Tibetan and Himalayan Library - THL

Description: This book offers ways in which individuals can benefit from the Zen and psychoanalytic traditions. The author looks at practical questions involved in the application of either tradition for the sake of eliminating illnesses and promoting a general sense of balance and well-being such as whether or not meditation simply a way of avoiding or escaping problems, how the teacher-student relationship in Zen contrasts with the therapist-patient relationship in clinical psychology, and what issues are involved in taking anti-depressants, like Prozac, during Buddhist practices. As noted in the book's self-description, the author promotes an integrated model for mental health which "offers this paradox: a discipline that promises freedom, a hierarchical relationship that fosters true independence, a form that gives formlessness, a transformation that allows everything to be just as it is." (Zach Rowinski 2005-01-10)