With this work, “Dr. Paul” sets out to reveal our shared human challenges and expand our feelings of empathy. Having treated and built therapeutic alliances with some of the world’s most successful people, he demonstrates that we all—including people who seem protected by their gilded, privileged lives—can experience the self-destructive behaviors common to modern life, including substance use disorders and addiction, imposter syndrome, infidelity, narcissism, and negative body image.
Division marks our era. There is a growing divide between the haves and have nots, men and women, as well as the empowered and the powerless. At the same time, the idolization of celebrity, affluence, and power marks our culture. While we like to think that our lives would be better if we could just “have what they have” or “be more like” someone else, it’s time to realize that we’re all connected by the things that make us human, which includes emotional pain.
Power is not only accompanied by upsides; there are downsides to wealth and attainment as well. External success and attainment do not prevent problems; but our biases and preconceived notions do prevent us from empathizing with people different from ourselves. By revealing what we share, we take down the walls that we’ve built between ourselves. Building a shared sense of social empathy, we take an important step away from division and toward a culture of connection.
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