James R. Doty
Neurosurgeon and compassion researcher
James R. Doty was a Stanford neurosurgeon who founded a center for compassion research. He wrote Into the Magic Shop and Mind Magic.
2 summaries 30 min of listening
American Born 1955 Died 2025
About James R. Doty
James R. Doty (1955 to 2025) was a neurosurgeon who worked at Stanford University. He set up CCARE, the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, within Stanford's medical school, where research looked at compassion, altruism and how they relate to the brain. The Dalai Lama is the founding benefactor of the center. Doty studied at the University of California, Irvine, and went to medical school at Tulane University. His neurosurgery residency took place at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and he later spent nine years on active duty with the US Army Medical Corps. He was also an inventor, entrepreneur and philanthropist, and served on the board of the Dalai Lama Foundation. He wrote the self-help books Into the Magic Shop (2016) and Mind Magic (2024). He was also senior editor of the Oxford Handbook of Compassion Science (2017).