Principles of Neural Science


Eric R. Kandel - 1981
    It discusses neuroanatomy, cell and molecular mechanisms and signaling through a cognitive approach to behaviour. It features an expanded treatment of the nervous system, neurological and psychiatric diseases and perception.

The Man Who Couldn't Stop


David Adam - 2014
    In this captivating fusion of science, history and personal memoir, writer David Adam explores the weird thoughts that exist within every mind, and how they drive millions of us towards obsessions and compulsions.David has suffered from OCD for twenty years, and The Man Who Couldn’t Stop is his unflinchingly honest attempt to understand the condition and his experiences. What might lead an Ethiopian schoolgirl to eat a wall of her house, piece by piece; or a pair of brothers to die beneath an avalanche of household junk that they had compulsively hoarded? At what point does a harmless idea, a snowflake in a clear summer sky, become a blinding blizzard of unwanted thoughts? Drawing on the latest research on the brain, as well as historical accounts of patients and their treatments, this is a book that will challenge the way you think about what is normal, and what is mental illness.Told with fierce clarity, humour and urgent lyricism, this extraordinary book is both the haunting story of a personal nightmare, and a fascinating doorway into the darkest corners of our minds.

Time Warped: Unlocking the Mysteries of Time Perception


Claudia Hammond - 2012
    Time rules our lives, but how much do we understand it? And is it possible to retrain our brains and improve our relationship with it?Drawing on the latest research from the fields of psychology, neuroscience, and biology, and using original research on the way memory shapes our understanding of time, the acclaimed writer and BBC broadcaster Claudia Hammond delves into the mysteries of time perception.Along the way, Claudia introduces us to an extraordinary array of characters willing to go to great length in the interests of research, including the French speleologist Michel Siffre, who spends two months in an ice cave in complete darkness. We meet one group of volunteers who steer themselves towards the edge of a stairwell, blindfolded, and another who are strapped into a harness and dropped off the edge of a building.Time Warped is an absorbing and interactive guide to one of the strongest, most inescapable forces in our lives, which ultimately teaches us how we can improve our own relationship with time. Claudia Hammond offers insight into how to manage our time more efficiently, speed time up and slow it down at will, plan for the future with more accuracy, and, ultimately, use the warping of time to our own advantage.

Teaching Minds: How Cognitive Science Can Save Our Schools


Roger C. Schank - 2011
    

On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes


Alexandra Horowitz - 2013
    You are missing what is happening in the distance and right in front of you. In reading these words, you are ignoring an unthinkably large amount of information that continues to bombard all of your senses. The hum of the fluorescent lights; the ambient noise in the room; the feeling of the chair against your legs or back; your tongue touching the roof of your mouth; the tension you are holding in your shoulders or jaw; the constant hum of traffic or a distant lawnmower; the blurred view of your own shoulders and torso in your peripheral vision; a chirp of a bug or whine of a kitchen appliance.On Looking begins with inattention. It is not meant to help you focus on your reading of Tolstoy; it is not about how to multitask. Rather, it is about attending to the joys of the unattended, the perceived "ordinary." Horowitz encourages us to rediscover the extraordinary things that we are missing in our ordinary activities. Even when engaged in the simplest of activities - taking a walk around the block - we pay so little attention to most of what is right before us that we are sleepwalkers in our own lives. So turn off the phone and portable electronics and get into the real world, where you'll find there are worlds within worlds within worlds.

The Fix


Damian Thompson - 2012
    Our most casual daily habits can quickly become obsessions that move beyond our control. Damian Thompson, who has himself struggled with a range of addictions, argues that human desire is in the process of being reshaped. Shunning the concept of addiction as disease, he shows how manufacturers are producing substances like ipads, muffins and computer games that we learn to like too much and supplement tradition addictions to alcohol, drugs and gambling. He argues that addictive behaviour is becoming a substitute for family and work bonds that are being swept away by globalisation and urbanisation. This battle to control addiction will soon overshadow familiar ideological debates about how to run the economy, and as whole societies set about "fixing" themselves, the architecture of human relations will come under strain as never before.

This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession


Daniel J. Levitin - 2006
    Why does music evoke such powerful moods? The answers are at last be- coming clear, thanks to revolutionary neuroscience and the emerging field of evolutionary psychology. Both a cutting-edge study and a tribute to the beauty of music itself, This Is Your Brain on Music unravels a host of mysteries that affect everything from pop culture to our understanding of human nature, including: • Are our musical preferences shaped in utero? • Is there a cutoff point for acquiring new tastes in music? • What do PET scans and MRIs reveal about the brain’s response to music? • Is musical pleasure different from other kinds of pleasure?This Is Your Brain on Music explores cultures in which singing is considered an essential human function, patients who have a rare disorder that prevents them from making sense of music, and scientists studying why two people may not have the same definition of pitch. At every turn, this provocative work unlocks deep secrets about how nature and nurture forge a uniquely human obsession.

The Mystery Of Consciousness


John Rogers Searle - 1990
    He challenges claims that the mind works like a computer, and that brain functions can be reproduced by computer programs. With a sharp eye for confusion and contradiction, he points out which avenues of current research are most likely to come up with a biological examination of how conscious states are caused by the brain.Only when we understand how the brain works will we solve the mystery of consciousness, and only then will we begin to understand issues ranging from artificial intelligence to our very nature as human beings.

Raising A Thief


Paul Podolsky - 2020
    

Summary of the Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson


CompanionReads - 2017
    It is not the original book nor is it intended to replace the original book. You may purchase the original book here: http: //bit.ly/mansonsartIn this fast guide you'll be taken by the hand through a summary and analysis ofThe main points made by the authorAn organized chapter by chapter synopsisReferences to noteworthy people mentionedThe author's most valuable tips, websites, books, and toolsMost CompanionReads may be read in 30 minutes.This book is meant for anyone who is interested in enhancing their reading experience. It will give you deeper insight, fresher perspectives, and help you squeeze more enjoyment out of your book. Perfect for a quick refresh on the main ideas or when you want to use it as a topic of conversation at your next meeting.Enjoy this edition instantly on your Kindle deviceEnjoy this edition instantly on your Kindle device!Now available in paperback, digital, and audio editions.Sign up for our newsletter to get notified about our new books atwww.companionreads.com/gift

Personality Theories


Barbara Engler - 1979
    Each chapter focuses on one theory or group of theories, providing brief biographies that shed light on how the theories were formed.

Making Habits, Breaking Habits: Why We Do Things, Why We Don't, and How to Make Any Change Stick


Jeremy Dean - 2012
    How long should it take before you stop having to force it and start doing it automatically?The surprising answers are found in Making Habits, Breaking Habits, a psychologist's popular examination of one of the most powerful and under-appreciated processes in the mind. Although people like to think that they are in control, much of human behavior occurs without any decision-making or conscious thought.Drawing on hundreds of fascinating studies, psychologist Jeremy Dean busts the myths to finally explain why seemingly easy habits, like eating an apple a day, can be surprisingly difficult to form, and how to take charge of your brain's natural “autopilot” to make any change stick.Witty and intriguing, Making Habits, Breaking Habits shows how behavior is more than just a product of what you think. It is possible to bend your habits to your will—and be happier, more creative, and more productive.

The Psychology of Women [With Free 4-Month Subscription to Online Library]


Margaret W. Matlin - 1986
    Appropriate for students from a wide variety of backgrounds, this comprehensive book captures women's own experiences through direct quotations and an emphasis on empirical research. Known for her balance of scholarship and readability, as well as for her inclusion of women from diverse backgrounds, Margaret Matlin continues to lead the way for the Psychology of Women course. Matlin has meticulously updated this edition to reflect the most current research, and continues to exhibit a genuine interest in and understanding of the students for whom the book is written. Her text includes a chapter on old age, and discussions of topics such as welfare issues, pregnancy and women's retirement, which are central in many women's lives, but not consistently covered in other texts.

Amazing Face Reading


Mac Fulfer - 1996
    Fulfer takes this art/science out of the realm of the mysterious and into a hands-on method of learning. The most comprehensive, easy-to-use book of Face Reading available today. Amazing Face Reading is organized in an encyclopedic format and superbly illustrated. It takes you through faces, top to bottom, detail to gestalt, gesture to metaphoric meaning. This how-to guide is so easy to use that you can begin to read faces before you finish the book.

Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision--An Analytical Biography


Louis Breger - 2000
    Everyone with an interest in psychoanalysis and the psychoanalytic movement will enjoy exploring, grappling with, arguing about, and learning from this absolutely fascinating book."-JUDITH VIORST, AUTHOR, Necessary Losses and Imperfect Control "Written with brilliance and insight, Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision takes us on a daring, at times chilling, journey to the early years of psychoanalysis, revealing both the human weaknesses and the professional triumphs of its founder. . . . Cutting away the accretions of fabrication and romance cloaking Sigmund Freud, Breger has reinstated historical honesty to its rightful, high place, but the figure who emerges at the end of this breathlessly honest biography is quite as extraordinary as the legend concocted by Freud and perpetuated by his followers. Fresh, vigorous, and lucid."-PHILIP M. BROMBERG, Ph.D., CLINICAL PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY"Louis Breger's fine new biography of Freud is a welcome contribution to the existing literature and a corrective to much of it. It is also one of the best intellectual histories of the origin and development of psychoanalysis I have read in recent years. Breger is to be commended for his original research, the objectivity of his views, and the elegance and grace of his writing."-DEIRDRE BAIR, NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER FOR Samuel Beckett AND AUTHOR OF A FORTHCOMING BIOGRAPHY OF CARL JUNG"Finally, the Freud biography we have long been waiting for. With the history of Europe in the background, we follow with fascination Freud's journey from an impoverished childhood filled with losses to worldly fame, ending in exile in England. We come to understand the impact of Freud's difficult personality on the development of his brilliant as well as questionable theoretical ideas. Breger writes with compassion and fairness toward Freud as well as toward the many interesting personalities who cross his life, with their complicated relationships to the great man."-SOPHIE FREUD, FREUD'S GRANDDAUGHTER AND PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF SOCIAL WORK, SIMMONS COLLEGE"Louis Breger's magnificent book is the definitive work on the personal psychology of Sigmund Freud. it brilliantly illuminates how the darkness in Freud's vision has affected psychoanalytic history. This book will be central for psychoanalytic scholarship for decades to come."-GEORGE E. ATWOOD, Ph.D., PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY, RUTGERS UNIVERSITY