George Vaillant
Psychiatrist and one of the pioneers in the study of adult development.
Dr. Vaillant is Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Vaillant has spent his research career charting adult development and the recovery process of schizophrenia, heroin addiction, alcoholism, and personality disorder. He has spent the last 35 years as Director of the Study of Adult Development at the Harvard University Health Service. The study has prospectively charted the lives of 824 men and women for over 60 years. His published works include Adaptation to Life, 1977, The Wisdom of The Ego, 1993, and The Natural History of Alcoholism – Revisited, 1995. His summary of the lives of men and women from adolescence to age 80, Aging Well, was published by Little, Brown in 2002.
Philosopher's Notes on George Vaillant's Books
LockedPhilosopher's Notes
Spiritual Evolution
George Vaillant is a psychiatrist and Harvard professor who, for 35 years, led Harvard’s 70+ year Study of Adult Development. (You learn a thing or three when you follow the development of teenagers as they grew into great-grandparents.) In this book, he tells us that we can evolve spiritually. Leaning on his experience running Harvard’s study plus cultural anthropology, ethology and neuroscience, he walks us through the biological underpinnings of the positive emotions that make up our spirituality: faith, love, hope, joy, forgiveness, compassion and awe.