- Table View
- List View
Little Demon in the City of Light
by Steven LevingstonA delicious account of a murder most gallic--think CSI Paris meets Georges Simenon--whose lurid comibation of sex, brutality, forensics, and hypnotism riveted first a nation and then the world.Little Demon in the City of Light is the thrilling--and so wonderfully French--story of a gruesome 1889 murder of a lascivious court official at the hands of a ruthless con man and his pliant mistress and the international manhunt, sensational trial, and an inquiry into the limits of hypnotic power that ensued.In France at the end of the nineteenth century a great debate raged over the question of whether someone could be hypnotically compelled to commit a crime in violation of his or her moral convictions. When Toussaint-Augustin Gouffé entered 3, rue Tronson du Coudray, he expected nothing but a delightful assignation with the comely young Gabrielle Bompard. Instead, he was murdered--hanged!--by her and her companion Michel Eyraud. The body was then stuffed in a trunk and dumped on a riverbank near Lyon.As the inquiry into the guilt or innocence of the woman the French tabloids dubbed the "Little Demon" escalated, the most respected minds in France debated whether Gabrielle Bompard was the pawn of her mesmerizing lover or simply a coldly calculating murderess. And, at the burning center of it all: Could hypnosis force people to commit crimes against their will?
Little Helpers: Animals on the Job!
by Michéle Brummer EverettTake a peek into the lives of service animals to see the wonderful (and sometimes unexpected!) ways they help people in this diverse and inclusive debut picture book. In this book of little helpers, join service animals as they go about their important work. From snakes who give a squeeze when it's time to take medication to Seeing Eye dogs who help their owners cross the street, from llamas who visit children's hospitals to pigs who provide comfort for the elderly, this gentle introduction celebrates special connections between people and animals.
Little Kids, Big Dilemmas: Your parenting problems solved by science
by Sarah KuppenFed up with conflicting advice? This book offers real answers to the following questions and more… Can sleep training harm my baby? Is screen time bad for my child? Is breast always best? Psychologist Dr Sarah Kuppen, expert in early child development, uses her scientific expertise to sort through the hype and give you the facts. Using the latest developmental research, she provides practical tips and solves more than 50 familiar parent questions and dilemmas. Inside you will find advice on: • five ways to tame a tantrum • what to do if your child isn’t talking • the scientific facts on breast versus formula feeding • managing sibling fights and conflict. Little Kids, Big Dilemmas is an essential guide for science-minded parents and childcare professionals alike. Reading this book will allow you to make informed decisions on the big topics for parenting in the early years.
Little Sprouts and the Dao of Parenting: Ancient Chinese Philosophy And The Art Of Raising Mindful, Resilient, And Compassionate Kids
by Erin ClineA philosopher and mother mines classic Daoist and Confucian texts of Chinese philosophy for wisdom relevant to today’s parents. The ancient Chinese philosopher Mencius compared children to tender sprouts, shaped by soil, sunlight, water, and, importantly, the efforts of patient farmers and gardeners. At times children require our protection, other times we must take a step back and allow them to grow. Like sprouts, a child’s character, tendencies, virtues, and vices are at once observable and ever-changing. A practical parenting manual, philosophical reflection on the relationship between parent and child, and necessary response to modern stereotypes of Eastern parenting, Little Sprouts and the Dao of Parenting reconsiders cultural definitions of success and explores how we might support and nourish young people. Engaging deeply with foundational Daoist and Confucian thinkers, Georgetown philosopher Erin Cline offers accessible, provocative musings on key parenting issues. She reveals how ancient Chinese philosophers encourage surprisingly modern values—a love of nature and of learning, mindfulness in everyday interactions, an embrace of disabilities and diversity, and the power of performing rituals with reflection—and relates these to concrete parenting practices, whether celebrating special occasions or finding a child’s unique talents and gifts. Little Sprouts shows how—through the nurturing efforts of parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, and teachers—we can strengthen innate virtues of compassion, generosity, and individuality in our own tender sprouts. With an engaging and intuitive approach, Cline offers a balanced philosophy that helps us grow into better parents of joyful, fulfilled children.
Little Unicorn Is Sad (Little Unicorn #3)
by Aurélie Chien Chow ChineMr. Men meets The Color Monster--with a unicorn!--in the third book in this series that taps into the current trend of books about childhood emotions, this one about sadness.A little unicorn's rainbow-colored mane shifts to a single color when he's feeling a particularly strong emotion. It seems like a storm comes over him when he's sad, and his mane turns deep blue. But when he repeats a breathing exercise, the clouds clear and his rainbow returns--and if he ever feels sad again, he'll know just what to do.This distinctive series about coping with strong feelings integrates a breathing exercise into the story, making these books perfect for parents who are seeking practical tools for their children. With accessible, mainstream artwork and unicorn character appeal, each book focuses on just one emotion, allowing parents and children to dive deeper into individual moods. Little Unicorn is Shy will release at the same time.
Little Volcanoes: Helping Young Children and Their Parents to Deal with Anger
by Tina Rae Éliane Whitehouse Warwick PudneyYoung children can erupt like little volcanoes when they are feeling angry. It can be overwhelming and difficult to deal with, and can produce angry feelings in the parent or caregiver too. This book is packed with advice and strategies for those working with children under five on how to understand and manage anger in children, and also how to help their parents or caregivers to deal with anger. The authors outline the different reasons children may feel angry so that their emotions can be fully understood, and offer strategies to combat negative feelings and minimize outbursts. These include putting in place behavioural boundaries and helping a child to feel secure. Simple activities and exercises are also given to help children and adults to express their anger positively. In addition, a selection of poems and stories will help adults to pass on the lessons of the book to children. This practical and accessible book will be of essential use to any professional helper of parents and young children such as early childhood educators, caregivers and social workers, as well as to parents themselves.
Little Windows into Art Therapy: Small Openings for Beginning Therapists
by Deborah SchroderNewly qualified art therapists often feel daunted by the challenge of actually being face-to-face with a client and are unsure how to progress after the first image has been created. In this honest and encouraging book, Deborah Schroder explains how art can provide openings into therapeutic relationships and create a safe space for exploring issues and concerns. Drawing on her own development as an art therapist and her extensive experience of supervising new therapists and students, Schroder provides practical advice on encouraging nervous or reluctant clients, or those unfamiliar with art therapy, to benefit from artmaking. She argues for a two-way sharing of art between therapist and client, exploring not only how specific techniques can be put into practice, but also how they benefit the therapeutic relationship. Providing guidance on moving into deeper work, exploring and containing particular emotions, and bringing the therapeutic relationship to a close, this book is invaluable to new art therapists at all stages of their relationships with clients.
Little Wins: The Huge Power of Thinking Like a Toddler
by Paul Lindley'Read on, and rediscover how to live a fuller and more successful life' SIR RICHARD BRANSON, from the forewordThere are some 400 million people worldwide whose creativity, imagination and determination put the rest of us to shame. They are experts in their field, despite having no experience to speak of. Once, you were one of them too. They are toddlers - and they hold the key to unlocking our creative potential as adults.In Little Wins: The Huge Power of Thinking Like a Toddler, Ella's Kitchen founder Paul Lindley reveals the nine characteristics and behaviours that we can all learn from recalling our toddler selves. From attention-grabbing tactics that would humble most marketing experts to the art of thinking divergently, Lindley shows how much we've lost in getting old - and how we can get it back. Never mind growing up; it's time we grew down.
Little and Often: A Memoir
by Trent Preszler“Little and Often is a beautiful memoir of grief, love, the shattered bond between a father and son, and the resurrection of a broken heart. Trent Preszler tells his story with the same level of art and craftsmanship that he brings to his boat making, and he reminds us of creativity’s power to transform and heal our lives. This is a powerful and deeply moving book. I won’t soon forget it.” —Elizabeth GilbertTrent Preszler thought he was living the life he always wanted, with a job at a winery and a seaside Long Island home, when he was called back to the life he left behind. After years of estrangement, his cancer-stricken father had invited him to South Dakota for Thanksgiving. It would be the last time he saw his father alive.Preszler’s only inheritance was a beat-up wooden toolbox that had belonged to his father, who was a cattle rancher, rodeo champion, and Vietnam War Bronze Star Medal recipient. This family heirloom befuddled Preszler. He did not work with his hands—but maybe that was the point. In his grief, he wondered if there was still a way to understand his father, and with that came an epiphany: he would make something with his inheritance. Having no experience or training in woodcraft, driven only by blind will, he decided to build a wooden canoe, and he would aim to paddle it on the first anniversary of his father’s death.While Preszler taught himself how to use his father’s tools, he confronted unexpected revelations about his father’s secret history and his own struggle for self-respect. The grueling challenges of boatbuilding tested his limits, but the canoe became his sole consolation. Gradually, Preszler learned what working with his hands offered: a different perspective on life, and the means to change it. Little and Often is an unflinching account of bereavement and a stirring reflection on the complexities of inheritance. Between his past and his present, and between America’s heartland and its coasts, Preszler shows how one can achieve reconciliation through the healing power of creativity.
Live Company: Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy with Autistic, Borderline, Deprived and Abused Children
by Anne AlvarezChildren whose minds as well as bodies have been damaged by the intrusions of sexual abuse, violence or neglect, and others, quite different, who are handicapped by their own mysterious sensitivities to more minor deprivations, may experience a type of black despair and cynicism that require long-term treatment and test the stamina of the psychotherapist to the utmost.In Live Company, Anne Alvarez reflects on thirty years' experience of treating autistic, psychotic and borderline children and adolescents by the methods of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Central to the book is the moving story on an autistic child's long struggle between sanity and madness, in which the author describes the arduous journey that she as therapist and he as patient made towards new understanding and his partial recovery.Modern developments in psychoanalytic theory and technique mean that such children can be treated with some success. In the book the author discusses these developments, and also describes some of the areas of convergence and divergence between organicist and psychodynamicist theories of autism. Particularly important is her integration of psychoanalytic theory with the new findings in infant development and infant psychiatry. This has enabled her to formulate some new and exciting ideas and speculate on the need for some additions to established theory.Anne Alvarez has produced a professionally powerful and englightening book, drawn from her extensive experience as a child psychotherapist at the Tavistock Clinic, which will be of interest to all professionals involved with children and adolescents as well as anyone interested in madness and the growth of the mind.
Live Not By Lies: A Manual For Christian Dissidents
by Rod DreherThe New York Times bestselling author of The Benedict Option draws on the wisdom of Christian survivors of Soviet persecution to warn American Christians of approaching dangers. For years, émigrés from the former Soviet bloc have been telling Rod Dreher they see telltale signs of "soft" totalitarianism cropping up in America--something more Brave New World than Nineteen Eighty-Four. Identity politics are beginning to encroach on every aspect of life. Civil liberties are increasingly seen as a threat to "safety". Progressives marginalize conservative, traditional Christians, and other dissenters. Technology and consumerism hasten the possibility of a corporate surveillance state. And the pandemic, having put millions out of work, leaves our country especially vulnerable to demagogic manipulation. In Live Not By Lies, Dreher amplifies the alarm sounded by the brave men and women who fought totalitarianism. He explains how the totalitarianism facing us today is based less on overt violence and more on psychological manipulation. He tells the stories of modern-day dissidents--clergy, laity, martyrs, and confessors from the Soviet Union and the captive nations of Europe--who offer practical advice for how to identify and resist totalitarianism in our time. Following the model offered by a prophetic World War II-era pastor who prepared believers in his Eastern European to endure the coming of communism, Live Not By Lies teaches American Christians a method for resistance: * SEE: Acknowledge the reality of the situation. * JUDGE: Assess reality in the light of what we as Christians know to be true. * ACT: Take action to protect truth. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn famously said that one of the biggest mistakes people make is assuming totalitarianism can't happen in their country. Many American Christians are making that mistake today, sleepwalking through the erosion of our freedoms. Live Not By Lies will wake them and equip them for the long resistance.
Live Through This: On Creativity and Self-Destruction
by Sabrina ChapadjievA visceral look at the bizarre entanglement of destructive and creative forces, Live Through This (a finalist for the 2008 Lambda Literary Awards) is a collection of original stories, essays, artwork, and photography. It explores the use of art to survive abuse, incest, madness and depression, and the often deep-seated impulse toward self-destruction including cutting, eating disorders, and addiction. Here, some of our most compelling cartoonists, novelists, poets, dancers, playwrights, and burlesque performers traverse the pains and passions that can both motivate and destroy women artists, and mark a path for survival. Taken together, these artful reflections offer an honest and hopeful journey through a woman's silent rage, through the power inherent in struggles with destruction, and the ensuing possibilities of transforming that burning force into the external release of art. With contributions by Nan Goldin, bell hooks, Patricia Smith, Cristy C. Road, Carol Queen, Annie Sprinkle, Elizabeth Stephens, Carolyn Gage, Eileen Myles, Fly, Diane DiMassa, Bonfire Madigan Shive, Inga Muscio, Kate Bornstein, Toni Blackman, Nicole Blackman, Silas Howard, Daphne Gottleib, and Stephanie Howell.
Live Your Purpose: A Three Step Model
by Keith OglesbyThis book offers a practical and inspiring guide to help young adults, college students, and middle-aged individuals identify their calling and choose a fulfilling career. It draws on years of research findings and principles of human development to present a three-step model that can help readers navigate the complexities of career choice and align their vocational goals with God's calling. The book is grounded in scripture and presents a refreshing perspective on vocational discernment that will appeal to Christians of all denominations. Your writing style is clear and accessible, making this book a valuable resource for parents, youth pastors, and anyone who works with young people. The three-step model outlined in the book is both practical and effective, providing readers with a clear roadmap for discovering their unique calling and pursuing a career that aligns with their values and passions. Its emphasis on the importance of faith, character, and purpose in career choice makes this book a valuable tool for anyone seeking to live a meaningful and fulfilling life. Live Your Purpose is an excellent resource for anyone seeking to discern God's calling and pursue a career that aligns with their values and passions. The book can significantly assist students, parents, youth pastors, or camp directors in mentoring students in navigating the challenges of career choice and finding their path to purpose.
Lived Experiences of Resilience in Disaster: Riding the Waves of Survival and Making Meaning
by Theresia CitraningtyasCapturing new waves of thought on resilience and recovery, Citraningtyas explores how people survive and make meaning in disasters by bringing together survivor experiences from natural disaster events in two vastly different cultural contexts. By presenting a holistic model of conceptualising people’s experiences of dealing with disastrous situations, this book transcends psychiatric approaches of trauma recovery. It uses metaphors to present harrowing and inspiring survivor narratives from the 2004 tsunami in Aceh and the 2003 Canberra bushfires and analyzes the ways in which survivors tried to cope and make sense of their experiences as well as their own lives, in order to cope. Through embodied metaphors to unravel different aspects of meaning‑making following disasters, Citraningtyas provides insights into how culture can shape our experiences and responses to disaster, and brings forth deep commonalities in inherently human experiences.This book will appeal to researchers interested in understanding trauma resilience and recovery as well as mental health practitioners and disaster survivors.
Lives Across Time/Growing Up: Paths to Emotional Health and Emotional Illness from Birth to 30 in 76 People
by Henry H. Massie Nathan M. SzajnbergFollow seventy-six children from birth to thirty to learn about their various developmental life paths and their influences. Children traverse continuous or discontinuous courses. This book describes their life stories, which may transform and enrich the reader's life. In working with these people, the authors heard something basic: stories people tell about themselves. While a life may fall into a group - share characteristics with others - the individual's story remains compelling: to group people is to some degree against psychoanalysis, a humanizing discipline. The authors allow the subjects to speak at length in their own voices, to bring themselves alive for the reader. It is the authors hope that they have been able to convey their awe about watching the inner worlds of children and that these stories may evolve in readers minds and hearts and thus be remembered.
Lives Elsewhere: Migration and Psychic Malaise (The International Series of Psychosocial Perspectives on Trauma, Displaced People & Political Violence)
by Natale LosiThis book offers English-speaking readers one of the best examples of continental European approaches to working psychologically with refugees and migrants, combining ethnopsychiatric elements with insights from systemic approaches and from the theory and practice of narrative psychotherapies.
Lives Through Time
by J. BlockFirst published in 1983. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Lives Transformed: A Revolutionary Method of Dynamic Psychotherapy
by David Malan Patricia C. Della SelvaThe world has long awaited compelling and unmistakable evidence for the validity of dynamic psychotherapy. A review in the present book shows that such evidence has been accumulating over the past ten years. It comes from clinical trials, process research, case studies, and objective physiological measurements concerned with the importance of expressing emotions. This book extends the evidence. It provides an in-depth examination of therapy in action, based on verbatim accounts of the treatment of seven patients by the author, using the technique of Intensive Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy (at times extending to medium-term). This technique has been shown to be both effective and cost-effective with a wide range of patients, including some who are notoriously resistant to psychotherapeutic intervention. The raw data of psychotherapeutic sessions enables the reader to trace the origin of therapeutic effects, which occur immediately in response to the direct experience of hitherto buried feelings and impulses.
Lives and Deaths: Selections from the Works of Edwin S. Shneidman (Series in Death, Dying, and Bereavement)
by Antoon A. LeenaarsEdwin S. Shneidman is recognized as the central figure in the field of suicidology. His writings have taught countless psychologists and other health professionals about the complexity of suicide, death and bereavement. This collection of his writings spans the entirety of his career and offers a unique insight into the development of his thinking. The material is broken down into five parts: Psychological Assessment, Logic, Melville and Murray, Suicide, and Death and each section includes an introduction by the editor. Lives and Deaths is a vital resource for those in suicidology and related fields, allowing the reader to sample a variety of selections from Shneidman's work in one compact volume. The book is ideal for classroom use by upper level undergraduates and graduate students in the history of suicidology or as a supplemental text in a general suicidology course. It is also of interest to clinicians treating high-risk patients as well as a more general audience including psychologists, social workers, crisis counselors and suicide prevention specialists.
Lives in Time and Place: The Problems and Promises of Developmental Science (Society and Aging Series)
by R. A. SetterstenTime and place are of the greatest significance for scientific inquiry about human lives. As we seek to better understand the nature and rhythm of the life course in modern societies, its effective analysis and explanation simultaneously becomes more pressing and more complicated. This information is crucial for developing and reforming social policies, services, and interventions aimed at improving human development and welfare. Yet as our scientific treatments have become more elaborate, they have also become more fragmented within and between academic disciplines, across the study of specific life periods, and by method.
Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain
by David EaglemanYou will never think about your brain in the same way again. The brain is often portrayed as an organ with different regions dedicated to specific tasks. But that textbook model is wrong. The brain is a dynamic system, constantly modifying its own circuitry to match the demands of the environment and the body in which it finds itself. If you were to zoom into the living, microscopic cosmos inside the skull, you would witness tentacle-like extensions grasping, bumping, sensing, searching for the right connections to establish or forego, like denizens of a country establishing friendships, marriages, neighbourhoods, political parties, vendettas, and social networks. It's a mysterious kind of computational material, an organic three-dimensional textile that adjusts itself to operate with maximum efficiency. The brain is not hardwired, David Eagleman contends--it is livewired. With his new theory of infotropism, Eagleman demonstrates why the fundamental principle of the brain is information maximization: in the same way that plants grow toward light, brains reconfigure to boost data from the outside world. Follow Eagleman on a thrilling journey to discover how a child can function with one half of his brain removed, how a blind man can hit a baseball via a sensor on his tongue, how new devices and body plans can enhance our natural capacities, how paralyzed people will soon be able to dance in thought-controlled robotic suits, how we can build the next generation of devices based on the principles of the brain, and what all this has to do with why we dream at night.
Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain
by David EaglemanWhat does drug withdrawal have in common with a broken heart? Why is the enemy of memory not time but other memories? How can a blind person learn to see with her tongue, or a deaf person learn to hear with his skin? Why did many people in the 1980s mistakenly perceive book pages to be slightly red in color? Why is the world&’s best archer armless? Might we someday control a robot with our thoughts, just as we do our fingers and toes? Why do we dream at night, and what does that have to do with the rotation of the Earth? The answers to these questions are right behind our eyes. The greatest technology we have ever discovered on our planet is the three-pound organ carried in the vault of the skull. This book is not simply about what the brain is; it is about what it does. The magic of the brain is not found in the parts it&’s made of but in the way those parts unceasingly reweave themselves in an electric, living fabric. In Livewired, you will surf the leading edge of neuroscience atop the anecdotes and metaphors that have made David Eagleman one of the best scientific translators of our generation. Covering decades of research to the present day, Livewired also presents new discoveries from Eagleman&’s own laboratory, from synesthesia to dreaming to wearable neurotech devices that revolutionize how we think about the senses.
Living Apart Together Transnationally (LATT) Couples: Promoting Mental Health and Intimacy
by Rashmi SinglaThis book provides deep insight into intimacy and distance in the complex, globalised world through the newly coined concept of couples living apart together transnationally (LATT). Based on a review of the past four decades’ seminal studies and narratives from a qualitative empirical study, including both heterosexual and same-sex couples, it shows intimacy can be maintained without geographical proximity. The book has a rich, layered, and nuanced exploration of LATT couples' experiences of relationship maintenance across distance and time through diverse ways, such as digital emotions, online sexual activity, and meaning–making through spirituality, which challenge existing Eurocentric conceptualisations of intimacy and relationships. It also reveals an array of “good practices” for relationship maintenance across countries, which can inspire other couples and practitioners. Thus, the book is an important resource, not only for academics in the disciplines of psychology, anthropology, cultural studies, family science, sociology, migration, and communication but particularly useful for practitioners dealing with couple relationships, such as counselors, social workers, and mental health advisors. It is also relevant for international organizations and multinational corporations working with couples living apart together transnationally.“The implications of this book for ‘how we live now’ are clear – in a more closely connected and mobile world, the possibility of living our most intimate relationships across distance will affect increasing numbers of us… the book’s informative, theoretical, and practical messages have valuable lessons for many of us now and in the future.”Dr Lucy Williams,University of Kent, the UK· “Living Apart Together Transnationally (LATT) Couples: Promoting mental health and intimacy” gives us insights into the everyday lives of couples living apart together (LAT) in a contemporary world characterized by globalisation, and pandemics that have affected border controls and migration policies in different countries. Rashmi Singla invites us to challenge the way we understand intimate relationships that are connected to physical proximity and provides us with innovative ways to maintain emotional and physical intimacy despite geographical separation. Sayaka Osanami TörngrenAssociate Professor of International Migration and Ethnic Relations, Malmö University, SwedenDr. Rashmi Singla’s book “Living Apart Together Transnationally” addresses a very important problem many modern couples encounter living apart in different countries. The increasing globalization of the job market and mass migration in the past four decades have made this topic more important than ever before. However, research about love and life in such conditions is still limited. The research presented in this book reveals some new qualitative research findings about how partners maintain health and intimacy in such challenging conditions. This book presents novel and invaluable research for scholars in the area of love and couple relationships. Victor Karandashev, Ph. D.,Professor of Aquinas College, Michigan, The U.S.A.Dr. Rashmi Singla's work, 'Living Apart Together Transnationally (LATT),' stands as a profoundly empirical exploration of long-distance couples spanning international borders. The book provides captivating revelations into the lives, intimacies, and spiritual dimensions of such relationships. Offering an interdisciplinary approach, it establishes a robust groundwork for further investigations in this emerging field. Lise Paulsen Galal, PhD, Associate Professor in Intercultural Studies, Roskilde University, Denmark.How important is proximity in intimate relationships when partners live apart in different countries? This question sits at the core of this timely book, which offers new insights, in part
Living Archetypes: The selected works of Anthony Stevens (World Library of Mental Health)
by Anthony StevensAnthony Stevens has devoted a lifetime to modernizing our understanding of the archetypes within us, relating them to conceptual developments in a variety of scientific disciplines, such as the patterns of behaviour of behavioural ecology, the species-specific behavioural systems of Bowlby’s attachment theory, the deep structures of Chomskian linguistics, and the modules of evolutionary psychology, to name but a few. This selection of papers and chapters from the course of Stevens’ career, all lucidly written and argued, highlight episodes in the progress of his quest to place archetypal theory on a sound scientific foundation. As a whole, Living Archetypes examines how archetypes are activated in the life history of all of us, how archetypal imperatives may be fulfilled or thwarted by our living circumstances, how they manifest in our dreams, symbols, fantasies and symptoms, and how appreciating their dynamics can generate insights of enormous therapeutic power. Living Archetypes: The Selected Works of Anthony Stevens provides an invaluable resource for Jungian psychotherapists, psychologists, academics and students committed to extending the evolutionary approach to psychology and psychiatry and understanding the dynamic significance of archetypes.
Living Better: How I Learned to Survive Depression
by Alastair CampbellTHE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERLast Christmas I almost killed myself. Almost. I've had a lot of almosts. Never gone from almost to deed. Don't think I ever will. But it was a bad almost. Living Better is Alastair Campbell's honest, moving and life affirming account of his lifelong struggle with depression. It is an autobiographical, psychological and psychiatric study, which explores his own childhood, family and other relationships, and examines the impact of his professional and political life on himself and those around him. But it also lays bare his relentless quest to understand depression not just through his own life but through different treatments. Every bit as direct and driven, clever and candid as he is, this is a book filled with pain, but also hope -- he examines how his successes have been in part because of rather than despite his mental health problems -- and love. We all know someone with depression. There is barely a family untouched by it. We may be talking about it more than we did, back in the era of 'boys don't cry' - they did you know - and when a brave face or a stiff upper lip or a best foot forward was seen as the only way to go. But we still don't talk about it enough. There is still stigma, and shame, and taboo. There is still the feeling that admitting to being sad or anxious makes us weak. It took me years, decades even to get to this point, but I passionately believe that the reverse is true and that speaking honestly about our feelings and experiences (whether as a depressive or as the friend or relative of a depressive) is the first and best step on the road to recovery. So that is what I have tried to do here.