Stephen G. Post
Encyclopedia
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 (2011), as listed on the nonfiction best seller list with the Wall Street Journal.
He is Founder and Director of the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics at Stony Brook University.
Prior to his arrival at Stony Brook University, he was (1988–2008) Professor of Medical Ethics, Philosophy and Religious Studies in the School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University
. His PhD was completed in 1983 at the University of Chicago
, where he wrote his dissertation on eudaemonistic happiness and altruistic love. Post is widely known for his writings on ethics and the care of persons with dementia, and for research at the interface of altruism, benevolence and science. 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). In addition to being an accomplished academic, he is a committed public intellectual who has written for or been interviewed by such diverse periodicals as Parade (magazine)
, O: The Oprah Magazine, The New York Times
, and Psychology Today
. He is a lifelong member of the Episcopal Church and serves on the board of trustees at the John Templeton Foundation.
, 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, 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 co-authored the 2007 blockbuster Why Good Things Happen to Good People: How to Live a Longer, Healthier, Happier Life by the Simple Act of Giving.
At the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics Post brings a broader and more integrative approach to the issues traditionally studied by bioethicists. The work at the Center aims to address the crisis of the dehumanization of healthcare and to 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 in the Center for Law and Religion in the School of Law of Emory University. He received the Hope in Healthcare Award in 2008 for "pioneering research and education in the field of unconditional love, altruism, compassion, and service." 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." Post's work was included in Best American Spiritual Writing (2005). Post received the Kama Book Award in Medical Humanities from World Literacy Canada (2008).
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
, 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 (2011), as listed on the nonfiction best seller list with the Wall Street Journal.
He is Founder and Director of the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics at Stony Brook University.
Prior to his arrival at Stony Brook University, he was (1988–2008) Professor of Medical Ethics, Philosophy and Religious Studies in the School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University is a private research university located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA...
. His PhD was completed in 1983 at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, where he wrote his dissertation on eudaemonistic happiness and altruistic love. Post is widely known for his writings on ethics and the care of persons with dementia, and for research at the interface of altruism, benevolence and science. 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). In addition to being an accomplished academic, he is a committed public intellectual who has written for or been interviewed by such diverse periodicals as Parade (magazine)
Parade (magazine)
Parade is an American nationwide Sunday newspaper magazine, distributed in more than 500 newspapers in the United States. It was founded in 1941 and is owned by Advance Publications. The most widely read magazine in the U.S., Parade has a circulation of 32.2 million and a readership of nearly 70...
, O: The Oprah Magazine, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, and Psychology Today
Psychology Today
Psychology Today is a bi-monthly magazine published in the United States. It is a psychology-based magazine about relationships, health, and related topics written for a mass audience of non-psychologists. Psychology Today was founded in 1967 and features articles on such topics as love,...
. He is a lifelong member of the Episcopal Church and serves on the board of trustees at the John Templeton Foundation.
Academic Work
Post has focused on ethical issues surrounding cognitive disability and dementia since the late 1980s. He is an elected member of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Panel of Alzheimer's Disease International. Post is also an elected fellow of the Philadelphia College of Physicians for "outstanding contributions to medicine." He is a pioneer in the field of altruism and compassionate loveCompassionate love
Compassionate love, sometimes also called altruistic love, has been a topic of scientific interest and research since the 1990s. It is also closely related to the construct of unlimited love that has been expounded by Stephen G. Post. Compassionate love refers to love that "centers on the good of...
, 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, 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 co-authored the 2007 blockbuster Why Good Things Happen to Good People: How to Live a Longer, Healthier, Happier Life by the Simple Act of Giving.
At the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics Post brings a broader and more integrative approach to the issues traditionally studied by bioethicists. The work at the Center aims to address the crisis of the dehumanization of healthcare and to 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 in the Center for Law and Religion in the School of Law of Emory University. He received the Hope in Healthcare Award in 2008 for "pioneering research and education in the field of unconditional love, altruism, compassion, and service." 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." Post's work was included in Best American Spiritual Writing (2005). Post received the Kama Book Award in Medical Humanities from World Literacy Canada (2008).
Awards & Honors
- Elected Hastings CenterHastings CenterThe Hastings Center, founded in 1969, is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit bioethics research institute based in the United States. It is dedicated to the examination of essential questions in health care, biotechnology, and the environment...
Fellow 1994 - 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.
- Hope in Healthcare Award, 2008
- Kama Book Award in Medical Humanities from World Literacy Canada, 2008
External links
- http://www.stonybrook.edu/bioethics/post.shtml
- http://stephengpost.com/