Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings
Loading
RL![]()
author
Ron Leifer MD MA
Ron Leifer, MD, MA, is a psychiatrist with fi fty years’
experience as a nonmedical, noncoercive psychotherapist.
He received his psychiatric training at the Upstate Medical
Center in Syracuse, whe...view moreRon Leifer, MD, MA, is a psychiatrist with fi fty years’
experience as a nonmedical, noncoercive psychotherapist.
He received his psychiatric training at the Upstate Medical
Center in Syracuse, where his mentor was Professor
Thomas Szasz, MD, author of the classic In the Name of
Mental Health. After publication of this book, the state
commissioner of mental health and the chairman of the
department tried to fi re Szasz but failed because he had
tenure. Leifer and his friend and colleague Ernest Becker,
future Pulitzer Prize winner for The Denial of Death,
defended Szasz and became outcasts in the department.
While he was a resident, Leifer earned a master’s degree in
philosophy at Syracuse University where his mentor was
the Cambridge philosopher of language, A. R. L. Louch.
At the same time, Leifer received his fi rst meditation
instruction from the Hindu monk Ahehananda Bharati,
who was chairman of the department of anthropology.
Noticing Leifer’s interest in Buddhism, Bharati suggested that he fi nd a Tibetan lama teacher. Leifer
then became the student of Khenpo Khartar Rinpoche, abbot of the Karma Triyana Dharmachakra
Monastery in Woodstock, New York. He later became a full-time student at Namgyal Monastery
in Ithaca, New York, where he studied Buddhism in the Tibetan language. His interest then
turned to a synthesis of Western psychology and Buddhist psychology, the result of which was the
publication of his second book, The Happiness Project (Snow Lion, 1996), and Vinegar into Honey
(Snow Lion, 2006). This book is the third of the trilogy.view less