LEAP OF FAITH
Hallowell arrived at Exeter as a prep in 1964, after four years at the Fessenden School in Massachusetts.

"It opened up a whole new world to me," he remembers of his time at Exeter, "the world of ideas, of intellectual energy, of deep friendship."

Hallowell says the intellectual rigor, and the discovery that some of his schoolmates had backgrounds similar to his, drew him out of a certain self-involvement. He succeeded at Exeter socially and academically. He wrote about the pain of his childhood, inspired at times by the sheer life-affirming vibrancy of the dark, cold New Hampshire winters, exhilarated at the "alchemy" that would transform a sliver of his tumultuous past into a well-received English composition.

During his senior year, Hallowell says, Tremallo persuaded him that a three-page story he'd turned in was the germ of a novel.

"The next thing I knew I was adding three pages to it," Hallowell recalls, "then 10 pages and 20 pages to it. By the end of the year, I'd written this novel that won the English IV prize. That year gave me an identity as a writer. Because of Fred Tremallo, I decided within myself that I wanted to write."

Hallowell says he eventually wants to try his hand at fiction, which would draw on his medical background for stories "of people being tested and finding their way to connection." As an Exonian he aspired to be "the next Dostoyevsky or Shakespeare," but says his current inspiration is 18th-century English essayist and critic Samuel Johnson.

"He wrote moral and psychological essays for a general audience," says Hallowell. "My challenge is how to write these things without being lumped in with the schlocky self-help writers. I try to maintain a higher standard, but I do want to reach people. One of Johnson's quotes that I love is 'A writer's first obligation is to be read.'"

Readers have obliged Hallowell with more than a million books sold. He has balanced his professional life on the three legs of writing, lecturing about 75 dates a year, and his practice, and that's how he likes it.

"If all I could do was write, I know what would happen-I'd become depressed," he says.

"If all I could do was see patients, I'd burn out. If all I did was give lectures, I'd become a performing hack. If I had to do any one of those three, I wouldn't like them. What I love is the combination."

He's already planning his next book, to be called "The Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness: Raising Confident, Can-Do Kids," and hopes to follow that with another on ADD. He also wants to develop a web site to report the latest brain science research and share information on psychological afflictions.

"Anxiety disorder-what I call a disorder of disconnection-and depression are both tremendously undertreated," says Hallowell. "There's a huge amount of public education that needs to be done, and I want to tackle that big-time."

HAPPY ENDINGS

Twelve vital ties to a more connected life

Your family of origin

Your immediate family

Your friends and community

Work and activities

Appreciation of beauty

The past

Nature and special places

Pets and other animals

Ideas and information

Institutions and organizations

Greater truth or spiritual faith

Yourself

Despite formative years in a family he freely labels "crazy," Hallowell exudes a hearty contentment. Hallowell graduated from Harvard in 1972 and Tulane Medical School in 1978. He established a private psychiatric practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1983, and in 1995 founded the Hallowell Center for Cognitive and Emotional Health in Concord, Massachusetts, which now includes about 15 doctors, psychologists and social workers. His wife, Sue, is a social worker, and they have a daughter and two sons.

"I feel very blessed," he says. "I married the right person. I have the right job. I'm able to give my kids the happy childhood I didn't have."

In an interview in his Concord office populated with family vacation pictures and framed stills of Red Sox heroes of yore, Hallowell says he became a doctor because "for as far back as I can remember I wanted to repair my Dad."

His father died more than 20 years ago, but Hallowell says his professional rewards have nonetheless been great.

"To have someone say, 'What you did took an unhappy life and turned it into a happy life,'" he says, "I don't think there's anything better."

—James S. Bourne '82

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