The life of Daniel Gottlieb did not start until he became partially paralyzed because of a near-fatal car accident 30 years ago, the US psychologist, radio host and recipient of this year’s Fervent Global Love of Lives Medal said in Taipei yesterday.
“When I was a boy, I wasn’t good at school and I felt insecure because I wasn’t as good as others. So I hoped [at the time] one day I could become better in this and that, if only one day I could become as good as others,” Gottlieb said from his wheelchair as he shared his story with an audience at a forum yesterday.
The forum was arranged by the Chou Ta-kuan Cultural and Educational Foundation, which awarded Gottlieb the medal, so he could share thoughts with readers of his book Learning from the Heart: Lessons on Living, Loving, and Listening.
In the book, Gottlieb recounted his life story and how he overcame depression after the car accident.
On the way to a surprise party for his wife on their 10th wedding anniversary in 1979, Gottlieb broke his neck in a car accident, paralyzing him from the chest down. At the time, he was a successful young psychologist in the field of addiction with a wife and two daughters.
“When I broke my neck, I knew I couldn’t become the man I wanted to be, I had no hope,” he said. “I could not stand up, walk or make love. I felt shame, envy and anger — I went into deep depression.”
Gottlieb suffered more than physical pain: Not long after, he faced divorce and the deaths of his wife, sister and parents.
“When we cut our arms, we feel pain and it bleeds. But [if] you keep it clean, over time, it heals,” he said.
“I knew that I couldn’t become the man I wanted to be, but over the past 30 years, I’ve become the man I always was,” he said. “I’ve become the man I always was inside.”
Gottlieb said that he felt that his soul began to breathe. After realizing that he could no longer model his life on others, he decided to find out who he really was.
“Most of us try to be the person we think we should be, which makes us suffer, feel insecure and nervous,” Gottlieb said. “The best way to find security is to be who we are.”
Gottlieb returned to his profession and gave up all negative emotions.
“We want the pain to go away,” he said. “Love makes me happy, loving, and once you love more, you love more.”
While he may feel negative emotions from time to time, they go away, he said.
“It’s just like a relative that you don’t like, but the relative will still come, you know,” he said. “Instead of complaining about the world, we should conquer it.”
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,