ABOUT DR. BRENNER

• Born:   1945, Paris, France
• Undergraduate: Tulane University – 1964-1967
• Medical Schools: Tulane University Medical School – 1967-1968,  University of Texas Medical School at San Antonio – 1968-1971
• Psychiatric Training: Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland – 1971-1974
• Staff and Supervising Psychiatrist: Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital – 1974-1977
• Sarasota, Florida: Private Practice since 1977; current location since 1980
• Board Certified: American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology – 1979
• Chief of Staff, Sarasota Palms Hospital (now Bayside Center): 1978-1979
• Chief of Psychiatric Staff, Sarasota Memorial Hospital: two terms
• Chairman of SMH Psychiatric Credentials Committee: 1984-1985; 1989-1997

PUBLICATIONS (Available in office and online):
Brenner, Sayers, R. (1988).  Suffering From Illusion: The Secret Victory of Self-Defeat.  NY: Peter Lang Publishing (hard cover – out of print).  (1994).  Sarasota: Paradox Books.

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Summary: “The secrets hidden within our self-defeat reveal surprisingly simple and paradoxical answers. Universal childhood errors of thinking unconsciously lead us to cause our own pain by pursuing mere illusions, such as pure love, perfection, certainty, security, and grandiose power.  The secretly vengeful victim role perpetuates these self-defeating strivings through the unconscious, powerful, and computer-like operations of its satisfying fantasies.  We recover when we give up polarized thinking, own all inner parts, accept life’s limits and pain, settle for realistic satisfactions, embrace disillusionment, forgive our lengthy folly, and accept reality as balanced and paradoxical.  The secrets are acceptance, balance, compromise, deflation, and forgiveness.”

Brenner, Sayers R. (2015). Paradoxical Wisdom: Just B.E. K.I.N.D.  Sarasota: Paradox Books Ultimate answers can be deciphered by anyone along any pathway.  Enlightenment is free, indeed, but it comes at the cost of all our pain-free and Utopian illusions, a price that few are willing to pay.  Life’s painful disillusionments force us into the counter-intuitive opportunity of a lifetime: to train ourselves to cultivate, instead, a taste for paradoxical insights.  These poetic fusions or integrations of opposites are the closest we can get to an ecstatic harmony with what is.  This changes everything!  First, it enables us to expose and evade life’s intricate “con-game,” which makes fools of us all.

Moreover, we can even discover the treasure of all treasures: our own paradoxically wise inner self.  Amidst our arguing inner congress of part-selves; this humble and wise self, alone, is our precious and gyroscopic crystal of resonance with the paradoxical essence of reality.  It can guide us towards an inner, centered, and loving serenity we did not know we were looking for.  This is an expanded “unreasonable happiness,” or “painful bliss.”

This book offers a simple seven-step mantra-mnemonic: “B.E. K.I.N.D.” (paradoxical Balance,    Embracing acceptance, lovingKindness, Insight, Now, Disillusionment, and Deflation).  This practical B.E. K.I.N.D. reminder serves as a cypher or tutorial which we can recite to ourselves in any moment and amidst each adversity to train ourselves to better resonate with and enjoy this exquisite cosmic symphony.  Enlightenment is simply more fun.

     The universe is like a safe… But the combination is locked up in the safe.   Peter DeVries

     Life is a spell so exquisite that everything conspires to break it.     Emily Dickinson

     Stop acting so small.  You are the universe in ecstatic motion.        Ranier Maria Rilke

Find me on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCju3Iqd3-AG-_jX8rUW0oYw