In our first few years， we all live with the faces we were born with.<br > Beyond that， we start wearing the faces and living the lives we ve created<br > for ourselves.<br > We all write， direct， and act the parts we play in the theatre of our<br > lives. These roles grow out of how we feel about ourselves and how<br > we want our world to see us. We are all sometimes terribly tragic， some-<br > times hilariously funny， and sometimes exquisitely absurd. As we live<br > and act， we can find ways to please ourselves， rather than just pleasing<br > other people.<br > In recent years， many psychological understandings and techniques have<br > come into popular use. Each has the advantage of originality; each has<br > the disadvantage of being partial， of overemphasizing one part of the<br > personality. We have synthesized these understandings-the wisdom of<br > such writers as Perls， Rogers， Jung， Skinner， Freud， Berne， Reich， and<br > many others-and created an approach that involves the systematic devel-<br > .， opment of each important part of your personality. And since there is，<br > in our view， a direct and immediate relationship between good psychology<br > and good philosophy， we have drawn into our book the wisdom of great<br > philosophers and prophets of the East and West. For them too， the goal<br > was the life that feels good to a person.<br > We have tried to make the mysteries less hidden-to "de-mystify" what<br > all these people have said， saying simply and directly what others have<br > often stated in complicated ways. You can find ways of using these insights<br > that fit your own life.<br >i Several central themes run through these pages. To move toward being<br > 7 a whole person and toward feeling good on a moment-by-moment and<br >: !i day-to-day basis， each of us needs self-acceptance. Each of us needs self-direc-<br >~.~ tion， the ability to know who we are independent of the expectations<br > vii<br >