“Man is nourished by that which is beyond the personal. He dies from preferring their opposites.” These are the concluding two sentences of Jacques Lusseyran’s book Against the Pollution of the I, which I discussed in this column last month. Today, I would like to explore what this means in legal education and how Lusseyran’s sentiment […]
Author Archive
Service, Character, and Recovery
Posted byIn a healthy individual there are at least three stages one goes through in which service work is important to develop the personality. The first stage is the idealistic stage. It is important that young adults go through this stage. For the development of a healthy value system young people need to feel sufficiently strong […]
Sexual Addiction
Posted by“Getting involved sexually with a man at work was like picking up a drink for me. I descended into a fog. When I was sexually acting out, I was oblivious to how my behavior was affecting other people and me. It made me susceptible to all the negativity in the office. I threw away my […]
Suicide – A Misunderstood Tragedy
Posted byThese articles are written by the family members of Mississippi lawyers lost to suicide. But for the Grace of God these stories could be about anyone of us affected with these illnesses. Rodney, Robert, and Portrait were real people, loving fathers, husbands, and lawyers. Often our culture focuses on “the suicide.” With these stories we […]
The Addictive Personality and the Legal Profession
Posted byOne of the questions I get asked over and over in meetings with local bars across the state is, “Are lawyers really that much more likely to become alcoholics or drug addicts?” Or, said another way, are lawyers more apt than others to contract addictive disease? The statistics for the general population reflect that approximately […]
The Chemistry of Alcoholism and Other Addictions
Posted byAlcoholism is a brain disease. Brain research in the past several years has taught us much more than we have ever known before about the mechanics of how alcoholism affects us. At the same time, it has reaffirmed older wisdom about alcoholism that has too often been neglected. Seneca, the Roman poet, observed that some […]
The Price of Modernity and the Loss of Love
Posted byYou have probably noticed the rash of recent biographies about the founding fathers. Why do we have this thirst for insight into the lives of our heroic American forefathers? We seem to long for a sense of greatness in ourselves and our leaders that seems missing in our complex modern lives. A forthcoming biography focusing […]
The Promises of Alcoholics Anonymous
Posted byOne morning I went to a place beyond dawn. A source of sweetness that flows and is never less. I have been shown a beauty that would confuse both worlds, but I won’t cause that uproar. – ‘Rumi No matter how we grow up -wealthy or poor, well loved or forsaken – we form a view of life. […]
The Pursuit of Happiness
Posted by” . . . [H]appiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue as the unintended side-effect of one’s personal dedication to a course greater than oneself.” – Victor Frankel Thomas Jefferson’s phrase has long resonated in the minds of Americans. But only recently has there been extensive research on what makes people happy. For many years, […]
Trouble Sleeping
Posted byThe lawyer explained, “just don’t have time to see my doctor.” Or, the explanation of what he did not have time for could have been, go to support group meetings, see a therapist, play with my kids, or take my spouse out to dinner. One of the great benefits and burdens of technology has been the […]