Jon Kabat-Zinn was born on June 5, 1944 in New York City. He is a physician
and founder of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society
at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He has written more than ten books.
Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress,
Pain, and Illness was published in 1990. As reported in Wikipedia, Kabat-Zinn wanted
the book to ". . . embody . . . the dharma essence of the Buddha's teachings in a way that
was accessible to mainstream Americans and to avoid as much as possible the risk of it
being seen as Buddhist, 'New Age,' 'Eastern Mysticism' or just plain 'flakey.'"