Dan SiegelOriginally from New York City, Dan Siegel grew up in a few Midwestern states. Since 1980, he has lived with his family in Southern California. For about 50 years, he has been doing outpatient psychotherapy with adults. This almost daily interaction wth unhappy people, or those with psychiatric symptoms, forced him to understand the personalities of a great variety of people. Only to a marginal degree did book learning aid in this understanding. Instead, there has been a need to develop a perspective that establishes a creative tension between the lived reality of the individual and a reasonably universal understanding of what the individual needs to gain greater control over emotions and symptoms. This book seeks to communicate this creative tension as understood by Dan Siegel. Today, with an army of psychotherapists--much larger than that which existed fifty years ago--the statistics on declining mental health shows that psychiatric problem are still on the rise. To put it simply, the nation cannot grow its mental health system enough to meet demand. About fifty years ago, the American humanist Joseph Wood Krutch noted that it would be more efficient for individual to understand how the society contributes to unhappiness than to create an ever-expanding legion of therapists. He also concluded that there was more dignity for the individual who could reach his conclusions on his own. Although nobody can reasonably expect to reach an authoritative grasp of societal problems, greater understanding can only help. The role of values in important in such a perspective. Because of the inevitably subjective nature of values, the field of psychology has minimized their importance. Still, without a grasp of values and their importance in our lives, the individual may become lost. The creative tension mentioned earlier is that between the individual's values and the more objective reality that surrounds the individual. This book is one attempt to provide a framework for reconciling our conflicts between ourselves and society. No two people will do so exactly alike. Read More Read Less