Author Guide · Buddhism & Psychotherapy
Books Written by
In his early twenties, Mark Epstein travelled with his meditation teachers Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfield and Richard Alpert to Ajahn Chah’s forest monastery in Thailand. He had begun practising insight meditation in 1974; he also trained at Harvard Medical School, did a psychiatry residency in New York and set up a private practice in the city. His books sit where those two trainings meet: what the Buddha taught about the self, set beside what Freud and later psychoanalysts learned in the consulting room. The first, Thoughts Without a Thinker, appeared in 1995; the most recent, The Zen of Therapy, in 2022. This guide covers his 8 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 8 key books · 1995–2022 · Updated October 2026
ClickTap a spine to jump to that book below.
Quick answer
Mark Epstein has written eight books, from Thoughts Without a Thinker (1995) to The Zen of Therapy (2022). The best known are Thoughts Without a Thinker, Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart (1998) and The Trauma of Everyday Life (2013). Start with Thoughts Without a Thinker, the book that sets out the Buddhist and psychoanalytic ideas the later ones build on.
Where to Start with Mark Epstein
If you want the book that started it
→ Thoughts Without a Thinker (1995) — Buddhism and psychotherapy side by side.
If you want his book on trauma
→ The Trauma of Everyday Life (2013) — read through the life of the Buddha.
If you want to learn to let go
→ Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart (1998) — his own experience and his patients’ stories.
If you want something short and practical
→ Advice Not Given (2018) — a guide to getting over yourself.
8 Mark Epstein Books, in Order
Thoughts Without a Thinker
Epstein’s first book, published by Basic Books, argues that Buddhist practice can complement modern psychotherapy. Part one explains basic Buddhist ideas, part two sets meditation beside psychoanalysis, and part three applies the Buddhist ideas to therapy. Publishers Weekly called it a “highly personal, thoughtful, illuminating synthesis.”
Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart
A book about letting go, an idea Epstein finds in both psychotherapy and Buddhism, told through his own experience and his patients’ stories, with meditation offered as a way to calm an anxious mind. Its four parts, “Looking”, “Smiling”, “Embracing” and “Orgasms”, take their names from Tibetan terms for aspects of spiritual practice.
Going on Being
Part memoir, part guide to therapy. Epstein argues that emotional healing goes better when people avoid the Western choice between digging into a problem completely and dropping it altogether, and that meditation helps find the balance between the two. Wisdom Publications reissued it in 2008 as Going on Being: Life at the Crossroads of Buddhism and Psychotherapy.
Open to Desire
Published by Gotham Books with the further subtitle Insights from Buddhism and Psychotherapy, the book takes on desire, which Buddhism is often thought to want rid of, and argues, as its title says, for being open to it. Later editions carry the subtitle The Truth about What the Buddha Taught.
Psychotherapy Without the Self
His one book with a university press, Yale. Its title points to the Buddhist teaching he returns to throughout his work: that the self is not the solid thing it seems, and that therapy can work with that idea rather than against it.
The Trauma of Everyday Life
Epstein argues that trauma is not something that happens only to a few unlucky people but is part of every life, and that both Western therapy and meditation practice go wrong when they try to get past it. The book opens with the life of the Buddha, reading his path in the light of the death of his mother soon after his birth. Published by Penguin Press, it carried endorsements from Jon Kabat-Zinn, Siddhartha Mukherjee and Adam Phillips.
Advice Not Given
Published by Penguin Press in January 2018, the book is built around the Buddha’s Eightfold Path, read alongside Western psychotherapy, with the ego as the problem both are trying to solve.
The Zen of Therapy
His most recent book, published by Penguin Press, returns to his own consulting room in New York and to how the Buddhist ideas of his earlier books show up in the work of therapy itself.
In What Order to Read Mark Epstein
None of the books depends on another, but they do build. Thoughts Without a Thinker lays out the vocabulary, Buddhist and psychoanalytic, that he takes for granted later; the books from Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart onwards apply it to one theme each: letting go, change, desire, trauma, the ego.
If you come to him for one subject, go straight to that book. Psychotherapy Without the Self is the one to leave until last unless you are a therapist yourself.
A reading path
1. Thoughts Without a Thinker (1995)
2. Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart (1998)
3. The Trauma of Everyday Life (2013)
4. Advice Not Given (2018)
5. The Zen of Therapy (2022)
The years · 1953–2022
Quick facts about Mark Epstein
- Known for
- Mark Epstein is known for bringing Buddhist meditation and Western psychotherapy into conversation, writing as both a practising psychiatrist and a long-time student of insight meditation.
- 1953
- Born in the United States
- 1974
- Begins practising insight meditation
- Born
- 1953, United States
- Education
- Harvard College and Harvard Medical School
- Training
- Psychiatry residency at what is now NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell
- Work
- Psychiatrist in private practice in New York City; clinical assistant professor of psychiatry, NYU School of Medicine
- Meditation
- Insight (vipassana) meditation since 1974; first teachers Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield
- Family
- Married to the artist Arlene Shechet; two children
The red mark is 1995: Thoughts Without a Thinker, his first book.
How Mark Epstein Writes: Buddha and Freud in the Same Room
Epstein writes from two trainings at once. He has practised insight meditation since 1974 and trained as a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School and in New York, and almost every book sets a Buddhist idea next to a psychoanalytic one and asks what each sees that the other misses. Thoughts Without a Thinker makes the structure explicit: Buddhist concepts first, then meditation beside psychoanalysis, then the two applied to therapy.
His material is concrete: his own life and the stories of his patients. Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart and Going on Being mix memoir with clinical cases, and The Trauma of Everyday Life starts not with a theory but with a life story, the Buddha’s, read for the loss of his mother.
He often borrows a traditional Buddhist frame and fills it with Western psychology. Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart is divided into four parts named after Tibetan terms for spiritual practice, and Advice Not Given follows the steps of the Eightfold Path. The tone is that of a therapist talking to a reader, not a teacher addressing students.
Watch
Mark Epstein in Conversation with Sharon Salzberg
Sharon Salzberg talks with Mark Epstein on her Metta Hour podcast about his 2022 book The Zen of Therapy and the overlap between Buddhism and psychotherapy, including the Buddha’s story read through a therapeutic lens. From the official Be Here Now Network channel.
Frequently asked questions about Mark Epstein’s books
How many books has Mark Epstein written?
Eight, all listed on this page: from Thoughts Without a Thinker (1995) to The Zen of Therapy (2022).
What are Mark Epstein’s books in order?
Thoughts Without a Thinker (1995), Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart (1998), Going on Being (2001), Open to Desire (2005), Psychotherapy Without the Self (2008), The Trauma of Everyday Life (2013), Advice Not Given (2018) and The Zen of Therapy (2022).
Where should I start with Mark Epstein?
With Thoughts Without a Thinker, his first book, which explains the Buddhist ideas and their psychoanalytic counterparts that the later books build on. If you come to him for trauma, start with The Trauma of Everyday Life.
What is Mark Epstein’s most famous book?
Thoughts Without a Thinker (1995), his first book, alongside Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart (1998) and The Trauma of Everyday Life (2013). His publisher’s biography names these with Advice Not Given.
What is The Trauma of Everyday Life about?
Epstein argues that trauma is part of every life, not only of a few unlucky people, and that both Western therapy and meditation go wrong when they try to rise above it. He opens with the life of the Buddha, whose mother died soon after his birth.
Is Mark Epstein a Buddhist?
He has practised insight (vipassana) meditation since 1974. His first teachers were Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield, whom he met at a Buddhist summer camp in Boulder, Colorado, and in his early twenties he travelled with them and Richard Alpert (Ram Dass) to Ajahn Chah’s forest monastery in Thailand.
Is Mark Epstein a practising psychiatrist?
Yes. After a psychiatry residency at what is now NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell, he went into private practice in New York City, and he is a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine.
Who is Mark Epstein’s wife?
The artist Arlene Shechet. They have two children.
Is Mark Epstein related to David Epstein, author of Range?
No. They are different writers; David Epstein writes about sport and science, Mark Epstein about Buddhism and psychotherapy.
Footnotes
- Mark Epstein (author) — Wikipedia
- About — Mark Epstein, M.D.
- Mark Epstein, M.D. — Penguin Random House
- The Trauma of Everyday Life — Penguin Random House
- Epstein, Mark 1953- — Encyclopedia.com
- Media — Mark Epstein, M.D.
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“The connection, the ability to find intimacy or connection, is inherent within us.”
— Mark Epstein, interview with Human Nature
If this shelf interested you, the full bookshelf has more: reading lists by theme, author guides, and notes on what is actually worth your time.
Browse the full bookshelf Get book recommendations