Guidance for the modern perplexed. In this selection of critical and provocative essays, the author examines many of our popular beliefs about culture, science, psychology and psychotherapy. It serves as an antidote to the mixture of misinformation, intellectual pabulum, and misguided “common sense” that so often masquerades for wisdom in these turbulent times.This highly accessible book is a compelling read for all who are fascinated by the intersection of culture. science, and ra...

Psychology Gone Wrong: The Dark Sides of Science and Therapy explores the dark sides of psychology, the science that penetrates almost every area of our lives. It must be read by everyone who has an interest in psychology, by all those who are studying or intend to study psychology, and by present and potential clients of psychotherapists. This book will tell you which parts of psychology are supported by scientific evidence, and which parts are simply castles built on sand. This is the fi...

This book is a collection of skeptical social essays in which the author reveals that much of our popular beliefs, psychology and science are defective, because, although we live in the 21st century, our approach to them is deeply rooted in our culture, a

Shaping Psychology is a unique collection of in-depth conversations with a selection of the most influential psychologists working today, conducted at the end of a decade that shook psychological science. They provide insights into the controversies at the heart of contemporary psychology, revealing a clash of visions of what psychological science is all about and what its future holds. They are candid on the crisis in psychology and explore its causes, consequences and how to ove...

This book shows how scientific and psychotherapeutic practices change into worthless rituals called by the famous physicist, Richard Feynman, "cargo cult." It is a must-read for everybody who is interested in psychology, who is studying or intends to study it, but also for present and potential clients of psychotherapists and parents of mentally-disabled children. Readers will learn which parts of psychology and therapy are cargo-cult-like and which are reliable. This book is the second pa...

Most of us believe that we are unique and coherent individuals, but are we? The idea of a "self" has existed ever since humans began to live in groups and become sociable. Those who embrace the self as an individual in the West, or a member of the group in the East, feel fulfilled and purposeful. This experience seems incredibly real but a wealth of recent scientific evidence reveals that this notion of the independent, coherent self is an illusion - it is not what it seems. Reality as we ...

**In this landmark work, a preeminent scholar establishes a revolutionary model for understanding and treating trauma survivors“One of the most important psychiatric works to be published since Freud.” ―New York Times**Trauma and Recovery is the foundational text on understanding trauma survivors. By placing individual experience in a political frame, psychiatrist Judith L. Herman argues that psychological trauma is inseparable from its social and politica...

At a time when people are living into their tenth decade, the longest longitudinal study of human development ever undertaken offers welcome news for old age: our lives evolve in our later years and often become more fulfilling. Among the surprising findings: people who do well in old age did not necessarily do so well in midlife, and vice versa.

"What is insanity?" "Can we trust our memories?" "Who needs parents, anyway?" The answers to these and many other burning questions lie in the world of psychology. It is all around us, influencing advertising, politics, and product development, and Heads Up Psychology explains it all.Using engaging graphics, this book explores the big ideas from all areas of psychology, including psychoanalysis, intelligence, and mental disorders, as well as offering biogr...

This edition delivers the highlights of a typical Introduction to Psychology college course in about 280 pages, providing the reader with links to psychology-related Websites and additional readings in the fields of scientific methodology, sensation and perception, motivation and emotion, cognition, the brain and its relation to behavior, learning and memory, consciousness, personality, psychopathology, psychotherapy, intelligence, human development, stress and health, social psychology an...

Robin Dawes spares no one in this powerful critique of modern psychotherapeutic practice. As Dawes points out, we have all been swayed by the "pop psych" view of the world--believing, for example, that self-esteem is an essential precursor to being a productive human being, that events in one's childhood affect one's fate as an adult, and that "you have to love yourself before you can love another."

Discover the true heart of humanity: the brainAcclaimed journalist and intrepid brain "explorer" Lone Frank embarks on an incredible adventure to the frontiers of neuroscience to reveal how today's top scientists are reinventing human nature, morality, happiness, health, and reality itself. Interlacing bizarre experiments, cutting-edge science, and irreverent interviews, The Neurotourist is an odyssey through the mind-bending revolution underway in the new age of t...