How We Decide


Jonah Lehrer - 2009
    But as scientists break open the mind’s black box with the latest tools of neuroscience, they’re discovering that this is not how the mind works. Our best decisions are a finely tuned blend of both feeling and reason—and the precise mix depends on the situation. When buying a house, for example, it’s best to let our unconscious mull over the many variables. But when we’re picking a stock, intuition often leads us astray. The trick is to determine when to use the different parts of the brain, and to do this, we need to think harder (and smarter) about how we think.Jonah Lehrer arms us with the tools we need, drawing on cutting-edge research as well as the real-world experiences of a wide range of “deciders”—from airplane pilots and hedge fund investors to serial killers and poker players.Lehrer shows how people are taking advantage of the new science to make better television shows, win more football games, and improve military intelligence. His goal is to answer two questions that are of interest to just about anyone, from CEOs to firefighters: How does the human mind make decisions? And how can we make those decisions better?

The Silva Mind Control Method for Getting Help from Your Other Side


José Silva - 1989
    This book teaches people to utilize the enormous power of the brain's creative right side, and learn to strengthen their natural insight, banish negative thoughts, improve relationships, get rid of fatigue and stress, and much more.

Decoding Anorexia: How Breakthroughs in Science Offer Hope for Eating Disorders


Carrie Arnold - 2012
    Its clear, user-friendly descriptions of the genetics and neuroscience behind the disorder is paired with first person descriptions and personal narratives of what biological differences mean to sufferers. Author Carrie Arnold, a trained scientist, science writer, and past sufferer of anorexia, speaks with clinicians, researchers, parents, other family members, and sufferers about the factors that make one vulnerable to anorexia, the neurochemistry behind the call of starvation, and why it's so hard to leave anorexia behind. She also addresses: - How environment is still important and influences behaviors- The characteristics of people at high risk for developing anorexia nervosa- Why anorexics find starvation "rewarding"- Why denial is such a salient feature, and how sufferers can overcome itCarrie also includes interviews with key figures in the field who explain their work and how it contributes to our understanding of anorexia. Long thought to be a psychosocial disease of fickle teens, this book alters the way anorexia is understood and treated and gives patients, their doctors, and their family members hope.

The Man with the Electrified Brain


Simon Winchester - 2013
    It was inside, inside my head, where all had become so wretchedly different. I had the night before been incontrovertibly a man of stable mood, of calm, of good cheer and unforced bonhomie. Now I had become changed, with dreadful suddenness, into another being altogether.”Simon Winchester has never shied away from big, even enormous, topics—as evidenced by his bestselling biography of the Atlantic Ocean, his account of the Krakatoa volcanic eruption, and his wildly popular “The Professor and the Madman,” about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary. In his Byliner Original “The Man with the Electrified Brain,” he takes on arguably his most daunting subject yet: his own flirtation with madness, and one of nature’s greatest and most enduring mysteries, the human brain. As a geology student in his second year at Oxford, Winchester was known as a young man of even temper and keen intellect, until one June morning when he woke to find himself “changed with dreadful suddenness into another being altogether,” his normal life “slumped into chasm” and “folded in the dirt.” For a period of nine days, he lived in immobilizing fear. Everyday items—familiar paintings, a pile of books, his own robe hanging from a hook—became objects of horror; the world lost color, purpose, all sense and safety. When the episode finally passed, he returned to normal, presuming that what had happened to him was a fluke. It wasn’t. The episode repeated itself at unpredictable and dangerous intervals for four years—always lasting for nine days—and very nearly caused the author’s death while he was on an expedition in the Arctic. What was wrong with him? Where could he find help? Would he spend the rest of his life anticipating the return of these mental blackouts? With the urgency of a whodunit, Winchester describes the coming and going of these terrifying dissociative states and the chance encounter that led to the controversial treatment of electroconvulsive therapy, which may or may not have cured him once and for all. Written by a consummate storyteller, “The Man with the Electrified Brain” locates that finest of lines between sanity and insanity and is Winchester’s most riveting and deeply personal work yet.

The Scientist in the Crib: What Early Learning Tells Us About the Mind


Alison Gopnik - 1999
    It argues that evolution designed us both to teach and learn, and that the drive to learn is our most important instinct. It also reveals as fascinating insights about our adult capacities and how even young children -- as well as adults -- use some of the same methods that allow scientists to learn so much about the world. Filled with surprise at every turn, this vivid, lucid, and often funny book gives us a new view of the inner life of children and the mysteries of the mind.

The Prescriber's Guide: Stahl's Essential Psychopharmacology


Stephen M. Stahl - 2004
    Easy to navigate and easy to use, the Prescriber's Guide combines evidence-based information with clinically informed guidance to support clinicians in making the most effective prescribing decisions for the good of their patients. With coverage of twelve brand-new drugs including antidepressants, antipsychotics, hypnotics, nonstimulants for ADHD, and medical foods and incorporating information on the newest indications, new formulations, new recommendations, and new safety data, this edition continues to provide the essential practical support required by anyone prescribing in the field of mental health."

The Robot's Rebellion: Finding Meaning in the Age of Darwin


Keith E. Stanovich - 2004
    Richard Dawkins, for example, jolted us into realizing that we are just survival mechanisms for our own genes, sophisticated robots in service of huge colonies of replicators to whom concepts of rationality, intelligence, agency, and even the human soul are irrelevant.Accepting and now forcefully responding to this decentering and disturbing idea, Keith Stanovich here provides the tools for the "robot's rebellion," a program of cognitive reform necessary to advance human interests over the limited interest of the replicators and define our own autonomous goals as individual human beings. He shows how concepts of rational thinking from cognitive science interact with the logic of evolution to create opportunities for humans to structure their behavior to serve their own ends. These evaluative activities of the brain, he argues, fulfill the need that we have to ascribe significance to human life. We may well be robots, but we are the only robots who have discovered that fact. Only by recognizing ourselves as such, argues Stanovich, can we begin to construct a concept of self based on what is truly singular about humans: that they gain control of their lives in a way unique among life forms on Earth—through rational self-determination.

Hidden In Plain Sight 7: The Fine-Tuned Universe


Andrew H. Thomas - 2017
    The answers to the big questions: Are the laws of physics fine-tuned for life? Are we alone in the universe? Why is gravity so weak? How can I predict the winner of every horse race?

The Ego Trick: In Search Of The Self


Julian Baggini - 2011
    His fascinating quest draws on the history of philosophy, but also anthropology, sociology, psychology and neurology; he talks to theologians, priests, allegedly reincarnated Lamas, and delves into real-life cases of lost memory, personality disorders and personal transformation; and, candidly and engagingly, he describes his own experiences. After reading "The Ego Trick," you will never see yourself in the same way again.

Becoming Human: Our Past, Present and Future


Scientific American - 2013
    

Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary


Merriam-Webster - 1992
    More than 35,000 entries. Pronunciations provided for all entries. Covers brand names and generic equivalents of common drugs.

The Alzheimer's Solution: A Breakthrough Program to Prevent and Reverse the Symptoms of Cognitive Decline at Every Age


Dean Sherzai - 2017
    While all other major diseases are in decline, deaths from Alzheimer’s have increased radically. What you or your loved ones don’t yet know is that 90 percent of Alzheimer’s cases can be prevented.Based on the largest clinical and observational study to date, neurologists and codirectors of the Brain Health and Alzheimer’s Prevention Program at Loma Linda University Medical Center, Drs. Dean and Ayesha Sherzai, offer in The Alzheimer’s Solution the first comprehensive program for preventing Alzheimer’s disease and improving cognitive function. Alzheimer’s disease isn’t a genetic inevitability, and a diagnosis does not need to come with a death sentence. Ninety percent of grandparents, parents, husbands, and wives can be spared. Ninety percent of us can avoid ever getting Alzheimer’s, and for the 10 percent with strong genetic risk for cognitive decline, the disease can be delayed by ten to fifteen years. This isn’t an estimate or wishful thinking; it’s a percentage based on rigorous science and the remarkable results the Sherzais have seen firsthand in their clinic.This much-needed revolutionary book reveals how the brain is a living universe, directly influenced by nutrition, exercise, stress, sleep, and engagement. In other words: what you feed it, how you treat it, when you challenge it, and the ways in which you allow it to rest. These factors are the pillars of the groundbreaking program you’ll find in these pages, which features a personalized assessment for evaluating risk, a five-part program for prevention and symptom-reversal, and day-by-day guides for optimizing cognitive function. You can prevent Alzheimer’s disease from affecting you, your family, friends, and loved ones. Even with a diagnosis, you can reverse cognitive decline and add vibrant years to your life. The future of your brain is finally within your control.

Making Sense


Sam Harris - 2013
    With over one million downloads per episode, these discussions have clearly hit a nerve, frequently walking a tightrope where either host or guest - and sometimes both - lose their footing, but always in search off a greater understanding of the world in which we live. for Harris, honest conversation, no matter how difficult or controversial, represents the only path to moral and intellectual progress.This book includes a dozen of the best conversations from 'MAKING SENSE', including talks with Daniel Kahneman, Timothy Snyder, Nick Bostrom, and Glen Loury, on topics that range from the nature of consciousness and free will, to politics and extremism, to living ethically. Together they shine a light on what it means to "make sense" in the modern world.RUNNING TIME ⇒ 22hrs.©2020 Sam Harris (P)2020 HarperAudio

Introducing philosophy


Open University - 2016
    This 8-hour free course introduced the study of philosophy and the methods employed by The Open University in teaching philosophy.

Jung: An Introduction Into the World of Carl Jung: The Shadow, The Archetypes and the Symbols (Psychology and the Mind)


Meredith Moonchild - 2016
    They even became friends over the years, but they parted ways when it came to psychology. While Freud's approach was clinical and scientific in the Western sense, Jung started to draw his inspiration from Eastern philosophies and religions. Because of Carl Jung we have today a bridge between the mythological and mysterious world and the world of psychology. His research into dreams and sub-conscious parts of the minds offers riveting insights into human psychology that none before him have been able to. While Freudian psychology is still the branch most taught within universities, there is a large undercurrent of Jungian psychology seeping into our society. Especially the spiritualists and the New Age movement have embraced Jung as a teacher to better understand their own "Shadows" and dark aspects of the psyche. In this short read you will be given a concise and insightful introduction into the world and psychology of Carl Jung.