this sort of conceptual trap, which may lead them to assume various odd behaviors like refusing to aknowledge certain emotions thought to be self-driven or even to refuse to use the pronoun "I". Epstein navigates through this thorny and difficult conceptual terrain with grace and aplomb . For the clarity and depth of insight Epstein managed to deliver to the page, I will undoubtedly be returning to this book again and again for rereading and consideration.....six out of five stars!

[Steve Woods · Rating 3 out of 5]

While many years of therapy that involved delving back into a horrendous childhood and service in 3 wars helped me to identify the issues it did not help me to deal with them. The process of ego splitting that is the crucial point for both therapy and Buddhist practice just never happened for me. It would have been helpful if the therapists I had had contact with could have told me and shown me what we were aiming for.

A bit much to ask for, given the perceived wisdom prevailing during the 80's and 90's, but certainly a Mark Epstein would have been a godsend. A psychiatrist and practising Buddhist who understood the process of the journey I found myself on and what Buddhism and meditation offered could have saved me a great deal of suffering with some judicious guidance.

This book fell into my hands at a time when I felt beyond human help and trapped. The deep change necessary for the resolution of my problems had just not occurred. In retrospect I had had the sense that nothing was complete and while form was changed the demons now known, seen and felt were still there. I was them!

The hospitals and psychiatrists treating the war related trauma just kept me trapped in that sense of who I was. I just couldn't break free. It seemed that they had no real idea what to do with what they had brought to the surface and I was certainly not equipped to do anything with it. I was lost in the mind numbing, soul destroying cycle of alcohol,antidepresdsants and hospitalization.

Given my experience now I would have every practising psychiatrist and mental health professional in the west read this little book. What it did for me was to take a newly emergent exploration of Buddhism as a way forward out of the nightmare of depression and addiction and confirm it as true north. It gave me faith that what was beginning to happen for me was understandable in terms and contexts I knew and was in fact the way forward for me. It provided a road map.

The only issue I would want to raise is that the first time I started this book, Epstein's slightly arcane approach through the analogy of the wheel of life obscured the value of what he had to say. I also found in reading it through that my understanding and experience of psychology and psychotherapy were invaluable. I would have been a bit lost without them. I also found that I really needed some understanding if not experience of Buddhist practice to make the most of the book. It helped set me on the path with conviction.

Notwithstanding, I think this book must have been ground breaking when first written and thankfully what Epstein saw as a trend for collusion between traditional western psychiatry and Buddhist psychology today appears to continue.

For the sake of all troubled souls it can't happen rapidly enough.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just reread this impressive book upon receiving it as a gift. It is well-written, intelligent, rigorous, and mercifully low on jargon (a trait that is rarely shared by either books on Buddhism or on psychoanalytic or psychodynamic theory). Epstein also avoids the often breathless tone writers often seem to fall into when describing the nearly miraculous effects they inevitably find when they integrate Buddhist meditative techniques and approaches into the psychotherapeutic process. Epstein presents his cases soberly but informally enough to be readable, and he usually sends his patients off into the abyss of the unread follow-up with plenty of problems and challenges still ripe and raw which assists in our ability to take him seriously.

Epstein’s greatest accomplishment here is the strong case he makes that certain key similarities and differences in the psychoanalytic approach which has evolved (in several directions) over the years and Buddhist meditative techniques (most specifically he focuses on vipassana, or insight mediation from the Theravadan tradition, although not exclusively), can serve to complement one another and accomplish what the other cannot accomplish alone. Most centrally he convincingly argues that psychoanalytic theory has been extremely successful in finding ways to unearth and expose patients’ (i.e. our) specific narcissism that is the root of so many of our psychic, emotional, and interpersonal troubles, but has been unsuccessful in developing or offering a path concretely HOW to deal with that (or those) narcissism(s) when they’ve been brought into the light. Buddhist meditative practices, he argues, were designed to do exactly this; lovingly assault with sustained, non-judgmental awareness the sense of narcissism by assaulting the belief in a separate, static, and substantive agent (an “I”) behind all of these thoughts, feelings, and emotions.

He also argues, coherently and articulately that such techniques serve as a concrete way to develop the capacity in therapists to sit in the presence of patient and be fully there, without (at least when not necessary) the need to “do,” which Freud advocated for (and later theorists ignored or abandoned) but could not offer a way to develop. Also enjoyable is his dragging in of theorists like Bion and Winnicott (among others) and suggests that they were circling around much Buddhist psychological theory and practice without knowing it (or at least, in Bion’s case without acknowledging it).

Overall this wonderful book, part intellectual exercise, part passionate argument, part challenging advocacy, is serious, intelligent, coherent, a little playful, and sometimes even beautiful.

[Pin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok, so here I was, walking down the streets of Ghent, out to return some books to the library, was just doing my usual streetwalking routine, which is basically just walking through streets thinking about all these different lives passing me by, in these places that never look the same when I decide to turn around. The sun was shining here and there, showing me where I could be walking. Anyway.. then I had that obnoxious thought I often get about how so many people are always staring at their phones not noticing all that’s going on around them. I don’t like that thought, it enters my mind too often, so I figured I’d do something about it, just for my own peace of mind. I decided to do one of my solitary performance art pieces, the only thing I needed to do first was to find a book in the library that had a title that made a statement about how I felt about people being unconscious of their surroundings. So I was at the library laughing at the idea of a lot of book titles, but then I stumbled upon “Thoughts without a thinker” and that seemed perfect for my performance piece.

Ok, so this was the idea, instead of walking around staring at something, being unconscious of everything else around me, I would read the entire book “Thoughts without a thinker” while walking through the crowded streets of Ghent. I had some experience with reading while walking already, but only through peaceful roads in the country, so I didn’t really know how it’d go. I started in a wide street with not too many people passing by, that worked surprisingly well. It helped a lot to discover the book I just picked out for the title was exactly what I needed to be reading at this point in my life. And that made it very easy to stay entirely focused on what I was reading, which was kinda essential for my performance piece idea. The walking part went surprisingly well too, I’ve a pretty good mental image of the streets by now, and I had just enough sight around the pages of the book to avoid bumping into people, objects or ending up under a car. I did step in one pile of dog shit though, but aside from that I discovered it’s not that hard for me to even walk through overly crowded streets filled with shopping people, while still staying focused on the content of the book and being conscious of my surroundings. I think it took me around 8-9 hours to finish, in 3 days of walking, and right now I don’t really know what to think of that experience. I often just started laughing at what I was doing, just the idea of someone trying to walk through crowded streets reading the book “thoughts without a thinker”, to make some kind of private statement about how they experience the world around them.

Well that was funny to me, but I still have to process what I read, it’s just quite remarkable how these ideas came my way in this way, and I have no clue what to think of that yet. Good reading experience or something…

[Angela · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really disliked this book. It was way too steeped in Freudianism and although well researched, the parallels between the two ideologies seemed forced.

[Shafaat · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's difficult to write a good book when your subject matter is abstruse. The author has done a wonderful job at elucidating the psychological aspects of Buddhism in a lucid prose, especially in explaining the counterintuitive and oft-misunderstood difficult concept of sunyata or emptiness.

For all those seeking an accessible, non mystic introduction to Buddhism could start here, you will not be thoroughly disappointed.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

This classic work on Buddhism and psychology, approaching the 25th anniversary of its 1995 initial publication, is a staple of bibliographies in the world of Buddhist literature, and its title is an often-cited phrase in dharma talks on the difficult concept of “no-self”. So, it was with a keen sense of anticipation, stoked by the many times I’d encountered this familiar phrase “thoughts without a thinker”, that I recently undertook to read at long last the famous book itself.

Even before opening the cover, I was given pause by its unfamiliar (to me) subtitle, “Psychology from a Buddhist Perspective”. Hmm – I was expecting something more along the lines of “Buddhism from a Psychologist’s Perspective”. An even greater pause seized me, when I turned the book over for a glance at the back cover’s upper left corner, where its subject category is shown as “Psychology”, where I was expecting “Buddhism”.

The error, of course, was mine. Even though I knew the author, Mark Epstein, to be a practicing psychiatrist of long standing (as well as a Buddhist practitioner for a comparably long time), I had mistakenly assumed that a book that has so profoundly influenced so many influential Buddhist teachers and authors had to be primarily about … well, Buddhism.

Not exactly. Thoughts Without a Thinker is primarily about precisely what its subtitle promises – psychotherapy from a Buddhist perspective. And thus, it’s a book addressed largely to an audience of therapists and therapists-in-training. Not to say that non-therapist Buddhist practitioners are deliberately excluded from this audience. But at a minimum, those readers had best have an acute interest in psychological theories and jargon, and a significant degree of tolerance for the pervasive presence of, and uncritical references to, Freud and many of his lesser-known followers in these pages.

Epstein proves himself as ardent a champion of Buddhist meditation as he is an advocate of Freudian analysis, and he is admirably unbiased in his assessment of the relationship between the two. He argues convincingly that in many cases, therapy can take a patient only so far, while therapy coupled with Buddhist meditation can take that patient so much further.

He is somewhat less convincing, however, when he considers the other end of the equation, that meditation can often bring up troubling issues that will require the practitioner to seek therapeutic guidance in order to achieve a satisfactory resolution. In those case examples he offers in support of this argument, it’s never clear whether the issue stems from the meditation process or from the meditator. A more valid conclusion from Epstein’s anecdotal evidence, I propose, would be that meditation is not always the place to begin in resolving a personal issue. I’m not sure, but I think the Buddha would have agreed.

This is not to rebut entirely his thesis that therapy can support meditation, which Epstein makes from a place of genuine care and concern for the patient. It’s simply to suggest that therapy is not necessarily a needed component of every meditator’s experience.

So, for the Buddhist practitioner who’s not all that interested in psychotherapy, should you read this book? Yes, indeed you should. While the author’s primary concern here is psychotherapy, his knowledge of Buddhism is deep, and his understanding of the meditation process is profound. Of particular value are the two chapters comprising the middle section of the book, “Meditation”, where Epstein momentarily puts aside his analytic preoccupations, sits down on a metaphorical zafu, and transforms himself into a gifted and engaging dharma teacher.

As for that famous title phrase, it surprised me to learn that “thoughts without a thinker” comes from a relatively obscure piece of writing from a not-very-well-known Freudian practitioner, W. R. Bion. “No-self” turns out to be yet another way in which psychotherapy and Buddhism connect.

That connection, though, is a mostly one-way street. Buddhism does quite well with or without psychoanalysis, but psychotherapy can almost always do a little better when offered with a Buddhist perspective.

[Vishal · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book to revisit every few months. It draws a lot of parallels between Buddhism and psychotherapy. Don't read it for quick fix techniques or immediate go-dos or even learn how to meditate. You won't find anything that you can directly consume. In a way the book almost discourages readers to start/continue a meditation practice. You learn a lot about the nature of meditation - what to expect and the right reasons to do it. It dawns on you slowly that more mainstream culture, by its very nature, over-promotes/oversells mindfulness. The most important takeaway from the book is that meditation/mindfulness is neither a cornucopia of happiness or panacea for misery, and understand the right reasons to get into it with the right expectations. It goes into the many subtleties of a practice in a very concrete fashion, which is a good indicator of any author's mastery in their practice.

It is one of those books that are better heard on audiobook because the author himself has recorded it. You can understand the over and undertones of how the author approaches the subject with a calm detachment. It's almost palpable that Epstein isn't trying to sell an idea or more books or an argument. He is merely informing the reader what he knows and has learnt. There's a lot of intangible value that I got from his voice, which is hard to put in words. If nothing, it's probably the effect of his full presence in the moment during recording. Listen to a free sample on audible to see if it helps.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. It definitely is a scientific read, but that parallels between science and spirituality in this are astounding! So enlightening! From the details of observation, mindfulness, meditation, and simply breathing out and in, all the way through the significance -- religiously, personally, scientifically, mentally, and physically -- of confronting your past, your demons, your memories, your hatreds, your insecurities, and your hearts TRUE desires, I was blown away with mind-opening insights are so easy to see every day. Experiencing terror without fear and delight without attachment; working to make the ego developed and simultaneously non-existent; refusing to allow yourself to fall into the Realm of the Hungry Ghosts; awareness, healing, ignorance, narcissism, emptiness, and bare attention -- what a study, what a pursuit of "discovering things as they truly are" with a cleansed eye, ready to see and accept humanity, yourself, others without the distorted perceptions that we all suffer but must work toward removing. Purely fascinating.

[M.K. Sheehan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Epstein’s Thoughts Without a Thinker is the closest I’ve found to explaining the complex metaphors of Buddhism in modern psychological language. It has the wheel off kilter, Buddhism as a boat, and some really great insights into what Americans practice in psychology and Buddhists express in faith. I found it fascinating and not totally over my head, though that happened at some points. This is a high level overview and a helpful text to both understanding psychology and Buddhist teachings.

[Francesca Marciano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Epstein makes a connection between Buddhist philosophy and psychotherapy, the Self versus the absence of the Self. The book shows how an ancient philosophy and the practice of meditation can fill the gaps that Freud and the western approach to therapy have failed to fill so far. or better even: how one discipline can actually help the other and create a seamless synergy. Recommended to thinkers and readers interested in this kind of practices.

[Psicologorroico · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eccellente libro che indaga il proficuo apporto che la meditazione può dare alla psicoanalisi.

[Mr. Banks]

Found this book at a used bookstore a couple years from the time of reading. During that period, I was keen on learning anything I could about meditation and had bought similar books regarding mindfulness meditation and Buddhism. The book caught my eye as its thesis was to demonstrate that Buddhism and western psychoanalytic thought were quite similar and the practice of meditation could augment the use of therapy.

After reading the book, I’m less convinced by the required role of psychoanalytic therapy or conventional therapy in helping our internal struggles. Instead, I’m now sure, more than ever, that the practice of meditation is one of the most important psychological tools for mental health. Mark Epstein’s book is one of the clearest overviews of Buddhism and the mindfulness practice. It provides a strong argument on how it cultivates a mind that is ripe for enlightenment.

My takeaways from the book:

Buddhism’s wheel of life describes the characteristics of a neurotic mind and the Buddha’s four noble truths can be learned to move pass this state of mind.
- The wheel of life is formed by the six realms of human suffering and each realm is a psychological state that a trapped mind can find itself.
- The center of the wheel of life contains the three elements of greed, hatred, and delusion which are the forces that keep us bound to the wheel.
- The internal learnings of the four noble truths of uncertainty (humiliation), thirst (always needing), release (not bound by the forces), and the non-existent self are what will free us from this neurotic mind.

Meditation is the primary tool for developing mindfulness and its practice helps us learn the noble truths for ourselves.
- The first part of the practice is to develop sustained concentration which we can use to point at elements within ourselves to experience first hand what is occurring.
- The next goal of meditation is to learn bare attention (like mindfulness) — the ability to experience without judgement or prior thought.
- The final stage is to point bare attention and concentration to the internal concept of the self where the paradox of the observable subject can finally be revealed.

The psychoanalytic process of remembering, repeating, and working through can be mapped to Buddhist teaching which in turn helps western minds* wrestle with the difficulties of mindfulness so they too can achieve the state of nirvana.
- Psychoanalysis’ remembering of our past is like meditation where it helps expose our opaque internal world of suffering, and the basic fault is similar to the second noble truth of thirst.
- Repeating is the psychoanalytic revelation that human beings don’t always remember elements of our past, but that the traumas of our past manifest as behaviors we act out in the present. These behaviors can be viewed using a therapeutic lens or using the meditation practice of mindfulness.
- Working through is the last part of the psychoanalytic process, but psychoanalysis provides no concrete tools to help here — this is where meditation shows it’s true strength as the primary tool for actually working through and overcoming our suffering.


Some thoughts outside of the main takeaways:
- The ego is not something to run away from, it’s something to be observed and worked with. Instead of continuously suffering with the impossible task of destroying it, we can instead use it to eventually overcome its bounds.
- For example, someone starting meditation commonly begins by wanting to feel calmer, less anxious, etc. This is the ego trying to feel “better”, a need to assuage its pain somehow. We use this as the first step to begin meditation, but this first step starts the process of uncovering the true nature of the self. This redirects the goal of meditation from ego driven, to one that is outside the realm of the ego. However, we must recognize that we never would have got there without first using the ego as the driver.

- The subject is both the observer and the observed is the subject. This paradox is what helps reveal the fourth noble truth. Try it yourself, who is the person reading this right now? Try and observe the observer.


* The idea that somehow western and eastern minds are different was my biggest issue with the book. The logic goes that western minds can not learn meditation as easily as their eastern counterparts due to their attachment to the self, and it requires the psychoanalytic method to make them comfortable enough to explore this loss of self. This then follows that psychoanalysis is necessary for western minds to bridge into mindfulness. It’s a convenient logic to ensure the author’s fellow colleagues are the gatekeepers to a practice that can be done outside of the therapeutic institution.

[Beth]

I have decided to abandon this book. Although I am a clinical psychologist and have a strong interest in Buddhism, I found this book to be a slog. I think the main issue is that the author is not really referring to psychotherapy in general; rather, he is focusing more specifically on psychoanalysis, with a heavy emphasis on Freud. I do not practice therapy in this manner, and thus the book felt extremely esoteric to me.

I would suggest that this book ONLY be attempted by those with 1) an established, long-term meditation practice, and/or 2) a strong interest in the work of Freud.

[Stephen West · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting discussion of the similarities and compatibilities between Buddhist philosophy and psychotherapy and the ways that Buddhist philosophy can be integrated into psychotherapy. However, the emphasis on Freudian psychoanalysis made the book seem a little dated and some of the connections the author tried to draw between Buddhism and psychotherapy seemed a little strained.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this years ago but now, upon re-reading, got a whole lot more out of it. Don't know if it's age or where I am in my practice at this point, but dang -- what a great synthesis of psychoanalytic and buddhistic thought. Especially drawn to the idea of "injured innocence" and my interest in victimhood v. vulnerability. On to re-read his next one.

[Gaelen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great read for those who are unsure about the purpose/goals of meditation or otherwise find it challenging, while at the same time it avoids reading as too "new age-y." As a whole, the book seeks to harmonize Buddhist teachings with philosophies of western psychotherapy, and I found the whole thing interesting and valuable, but I would particularly recommend section II on meditation. Modern meditation apps like Buddhify lead many people to treat meditation as one more daily health practice to check off the to-do list, which often limits its effectiveness, in my opinion. This author articulates a different way to think about meditation that helped me explore the practice in a new way. Obviously, the subject matter will be interesting to a limited audience, but if this review piques your curiosity, I would recommend it.

[Michael Sasson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This seemed more directly practical instruction for clinicians as to how to implement over-lapping functions of meditation practice and psychotherapy. Epstein's ability to point to and pull from a broad cross-section of authors and schools both within Buddhism and western therapeutic practice continues to be really useful and provocative.

I also found it fascinating that Epstein's articulation of the relationship of emotional experience and the self, initially in regards to what is useful descriptive language to use related one's own experience (e.g., is it "I'm angry"; "My anger" or a depersonalized "anger arises" etc.) is 180 degrees from what is suggested to me by teachers who point to Sayadaw U Tejaniya as their root teacher. And still, where someone ends up in relating to one's emotions and the fictional self ends up the same (or at least very similar).

[benny b]

I have to admit I bristled at the idea of a white american dude telling me about buddhism. But man, this stuck with me. I wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone who grew up in the west.

I think the beginning is a little harder to get through. you get the sense that he’s going to hamfist a compare/contrast between the two schools like a high school essay, but it gains steam quickly. My take on his “thesis” is that buddhism is difficult to grasp for Americans, and western psychology can be used as a stepping stone towards peace.

He doesn’t sugarcoat it, there isn’t an easy answer. But there *is* an answer.

[Liana-Maria Ciuta · Rating 3 out of 5]

The introduction about Buddhism and Psychoanalysis was interesting and caught my attention. But, as I progressed through the chapters, the author slowly lost me. I felt like I needed more knowledge about Freudian psychoanalysis and psychology concepts in general to understand this book. Takeaways: there are three types of attention which one can exercise concentration on physical things, mindfulness - focus on experiences and introspection.

[Howard Mansfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant book and the place to start reading Epstein's books.

[Rupal Nahar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful book, spiritually nourishing <3 I loved the weaving of “Eastern” and “Western” philosophies.
A lot about Freud tho, I wish Epstein sampled from a wider range of psychologists

[Taylor Chiotti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kind of life changing😱

[Ala · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great comparison to Buddhist philosophy and modern psycoanalysis.

[Sujit Nair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps one of the best books you could read on the mind.

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, I still have never finished Martin Esslin's The Theater of the Absurd , but a lot of the discussion of the spatially constrained "self" (as opposed to the concept of "self" as a temporally constrained set of processes) as ephemeral or false in this book really reminded me of Esslin's discussions and the thematic content of absurdist plays/existential philosophy. More than anything, I think this made me want to return to that.

To be clear, Epstein doesn't draw that line - he's not, broadly, interested in investigating all the places in western philosophy where more "Buddhist" (as he defines them) ideas of "self" may have cropped up (which is not a complaint, that wasn't his goal. It's just maybe what I'm more interested in). He's very focused on Freud and the psychoanalytic tradition and (1) how Freud interacted with Buddhist or "eastern" thought traditions as he was developing his theories (I would love a deeper dive into this) and how, I guess in application, meditation can complement a Freudian psychoanalytic approach to accepting dissatisfaction.

It was when he got more into that - in the last section of the book - that I sort of lost the thread. Part of the issue is that I'm skeptical of Freud's theories. I'm not necessarily saying Freud's approaches had/have no value (especially in the context of the development of the field of psychology), it's just a lot of what Freud did seems very post-hoc/descriptive pseudoscience-y and the more time Epstein spent talking about the meaning of dreams and how most of the psychological problems you have are your mom's fault (occasionally they're also your dad's fault), well, I had a hard time staying engaged. Stating Freud's theories as if those are, in and of themselves, facts and an empirical representation of how the human mind/psyche works doesn't really work for me.

I was also concerned reading this that Epstein was making inaccurate broad strokes generalizations about how "westerners" and "easterners" view their "selves." He talked quite a bit about how "easterners" are baffled by "western" complaints of low self-esteem and I'm skeptical about that (I mean, Japan and South Korea both have really high suicide rates and "social pressure" is often cited as a cause, so...?) So, you know, watch out for that.

[Martin Hersey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Therapy and Meditation

I liked that the writer talked about Freud in a positive way. I did not like the endless recounting of his case histories. I suggested my therapist read this book.

[Chloé · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is one of the groundbreaking texts for integrating Buddhism and psychotherapy, but a more accurate subtitle would be "Psychoanalysis from a Buddhist perspective." Mark Epstein comes from a very Freudian background, so sometimes the connections between Buddhism and that particular approach to psychotherapy felt narrow or a bit forced. I wish this book were part of a series in which Buddhism is integrated with different theoretical models for psychotherapy - Epstein had to write it from the psychoanalytic side since that's his background and training, but I wanted to get a similar synthesis with orientations that I would be more inclined to use as a therapist.

With that more limited scope in mind, this book is a worthwhile read for someone who has taken deep dives into both realms. His explanation of the Wheel of Life as a psychological metaphor was excellent, and I really enjoyed the section of the book on meditation.

[Rena Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

A friend gave me this book for my birthday last year after I threatened to borrow his dog-eared copy. I've read it once and have started it again. I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in "deep Buddhism" or Buddhism that runs along the lines of the more transformative aspects available through advanced meditation. On a personal level, this book brought me great insight into experiences I've had on the cushion but had no "Western mind" correlation for. While I could acknowledge a change, a release or a new type of inner peace, I wanted to understand why. Why do certain practices work so well? This book has been invaluable in validating results of my own work and urging me to a new level of understanding.

[Rolfern · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kort sagt noe av det smarteste jeg har lest; briljant fusjonering av vestens psykologi og Buddahs lære, på en måte som forsterker begge perspektiver og viser hvordan de kan - og må - sameksistere om en skal oppnå vekst. Som mange vel har erfart er det ikke bare bare å absorbere 'Østens' meditasjonspraksis og knips så er man i vater. Det vestlige sinn er annerledes og vi trenger vår psykologiske forståelse på våre hindre. Denne boken viser hvordan man kan slippe meditasjonen som verktøy til i ens prosess og la perspektivene utfylle og bygge på hverandre. Svært inspirerende! Skal leses om igjen. Og om igjen - igjen!