Daniel Goleman (born March 7, 1946) is an American psychologist, author, and science journalist. For twelve years, he wrote for The New York Times, reporting on the brain and behavioral sciences. His 1995 book Emotional Intelligence was on The New York Times Best Seller list for a year and a half, a bestseller in many countries, and is in print worldwide in 40 languages.[1] Apart from his books on emotional intelligence, Goleman has written books on topics including self-deception, creativity, transparency, meditation, social and emotional learning, ecoliteracy and the ecological crisis, and the Dalai Lama's vision for the future.
Daniel Goleman grew up in a Jewishhousehold in Stockton, California, the son of Fay Goleman (née Weinberg; 1910–2010), professor of sociology at the University of the Pacific,[2] and Irving Goleman (1898–1961), humanities professor at Stockton College (now San Joaquin Delta College). His maternal uncle was nuclear physicist Alvin M. Weinberg.
Goleman attended Amherst College, graduating magna cum laude. He also attended the University of California at Berkeley through Amherst's Independent Scholar program. He went on to earn a PhD in Clinical Psychology at Harvard University.[3]
Goleman studied in India using a pre-doctoral fellowship from Harvard and a post-doctoral grant from the Social Science Research Council.[4] While in India, he spent time with spiritual teacher Neem Karoli Baba,[5] who was also the guru to Ram Dass, Krishna Das, and Larry Brilliant.[6] He wrote his first book based on travel in India and Sri Lanka.
Goleman then returned as a visiting lecturer to Harvard, where during the 1970s his course on the psychology of consciousness was popular. David McClelland, his mentor at Harvard, recommended him for a job at Psychology Today, from which he was recruited by The New York Times in 1984.[4][7]