Ordinary Mind: Exploring the Common Ground of Zen and Psychotherapy »

In his engaging, accessible, and often witty style, psychiatrist and Zen teacher Barry Magid helps us to understand challenging Zen ideas — oneness, emptiness, no-self, and enlightenment — and explores how they make sense within Western psychotherapeutic conceptions of mind. Magid examines how to best learn from these two systems of thought that address the problems of the human mind and of human suffering and shows that Zen practice, especially when united with the dynamic insights of psychoanalysis, offers a transformation that allows everything to be just as it is. Ordinary Mind gives an account of Zen practice and the search for meaning informed by the psychoanalytic theories of self psychology and intersubjectivity, zooms in on potential opportunities and pitfalls, and brings the reader to a clearer understanding of the path toward personal realization and fulfillment.