A Course in Happiness: Mastering the 3 Levels of Self-Understanding That Lead to True and Lasting Contentment

"Wise counsel from one of America's most respected psychiatrists." -Irvin Yalom, author of Staring at the Sun and When Nietzsche Wept, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, Stanford University


For many, getting in touch with that elusive thing called "happiness" is rarely simple—and achieving any kind of lasting happiness can feel like an insur­mountable challenge. Perhaps what we need is an education on the subject . . . A Course in Happiness. In this book, Mardi Horowitz draws on more than forty years of experience as a practicing psychiatrist to provide readers with just this.

According to Dr. Horowitz, happiness is essentially a by-product of self-knowledge; in order to be happy, we need to understand who we truly are. In A Course in Happiness, he details a deeply rewarding course in mastering the three levels of self-understanding that underlie happiness:

Integration: the ability to assemble all the pieces of one's self into a whole, complete, understood, and respected "me."

Intimacy: the capacity to remain closely connected to the warmth of relationships with family, friends, colleagues, and others in a social community.

Integrity: the insight to know which of one's values are most dear and which are lower in priority—and then to be true to what is the most important, even in the midst of conflict.

A Course in Happiness offers a road map for achieving genuine and lasting contentment.

Mardi Horowitz, M.D., is a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, as well as the director of the Center on Stress and Personality at the Langley Porter Psychiatric institute. A recipient of the American Psychiatric Association Foundation’s Fund Prize, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, and many other honors, he has written numerous professional books and articles. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.