Dr. Paul R. Fleischman graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Chicago, and is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honors Society. He graduated from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and trained in Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine, where he also served as Chief Resident. He was in the private practice of psychiatry in Amherst, Massachusetts for over thirty years. He is currently retired from clinical practice, writing and donating his services to Vipassana.
He has been a psychiatric consultant to the University of Massachusetts Student Mental Health, the Northampton State Hospital, McLean’s Hospital, Providence Hospital, Enfield Mental Health Center, and the Hilltowns Health Center. He was a psychotherapy supervisor and seminar leader in Psychiatry and Religion at Yale University. He has been nominated for a Ford Foundation Fellowship and a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, and has been a Manealof Travel Fellow and a Research Assistant for the United States Public Health Service.
Dr. Fleischman has published articles in Nature, Landscape, The Yale Review, The University of Chicago Magazine, The International Journal of Social Psychiatry, the American Journal of Psychiatry, the Journal of Contemplative Psychiatry, and Insight. His books and monographs include: The Healing Spirit: Religious Issues in Psychotherapy; Cultivating Inner Peace; Karma and Chaos: Collected and New Essays on Vipassana Meditation; Spiritual Aspects of Psychiatric Practice; and The Buddha Taught Nonviolence Not Pacifism. He is the author of a collection of poetry: You Can Never Speak Up Too Often/ For the Love of All Things. He was anthologized in The Power of Prayer, a book that included essays by Mother Teresa and Jimmy Carter. Karma and Chaos was a Book of the Year Finalist with Forward Magazine, and has been translated into French and Italian, and republished in India. Selections of his writing have also been translated into Spanish, German, Serbian, Farsi, Dutch, and Hebrew, and his books are available in French and Italian.
In 1993 in San Francisco, Dr. Fleischman became the fifth American Psychiatrist to be honored by the American Psychiatric Association with the Oskar Pfister Award for being an “...outstanding contributor to the humanistic and spiritual side of psychiatric and medical issues.“ He has also been the Williamson Lecturer in Medicine and Religion at the University of Kansas Medical School, and the Special Guest Lecturer at Smith College Chapel. He has been keynote speaker at the Albany Medical School, and Highland Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina.
He has lectured at University of Massachusetts, University of Washington, Smith College, Amherst College, Hampshire College, Wesleyan College, Antioch College, Evergreen State College, Beth Israel Hospital, Auburn Hospital; as well as Grace Episcopal Church, Jewish Community of Amherst, First Church Springfield, Greenfield Congregational Church, Assumption Retreat Center, Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, Immanuel Lutheran Church, Amherst Unitarian Meeting, Biennial Jain Conference, and the Theosophical Society, and has been longtime consultant to Amherst Interfaith Clergy. Internationally he has lectured at Jaipur Medical College, Bombay Psychiatric Society, World Presidents’ Assn/Mumbai, McGill University/Canada; and in Mexico at Foros University, Co-Planet Conference, Oaxaca, and UNAM (National University of Mexico); University of Ghent, University of Tel Aviv, Hadassa University, Israeli Psychiatric Association, University Hospital, Brugmann, Brussels; ULB University, Brussels, University of Tarragona, Caixa Forum, Barcelona, London Business School, University of London, University of Nijmengen, University of Vienna, Royal College of Nursing, London; Milltown Institute, Dublin, University Medical Center Freiburg, University of Valladolid School of Medicine, and many other places.
A lifelong student of Vipassana meditation, Dr. Fleischman has been asked by his Vipassana Teacher, Mr. S. N. Goenka, to carry the responsibility of being Teacher in charge of explaining Vipassana to academic and professional audiences in the West.