The Poetics of Space


Gaston Bachelard - 1957
    Bachelard takes us on a journey, from cellar to attic, to show how our perceptions of houses and other shelters shape our thoughts, memories, and dreams."A magical book. . . . The Poetics of Space is a prism through which all worlds from literary creation to housework to aesthetics to carpentry take on enhanced-and enchanted-significances. Every reader of it will never see ordinary spaces in ordinary ways. Instead the reader will see with the soul of the eye, the glint of Gaston Bachelard." -from the new foreword by John R. Stilgoe

The Scientist: A Novel Autobiography


John C. Lilly - 1978
    The films "Day of the Dolphin" and "Altered States" were based on his research.

Self-Theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality, and Development


Carol S. Dweck - 1999
    The author presents her groundbreaking research on adaptive and maladaptive cognitive-motivational patterns and shows: * How these patterns originate in people's self-theories* Their consequences for the person -- for achievement, social relationships, and emotional well-being* Their consequences for society, from issues of human potential to stereotyping and intergroup relations* The experiences that create themThis outstanding text is a must-read for researchers in social psychology, child development, and education, and is appropriate for both graduate and senior undergraduate students in these areas.

Shakespeare Lexicon and Quotation Dictionary, Vol. 1


Alexander Schmidt - 1874
    The lifetime work of Professor Alexander Schmidt of Königsberg, this book has long been the indispensable companion for every person seriously interested in Shakespeare, Renaissance poetry and prose of any sort, or English literature. It is really two important books in one.Schmidt’s set contains every single word that Shakespeare used, not simply words that have changed their meaning since the seventeenth century, but every word in all the accepted plays and the poems. Covering both quartos and folios, it carefully distinguishes between shades of meaning for each word and provides exact definitions, plus governing phrases and locations, down to the numbered line of the Cambridge edition of Shakespeare. There is no other word dictionary comparable to this work.Even more useful to the general reader, however, is the incredible wealth of exact quotations. Arranged under the words of the quotation itself (hence no need to consult confusing subject classifications) are more than 50,000 exact quotations. Each is precisely located, so that you can easily refer back to the plays or poems themselves, if you wish context.Other features helpful to the scholar are appendixes on basic grammatical observations, a glossary of provincialisms, a list of words and sentences taken from foreign languages, a list of words that form the latter part of word-combinations. This third edition features a supplement with new findings.

Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Volume 2, Part 2, 1931-1934


Walter Benjamin - 2005
    Volume 2 of the Selected Writings is now available in paperback in two parts.In Part 1, Benjamin is represented by two of his greatest literary essays, "Surrealism" and "On the Image of Proust," as well as by a long article on Goethe and a generous selection of his wide-ranging commentary for Weimar Germany's newspapers.Part 2 contains, in addition to the important longer essays, "Franz Kafka," "Karl Kraus," and "The Author as Producer," the extended autobiographical meditation "A Berlin Chronicle," and extended discussions of the history of photography and the social situation of the French writer, previously untranslated shorter pieces on such subjects as language and memory, theological criticism and literary history, astrology and the newspaper, and on such influential figures as Paul Valery, Stefan George, Hitler, and Mickey Mouse.

The Gift of Therapy: An Open Letter to a New Generation of Therapists and Their Patients


Irvin D. Yalom - 2001
    Yalom imparts his unique wisdom in "The Gift of Therapy." This remarkable guidebook for successful therapy is, as Yalom remarks, "an idiosyncratic mElange of ideas and techniques that I have found useful in my work. These ideas are so personal, opinionated, and occasionally original that the reader is unlikely to encounter them elsewhere. I selected the eighty-five categories in this volume randomly guided by my passion for the task rather than any particular order or system."At once startlingly profound and irresistibly practical, Yalom's insights will help enrich the therapeutic process for a new generation of patients and counselors.

In Therapy: How Conversations With Psychotherapists Really Work


Susie Orbach - 2016
    They go to address past traumas, to break patterns of behaviour, to confront eating disorders or addiction, to talk about relationships, or simply because they need to find out more about what makes them tick.Susie Orbach, the bestselling author of Fat is a Feminist Issue and Bodies, has been a psychotherapist for over forty years. Here, she explores what goes on in the process of therapy - what she thinks, feels and believes about the people who seek her help - through five dramatised case studies. Replicating the improvised dialogue of the radio series as a playscript, Orbach offers us the experience of reading along with a session, while revealing what is going on behind each exchange between analyst and client.Insightful and honest about a process often necessarily shrouded in secrecy, In Therapy is an essential read for those curious about, or considering entering, therapy.

Cracking the Egyptian Code: The Revolutionary Life of Jean-François Champollion


Andrew Robinson - 2012
    Its inscription, recorded in three distinct scripts - ancient Greek, Coptic, and hieroglyphic--would provide scholars with the first clues to unlocking the secrets of Egyptian hieroglyphs, a language lost for nearly two millennia. More than twenty years later a remarkably gifted Frenchman named Jean-Francois Champollion successfully deciphered the hieroglyphs on the stele, now commonly known as the Rosetta Stone, sparking a revolution in our knowledge of ancient Egypt.Cracking the Egyptian Code is the first biography in English of Champollion, widely regarded as the founder of Egyptology. Andrew Robinson meticulously reconstructs how Champollion cracked the code of the hieroglyphic script, describing how Champollion started with Egyptian obelisks in Rome and papyri in European collections, sailed the Nile for a year, studied the tombs in the Valley of the Kings (a name he first coined), and carefully compared the three scripts on the Rosetta Stone to penetrate the mystery of the hieroglyphic text. Robinson also brings to life the rivalry between Champollion and the English scientist Thomas Young, who claimed credit for launching the decipherment, which Champollion hotly denied. There is much more to Champollion's life than the Rosetta Stone and Robinson gives equal weight to the many roles he played in his tragically brief life, from a teenage professor in Revolutionary France to a supporter of Napoleon (whom he met), an exile, and a curator at the Louvre.Extensively illustrated in color and black-and-white pictures, Cracking the Egyptian Code will appeal to a wide readership interested in Egypt, decipherment and code-breaking, and Napoleon and the French Revolution.

Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity


Erving Goffman - 1963
    Disqualified from full social acceptance, they are stigmatized individuals. Physically deformed people, ex-mental patients, drug addicts, prostitutes, or those ostracized for other reasons must constantly strive to adjust to their precarious social identities. Their image of themselves must daily confront and be affronted by the image which others reflect back to them.Drawing extensively on autobiographies and case studies, sociologist Erving Goffman analyzes the stigmatized person’s feelings about himself and his relationship to “normals” He explores the variety of strategies stigmatized individuals employ to deal with the rejection of others, and the complex sorts of information about themselves they project. In Stigma the interplay of alternatives the stigmatized individual must face every day is brilliantly examined by one of America’s leading social analysts.

The American Language


H.L. Mencken - 1919
    L. Mencken's book about the English language as spoken in the United States. Mencken was inspired by "the argot of the colored waiters" in Washington, as well as one of his favorite authors, Mark Twain, and his experiences on the streets of Baltimore. In 1902, Mencken remarked on the "queer words which go into the making of 'United States.'" The book was preceded by several columns in The Evening Sun. Mencken eventually asked "Why doesn't some painstaking pundit attempt a grammar of the American language... English, that is, as spoken by the great masses of the plain people of this fair land?" It would appear that he answered his own question. In the tradition of Noah Webster, who wrote the first American dictionary, Mencken wanted to defend "Americanisms" against a steady stream of English critics, who usually isolated Americanisms as borderline barbarous perversions of the mother tongue. Mencken assaulted the prescriptive grammar of these critics and American "schoolmarms", arguing, like Samuel Johnson in the preface to his dictionary, that language evolves independently of textbooks. The book discusses the beginnings of "American" variations from "English", the spread of these variations, American names and slang over the course of its 374 pages. According to Mencken, American English was more colorful, vivid, and creative than its British counterpart. The book sold exceptionally well by Mencken's standards-1400 copies in the first two months. Reviews of the book praised it lavishly, with the exception of one by Mencken's old nemesis, Stuart Sherman. source: Wikipedia

Essentials of Abnormal Psychology


V. Mark Durand - 2002
    In this briefer version, the authors explain abnormal psychology in the most modern, scientifically valid method for studying abnormal psychology. Through this integrative approach, students learn that psychological disorders are rooted in multiple factors: biological, psychological, cultural, social, familial, and even political. Conversational writing style, consistent pedagogy, video clips of real clients (located on the accompanying free Abnormal Psychology Live 2.5 CD-ROM), and real case profiles - 95 percent from the authors' own case files - provide a realistic context for the scientific findings of the book, and ensure that readers never lose sight of the fact that beyond the DSM-IV-TR criteria, the theories, and the research are real people. With this text, students can take advantage of Abnormal PsychologyNow, our web-based, intelligent study system that, by using online diagnostic pre- and post-tests, helps students prioritize their study time by creating personalized study plans that focus only the sections in which they experienced difficulty.

Ten Interesting Things about Human Behavior


Suzanne L. Davis - 2011
    How do we resolve psychological conflict that occurs when our behavior violates our attitudes? Why are we so quick to blame others for their behavior while offering excuses for our own? What should we make of the talking heads on cable TV who argue about the cause of TV violence on children's behavior - whose explanation is correct? Why are reality TV shows, some of which portray contestants as pathetic and dysfunctional, so popular?Questions like these usually provoke different answers from different people, each of whom may attribute his or her answers to "common sense." One person argues that "of course children mimic violence they see on TV - my kids do" while another attributes it to "poor parenting - because my kids don't." Which is it, and why?Research psychologists try to answer these questions as best we can. This book is a brief look at the answers to 10 aspects of human behavior - answers derived from controlled behavioral research that is designed to test various theories about behavior. Certainly, there is more to human behavior than the 10 things I chose for this short book. And there are hundreds of primary sources and research reports that describe the research findings in more depth. They're out there if you'd like to read more.But for those who are new to the field of Experimental Psychology, 10 Things may pique your interest in learning more about the subject. And for those "armchair psychologists" out there who'd like a quick read about the most fascinating creatures on the planet - human beings - I think you'll like it, too.

The Temptation to Exist


Emil M. Cioran - 1956
    Cioran writes incisively about Western civilizations, the writer, the novel, mystics, apostles, and philosophers."A sort of final philosopher of the Western world. His statements have the compression of poetry and the audacity of cosmic clowning."—Washington Post"An intellectual bombshell that blasts away at all kinds of cant, sham and conventionality. . . . [Cioran's] language is so erotic, his handling of words so seductive, that the act of reading becomes an encounter in the erogenous zone."—Jonah Raskin, L.A. Weekly

The Power of Self-Esteem: An Inspiring Look at Our Most Important Psychological Resource


Nathaniel Branden - 1987
    But how can we tell whether the power of self-esteem is working for us?Read this concise book to discover: The more than 20 characteristics taht indicate postive self-regard The 12 obstacles to the growth of self-esteem The 6 self-empowerment principles How your positive self-esteem makes a powerful difference in our changing world If you wish to know what self-esteem depends on, how to nurture it in our children, support it in our schools, encourage it in organizations, strengthen it in psychotherapy or develop it in yourself, you need this book. Its clear message of hope is sure to be appreicated by everyone working on themselves or helping others.

Wickedness


Mary Midgley - 1984
    Here Mary Midgley does so, with her customary brilliance and clarity. Midgley's analysis proves that the capacity for real wickedness is an inevitable part of human nature. This is not however a blanket acceptance of evil. Out of this dark journey she returns with an offering to us: an understanding of human nature that enhances our very humanity.