Stephen G. Post
Stephen G. Post PhD, is the best selling author of The Hidden Gifts of Helping: How the Power of Giving, Compassion, and Hope Can Get Us Through Hard Times[1] (2011), as listed on the nonfiction best seller list with the Wall Street Journal.[2] He is internationally renowned for his research and public speaking on benevolent and compassionate love at the interface of health, philanthropy, science and spirituality.[3] He received the Hope in Healthcare Award in 2008 for "pioneering research and education in the field of unconditional love, altruism, compassion, and service." Post was included in Best American Spiritual Writing (2005), received the Kama Book Award in Medical Humanities from World Literacy Canada (2008), and was listed in the "Best Spiritual Books of 2011" by Spirituality & Practice.
A public intellectual, Post has been featured in such diverse periodicals as Parade (magazine),[4] O: The Oprah Magazine,[5] The New York Times,[6] and Psychology Today.[7] He has appeared on many major media venues, including 20/20, The Daily Show, John Stossel, and Nightline, and has addressed the U.S. Congress on volunteerism and public health.
His book with the Johns Hopkins University Press, The Moral Challenge of Alzheimer Disease: Ethical Issues from Diagnosis to Dying (2nd edition 2000) was designated a "medical classic of the century" by the British Medical Journal, which wrote (2009), "Until this pioneering work was published in 1995 the ethical aspects of one of the most important illnesses of our aging populations were a neglected topic." He is an elected member of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Panel of Alzheimer's Disease International.[8] Post is also an elected fellow of the Philadelphia College of Physicians for "outstanding contributions to medicine," and one of several recipients of the U.S. Alzheimer's Association "distinguished service award" for his work with families over two decades.
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[edit] Academic Work
Post attended St. Paul's School in New Hampshire, Reed College, and the University of Chicago. His PhD was completed in 1983 "with distinction" at the University of Chicago,[9] where he wrote his dissertation on eudaemonistic happiness and altruistic love. He is considered a pioneer in the field of altruism and compassionate love, leading to his selection as a founding member of the International Society for Science and Religion housed at Cambridge University, and as a senior research fellow in the Becket Institute at St. Hugh's College of Oxford University.
Through the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love,[10] an Ohio-based 501 (c)(3) that Post founded in 2001 with support from philanthropist John Templeton and the Templeton Foundation, he was able to competitively fund research at more than eighty universities on the science of altruistic love and its underpinnings in philosophy and spiritual-religious wisdom. He has examined the dynamic of sincere other-regarding benevolence with regard to the happiness and health of the giver. On the basis of years of study he was lead author of the 2007 blockbuster Why Good Things Happen to Good People: How to Live a Longer, Healthier, Happier Life by the Simple Act of Giving.[11] In addition, his writings on spirituality and psychiatry contributed to the de-pathologizing of religion in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistic Manual (DSM IV).[12].
Post is Founding Director of the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics at Stony Brook University[13] in the School of Medicine, Department of Preventive Medicine. Prior to his arrival at Stony Brook University, he was (1988–2008) Professor of Medical Ethics, Social Science, and Religious Studies in the School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University. Post served as Editor-in-Chief of the 5-volume 3rd edition of The Encyclopedia of Bioethics (Macmillan Reference, 2004) while at Case Western. At the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics Post and colleagues address the crisis of the dehumanization of healthcare and examine the perennial importance of compassionate care in the art of healing and the experience of recovery. The importance of compassionate care and other aspects of a successful healing relationship between professionals and patients is studied with a model that integrates empirical investigation with the humanities. The Center includes major initiatives in narrative medicine, clinical ethics, professional virtues, history of medicine, mind/body, and altruism, building on a distinguished Stony Brook history that harkens back to founding Medical School Dean Edmund D. Pellegrino, MD. The curriculum for medical students is extensive throughout all four years. The Center offers a Master's degree track.
Post is a Senior Research Fellow (non-resident) in the Center for Law and Religion in the School of Law of Emory University; a Senior Faculty Scholar (non-resident) in the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health of the Duke University Medical Center; Visiting Scholar (non-resident) in the Positive Psychology Center of the University of Pennsylvania; and Distinguished Scholar (non-resident) in the Institute for Studies in Religion of Baylor University. He has taught at the University of Chicago, Fordham-Marymount, Case Western Reserve University and Stony Brook University.
He is a lifelong member of the Episcopal Church with abiding interest in the teachings and practices of all traditions that successfully elevate love rather than hate in their adherents. Post is currently a Trustee (2008-2014) of the John Templeton Foundation.[14]
[edit] Awards & Honors
- Elected Hastings Center Fellow 1994 [15]
- Senior Scholar in the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University
- Elected Member of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia for "distinguished contributions to medicine in 2003.[16]
- Hope in Healthcare Award, 2008 [16]
- Kama Book Award in Medical Humanities from World Literacy Canada, 2008 [16]
[edit] Bibliography
Stephen Post is the author and editor of numerous books including:
- The Moral Challenge of Alzheimer Disease: Ethical Issues from Diagnosis to Dying (John Hopkins, 1995) [17]
- Encyclopedia of Bioethics 3rd ed. (MacMillan, 2003)[18]
- The Fountain of Youth: Cultural, Scientific, and Ethical Perspectives on a Biomedical Goal (Oxford University Press, 2004).[19]
- "Altruism & Health: Perspectives from Empirical Research" (Oxford University Press, 2007) [19]
- "Why Good Things Happen to Good People: How to Live a Longer, Healthier, Happier Life by the Simple Act of Giving" (Broadway, 2008) [11]
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.stephengpost.com/hiddengifts
- ^ "Best-Selling Books Week Ended May 1". The Wall Street Journal. 7 May 2011. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703834804576301071606590718.html?mod=WSJ_Books_LS_Books_13.
- ^ http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/339/nov17_3/b4856?eaf
- ^ http://www.parade.com/news/2010/01/10-live-well-with-what-you-have.html
- ^ http://www.oprah.com/health/Scientific-Proof-That-Charitable-Giving-Improves-Your-Health_1
- ^ Jacobson, Aileen (12 April 2009). "Remembering the Nazis' War on the ‘Genetically Unfit'". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/nyregion/long-island/12holocaustli.html?_r=1&scp=9&sq=&st=nyt.
- ^ http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-joy-giving
- ^ http://www.alz.co.uk/adi/msap.html
- ^ "http://www.case.edu/med/bioethics/5/sgp2.htm", Jan. 22, 2010
- ^ http://www.unlimitedloveinstitute.org/
- ^ a b http://whygoodthingshappen.com/
- ^ . PMID 8269715.
- ^ http://www.stonybrook.edu/bioethics/ Feb. 11, 2010
- ^ http://www.templeton.org/about_us/who_we_are/board_of_trustees/#stephen_post
- ^ http://www.thehastingscenter.org/About/Default.aspx?id=902
- ^ a b c http://stephengpost.com/biography.shtml
- ^ http://www.stonybrook.edu/bioethics/moralchallenge.shtml
- ^ http://www.stonybrook.edu/bioethics/encyclopediaofbioethics.shtml
- ^ a b http://www.stonybrook.edu/bioethics/altruismandhealth.shtml
