Dr. Richard A. Lannon received his BS cum laude in biochemistry from the University of Chicago in 1964. He attended the University of California San Francisco medical school, receiving a Regent's Scholarship for four years. He was awarded his M.D. in 1968 and elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. He completed a rotating medical internship at San Francisco General Hospital in 1969 and completed his residency in psychiatry at the Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute of UCSF in 1972. He has been in private psychiatric practice since 1972, with an emphasis on the treatment of adults with mood disorders.

In 1979 he added academic work to his private clinical work, returning to UCSF Medical School and Langley Porter, where he established the Affective Disorders Program in the outpatient department. This innovative program explored the biological underpinnings of affect illnesses such as panic disorder, depression and bipolar disorder. While continuing to maintain his full-time private psychiatric practice, he participated in a wide range of teaching, clinical and research activities at LPNI.

Dr. Lannon's return to academia in 1979 gave him the opportunity to work once again with Dr. Fari Amini, an eminent psychoanalyst and member of the LPNI faculty. Their close personal and professional relationship had begun in 1969, while Dr. Lannon was still a resident. Their major shared interests developed into a theory of affects that had validity and utility for clinical work as well as a solid scientific and neurobiological foundation. The formal public presentation of their work began in 1979 in a weekly seminar taught by Dr. Lannon and Dr. Amini. Their two-generational collaboration was greatly enhanced by the addition of Dr. Thomas Lewis in the early 90s. Ultimately, this three generational collaboration resulted in the publication of A General Theory of Love (Random House, 2000). In this book the authors "explain how relationships function ... and how modern society regularly courts disaster by flouting emotional laws it does not yet recognize." Although Dr. Amini died in 2004, the theories and principles explored in this seminal book continue to evolve with the addition of Dr. Josh Gibson to the collaborative team.

Dr. Lannon's continuing interests include optimizing the development of a cohesive sense of self by examining the importance of experiences in early childhood and the role of significant attachments later in one's life. This work includes exploring how the process of psychotherapy repairs a damaged sense of self and how to improve current social structures (child care, schools and communities). For him, this work must include and be compatible with developmental biology, brain structure and function, psychopharmacology, molecular biology and cognitive neuroscience.

Dr. Lannon's Statement:

It is a great privilege to be invited to participate in this forum. I have been fortunate to know and treat hundreds of patients over many decades in emotionally intimate ways. This has given me a unique experience of understanding human behavior, especially as it is influenced by human emotion, by human attachment and by memory. This experience coupled with knowledge of the rapidly expanding fields of psychopharmacology and neuroscience have been major influences on my professional development. I welcome the opportunity to share this knowledge with other participants.

This forum is also exciting for me in that it provides an opportunity to explore mythology in an area of our lives where myths are not commonly considered. I have always enjoyed the lessons of myths and, because of many years of Jungian analysis, have studied myths for my personal growth. Also, in 1976, I participated on a panel with Joseph Campbell and Sam Keen on the role of Hades in the Demeter myth for the Demeter Project, a four day multi-event celebration of Spring and Rebirth in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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