Customer Reviews

The Happiness Project: Transforming the Three Poisons that Cause the Suffering We Inflict on Ourselves and Others

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Dr. Leifer, a psychiatrist, borrows from his Buddhist practice and his
clinical experience to offer profound insights into the sources of
anxiety and depression in the West. He makes a compelling case that
the projects we develop to make us happy become the sources of our
unhappiness. Meditation can help reduce the three "poisons"
that make us miserable--desire, aversion, and ignorance.

This book is a magnificent overview of the human search for happiness, its variations, its fatal flaws, its pathos, its successes. Excellent look at happiness as a phenomenon. Highly recommended.

This is the most profound book I have ever studied. During the past 20 years I have invested my time and money in books that detail the human condition and the causes and possible relief of our pain and suffering. This book takes an objective stance and casts a reality check on politics, religion, and many other belief systems we employ in our societies in order to alleviate pain and suffering and to strive for those things that can bring us joy and everlasting happiness. This book has helped me to better understand the belief systems of those around me and to have more empathy and compassion knowing that we all have our own 'happiness projects'. Essentially we're all on an unknown journey. Our Happiness Projects are our coping mechanisms. This book gives me comfort in knowing that we're all doing the best we can do given what we know.

Very good discussion of Western and Buddhist thought on psychology. Highly recommended.

This is a terrific book. I have not read such a clear, liberating account of the causes of anxiety and depression. I highly recommend this.

Clearly written, easy to understand and put into practice. After reading over100 books on eastern ideas,this book struck a cord in me(a light went on).

Valuable information about buddism, "Freudism", and western spirituality.

My favorite part of the book is Leifer's personal description about the time he sued a family for $250,000 for his daughter's own negligence. Leifer brilliantly describes how he attempted to impugn this family's credibility in court, while his former wife later got caught in the largest marijuana bust in Tioga County. For his efforts, Leifer was rewarded $8,000 dollars in insurance money.

A brilliant chronicling of a man who admits to succumbing to his avaricious self, and now has progressed to that of a new-age hack.

Leifer leverages his background in psychiatry and psychotherapy to explain a Western view of the human condition.

Leifer leverages his background in Buddhism to explain an Eastern view of the human condition.

His combined experiences and his skill at synthesizing them enables him to explain both views. Which would be nice if that led somewhere constructive.

For the reader, certainly Leifer's efforts provide the additional advantage that one can (as I did as a Westerner) relate what Leifer says about Buddhism to my understanding of psychotherapy. I would expect an Easterner would similarly benefit from what Leifer says about psychotherapy based on the readers understanding of Buddhism. The two approaches complement and strengthen each other. In doing so, it seems to undercut any superiority assumed by advocates of either Eastern or Western approaches: one may be able to appreciate correspondences one hadn't been aware of before (as different as the two approaches may remain). So what more can one ask? For something that works.

A key missing element was a consideration of a science that has identifies deadly faults in both religions and psychotherapy, namely radical behaviorism. Radical behavorism in its criticism of fictitious explanations undermines Freudianism and Buddhism. Unlke radical behaviorim, psychotherapy apes religion and so doesn't add much in a modern, scientific way. Why continue to try solutions that have failed for millenia when a modern understanding of the probem of the self has emerged from behaviorism. "Basic bewilderment" can be seen for what it is, the product of bad ways at explaining oneself and one's behavior. Real scientific advance now seems possible (and in much less time) to help people to an extent that Buddhism and psychotherapy have not been able to. As to morality, recent freedoms have enabled atheists to public declarely themselves and it has been possible to see that their moral behavior may match, if not exceed, that of religous people.

When I read B.F. Skinner's "Science and Human Behavior", I realized that there were productive alternatives to religious authorities and speculative psychologies. Radical behaviorism is fairly new so it hasn't had the time to develop practices that religions and even psychotherapy has had, but I'm beginning to realize that investing in this modern, scientific effort holds more promise than resort to relgion and (Freudian) psychotherapy, however captivating that may have been (intentionally) designed to be. Leifer should move on: he thinks things through well and presents well, but he is attached to obsolete material. Radical behaviorism could use people of his caliber to help it develop further.

Note: I've written some recent reviews on Buddhism and Dzogchen. I had read those books before but didn't review them because I felt they were way beyond me. Recently my views changed, in part due to my exposure to radical behaviorism and the promise it holds. I felt less intimidated by religious traditions and certainly by speculative psychological systems,so I decided to reread and review some of those books, such as this one. I believe at this time that it is important not to be content or impressed that an author writes well or presents a viewpoint clearly but that they are choosing the right material to write about. A book like this one, covering a psychological approach (Freudian) all but discredited and a relgious approaches (such as Christianity and Buddhism) which even Leifer admits have had serious problems, seems a poor way to spend one's time if one has the skills that Leifer has. Dummies like me just write reviews and manage to get by, but I expect more of someone like Leifer, who, despite my concerns about his subject matter, shines thru for his smarts and compassion.