Book picks similar to
Mourning the Unborn Dead: A Buddhist Ritual Comes to America by Jeff Wilson
history-religion-politics-culture
psychology
ww-university-courses
american-buddhism
Against Civilization: Readings and Reflections
John Zerzan - 1998
“Read it and you will never think of civilization in the same way again.”—Kirkpatrick SaleThis anthology about "the pathology of civilization" offers insight into how progress and technology have led to emptiness and alienation.
Freedom from Addiction: The Chopra Center Method for Overcoming Destructive Habits
Deepak Chopra - 2007
However, there are millions of others who are unable or unwilling to accept these programs because of religious overtones or a rigid approach to recovery. Deepak Chopra and David Simon contend that Twelve-Step methods don’t work for everyone because they emphasize personal powerlessness; it’s this admission of powerlessness that keeps many people from ever truly healing. In Freedom from Addiction, Chopra and Simon offer a new way—a proven method based on the program at the renowned Chopra Center in Carlsbad, California. Combining the best of eastern and western medicine, they teach readers how to cleanse their bodies and minds through nutrition, supplements, and meditations, and they walk readers through their 7-Step Framework: 1. Commit to transformation 2. Commit to ending repeat mistakes 3. Face the harsh reality of the past 4. See the infinite possibilities available in the present moment 5. Envision where you want to be 6. Ask yourself what choices need to be made to actualize vision 7. Create an action plan
How To Go On Living When Someone You Love Dies
Therese A. Rando - 1989
But whether the death is sudden or anticipated, few of us are prepared for it or for the grief it brings. There is no right or wrong way to grieve. Each person's response to loss will be different. Now, in this compassionate, comprehensive guide, Therese A. Rando, Ph.D., bereavement specialist and author of Loss And Anticipatory Grief, leads you gently through the painful but necessary process of grieving. Whether the death was sudden or expected, from an accident, illness, suicide, homicide, or natural cause, Dr. Rando will help you learn to:Understand and resolve your grief.Talk to children about death.Resolve unfinished business.Take care of yourself.Accept the help and support of others.Get through holidays and other difficult times of the year.Plan funerals and personal bereavement rituals.How To Go On Living When Someone You Love Dies also includes a comprehensive resource listing and a chapter on finding professional help and support groups.There is no way around the pain of loss, but there is a way through it. Dr. Rando offers the solace, comfort, and guidance to help you accept your loss and move into your new life without forgetting your treasured past.
Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind
Gary F. Marcus - 2008
In this lucid and revealing book, Marcus argues that the mind is not an elegantly designed organ but rather a “kluge,” a clumsy, cobbled-together contraption. He unveils a fundamentally new way of looking at the human mind -- think duct tape, not supercomputer -- that sheds light on some of the most mysterious aspects of human nature.Taking us on a tour of the fundamental areas of human experience -- memory, belief, decision-making, language, and happiness -- Marcus reveals the myriad ways our minds fall short. He examines why people often vote against their own interests, why money can’t buy happiness, why leaders often stick to bad decisions, and why a sentence like “people people left left” ties us in knots even though it’s only four words long.Marcus also offers surprisingly effective ways to outwit our inner kluge, for the betterment of ourselves and society. Throughout, he shows how only evolution -- haphazard and undirected -- could have produced the minds we humans have, while making a brilliant case for the power and usefulness of imperfection.
Women and Madness
Phyllis Chesler - 1972
This definitive book was the first to address critical questions about women and mental health. Combining patient interviews with an analysis of women's roles in history, society, and myth Chesler concludes that there is a terrible double standard when it comes to women's psychology. In this new edition, she addresses head-on many of the most relevant issues to women and mental health today, including eating disorders, social acceptance of antidepressants, addictions, sexuality, postpartum depression, and more. Fully revised and updated, Women and Madness remains as important today as it was when first published in 1972.
A Country Called Childhood: Children and the Exuberant World
Jay Griffiths - 2013
One central riddle, in particular captured her imagination: why are so many children in Euro-American cultures unhappy and why is it that children in traditional cultures seem happier?In Kith, Griffiths seeks to discover why we deny our children the freedoms of space, time and the natural world. Visiting communities as far apart as West Papua and the Arctic as well as the UK, and delving into history, philosophy, language and literature, she explores how children’s affinity for nature is an essential and universal element of childhood. It is a journey deep into the heart of what it means to be a child, and it is central to all our experiences, young and old.
Psycholinguistics
Thomas Scovel - 1998
This brief introduction shows how psycholinguistic research can act as a window to the workings of the human mind and the study of consciousness.
Stories We Tell Ourselves: Making Meaning in a Meaningless Universe
Richard Holloway - 2020
In this new book Richard Holloway takes us on a personal, scientific and philosophical journey to explore what he believes the answers to the biggest of questions are. He examines what we know about the universe into which - without any choice in the matter - we are propelled at birth and from which we are expelled at death, the stories we have told about where we come from, and the stories we tell to get through this muddling experience of life.Thought-provoking, revelatory, compassionate and playful, Stories We Tell Ourselves is a personal reckoning with life's mysteries by one of the most important and beloved thinkers of our time.
It's Not About the Horse: It's About Overcoming Fear and Self-Doubt
Wyatt Webb - 2002
This unique form of therapy blends horse sense with common sense. Wyatt uses the horse as a metaphor, explaining that how you relate to this animal will tell how you relate to all living things, hence the title "It's Not About The Horse". Using this analogy and case studies Wyatt shows the reader how to understand what they have learned over the course of their lifetime and explains how to examine what works for or against them. Wyatt then goes on to explain, drawing from his own life experience how anyone that wants to grow and really know who they are must travel through uncharted territory, the only place where you learn anything.
Awakening to the Spirit World: The Shamanic Path of Direct Revelation
Sandra Ingerman - 2010
Thanks to a modern renaissance of shamanic spirituality, practitioners from all walks of life now use powerful indigenous techniques for healing, insight, and spiritual growth. With Awakening to the Spirit World, teachers Sandra Ingerman and Hank Wesselman bring together a circle of renowned Western shamanic elders to present a comprehensive manual for making these practices accessible and available in our daily lives, including:- How the original practice of shamanism shaped the world's spiritual traditions and why it is still relevant today - The art of the shamanic journey--a time-tested meditative method for experiencing important spiritual lessons and truths - Guidance for avoiding common pitfalls of shamanic practice - Instruction for working with your dreams, connecting to your spirit guides, healing yourself and your environment - A CD of drumming to facilitate your shamanic journeys
Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection
John T. Cacioppo - 2008
Cacioppo’s groundbreaking research topples one of the pillars of modern medicine and psychology: the focus on the individual as the unit of inquiry. By employing brain scans, monitoring blood pressure, and analyzing immune function, he demonstrates the overpowering influence of social context—a factor so strong that it can alter DNA replication. He defines an unrecognized syndrome—chronic loneliness—brings it out of the shadow of its cousin depression, and shows how this subjective sense of social isolation uniquely disrupts our perceptions, behavior, and physiology, becoming a trap that not only reinforces isolation but can also lead to early death. He gives the lie to the Hobbesian view of human nature as a “war of all against all,” and he shows how social cooperation is, in fact, humanity’s defining characteristic. Most important, he shows how we can break the trap of isolation for our benefit both as individuals and as a society.
Confidence: The Secret
Katie Piper - 2016
She has overcome more than anyone else I know' CHERYL'Katie Piper has an attitude to life that can make anything bearable. She's a hero' MARIAN KEYESWith her warm and honest voice that has captivated us all, Katie Piper shares her experiences of becoming happier and braver than ever - and shows how you can achieve the confidence you never thought possible. 'I believe that you decide what you want in life, and then you go out and make it happen. Breaking down taboos is one of my goals, and I know there are other people who feel the same way. Who writes the rules? We do! I was never going to give my attackers the satisfaction of being the girl whose life they ruined. Instead I chose what I wanted to be and then I went out there and did everything I could to be it. You can, too. Success is a journey, not a destination. It doesn't happen in a straight line, the path goes off to one side and then the other all the time. But when it veers off track you just get back on it and keep going. Create your own future, and your own closure. Don't look for happiness in other people, find it in yourself.' Katie Piper Join Katie on her journey to inner confidence - with her help and guidance, the true, deep-down confidence you deserve is within your reach.
The Class Ceiling: Why it Pays to be Privileged
Sam Friedman - 2019
But is that really true? This important book takes readers behind the closed doors of elite employers to reveal how class affects who gets to the top. Friedman and Laurison show that a powerful ‘class pay gap’ exists in Britain’s elite occupations. Even when those from working-class backgrounds make it into prestigious jobs, they earn, on average, 16% less than colleagues from privileged backgrounds. But why is this the case? . Drawing on 175 interviews across four case studies - television, accountancy, architecture, and acting – they explore the complex barriers facing the upwardly mobile. This is a rich, ambitious book that demands we take seriously not just the glass but also the class ceiling.
Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity
Charles Taylor - 1989
The modern turn to subjectivity, with its attendant rejection of an objective order of reason, has led—it seems to many—to mere subjectivism at the mildest and to sheer nihilism at the worst. Many critics believe that the modern order has no moral backbone and has proved corrosive to all that might foster human good. Taylor rejects this view. He argues that, properly understood, our modern notion of the self provides a framework that more than compensates for the abandonment of substantive notions of rationality.The major insight of Sources of the Self is that modern subjectivity, in all its epistemological, aesthetic, and political ramifications, has its roots in ideas of human good. After first arguing that contemporary philosophers have ignored how self and good connect, the author defines the modern identity by describing its genesis. His effort to uncover and map our moral sources leads to novel interpretations of most of the figures and movements in the modern tradition. Taylor shows that the modern turn inward is not disastrous but is in fact the result of our long efforts to define and reach the good. At the heart of this definition he finds what he calls the affirmation of ordinary life, a value which has decisively if not completely replaced an older conception of reason as connected to a hierarchy based on birth and wealth. In telling the story of a revolution whose proponents have been Augustine, Montaigne, Luther, and a host of others, Taylor's goal is in part to make sure we do not lose sight of their goal and endanger all that has been achieved. Sources of the Self provides a decisive defense of the modern order and a sharp rebuff to its critics.
Understanding the Mind: An Explanation of the Nature and Functions of the Mind
Kelsang Gyatso - 1992
The first part explains how Buddhist psychology is based on an understanding of the mind as a formless continuum that is related to, yet separate from, the physical body. Through understanding the nature of the mind and the process of cognition, we can attain a lasting state of inner peace and happiness that is independent of external circumstances. Part Two explains the many types of mind and shows how we can abandon those that harm us, while increasing those that lead to joy and fulfilment.