Los Angeles Times
May 1 1998
Newport Beach Therapist Sues Self-Help Guru Chopra
A former Newport Beach psychotherapist has filed a $100-million lawsuit against Deepak Chopra, alleging that the noted author and self-help guru plagiarized her copyrighted manuscript in his best-selling book, “Seven Spiritual Laws of Success.”
“It was devastating,” Rose Parvin, 48, said Thursday. “When I saw his book, I literally threw up from feeling devastated.”
Chopra could not be reached for comment on the lawsuit, filed this week in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
Parvin said she sent galleys of her original manuscript, titled “Pattern Change Programming, Creating Your Own Destiny,” to Chopra for review in 1994.
An 800-page manuscript that she had copyrighted and later self-published, the book was based on an original philosophy, she said, and “new psychology” that she had developed over 15 years. While she had never met Chopra and was not familiar with his work, Parvin said, she hoped that he might mention her work in print.