John F. Schumaker

John F. Schumaker is a retired clinical psychologist, academic, author, and social critic who lives in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. For 35 years prior to moving to Canada, he and his musician wife Cheryl Shantz lived in New Zealand, Australia, and before that Zambia, South Africa, and the USA. His self-authored books are In Search of Happiness: Understanding an Endangered State of Mind (Kindle 2016; Penguin Books 2006; German edition Das Manipulierte Gluck: Von den trügerischen Verheißungen der Konsumkultur: WJS, Berlin); The Age of Insanity: Modernity and Mental Health (Praeger); The Corruption of Reality: A Unified Theory of Religion, Hypnosis, and Psychopathology (Prometheus Books); and Wings of Illusion (Prometheus Books). His edited books are Religion and Mental Health (Oxford University Press), Human Suggestibility (Routledge); Cultural Cognition and Psychopathology (Praeger); Psychology and the Developing World (Praeger); Motivation and Culture (Routledge); and Perspectives on Belief and Experience (Prism Press). Schumaker's essays include "Reality and Unreality: The Growing Power of the Lie" (2020, LA Progressive), and several essays published in the UK by The New Internationalist magazine, among them "The Personality Crisis," “The Demoralized Mind,” “The Happiness Conspiracy,” “The Triumph of Triviality,” “Utopia or Bust,” "Killing the Things We Love," "Earth Warrior," “Dead Zone,” and “Starstruck.”