Dr. Peter J. Swartz

This work is a memoir. As a child and a young man, I rarely felt entitled to breath air. Emotionally neglected by my father, as a teen, I left home for a prep school at which I would spend the worst three years of my life. Trouble followed two failed attempts at undergraduate college, until I found my way to a horseshoeing school out west. I was able to work as a professional farrier for several years until a ruptured disc in my back forced a career change. I chose psychology as somewhere in the back of my mind the depression I endured as a child motivated me back to school to try to help others, eventually becoming a licensed psychologist. It was a good fit and I have been practicing for the past twenty-five years, including many years as an instructor in psychology for Harvard Medical School. About seven years ago, I acquired tinnitus (along with 50 to 60 million other Americans) and using my personal practice of meditation, developed a program to help myself and my patients manage this chronic illness. In short, this work traces the 'forging' of a debilitating sense of self and outlines the potential for it's 'death' resulting in a selflessness that connects to the boundless goodness of the universe. Lastly, I have been helped in no small way throughout, by the profound empathy I have shared with many magnificent beasts of the canine variety.