In the midst of all of today’s trading tumult, I happened to see the death notice of Doctor Wayne Dyer. This wasn’t shocking news – – he was 75 years old, and he had health issues on and off over the years – – but I was still saddened to see the news and wanted to do a post about the man.

For those of you unacquainted with Dr. Dyer, he was one of the leading authors of self-help books. I doubt Dr. Dyer would want himself described that way, but that’s how I remember him, and that’s certainly how he initially became famous.

When I was a youngster – about twelve years old – I became afflicted with a mild and lingering depression (that’s not what we called it; I simply recognize it for what it is in hindsight). The book that I found most comforting during that troubled time (which persists, ummm, to this day) wasn’t the Bible, although that helped, but was instead Dyer’s first book, Your Erroneous Zones (as a little kid, I didn’t get the pun, but that’s beside the point).

I read the book over and over again. It addressed the subjects of worry, interpersonal relations, and other items from the long list of neurotic possibilities. In my teenage years, I carefully read Dyer’s new books, such as Pulling Your Own Strings and The Sky’s the Limit. I also listened (repeatedly) to the cassette tapes on which he read his books. I imagine I was one of the few teenagers in the country who was pretty much addicted to the wisdom of Wayne Dyer. As you can see from Amazon, Dr. Dyer went on to write dozens and dozens of books.

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