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The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself
by Michael A. SingerWho are you? In this remarkable book, author and spiritual guide Michael Singer explores this fundamental question, seeking the very root of consciousness in order to help readers learn how to dwell in the present moment. Written in an engaging and uncomplicated voice, this book will open readers up to the radical and powerful experience of simply being themselves.
The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes--and Why
by Amanda RipleyDiscover how human beings react to danger—and what makes the difference between life and death&“Fascinating and useful . . . [shows that] the most important variable in an emergency is your own behavior.&”—The New York TimesToday, nine out of ten Americans live in places at significant risk of earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, terrorism, or other disasters. Tomorrow, some of us will have to make split-second choices to save ourselves and our families. How will we react? What will it feel like? Will we be heroes or victims?In her quest to answer these questions, award-winning journalist Amanda Ripley traces human responses to some of recent history&’s epic disasters, from the explosion of the Mont Blanc munitions ship in 1917–one of the biggest explosions before the invention of the atomic bomb–to the journeys of the 15,000 people who found their way out of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. To understand the science behind the stories, Ripley turns to leading brain scientists, trauma psychologists, and other disaster experts. She even has her own brain examined by military researchers and experiences, through realistic simulations, what it might be like to survive a plane crash into the ocean or to escape a raging fire.Ripley comes back with precious wisdom about the surprising humanity of crowds, the elegance of the brain&’s fear circuits, and the stunning inadequacy of many of our evolutionary responses. Most unexpectedly, she discovers the brain&’s ability to do much, much better–with just a little help.
The Untouched Key: Tracing Childhood Trauma in Creativity and Destructiveness
by Alice MillerSince the publication of The Drama of the Gifted Child in 1981, Alice Miller has achieved worldwide recognition for her work on the causes and effects of child abuse, on violence toward children and its cost to society. Now, in The Untouched Key, she explores the clues, often overlooked in biography, that connect childhood traumas to adult creativity and destructiveness. 19 drawings.
The Unwanted Gift of Grief: A Ministry Approach
by Tim P Van DuivendykLearn how to embrace the painful gift of grief and use it for transformation and healing as you journey through the wilderness to a promised lifeThe Unwanted Gift of Grief is a passionate, practical guide through the grieving process for those who have suffered loss-and those who suffer with them. Rather than talking people out of their grief and pain as a way to make them feel better, this unique book invites them into the grief and pain as a way to healing, transformation and hope. Using real and in-depth ministry and counseling conversations, it identifies the journey through the wilderness of grief. This powerful book is equally valuable as a gift from a minister to a grieving person, as a professional guide for ministers and counselors, and as a training tool for lay ministers and congregation members. Built on the ministry concept of "sojourning," The Unwanted Gift of Grief offers guidelines to be used in helping people in their journey through the adjustment period that follows a loss, a time that may include the darkness of disbelief, frustration, anger, sadness, depression, and healing light as they make their way through the wilderness of grief. Topics examined in The Unwanted Gift of Grief include: grief as gratitude and gift how family and culture can affect grieving different pathways through grief everyone grieves differently sudden loss, slow losing, rejection and suicide identifying the agony and characteristics of depression grief factors that affect marriage and sexuality saying "Yes" to death factors of faith, science and miracles the labor and contractions of dying and death the hope for healing and cure how to help: the Sojourner&’s Process Guide the Grief Date: A Guide for Couples fifty ways to make it through the wilderness and much moreThe Unwanted Gift of Grief is an essential resource for anyone lost in the wilderness of loss and grief, and for professionals, lay ministers, family, and friends who care for them.
The Unwinding of the Miracle: A Memoir of Life, Death, and Everything That Comes After
by Julie Yip-WilliamsAs a young mother facing a terminal diagnosis, Julie Yip-Williams began to write her story, a story like no other. What began as the chronicle of an imminent and early death became something much more—a powerful exhortation to the living. <P><P> Julie Yip-Williams survived infancy was a miracle. Born blind in Vietnam, she narrowly escaped euthanasia at the hands of her grandmother, only to flee with her family the political upheaval of her country in the late 1970s. Loaded into a rickety boat with three hundred other refugees, Julie made it to Hong Kong and, ultimately, America, where a surgeon at UCLA gave her partial sight. <P><P> She would go on to become a Harvard-educated lawyer, with a husband, a family, and a life she had once assumed would be impossible. Then, at age thirty-seven, with two little girls at home, Julie was diagnosed with terminal metastatic colon cancer, and a different journey began. The Unwinding of the Miracle is the story of a vigorous life refracted through the prism of imminent death. <P><P>When she was first diagnosed, Julie Yip-Williams sought clarity and guidance through the experience and, finding none, began to write her way through it—a chronicle that grew beyond her imagining. Motherhood, marriage, the immigrant experience, ambition, love, wanderlust, tennis, fortune-tellers, grief, reincarnation, jealousy, comfort, pain, the marvel of the body in full rebellion—this book is as sprawling and majestic as the life it records. It is inspiring and instructive, delightful and shattering. It is a book of indelible moments, seared deep—an incomparable guide to living vividly by facing hard truths consciously. <P><P>With humor, bracing honesty, and the cleansing power of well-deployed anger, Julie Yip-Williams set the stage for her lasting legacy and one final miracle: the story of her life. <P><b>A New York Times Bestseller</b>
The Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships: Decoding Social Mysteries Through the Unique Perspectives of Autism
by Temple Grandin Sean BarronBorn with autism, Sean Barron and Temple Grandin now famously live successful social lives. But their paths were very different. Temple's logical mind controlled her social behavior. She interacted with many adults and other children, experiencing varied social situations. Logic informed her decision to obey social rules and avoid unpleasant consequences. Sean's emotions controlled his social behavior. Baffled by social rules, isolated and friendless, he made up his own, and applied them to others. When they inevitably broke his rules, he felt worthless and unloved. Both Temple and Sean ultimately came to terms with the social world and found their places in it. Whether you are a person with autism, a caregiver in the autism community, or just someone interested in an "outsider" view of society, their powerful stories will enthrall and enlighten you.
The Up And Down Life: The Truth About Bipolar Disorder--the Good, the Bad, and the Funny
by Andrea Thompson Paul E. JonesPaul Jones, a stand-up comedian and workshop leader who suffers from bipolar disorder, uses humor, honesty, and hard-won practical advice to dispel the stigma surrounding mental illnesses and shed light on the challenges of living with bipolar disorder.<P><P> Offering an intimate view of life with bipolar disorder—including the most common mistakes bipolar individuals make and how to avoid them— and covering every aspect from diagnosis, social life, home life, and career, this is an accessible and engaging guide from someone who’s been there and can help readers cope and thrive.
The Upgrade: How the Female Brain Gets Stronger and Better in Midlife and Beyond
by Louann BrizendineWelcome to the better half of your life. The New York Times bestselling author of The Female Brain explains how a woman&’s brain gets &“upgraded&” in midlife, inspiring and guiding women to unlock their full potential.&“This is an important book. I want all women to read it. I wish I had read it years ago!&”—Jane FondaDr. Louann Brizendine was among the first to explain why women think, communicate, and feel differently than men. Now, inspired by her own experiences and those of the thousands of women at her clinic, she has a message that is nothing short of revolutionary: in the time of life typically known as menopause, women&’s brains are reshaped, for the better, in a way that creates new power, a bracing clarity, and a laser-like sense of purpose if you know how to seize it.With guidance for navigating the perimenopausal and menopausal storm while it lasts, and actionable, science-backed steps for preserving brain health for the rest of your life, The Upgrade is a stunning roadmap, told through intimate stories, to a new brain state and its incredible possibilities. Dr. Brizendine explains the best science-backed strategies for: • Hormones: If timed and handled properly, hormone management can save your life. Brizendine cuts through the controversy to give you the latest guidance for HRT. • Exercise: Leg strength correlates directly with healthy brain function at age 80. Here are the strategies for maintaining your strength. • Sleep: It&’s critical for maximizing the Upgrade, and Brizendine shares how to achieve healthy rest during challenging transitions. • Mindset: Brizendine shows how to seize the opportunities of your midlife brain changes by shifting your mindset and vision with intention. • Brain Health: The Upgraded brain requires special care when it comes to sugar, alcohol, inflammatory foods, and the microbiome. Here&’s advice for fueling and maintaining cognitive function for decades. The Upgrade amounts to a celebration of how women step into their power and an entirely new—and radically positive—understanding of aging.
The Ups and Downs of Raising a Bipolar Child
by Judith Lederman Candida FinkHELP IS HERE Bipolar disorder has recently been identified as one of the most misunderstood and underdiagnosed conditions affecting children -- and it is dramatically on the rise. The Ups and Downs of Raising a Bipolar Child gives parents the sound advice and expert information they need to cope with this challenging diagnosis, and shows how to provide essential care and support for a bipolar child as well as for the rest of the family.
The Upside of Being Down: The Life of a Teen with Anorexia
by Carolina Mejia RodriguezThe Upside of Being Down shows the winding paths that are the thoughts that go through one's mind, and the debilitating symptoms that come alight with Anorexia Nervosa. Anorexia Nervosa is an illness misunderstood by many. At first glance it is seen as a trivial call for attention, but it is so much more. The Upside of Being Down is a memoir of a teenage survivor of Anorexia written in order to destigmatize this illness so that many more can be treated. Only one in ten sufferers will seek treatment because many people don't conceptualize what eating disorders truly encompass. What may come as a surprise to many, is that weight and looks are the most insignificant part of this illness. Through medical appointments and unique experiences, Carolina recounts the thoughts and actions that built up her diagnosis within The Upside of Being Down. Much like navigating unknown seas, Carolina writes about surviving an illness that is entirely abstract and has no simple way out, while also advocating for eating disorder awareness to encourage families and people who are on the verge of giving up.
The Upside of Downtime: Why Boredom is Good
by Sandi MannAre we living in an age where we are more boredom-prone? Or are other people boring us? Or could we be that boring person?!In our current information age, we are constantly connected to technology, and have so many varied ways to spend our leisure time that we should all surely never know what boredom feels like. Yet, boredom appears to be on the rise; it seems that the more we have to stimulate us, the more stimulation we crave. In a quest to relieve our boredom, we engage in dangerous risk-taking - from extreme sports to drugs to gambling to anti-social behaviour, or we overindulge in shopping or eating. The Upside of Downtime explores the causes and consequences of boredom in the fast-paced twenty-first century. Parents are desperate to keep their children entertained during every waking moment, the education system is geared towards interactivity, and attention spans are dropping as we use multiple devices at all times. But the world of work can be increasingly repetitive and routine, and we are losing the ability to tolerate this everyday tedium.Using Sandi Mann's own ground-breaking research into boredom, this book tells the story of how we act, react and cope when we are bored, and argues that there is a positive side to boredom. It can be a catalyst for humour, fun, reflection, creativity and inspiration. The radical solution to the 'boredom problem' is to harness it rather than try to avoid it. Allowing yourself time away from constant stimuli can enrich your life. We should all embrace our boredom and see the upside of our downtime.
The Upside of Shame: Therapeutic Interventions Using the Positive Aspects of a "Negative" Emotion
by Mary C. Lamia Vernon C. Kelly Jr.Understanding shame as a signal that things we enjoy are being impeded. There is much more to shame than its reputation as a negative emotional state. This clinical book delves into the role of shame in many complex issues such as personality disorders, anxiety, depression, and addictions. In each example the authors show how an understanding of the positive side of shame can be translated into practical therapeutic interventions.
The Upside of Stress
by Kelly McgonigalThe author of The Willpower Instinct delivers a controversial and groundbreaking new book that overturns long-held beliefs about stress. More than forty-four percent of Americans admit to losing sleep over stress. And while most of us do everything we can to reduce it, Stanford psychologist and bestselling author Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., delivers a startling message: Stress isn't bad. In The Upside of Stress, McGonigal highlights new research indicating that stress can, in fact, make us stronger, smarter, and happier--if we learn how to embrace it. The Upside of Stress is the first book to bring together cutting-edge discoveries on the correlation between resilience--the human capacity for stress-related growth--and mind-set, the power of beliefs to shape reality. As she did in The Willpower Instinct, McGonigal combines science, stories, and exercises into an engaging and practical book that is both entertaining and life-changing, showing you:how to cultivate a mind-set to embrace stresshow stress can provide focus and energyhow stress can help people connect and strengthen close relationshipswhy your brain is built to learn from stress, and how to increase its ability to learn from challenging experiences McGonigal's TED talk on the subject has already received more than 7 million views. Her message resonates with people who know they can't eliminate the stress in their lives and want to learn to take advantage of it. The Upside of Stress is not a guide to getting rid of stress, but a guide to getting better at stress, by understanding it, embracing it, and using it.From the Hardcover edition.
The Upside of Your Dark Side: Why Being Your Whole Self--Not Just Your "Good" Self--Drives Success and Fulfillment
by Todd Kashdan Robert Biswas-DienerTwo mavericks in the field of positive psychology deliver a timely message Happiness experts have long told us to tune out our negative emotions and focus instead on mindfulness, positivity, and optimism. Researchers Todd Kashdan, Ph.D., and Robert Biswas-Diener, Dr. Philos., disagree. Positive emotions alone are not enough. <P><P> Anger makes us creative, selfishness makes us brave, and guilt is a powerful motivator. The real key to success lies in emotional agility. Drawing upon extensive scientific research and a wide array of real-life examples, The Upside of Your Dark Side will be embraced by business leaders, parents, and everyone else who's ready to put their entire psychological tool kit to work. and a wide array of real-life examples including sports, the military, parenting, education, romance, business, and more, The Upside of Your Dark Side is a refreshing reality check that shows us how we can truly maximize our potential. <P>With an appreciation of our entire psychological toolkit, we become whole--which allows us to climb the highest peaks and handle the deepest valleys.
The Uptown Local: Joy, Death, and Joan Didion
by Cory LeadbeaterAs an aspiring novelist in his early twenties, Cory Leadbeater was presented with an opportunity to work for a well-known writer whose identity was kept confidential. Since the tumultuous days of childhood, Cory had sought refuge from the rougher parts of life in the pages of books. Suddenly, he found himself the personal assistant to a titan of literature: Joan Didion.In the nine years that followed, Cory shared Joan's rarefied world, transformed not only by her blazing intellect but by her generous friendship and mentorship. Together they recited poetry in the mornings, dined with Supreme Court justices, attended art openings, smoked a single cigarette before bed.But secretly, Cory was spiraling. He reeled from the death of a close friend. He spent his weekends at a federal prison, visiting his father as he served time for fraud. He struggled day after day to write the novel that would validate him as a real writer. And meanwhile, the forces of addiction and depression loomed large.In hypnotic prose that pulses with life and longing, The Uptown Local explores the fault lines of class, family, loss, and creativity. It is a love letter to a cultural icon-and a moving testament to the relationships that sustain us in the eternal pursuit of a life worth living.
The Uptown Local: Joy, Death, and Joan Didion
by Cory LeadbeaterAs an aspiring novelist in his early twenties, Cory Leadbeater was presented with an opportunity to work for a well-known writer whose identity was kept confidential. Since the tumultuous days of childhood, Cory had sought refuge from the rougher parts of life in the pages of books. Suddenly, he found himself the personal assistant to a titan of literature: Joan Didion.In the nine years that followed, Cory shared Joan's rarefied world, transformed not only by her blazing intellect but by her generous friendship and mentorship. Together they recited poetry in the mornings, dined with Supreme Court justices, attended art openings, smoked a single cigarette before bed.But secretly, Cory was spiraling. He reeled from the death of a close friend. He spent his weekends at a federal prison, visiting his father as he served time for fraud. He struggled day after day to write the novel that would validate him as a real writer. And meanwhile, the forces of addiction and depression loomed large.In hypnotic prose that pulses with life and longing, The Uptown Local explores the fault lines of class, family, loss, and creativity. It is a love letter to a cultural icon-and a moving testament to the relationships that sustain us in the eternal pursuit of a life worth living.
The Urban Brain: Mental Health in the Vital City
by Nikolas Rose Des FitzgeraldBridging the social and life sciences to unlock the mystery of how cities shape mental health and illnessMost of the world’s people now live in cities and millions have moved from the countryside to the rapidly growing megacities of the global south. How does the urban experience shape the mental lives of those living in and moving to cities today? Sociologists study cities as centers of personal progress and social innovation, but also exclusion, racism, and inequality. Psychiatrists try to explain the high rates of mental disorders among urban dwellers, especially migrants. But the split between the social and life sciences has hindered understanding of how urban experience is written into the bodies and brains of urbanites. In The Urban Brain, Nikolas Rose and Des Fitzgerald seek to revive the collaboration between sociology and psychiatry about these critical questions. Reexamining the relationship between the city and the brain, Rose and Fitzgerald explore the ways cities shape the mental health and illness of those who inhabit them.Drawing on the social and life sciences, The Urban Brain takes an ecosocial approach to the vital city, in which humans live and thrive but too often get sick and suffer. The result demonstrates what we can gain by a vitalist approach to the mental lives of those migrating to and living in cities, focusing on the ways that humans make, remake, and inhabit their urban lifeworlds.
The Urban Uncanny: A collection of interdisciplinary studies
by Lucy HuskinsonThe Urban Uncanny explores through ten engaging essays the slippage or mismatch between our expectations of the city—as the organised and familiar environments in which citizens live, work, and go about their lives—and the often surprising and unsettling experiences it evokes. The city is uncanny when it reveals itself in new and unexpected light; when its streets, buildings, and people suddenly appear strange, out of place, and not quite right. Bringing together a variety of approaches, including psychoanalysis, historical and contemporary case study of cities, urban geography, film and literary critique, the essays explore some of the unsettling mismatches between city and citizen in order to make sense of each, and to gauge the wellbeing of city life more generally. Essays examine a number of cities, including Edmonton, London, Paris, Oxford, Las Vegas, Berlin and New York, and address a range of issues, including those of memory, death, anxiety, alienation, and identity. Delving into the complex repercussions of contemporary mass urban development, The Urban Uncanny opens up the pathological side of cities, both real and imaginary. This interdisciplinary collection provides unparalleled insights into the urban uncanny that will be of interest to academics and students of urban studies, urban geography, psychoanalysis, cultural studies, social studies and film studies, and to anyone interested in the darker side of city life.
The Urge: Our History of Addiction
by Carl Erik FisherAn authoritative, illuminating, and deeply humane history of addiction—a phenomenon that remains baffling and deeply misunderstood despite having touched countless lives—by an addiction psychiatrist striving to understand his own family and himself&“Carl Erik Fisher&’s The Urge is the best-written and most incisive book I&’ve read on the history of addiction. In the midst of an overdose crisis that grows worse by the hour and has vexed America for centuries, Fisher has given us the best prescription of all: understanding. He seamlessly blends a gripping historical narrative with memoir that doesn&’t self-aggrandize; the result is a full-throated argument against blaming people with substance use disorder. The Urge is a propulsive tour de force that is as healing as it is enjoyable to read.&”—Beth Macy, author of DopesickEven after a decades-long opioid overdose crisis, intense controversy still rages over the fundamental nature of addiction and the best way to treat it. With uncommon empathy and erudition, Carl Erik Fisher draws on his own experience as a clinician, researcher, and alcoholic in recovery as he traces the history of a phenomenon that, centuries on, we hardly appear closer to understanding—let alone addressing effectively. As a psychiatrist-in-training fresh from medical school, Fisher was soon face-to-face with his own addiction crisis, one that nearly cost him everything. Desperate to make sense of the condition that had plagued his family for generations, he turned to the history of addiction, learning that the current quagmire is only the latest iteration of a centuries-old story: humans have struggled to define, treat, and control addictive behavior for most of recorded history, including well before the advent of modern science and medicine. A rich, sweeping account that probes not only medicine and science but also literature, religion, philosophy, and public policy, The Urge illuminates the extent to which the story of addiction has persistently reflected broader questions of what it means to be human and care for one another. Fisher introduces us to the people who have endeavored to address this complex condition through the ages: physicians and politicians, activists and artists, researchers and writers, and of course the legions of people who have struggled with their own addictions. He also examines the treatments and strategies that have produced hope and relief for many people with addiction, himself included. Only by reckoning with our history of addiction, he argues—our successes and our failures—can we light the way forward for those whose lives remain threatened by its hold. The Urge is at once an eye-opening history of ideas, a riveting personal story of addiction and recovery, and a clinician&’s urgent call for a more expansive, nuanced, and compassionate view of one of society&’s most intractable challenges.
The Urge: Our History of Addiction
by Carl Erik FisherAn authoritative, illuminating, and deeply humane history of addiction—a phenomenon that remains baffling and deeply misunderstood despite having touched countless lives—by an addiction psychiatrist striving to understand his own family and himselfEven after a decades-long opioid overdose crisis, intense controversy still rages over the fundamental nature of addiction and the best way to treat it. With uncommon empathy and erudition, Carl Erik Fisher draws on his own experience as a clinician, researcher, and alcoholic in recovery as he traces the history of a phenomenon that, centuries on, we hardly appear closer to understanding—let alone addressing effectively. As a psychiatrist-in-training fresh from medical school, Fisher was soon face-to-face with his own addiction crisis, one that nearly cost him everything. Desperate to make sense of the condition that had plagued his family for generations, he turned to the history of addiction, learning that the current quagmire is only the latest iteration of a centuries-old story: humans have struggled to define, treat, and control addictive behavior for most of recorded history, including well before the advent of modern science and medicine. A rich, sweeping history that probes not only medicine and science but also literature, religion, philosophy, and sociology, The Urge illuminates the extent to which the story of addiction has persistently reflected broader questions of what it means to be human and care for one another. Fisher introduces us to the people who have endeavored to address this complex condition through the ages: physicians and politicians, activists and artists, researchers and writers, and of course the legions of people who have struggled with their own addictions. He also examines the treatments and strategies that have produced hope and relief for many people with addiction, himself included. Only by reckoning with our history of addiction, he argues—our successes and our failures—can we light the way forward for those whose lives remain threatened by its hold. The Urge is at once an eye-opening history of ideas, a riveting personal story of addiction and recovery, and a clinician&’s urgent call for a more expansive, nuanced, and compassionate view of one of society&’s most intractable challenges.
The Urgent Life: My Story of Love, Loss, and Survival
by Bozoma Saint John"The Urgent Life shines a bright light on the intricacies of the shadows she&’s been in, and illuminates the beauty of her urgent life.&” —Serena WilliamsFrom iconic leader Bozoma Saint John, comes a memoir of grief, and one woman's drive to thrive in the face of lossWhen Bozoma Saint John's husband, Peter, died of cancer, she made one big decision: to live life urgently. Bozoma was no stranger to adversity, having lost her college boyfriend to suicide, navigated an interracial marriage, grieved a child born prematurely--a process that led to her and Peter's separation--and coparented the daughter who she and Peter shared. When Peter knew his cancer was terminal, he gave Bozoma a short list of things to do: cancel the divorce, and fix the wrongs immediately. In The Urgent Life, Bozoma takes readers through the dizzying, numbing days of multiple griefs, and the courage which these sparked in her to live life in accordance with her deepest values time and time again. We witness Bozoma's journey forward through the highs and the lows, as she negotiates life as a woman determined to learn from tragedies to build a remarkable life worth living even in her brokenness.Bozoma's story is extraordinary, but her grief is not uncommon, and her courage is sure to touch any reader who has loved, mourned and is finding a path through loss and grief, as well as anyone who is maneuvering a pivot and wants to live life to its fullest.
The Use and Abuse of Power
by John A. Bargh Annette Y. Lee-ChaiA compilation of works from prominent researchers, promoting both a panoramic and multilevel understanding of this complex construct, with focus on power as a cause of social ills and remedies to prevent corruption and abuse.
The Use and Misuse of the Experimental Method in Social Psychology: A Critical Examination of Classical Research
by Augustine BranniganThis book critically examines the work of a number of pioneers of social psychology, including legendary figures such as Kurt Lewin, Leon Festinger, Muzafer Sherif, Solomon Asch, Stanley Milgram, and Philip Zimbardo. Augustine Brannigan argues that the reliance of these psychologists on experimentation has led to questions around validity and replication of their studies. The author explores new research and archival work relating to these studies and outlines a new approach to experimentation that repudiates the use of deception in human experiments and provides clues to how social psychology can re-articulate its premises and future lines of research. Based on the author’s 2004 work The Rise and Fall of Social Psychology, in which he critiques the experimental methods used, the book advocates for a return to qualitative methods to redeem the essential social dimensions of social psychology. Covering famous studies such as the Stanford Prison Experiment, Milgram’s studies of obedience, Sherif's Robbers Cave, and Rosenhan's exposé of psychiatric institutions, this is essential and fascinating reading for students of social psychology, and the social sciences. It’s also of interest to academics and researchers interested in engaging with a critical approach to classical social psychology, with a view to changing the future of this important discipline.
The Use of Coercive Measures in Forensic Psychiatric Care
by Birgit Völlm Norbert NedopilThis book presents the legal context and describes the ethical and practical challenges when using coercive measures in forensic psychiatric settings. A wide range of aspects relevant to the use of such measures, including environmental, patient-related, and staff-related factors, are explored, and the experience of coercive interventions is described from the staff and the patient perspective. Differences in jurisdictions and examples of good practice are highlighted. The authors are from a range of professional backgrounds, ensuring breadth as well as depth in discussion of the topic. The use of coercive measures, in particular restraint, seclusion, and involuntary medication, for the control of aggression in psychiatry remains controversial. Forensic mental health care deals with individuals who pose a risk to others and often present with significant management problems within institutions. The care of patients in these settings gives rise to debates about the balance between care and safety, and between the interests of the patients and those of the wider society to be protected. Despite these tensions, limited research has been conducted specifically on the use of coercive measures in forensic mental health care. This volume aims to fill the gap and will be of value to all professionals working in forensic psychiatric settings as well as to those working in general psychiatric and custodial settings, law professionals, and patients.
The Use of Personal Narratives in the Helping Professions: A Teaching Casebook
by Jessica K Heriot Eileen J PolingerUse these fascinating first-person accounts to bring real-world problems into the classroom!The Use of Personal Narratives in the Helping Professions: A Teaching Casebook is a collection of personal narratives, short stories, and poetry about mental illness and other life-affecting problems, mostly in the context of family life. Each selection is accompanied by questions for discussion; selected reading lists are provided with each chapter. Beginning with problems related to childhood, the stories range through adolescence, adulthood, and old age. This unique book provides students and educators in psychology, social work, and counseling with an in-depth understanding of various mental illnesses and psychosocial problems through the life cycle. Its stories and narratives give students the unique opportunity to experience “from the inside” what it is like to live with an eating disorder or struggle with a compulsion phobia. The Use of Personal Narratives in the Helping Professions is more than a teaching tool. These stories are more than thought provoking, more than simply insightful. They are truly fascinating--each a candid, no-holds-barred glimpse into the personal reality of its narrator--and will inspire the kind of discussions that the best courses and instructors are remembered for. Your students will most likely have finished the book before the class has finished discussing the first chapter! With The Use of Personal Narratives in the Helping Professions, your students will explore: family relationships under various types of stress how families cope with physical illness what happens to the family when a loved one struggles with mental illness the impact of racial issues the effects of sexual abuse and domestic violence the process of healing from childhood trauma . . . and much more!The Use of Personal Narratives in the Helping Professions provides first-hand knowledge of what the loss of a parent to death, mental illness, or alcoholism feels like to the child; of how ”coming out” as a lesbian affects one's life; of the love and frustration of having a mentally handicapped sibling; of what it's like to lose one's memory in old age. No academic description can convey the feelings, meaning, and effects on the individual or family of mental illness or other psychosocial stressors. Only narratives and stories based on direct experience--exactly what you'll find in The Use of Personal Narratives in the Helping Professions--can offer this perspective.