Blinded by the Light: The Double-Edged Sword of Idealization in Buddhist Origin Stories

Faculty member of The Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy and The Stephen Mitchell Relational Study Center, both in New York City and has served on the Executive Board of The International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (IARPP). He is the editor of “Freud’s Case Studies: Self Psychological Perspectives” (1993) and the author of numerous articles on Self Psychology, most recently (co-authored with Estelle Shane and James Fosshage), “The Emerging Paradigm of Relational Self Psychology.” (2021) He is the founding teacher of the Ordinary Mind Zendo in New York, having received Dharma Transmission from Charlotte Joko Beck in 1998. He has written three books on the interface between Zen and Western Psychology: “Ordinary Mind: Exploring the Common Ground of Zen and Psychoanalysis” (2002), “Ending the Pursuit of Happiness” (2008), “Nothing is Hidden: The Psychology of Zen Koans” (2013) and edited (with Robert Rosenbaum) (2016) “What’s Wrong with Mindfulness (and What Isn’t).”