Dr. Paul R. Fleischman (1945- ) is a retired psychiatrist, author of many books, and was the fifth psychiatrist to be honored by the American Psychiatric Association with the Oskar Pfister Award for being an "...outstanding contributor to the humanistic and spiritual side of psychiatric and medical issues."

He graduated from the University of Chicago, Phi Beta Kappa, from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Alpha Omega Alpha,  and trained in Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine, where he also served as Chief Resident and psychotherapy supervisor. He practiced psychiatry in Amherst, Massachusetts for over thirty years.

He has been a psychiatric consultant to numerous institutions including the University of Massachusetts Student Mental Health, the Northampton State Hospital, McLean's Hospital, Providence Hospital, Enfield Mental Health Center, and the Hilltowns Health Center. He was a psychotherapy supervisor and seminar leader in Psychiatry and Religion at Yale University, Department of Psychiatry. He has been nominated for a Ford Foundation Fellowship and a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, and has been a Manealof Travel Fellow and a Research Assistant for the United States Public Health Service.

Dr. Fleischman has published articles for over fifty years, including in Nature, Landscape, the Yale Review, The University of Chicago Magazine, The International Journal of Social Psychiatry, the American Journal of Psychiatry, the Journal of Contemplative Psychiatry, and Insight. His published books include a collection of poetry. He was anthologized in The Power of Prayer, a book which included essays by Mother Teresa and Jimmy Carter. Karma and Chaos was a Book of the Year Finalist with Foreword Magazine. His other books include, Cultivating Inner Peace, Wonder:When and Why the World Appears Radiant, An Ancient Path, Vipassana Meditation and the Scientific Worldview, and The Power of Small Changes.

He has lectured widely at many conferences, and universities around the world, including the Williamson Lecturer in Medicine and Religion at the University of Kansas Medical School, the Special Guest Lecturer at Smith College Chapel. Harvard, MIT, Brown, the Fletcher School of Diplomacy at Tufts, McGill University, University of British Columbia, the University of Victoria, Evergreen State, the Brower Center/Berkeley, Emory, UNC/Asheville; as well as lecturing in Germany, Belgium, Holland, Ireland, England, Spain, South Africa, and Israel; in India he has lectured at Jaipur Medical College, Bombay Psychiatric Society, and the World Presidents' Assn/Mumbai; and in Mexico: Foros University, Co-Planet Conference, and UNAM. He was a longtime consultant to Amherst Interfaith Clergy.

Dr. Fleischman has practiced Vipassana meditation under the guidance of Mr. S.N. Goenka and his tradition since 1974, and was asked by Goenkaji to be the teacher with  the responsibility of explaining Vipassana in the West.