Interesting narrative by a psychiatrist, comparing Buddhism with psychotherapy . ( )

n the 70s self help books had a we’re-all-in-this-together feeling and clustered around themes such as I’m Ok, You’re OK. In the 80s, decade of money-making, self help moved onto managing time and handling the people--either at home or in the workplace--who made you angry or got in your way: think One Minute Manager and 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. In the 90s, books such as Listening to Prozac pondered pharmaceutical possibilities for being comfortable with the self and remaking the self. Move on to the first decade of the 2000s and we find popular self-help and transformational books combine Buddhism with notions of happiness and letting go of ego. Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart is of that genre.

I saw this book on the coffee table of a friend who had just gone through a difficult divorce. She said the book helped her get through it. Since, my adult child is having a difficult time right now, I thought I would check out the book.

Going to Piece... is very formularific. For some readers, that may be comforting. The self-help genre is predictable in its presentation of material. After the writer introduces his/her theme and presents what is coming in subsequent chapters, the formula begins: idea, examples, summary; idea, examples, summary; idea, examples, summary. You get the picture.

Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart: A Buddhist Perspective on Wholeness: Lessons from Meditation and Psychotherapy ( two subtitles!) follows the pattern. Writer Mark Epstein presents a deck of themes, themes such as Emptiness, Surrender, Tolerance. He provides examples. First, from his practice: usually how his patients achieved an epiphany that relates to a Buddhist principle that relates to the title of the chapter. Second, an example from his personal or family life. Third, he tells a story about Buddha or Buddhist monk. Support in the summary (sometimes in examples, too) he cites Harvard--either his experience at Harvard, his medical training at Harvard, a Harvard study that he participated in or was carried out by others.

By the third chapter, the genre’s transparency became awfully tedious. Just another self-help/transformational book. The books are like carosels,and the horses that rotate around the center are different.

I suppose relating Buddhist philosophy to feeling lonely, to passion, to relationships and telling people it is OK to fall apart can be helpful to people, such as it was to my friend who was going through a divorce. And the book keeps in mind the twistaroonee in Buddhism, as I have been taught (and I am a beginner at it): abandon any hope for fruition. In other words, whatever you do, don’t expect results. Epstein upholds this teaching as the core of his commentary.

For those interested in Buddhism and transformation,in all its playfulness and irony, I recommend a book that is not so formularific: Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving-Kindness by Chogyam Trungpa. ( )

Epstein combines the perspectives of psychological development as presented by D. W. Winnicott and the perspectives of Buddhism. I learned a lot. ( )