All Reviews
Reviews are listed in reverse chronological order, with the most recent review appearing first in the list.
Trans Medicine
Trans MedicineTrans Medicine is a brilliant book that can be of much benefit to a number of different professionals such as psychologists, counsellors, social workers and basically anyone who wants to challenge their own biases and gain a greater understanding of the g
Why Vegan?
Why Vegan?In the U.S., philosophers (unlike economists, physicists, medical researchers, etc.) rarely make their way into public consciousness. This is true even of philosophers whose work has had wide influence upon how everyday North Americans think and act. Pete
Introduction à Sigmund Freud
Introduction à Sigmund FreudIn the opening pages, Andreas Mayer (who made himself known with Dreaming by the Book, a beautiful study written with Lydia Marinelli) announces a profoundly innovative approach to Freud, which would distinguish it from the many existing studies: his book
From Scientific Psychology to the Study of Persons
From Scientific Psychology to the Study of PersonsCanadian psychologist Jack Martin has provided readers with a carefully constructed, clearly motivated memoir within six concise chapters. As befits the title, From Scientific Psychology to the Study of Persons, Martin charts the unravelling of his initia
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Inseparable
InseparableSimone de Beauvoir’s novella Inseparable is remarkable in several ways: It was written in 1954 but has remained hidden away among her surviving papers until now. It is an autobiographical text from a prominent writer and philosopher. It is both a beautifu
Everything is Fine
Everything is FineIn 2014, Tim Granata killed his mother Claudia at their family home, using knives, a sledgehammer and rope. He was 22 and she was 58. He had schizophrenia, and had been off his medication for months. Once he was put on trial, he was found not guilty by re
I Left My Homework in the Hamptons
I Left My Homework in the HamptonsBlythe Grossberg acted as a private Manhattan tutor to rich children for many years. They attended expensive private schools. Many of them live a lifestyle that Grossberg compares to that of the Great Gatsby. She comes to understand that their days and ni
The Mechanics of Passion
The Mechanics of PassionAfter The weariness of the self and La société du malaise (The society of discontent), Alain Ehrenberg signs another book on the therapeutic culture so typical of contemporary Western societies, in which a nebulous array of psychological theories, dissemi
Surrounding Self-Control
Surrounding Self-ControlThis high-quality volume of essays, edited by leading philosopher of action Alfred Mele, provides a thorough overview of a variety of key issues revolving around the philosophy and psychology of self-control. Self-control – to be distinguished in the firs
Problems of Living
Problems of LivingThis intriguing book starts with a quotation of the first two and last stanzas of W. H. Auden’s poem The Labyrinth. In the first, Anthopos apteros – literally “wingless man” – meanders happily, lost within the maze of life. By the second stanza, he realiz
Perversion of Justice
Perversion of JusticeThe story of Jeffrey Epstein became better known when Julie Brown wrote a series, Perversion of Justice, about it for the Miami Herald in 2018. (The series is now behind a paywall but the related videos are available.) In July 2019 Epstein was charged wit
The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Disability
The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and DisabilityThe Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Disability gives us a cohesive portrayal of current Anglo-American thinking and debate about the central conceptions of disability within the burgeoning interdisciplinary field of Medical Humanities.
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The Quick Fix
The Quick FixJesse Singal covers various ways in which theories in social psychology have been proposed as solutions for social problems. These include ideas about boosting self-esteem, the benefits of power-posing, positive psychology, the crucial nature of grit as a
Corporate Psychopathy
Corporate PsychopathyThe title of the book written by Katarina Fritzon, Nathan Brooks, and Simon Croom is both enticing, striking the reader’s curiosity for its skillful analysis of research findings, and unsurprising, revealing predictable conclusions. Corporate psychopathy:
Nothing to See Here
Nothing to See HereWilson’s tale of fire children is entertaining and psychologically astute. Lillian is 28 and her life is a waste. She has no friends, and she has no serious job. She doesn’t have a family worth speaking of. Then she gets a call from her old college roomma
A Town Called Solace
A Town Called SolaceA Town Called Solace is set in a small community in rural Canada. There are three narrators. 7 year old Clara, her elderly neighbor Elizabeth Orchard, who is in hospital, and a middle aged man Liam Kane, who lived in the same house as Clara when he was a
On Anger
On Anger“The world needs bad men. We keep the other bad men from the door,” says the character Rust Cohle in the American crime-series, True Detectives. I thought of this sentence when I read Agnes Callard’s opening essay in the book On Anger (Boston Review Forum
Moral Philosophy and Moral Life
Moral Philosophy and Moral LifeCan philosophy tell us how to live? Should we let it? If not, what is the point of moral philosophy or ethics? Why, and how, should we think about how we live? These are the questions that guide Christensen’s book. Her work brings together ideas and argum
Sex, A Love Story
Sex, A Love StoryJerome Gold’s Sex, A Love Story is about a young couple in early 1960s California exploring sex and its place in their world. The main character is Bob, who is sixteen at the start of the novel. He plans to be a writer and is keen to experience extremes i
Ninth Street Women
Ninth Street WomenMary Gabriel provides a distinctive history of abstract expressionism as a distinctively American movement, focusing on 5 women and also many of the men who played major roles in their lives. The 5 women artists had men as friends, as lovers, husbands, ga
Caged Lion
Caged LionDid you know that Pilates, a widely-known modern exercise system, was the name of an actual person? If not, you are in good company—the author, John Howard Steel, posed this question at a 2007 convention for The Pilates Method Alliance, and he estimated
The Pornification of America
The Pornification of AmericaThe Pornification of America: How Raunch Culture is Ruining our Society by Bernadette Barton focuses on the question of what raunch culture is and why it matters? Simply put, raunch culture is sexist, not sexy. Raunch culture is everywhere and has basical
Last Chance Books
Last Chance BooksMadeline Moore is between high school and college. For the summer she is working in the family bookstore, Books and Moore. Their independent bookstore is going through a hard time, not only because of the usual competition from online stores, but also bec
Sedated
SedatedThis is a well-written book. As in his previous book, Cracked, the author, James Davies, Reader in Medical Anthropology and Mental Health at the University of Roehampton, builds the narrative in each chapter round interviews with various experts.
Attention
AttentionAttention: A Love Story by Casey Schwartz is a book equally as much about the concept of attention as it is about prescription medication/illicit substances and the impact of social media on our attention span and ability to focus. At a glance, these subj