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Lisa Appignanesi - Mad,Bad and Sad, A History of Women and The Mind Doctors from 1800 To the Present, Virago This comprehensive study of the female psyche offers a compassionate guide to the mental distress of women from the beginning of the nineteenth century onwards. Ms Appignanesi has at her fingertips access to information which both clarifies and humanises the often stigmatised categories of mental illness. She presents the case histories of Sylvia Plath and Marilyn Monroe, among others, to emphasise the role of child abuse and early narcissistic wounding in mental health problems and offers a clear, cogent analysis of eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia. Her descriptions of the many psychiatrists and psychoanalysts, male and female alike, who have tried, over time, to cure 'female' maladies by various methods are enlightening and well researched. The result is a sympathetic, balanced account of the history of both the medical practitioners, their methods and intentions and of the female patients they are trying to help with varying degrees of success.
Price: EUR 16.90
Defining beauty is a difficult undertaking. Does it exist in the proportions of a perfect face or a pleasing melody, or is it in the eye of the beholder? What appears beautiful to some leaves others unmoved. In this book, John Armstrong takes us on a graceful journey through diverse and complementary interpretations of beauty, ranging from Hogarth's belief in shapely curves to Kant's discourses on the meaning of pleasure. In this lucid and lyrical exploration, Armstrong aims to deepen our understanding both of beauty and happiness. He shows us that we can enhance the enjoyment of our lives by being able to recognise more keenly the beauty that surrounds us.
Price: EUR 12.90
Stephen T. Asma - On Monsters: An Unnatural History of our Worst Fears, Oxford University Press ‘On Monsters’, by Chicago-based Professor of Philosophy Stephen T. Asma, is an original and highly engrossing investigation into how the concept of ‘monsters’ must have evolved. One clue lies in the word’s origin, from the Latin ‘monstrum’, derived from the verb ‘monere’, meaning to warn; Asma’s primary point of departure is, therefore, the human intellect and how it aspired to make sense of the unfamiliar, thus ominous and intimidating, outside world. For example, scientific thinking suggests that our common phobias – such as the fear of spiders – hark back to the time when the fangs and many pairs of eyes of venomous spiders really were a threat to human evolution and a legitimate signal to make a run for it! This extremely accessible book goes on to explain that the origins of many Greek myths are revealed in the ancients’ attempts to wrap a physical shape around mystifying fossil forms: the Cyclops, for example, is apparently the outcome of an endeavour to interpret mastodon skulls. Starting from the blatant machismo of Alexander the Great and his army, who fought fantastical beasts in India, and working his way through human birth defects, freak shows, seafaring myths, well-known monsters of religion and fiction, war crimes, murders and a whole range of our ‘worst fears’ in general, Asma provides a warmly written insight into why, with such a history behind us, humans continue to be fascinated by anything that is unfamiliar.
Price: EUR 22.00
Bearzi and Stanford - Beautiful Minds: The Parallel Lives of Great Apes and Dolphins, Harvard University Press Noting that apes and dolphins have had no common ancestor for 100 million years, Bearzi and Stanford describe the parallel evolution that gave rise to their intelligence. Both closely observe that intelligence in action, in the territorial grassland and rainforest communities of chimpanzees and other apes and in groups of dolphins moving freely through open coastal waters. The authors detail their subjects’ ability to develop family bonds, form alliances and care for their young and offer an encompassing, insightful understanding of their individual cultures, politics, social structure, personality and the capacity for emotion. The resulting dual portrait is an outstanding contribution to the workings of these ‘beautiful minds’.
Price: EUR 28.00
David Bellos - Is That a Fish in Your Ear? : Translation and the Meaning of Everything Particular Books This book is a wonderful celebration of the sheer diversity of language and the place it occupies in human endeavour. Award-winning translator, David Bellos, takes the reader on a whirlwind tour round the highways and byways of translation in all its many forms, from literary fiction to car repair manuals, from the Nuremberg trials to decoding at Bletchley Park. He delves into the cross-over of languages, the theories behind their variety and the best practice of rendering one into another. Erudite yet unpretentious, ‘Is That a Fish in Your Ear?’ is spiced with entertaining detail, but Bellos saves his best for last, when he reasons that language is not necessary for communication, as theorists insist (other species communicate without it). He sees it as a way to establish rank or declare hostility or friendship. The practical conclusion of this scintillating miscellany is that if you want your children to have a safe job in tomorrow's world, have them learn Arabic and/or Chinese, assuming they already emerge from their education able to speak and spell comprehensible English.
In this remarkable book, acclaimed historian, Joanna Burke, uncovers the terrors of the past one hundred and fifty years. She looks at the dread of being buried alive which predominated nineteenth century fears to present day worries such as nuclear war (Iran) or the horror of 9/11 which has reawakened for many the fear of flying. Some people fear bizarre weather conditions they cannot control while others have a horror of their civil liberties being taken away by encroaching state-run surveillance systems. Burke successfully combines intimate knowledge of social, cultural and military history, particularly that of Britain and the U.S.A, with psychology, philosophy and popular science. The result is a potent mix of stimulating material which illuminates each fear we may have and what makes it somehow bearable.
Price: EUR 18.00
In an energetic and lucid style, Ms. Brizendine informs us all about the development of women’s brains through adolescence, pregnancy, childbirth and menopause. She links hormonal levels to deeper feelings of wellbeing, general performance and relationship interaction, weaving her findings from diverse articles and books, both technical and popular. Although her conclusions both excite and irritate one in equal measure, they are based on serious and well intentioned research, which stimulates the reader to find out more.
Price: EUR 13.00
David Brooks - The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement Random House This is the story of why and how success happens. David Brooks, an op-ed columnist for The New York Times, tells it through the lives of one composite American couple, Harold and Erica - how they grow, move forward, are pulled back, fail and succeed. Drawing on a wealth of current research from numerous disciplines, Brooks reveals the deeply social aspect of our mindset and exposes the bias in modern culture that overemphasizes rationalism, individualism and IQ. Along the way, he demolishes conventional definitions of success while looking towards a culture based on trust and humility. ‘The Social Animal’ is a moving and nuanced intellectual adventure about the nature of achievement in defence of progress. Impossible to put down, this book has a social impact that will change the way we see ourselves and the world.
Price: EUR 19.90
Malcolm Gladwell: Blink - The Power of Thinking without Thinking, Penguin What influences us when we make snap judgements? How far and under what circumstances can we trust decisions which are not based on measured thought? This fascinating book explores the phenomenon that we can know more about someone or something in the blink of an eye than we can after months of study. But we also have to acknowledge and understand those circumstances when our first impressions may lead us astray, possibly resulting in prejudice and discrimination. Malcolm Gladwell encourages us to take our powers of rapid cognition seriously, to acknowledge the subtle influences that can alter, undermine or bias the products of our unconscious, opening our eyes to a different way of thinking.
Price: EUR 8.90
Author of the bestselling ‘Emotional Intelligence’ Daniel Goleman now explores the emerging science of social intelligence giving us startling and refreshing revelations about our interpersonal relationships. Goleman not only gives us a thorough and provocative synthesis of the latest findings in brain science, biology and depth psychology, he also reveals the complex internal wiring system which affects every aspect of our lives. He explains the illuminating nature of intuition, particularly regarding first impressions and looks at charisma, emotional power and social attraction by giving concrete examples. Not forgetting our ‘darker side’ which we tend to project onto others to avoid its confrontation, Goleman also examines the nature of terms such as ‘narcissism, ‘Machiavellianism’ and ‘psychopathy’. A ’must read’ for our discerning critic within!
Sceptre Ms. Hustvedt has long been an explorer of the brain and mind but her investigations take a more personal turn when she herself suddenly suffers from convulsions while speaking in public about her deceased father. Was the attack ‘hysteria’, ‘conversion reaction’ or just co-incidental? In this part memoir, part detective story, Ms. Hustvedt offers a wealth of enlightening information about medical theories, contemporary psychiatry, neurology and psychoanalysis. Although not delving too much into her emotional subjectivity in the process, she still asks what the relationship is between mind and body and explores the complexity of diagnosis as well as looking at what it means simply to be human.
Price: EUR 17.50
Penguin Steven Johnson takes us on a fascinating journey to the frontiers of the brain to reveal exactly how we are hard-wired to think and feel. Experimenting with the latest techniques, he reveals that everything we do - from falling in love to forming a sentence - is caused by neurons firing and chemicals swirling around our heads. He also explains that there are gadgets that enable us to control our brainwaves and reactions and that everyone's mind is unique. Quirky and captivating, this informative book gives a lucid and nuanced description of modern neuroscience bringing us up to date with all the latest research on this fascinating and important topic.
Norton ‘The years of which I have spoken to you when I pursued the inner images were the most important time of my life Everything later was merely the outer classification’ These words of eminent psychologist and psychiatrist, C.G. Jung, formulated in 1957, refer to the decades he worked on ‘The Red Book’ from 1914-1930. Here, in this exact facsimile of the original book, we are given a unique opportunity to explore Jung’s extraordinary mind at work. He reveals not only his inner developmental processes and self experimentation in confrontation with the unconscious but his interpretative, artistic gifts. Interspersed among the 190 beautifully illustrated pages are his paintings showing diverse influences from Europe, the Middle and Far East and the Americas.
Price: EUR 100.00
Canongate In this sparkling, erudite, provocative book, Lehrer explains that when it comes to understanding the brain, artists got there first! Taking a group of celebrated writers, painters and composers, Lehrer shows us how artists have discovered truths about the human mind that science is only now discovering. We read how George Eliot understood the brain’s malleable nature, how Cézanne worked out the subtleties of vision and how Virginia Woolf pierced the mysteries of consciousness better than any ‘scientific’ approach. Above all, we learn that Proust was a neuroscientist in his method of memorising and analysing the essence of the present moment. This beguiling, clever yet subtle contribution to intellectual debate about art and science searches for meaning behind mental exercise that anywhere talented, original thinkers have left their footprint.
Price: EUR 19.00
In this fascinating and well researched biography of the often overlooked, elusive Welshman and psychoanalyst Ernest Jones, we are drawn irresistibly into the dramatic events of the twentieth century which have shaped our modem intellectual life. Ernest Jones was one of those shapers. Both a thinker and a doer, he rescued Sigmund Freud and his family from the Nazis in 1938 and brought them to London, before writing his three volume biography on Freud’s life. Ms. Maddox explores Jones’s early life in Wales, the tragic death of his beautiful and gifted first wife, Morfydd, plus his complex relationships with Anna Freud, Freud himself, C.G. Jung, Melanie Klein and others who formed the first psychoanalytical movement at that time. What emerges is a portrait of a clever, mercurial Welshman who not only helped transport many of Freud’s and Jung’s ideas to Britain but also translated them in his own individual and inimitable way.
Price: EUR 16.00
Granta In a series of journeys and stages of her life, Sara Maitland explores the different sources and textures of silence. She lived in remote cottages, visited deserts, forests and hilltops and immersed herself in the literature of quiet, from the hermits of the early Christian era to twentieth century single-handed sailors. She delves into the darkness and euphoria that silence can bring, offering both personal intellectual explorations as well as cultural diagnoses. Her evocative descriptions of the variation in the quality of silence at different times, seasons and places are a pleasure to read, plus she raises intriguing philosophical questions. This engaging book makes a convincing case for seeking out silence and drawing on its power, arguing that silence is not a lack of something, nor a rejection of sociability and friends but a deep need, increasingly less honoured, unfortunately, in our lives.
Price: EUR 13.90
Roger Penrose: The Road to Reality - A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe, Vintage Books In this most important and ambitious work of science, 'The Road to Reality' provides nothing less than a complete account of the physical universe and the essentials of its underlying mathematical reality. Penrose conveys real feeling for its deep beauty describing in great detail the philosophical implications as well as the intricate logical interconnectedness of his findings. Leavened by vivid descriptive passages and hundreds of hand drawn diagrams, Penrose gives us a personal as well as an unrivalled guide to the wonders of the universe we all inhabit.
Price: EUR 29.00
Phillips' wisdom comes to you from unexpected corners. His territory is complicated but he reports back in a clear and simple manner, belying the complexity of his subject matter. In this latest exploration, Phillips asks whether it is possible to be egalitarian and democratic when our inner lives are an unflagging drama of desire and dependence, greed, rivalry and abjection. He examines our fantasies of freedom and the nature of inhibition, drawing on the lives and works of Svengali, Christopher Isherwood and Bertrand Russell to illustrate his points. Heady stuff but Phillips handles his material with customary grace and deftness.
Psychoanalysis as a form of therapy works by attending to the patient’s side effects, that is, ‘what falls out of his pockets once he starts speaking!’ Participating in analysis is a bit like leaping into the dark and being given the chance to think about the strangeness of your own thoughts. For this task, Adam Phillips is the perfect guide – erudite, witty and compassionate – he leads us, in essay form, into the multi-layered links between psychoanalysis, literature and our everyday existence, giving all the unusual thoughts and emotions that swell up a vivid form and place of their own.
Price: EUR 14.90
Madness is always present in our lives from the chaos we experience as babies, the rebellion in adolescence and in the often irrational nature of sexual appetite. Sanity, on the other hand, is much less glamourous and talked about. But renowned writer and psychoanalyst, Adam Phillips, argues that 'deep' sanity as opposed to 'superficial' sanity is, in fact, the best kept secret to happiness. He does not offer easy answers to madness but instead reinterprets its definition. Phillips maintains that it is the ability to incorporate the conflict between madness and sanity, including them both in a creative, dialectical way, that leads to realistic and uplifting solutions to life's most complex issues.
The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature - Steven Pinker, Allen Lane In 'The Blank Slate' Steven Pinker bestselling author of 'The Language Instinct' and 'How the Mind Works' explores human nature in all its moral, emotional and political implications. His profoundly positive arguments for the compatibility of biology and humanism are unrivalled in their scope and lucidity. This book is essential reading for all those interested in the ever-fascinating nature/nurture debate.
Jon Ronson, The Psychopath Test, A Journey Though the Madness Industry Picador Combining Ronson’s trademark humour, charm and investigative precision, this study is a fascinating journey through an unsettling industry. Ronson meets a Broadmoor inmate who faked a mental disorder to get a lighter sentence and is stuck in prison with no-one believing he is sane. He also meets an influential psychologist who developed the standardised Psychopath Test but is convinced that many important CEOs and politicians are in fact psychopaths. Ronson realises that many people at the helm of an industry which defines madness are as crazy as those they study. This deeply honest book unearths some dangerous truths about madness by asking serious questions about how we define normalcy in the first place in a world where we are increasingly judged by our maddest ‘borders.’ A provocative and timely read!
Picador In this eagerly awaited new book, Oliver Sacks, author of ‘The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat’ focuses his learned and inquisitive eye on the topic of music and its relationship to the brain. He scrutinises a series of medical case studies ranging from a man who is struck by lightning and suddenly inspired to become a pianist at the age of forty two, a group of children with Williams syndrome who are hyper-musical from birth, people with ‘amusia’, who perceive a symphony as a clattering of pots and pans to a man whose memory spans only seven seconds – with the exception of music, of course. Wise, compassionate and compellingly readable, ‘Musicophilia’ leaves the reader more attuned to the complexity of human nature and more conscious of the important role of music in our lives.
Respect: The Formation of Character in a World of Inequality Everyone needs to be treated with respect. This challenging new book explains why ever fewer people actually gain it. Sennett examines three forces which challenge mutual respect in society: unequal ability, adult dependency and degrading forms of compassion. In contrast to current welfare programs, he proposes a welfare system based on respect for those in need. He explores how self worth can be nurtured in an unequal world and how self-esteem must be balanced with feelings for others.
Profile Books For hundreds of years, we have had many books on manners. But 'Talk to the Hand', by the bestselling author of 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves', is not a book about manners or etiquette. It is about the rudeness of the modern world and the sense of outrage that infects us every day as we discover how crass, selfish and generally inconsiderate other people can be. Should we say anything when we notice such blatant rudeness to ourselves or to others in public life? Ms Truss examines this question and comes up with some surprising and entertaining insights and solutions. A must read!
Price: EUR 17.90
Vintage Nora Vincent disguised herself and assumed the role of a man for eighteen months in order to research her first book, eventually finding herself on a psychiatric ward. After that experience, she became determined to learn more about the world of psychiatry and went undercover in three difficult, pressurized and very different psychiatric institutions. Starting in a huge inner city hospital, where patients are often ‘repeats’ and usually poor and dispossessed, she encounters a place where medication is a process of containment, aimed at making life easier for the rest of us rather than for the patients. She moves onto the more calming green décor of St. Luke’s, where patients have their own room and jog in the park. Next, she wades through a lot of West Coast psychobabble at the Buddhist-inspired brand of healing of Mobius and makes some unexpected discoveries. In her inside-out view of mental health care, she finds that it is not so much her peers that are the ‘problem’ but the appalling treatment of some of the ‘professionals’ who are meant to be care givers. This fearless view of mental health care makes for riveting reading, especially for clinical psychologists, psychiatrists and other health care professionals.
Few people nowadays have a problem with the idea that humans descended from apes but fewer consider its psychological implications. Man not only moves and breathes like an ape, he also thinks like one. Winston argues that it is in our primeval past that we find the first clues to understanding our instinctual life. But how well do instincts equip us for the 21st century ? Do they help or hinder us ? In this fascinating and erudite book, Winston takes us on a journey deep into the human mind, looking at the relationship between science and religion, the sexes and exploring those instincts that make us peculiarly human.
