Exploring Anthropology through Folklore and Mythology is a comprehensive textbook which examines how people around the world express themselves culturally, and how these practices provide a window into the diversity of human culture.Using a genre-based approach, this book takes a globalized perspective and promotes intercultural exchange and understanding. It presents students with in- depth examples of a wide range of traditions as well as an understanding of how such tra...

Outsider art has exploded onto the international art scene, gaining widespread attention for its startling originality and visual power. As an expression of raw creativity, outsider art remains associated with self-taught visionaries, psychiatric patients, trance mediums, eccentric outcasts, and unschooled artistic geniuses who create things outside of mainstream artistic trends and styles. Outsider Art: Visionary Worlds and Trauma provides a comprehensive guide through the contes...

“Csikszentmihalyi arrives at an insight that many of us can intuitively grasp, despite our insistent (and culturally supported) denial of this truth. That is, it is not what happens to us that determines our happiness, but the manner in which we make sense of that reality. . . . The manner in which Csikszentmihalyi integrates research on consciousness, personal psychology and spirituality is illuminating.” —Los Angeles Times Book ReviewThe bestsell...

"Insightful...draws from disparate corners of history and science to celebrate our compulsion to storify everything around us."— The New York Times Book ReviewHumans live in landscapes of make-believe. We spin fantasies. We devour novels, films, and plays. Even sporting events and criminal trials unfold as narratives. Yet the world of story has remained an undiscovered and unmapped country. It's easy to say that humans are "wired" for story, but why

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A transformative guide to reconnecting with and harnessing your authentic self so you can lead a more fulfilled, complete life, from the world-renowned former director of the Jung Institute“A brilliant and absorbing work . . . [James] Hillman dares us to believe we are each meant to be here, that we are needed by the world around us.”—Publishers WeeklyPlato called it “daimon,” the Romans “gen...

“Engaging, evocative. . . . [Bloom] is a supple, clear writer, and his parade of counterintuitive claims about pleasure is beguiling.”—NPRWhy is an artistic masterpiece worth millions more than a convincing forgery? Pleasure works in mysterious ways, as Paul Bloom reveals in this investigation of what we desire and why. Drawing on a wealth of surprising studies, Bloom investigates pleasures noble and seamy, lofty and mundane, to reveal that our enjoyment of a given thing is determi...

In today's art world many strange, even shocking, things qualify as art. In this book, Cynthia Freeland explains why innovation and controversy are valued in the arts, weaving together philosophy and art theory with many fascinating examples. She discusses blood, beauty, culture, money, museums, sex, and politics, clarifying contemporary and historical accounts of the nature, function, and interpretation of the arts. Freeland also propels us into the future by surveying cutting-edge web si...

A “fascinating” (The Economist) dive into the world of linguistics that is “part travelogue, part science lesson, part intellectual investigation…an entertaining, informative survey of some of the most fascinating polyglots of our time” (The New York Times Book Review).In Babel No More, Michael Erard, “a monolingual with benefits,” sets out on a quest to meet language superlearners and make sense of their...

In this impressively researched and incisive book, Bruce Grierson draws on over three hundred stories of so-called "U-turners," who have risked their livelihoods to answer a sudden wake-up call. We meet people who change political parties and careers, doctors who quit to become poets, men who become women, people who suddenly become revolutionaries for a cause they didn't care about the day before. In chapters that address everything from the neuroscience behind epiphanies to the possibili...

Completely revised and updated to include the most up-to-date selections, this is a bold and bright reference book to the novels and the writers that have excited the world's imagination. This authoritative selection of novels, reviewed by an international team of writers, critics, academics, and journalists, provides a new take on world classics and a reliable guide to what's hot in contemporary fiction. Featuring more than 700 illustrations and photographs, presenting quotes from individ...

The #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Soul's Code engages in a wide-ranging dialogue that "bursts with vigorous ideas, tangents, and humor" ( Library Journal).This furious, trenchant, and audacious series of interrelated dialogues and letters takes a searing look at not only the legacy of psychotherapy, but also practically every aspect of contemporary living—from sexuality to politics, media, the environment, and life in the cit...

Who knew a trip to the therapist could be so much fun, even aesthetically rewarding? Beyond sharing feelings or complaining about your mother, Psychobook reveals the rich history of psychological testing in a fascinating sideways look at classic testing methods, from word-association games to inkblots to personality tests.Psychobook includes never-before-seen content from long-hidden archives, as well as reimagined tests from contemporary artists and writers, to try out yo...