Hystories: Hysterical Epidemics and Modern Media


Elaine Showalter - 1997
    Showalter takes on the history of mass cultural hysteria, from witch hunts to mesmerism, and discusses today's versions--ranging from chronic fatigue or Gulf War Syndrome to recovered memories--and the attendant publicity.

The Psychology of Intelligence


Jean Piaget - 1947
    His theory of learning lies at the very heart of the modern understanding of the human learning process, and he is celebrated as the founding father of child psychology. A prolific writer, is the author of more than fifty books and several hundred articles. The Psychology of Intelligence is one of his most important works. Containing a complete synthesis of his thoughts on the mechanisms of intellectual development, it is an extraordinary volume by an extraordinary writer. Given his significance, it is hardly surprising that Psychology Today pronounced Piaget the Best Psychologist of the twentieth century.

Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification


Christopher Peterson - 2004
    Character may be simply defined by what someone does not do, but a more active and thorough definition is necessary, one that addresses certain vital questions. Is charactera singular characteristic of an individual, or is it composed of different aspects? Does character--however we define it--exist in degrees, or is it simply something one happens to have? How can character be developed? Can it be learned? Relatedly, can it be taught, and who might be the mosteffective teacher? What roles are played by family, schools, the media, religion, and the larger culture? This groundbreaking handbook of character strengths and virtues is the first progress report from a prestigious group of researchers who have undertaken the systematic classification andmeasurement of widely valued positive traits. They approach good character in terms of separate strengths-authenticity, persistence, kindness, gratitude, hope, humor, and so on-each of which exists in degrees.Character Strengths and Virtues classifies twenty-four specific strengths under six broad virtues that consistently emerge across history and culture: wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence. Each strength is thoroughly examined in its own chapter, with special attention toits meaning, explanation, measurement, causes, correlates, consequences, and development across the life span, as well as to strategies for its deliberate cultivation. This book demands the attention of anyone interested in psychology and what it can teach about the good life.

What IS Sex?


Alenka Zupančič - 2017
    But what if, as Lacan claims, we can get exactly the same satisfaction that we get from sex from talking (or writing, painting, praying, or other activities)? The point is not to explain the satisfaction from talking by pointing to its sexual origin, but that the satisfaction from talking is itself sexual. The satisfaction from talking contains a key to sexual satisfaction (and not the other way around) -- even a key to sexuality itself and its inherent contradictions. The Lacanian perspective would make the answer to the simple-seeming question, "What is sex?" rather more complex. In this volume in the Short Circuits series, Alenka Zupancic approaches the question from just this perspective, considering sexuality a properly philosophical problem for psychoanalysis; and by psychoanalysis, she means that of Freud and Lacan, not that of the kind of clinician practitioners called by Lacan "orthopedists of the unconscious." Zupancic argues that sexuality is at the point of a "short circuit" between ontology and epistemology. Sexuality and knowledge are structured around a fundamental negativity, which unites them at the point of the unconscious. The unconscious (as linked to sexuality) is the concept of an inherent link between being and knowledge in their very negativity.

Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case


Debbie Nathan - 2011
    Sybil became both a pop phenomenon and a revolutionary force in the psychotherapy industry. The book rocketed multiple personality disorder (MPD) into public consciousness and played a major role in having the diagnosis added to the psychiatric bible, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. But what do we really know about how Sybil came to be? In her news-breaking book Sybil Exposed, journalist Debbie Nathan gives proof that the allegedly true story was largely fabricated. The actual identity of Sybil (Shirley Mason) has been available for some years, as has the idea that the book might have been exaggerated. But in Sybil Exposed, Nathan reveals what really powered the legend: a trio of women—the willing patient, her ambitious shrink, and the imaginative journalist who spun their story into bestseller gold. From horrendously irresponsible therapeutic practices—Sybil’s psychiatrist often brought an electroshock machine to Sybil’s apartment and climbed into bed with her while administering the treatment— to calculated business decisions (under an entity they named Sybil, Inc., the women signed a contract designating a three-way split of profits from the book and its spin-offs, including board games, tee shirts, and dolls), the story Nathan unfurls is full of over-the-top behavior. Sybil’s psychiatrist, driven by undisciplined idealism and galloping professional ambition, subjected the young woman to years of antipsychotics, psychedelics, uppers, and downers, including an untold number of injections with Pentothal, once known as “truth serum” but now widely recognized to provoke fantasies. It was during these “treatments” that Sybil produced rambling, garbled, and probably “false-memory”–based narratives of the hideous child abuse that her psychiatrist said caused her MPD. Sybil Exposed uses investigative journalism to tell a fascinating tale that reads like fiction but is fact. Nathan has followed an enormous trail of papers, records, photos, and tapes to unearth the lives and passions of these three women. The Sybil archive became available to the public only recently, and Nathan examined all of it and provides proof that the story was an elaborate fraud—albeit one that the perpetrators may have half-believed. Before Sybil was published, there had been fewer than 200 known cases of MPD; within just a few years after, more than 40,000 people would be diagnosed with it. Set across the twentieth century and rooted in a time when few professional roles were available to women, this is a story of corrosive sexism, unchecked ambition, and shaky theories of psychoanalysis exuberantly and drastically practiced. It is the story of how one modest young woman’s life turned psychiatry on its head and radically changed the course of therapy, and our culture, as well.

Criminal Minds: The Science and Psychology of Profiling


David L. Owen - 2000
    The page on how to decipher lifestyle and information of a criminal through obeservation of their crime scene is worth the money of the book alone.

Narcissists Exposed - 75 Things Narcissists Don't Want You to Know


Drew Keys - 2012
    

Sex Code


Mario Luna - 2007
    A utile guide that gets to the point with a didactic and thorough outline and detailed information (step by step) for every phase of the seduction of a woman. What makes a man attractive for a woman? The clues for seduction are in this book. The game of seduction, the personality of the conqueror, a behaviour that generates attraction, the social strategy and the mind of a divine artist, proved methods and techniques "ready to use". For example, how to make somebody fall in love with you and how to drop her.

Folk Devils and Moral Panics


Stanley Cohen - 1973
    The insights Cohen provides into subculture and mass morality are as relevant today as they were when the book was originally published in 1972, as illustrated by the author's introduction for this new edition, in which he tracks moral panics over the last thirty years, commenting on the demonization of young offenders and asylum seekers and on the News of the World's 'name and shame' campaign against paedophiles.Revisiting the theory of moral panic and exploring the way in which the concept has been used, this new edition features a select bibliography of key texts for further reading. The third edition of Folk Devils and Moral Panics makes available a valuable and widely recommended text.

Boundaries of the Soul: The Practice of Jung's Psychology


June K. Singer - 1972
    Singer "one of the great masters of the art." Now, in a completely revised edition of Boundaries Of The Soul, Dr. Singer incorporates the latest developments in Jungian psychology over the last two decades, particularlv in the areas of masculine/feminine relationships, the use of psychotherapeutic drugs, and the evolution of Jung's concept and personality types and its application both clinically and in the world of business and industry.  In addition, the case histories, so central to understanding many of Jung's concepts, have been re-examined and revised where necessary to correspond to the spirit of today's world. The updated edition of Boundaries Of The Soul should reaffirm the book's long-standing reputation as the best introduction to Jung's thought available.

How to Fall Out of Love: How to Free Yourself of Love That Hurts--And Find the Love That Heals...


Debora Phillips - 1985
    This is a healing book, one t hat can help people overcome the pain of loving someone who does not or cannot them back. If you--or someone you care about--are struggling to recover from the loss of a lover, or to end a dead-end affair, this will come as a godsend. Nationally renowned Dr. Debora Phillips give you the complete proven program that lets you: --diminish, then dismiss a destructive love--say goodbye to jealousy--rebuild your inner strength and confidence--discover and enjoy a new love that is right for you.

27 Powers of Persuasion


Chris St. Hilaire - 2010
    True persuasion is not about arm-twisting or out-maneuvering your adversary. True persuasion is the creation of consensus from conflict or indifference.

Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman's Co-Creator Joe Shuster


Craig Yoe - 2009
    Created in the early 1950s when Shuster was down on his luck after suing his publisher, DC Comics, over the copyright for Superman, he illustrated these images for an obscure series of magazines called Nights of Horror, published under the counter until they were banned by the U.S. Senate. Juvenile deliquency, Dr. Fredric Wertham, and the Brooklyn Thrill Killers gang all figure into this sensational story.The discovery of this artwork reveals the 'secret identity' of this revered comics creator, and is sure to generate controversy and change the perception of the way we look at Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Lex Luthor, and Jimmy Olsen forever. The book includes reproductions of these images, and an essay that provides a detailed account of the scandal and the murder trial that resulted from the publication of this racy material."Jeepers, Mr. Kent!" - USA Today "Eye-opening……a compelling feat of literary sleuthing." - Publishers Weekly"A shocking expose" - National Enquirer"Startling. . . this fascinating collection adds a new dimension to a hidden history.” - Miami Herald"Secret Identity is an incredible find of historic significance to comics art…. - Library Journal

Sex and Character: An Investigation of Fundamental Principles


Otto Weininger - 1903
    Combining rational reasoning with irrational outbursts, in the context of today's scholarship, Sex and Character speaks to issues of gender, race, cultural identity, the roots of Nazism, and the intellectual history of modernism and modern European culture. This new translation presents, for the first time, the entire text, including Weininger's extensive appendix with amplifications of the text and bibliographical references, in a reliable English translation, together with a substantial introduction that places the book in its cultural and historical context.

Mr. Always & Forever


Ashlee Price - 2018
    To have and to hold. For better or worse.But he's not the only man in town who has me in their sights.I feel threatened.I feel like all I've worked so hard for could be gone.Will he be able to protect me and my child?