Engaging the Ineffable ― Toward Mindfulness and Meaning

Integrates mind and brain sciences on 21 topics to catalyze insights on a meaningful and happy life.

Every day we use words like "desire," "time," "story," "hope," and "mastery," thinking we know what they mean. But these concepts are beyond words—ineffable. Understanding of each concept passes through neuro filters shaped by our societies and life stories.

Each concept, ubiquitous and elusive like Rorschach's inkblots, shows that it is not just what we think but how we engage the inexpressible that matters. Engaging the Ineffable is unique in that each of the 21 topics is treated from the perspective of a psychoanalyst, neuroscientist, and Mentor Coach.

The 21 topics discussed are desire, time, memory, nostalgia, belief, hope, story, serendipity, synchronicity, self, feelings, mastery, gender, secrets, attachment, empathy, psychoanalysis, unlived, joy, fairytales, and death.

These notions are ineffable, in part, because there is no single place in the brain you can point to and say, "This is the location of memory, hope, nostalgia, mastery, desire, or serendipity." Nor are these functions even located in a single hemisphere of the brain.

Standard psychoanalytic literature tends to focus on the pathological aspects of the subjects of these chapters, but not to address happiness, creativity, hope, humor, inspiration, joy, and other positive transformations. The insights in this book will lead to mindfulness and meaning, guiding us to perspectives that will lead to rewarding choices and happiness.

David Krueger, M.D., has worked for more than a decade as an Executive Mentor Coach with business leaders and professionals, and trains Professional Coaches as Licensed, Specialty-Certified New Money StoryR Mentors and New Life StoryR Wellness Coaches. Dr. Krueger is CEO of Mentor PathR, an executive, training and wellness firm. His work incorporates the mind and brain sciences to guide changes that last.

While clinical professor of psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. Krueger was also on Psychoanalytic Faculties in Houston and Washington, D.C. Of his 20 books, four are on the subject of money: The Last Taboo, Emotional Business, Your New Money StoryR: Roadmap for Money Mastery, and The Secret Language of Money.

Dr. Krueger has appeared in TV documentaries and media interviews including Tom Brokaw's America Close-Up and has been quoted by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Money, Fortune, Forbes, Town and Country, Self, Lear's, Allure, Parenting Today, Better Homes and Gardens, Readers Digest, and USA Today. He wrote monthly feature columns for Family Times, The Soko, and Networking Times.

He has trained 2,250 Professional Coaches and 425 Licensed, Specialty-Certified Mentor Coaches including New Money StoryR Mentors who practice as Financial and Money Coaches.

After its release, Making Memories: Reflections on Parenting from the Head of a Psychiatrist and the Heart of a Father was Amazon.com's #1 regional best-seller. Success and the Fear of Success was named to the Master’s List of the 100 Most Influential Books of the 20th Century. His last medical professional book, Integrating Body Self and Psychological Self, was an international release. His latest work is DESTINY: An Uncommon Journey released by Listen and Learn Audio, Inc.

His The Secret Language of Money (McGraw Hill) is a business bestseller that has been translated into 10 languages. A sequel, to A New Money Story, is being published by Rowman & Littlefield.