A Brief History of the Smile
A Brief History of the SmileWearing a smile on one's face can denote many things in various cultures, many of which have nothing to do with mirth at all. In the introduction to A…
A History of Psychiatry
A History of PsychiatryThree Centuries of Psychiatry Just about every aspect of psychiatry is controversial, and the history of the field is no exception. Part of th…
A Mind So Rare
A Mind So RareOver a span of 5 years in the recent past some books on mind have appeared (e.g.…
A Natural History of Vision
A Natural History of VisionAccording to Plato, we are a perpetually vexed species. The things we are drawn to in the world are pure ideas – forms such as justice, harmony…
A Universe of Consciousness
A Universe of ConsciousnessThis new volume provides a biologically-based perspective on consciousness. Although Edelman & Tononi may often appear to lead the reader into believing…
A User's Guide to the Brain
A User's Guide to the BrainAfter reading A User's Guide to the Brain, the words "It's all in your head." Can never be taken lightly again. The reader will learn th…
A World Full of Gods
A World Full of GodsCan history, especially religious history, be truly objective? Keith Hopkins, professor of ancient history at King's College, Cambridge, explores Christi…
ABCs to Positive Living
ABCs to Positive LivingThis tiny book contains 57 positive affirmations, including·I am a MASTERPIECE, an outstanding work of art, one of a kind.·I am…
Accessible Yoga for Every Body DVD
Accessible Yoga for Every Body DVDIn this second DVD from the Yoga for the Young at Heart series, Susan Winter Ward gives an hour yoga class. It is definitely more demanding than…
After the Ecstasy, the Laundry
After the Ecstasy, the LaundryIn After the Ecstasy, the Laundry--How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path, Dr. Jack Kornfield offers an excellent guide for those seeking spi…
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AIDS & People with Severe Mental Illness
This is an excellent resource for mental health professionals looking for a complete and well-edited book addressing this rarely-discussed phenomenon. Divid…
Read the full review of AIDS & People with Severe Mental Illness
Akhenaten
AkhenatenAkhenaten is an exhaustive demonstration of politics’ ability to appropriate and distort history to its own ends. Dominic Monterrat uses t…
Algernon, Charlie and I
Algernon, Charlie and IFlowers for Algernon writter Daniel Keyes can't figure out, p. 4, what's "haunting," him 40 years later so he manufactures a "mysti…
Allergy Relief
Allergy ReliefMs Goldfarb gives an overview of alternative treatments for allergy. She explains an interesting technique using Guided Imagery that is worth trying. She…
Altered States
Altered StatesHot pink cover aside, James Hughes' book, Altered States: Creativity Under The Influence, is one of the most visually attractive books in print. &…
Always On Call
Always On CallThis is the second edition of the already well-known guide to the problems encountered by caregivers, the attempts undertaken to alleviate those problems…
AM/PM Yoga
AM/PM YogaAM-PM Yoga is demonstrated by Ana Brett, and narrated by both Brett and Ravi Singh. It demonstrates Kundalini breathing techniques, the repetitio…
An American Obsession
An American ObsessionHomosexuality was first used in the late 1800s to refer to an erotic desire for persons of the same sex. Later, the term heterosexuality was developed. Homo…
An Odd Kind of Fame
An Odd Kind of FameMalcolm Macmillan's history of the case of Phineas Gage is an impressive achievement. He has succeeded in writing the definitive history of one of the mo…
Anger, Madness, and the Daimonic
Anger, Madness, and the Daimonic"A special characteristic of the daimonic model is that it considers both creativity on one side, and anger and rage on the other side, as coming from th…
Animal Minds
Animal MindsGriffin's book is an interesting case of science in the making. Unless the inquiry turns up decisive reasons to drop the issue as hopeless, here one sees th…
As Nature Made Him
As Nature Made HimThe Nature/Nurture debate, a conversational staple with parents of young children, nearly always unfolds in a predictable, almost platitudinous, fashion. Ad…
Atonement and Forgiveness
Atonement and ForgivenessIt is central to Brooks' argument that the legacy of slavery is still very much in evidence in America today. He has little truck with those who might sa…
Authentic Happiness
Authentic HappinessIn this audiobook, Martin Seligman offers Positive Psychology. He argues that we need a science of happiness, and explains that that there have been a n…
Beauty's Nothing
Beauty's NothingApart from the photographs themselves and the title of the book, Nadav Kander gives no help to the reader in working out what he is trying to accomplish wit…
Best of the Brain from Scientific American
Best of the Brain from Scientific AmericanScientific American is one of those magazines or journals that just gets it right every time, with the right balance of science and writing that…
Read the full review of Best of the Brain from Scientific American
Better Sex Through Yoga
Better Sex Through YogaHaving previously made a 3-DVD yoga instruction set called Better Sex Through Yoga, Jacquie Noelle Greaux has now written a book of the same name. It is a rather standard book of yoga poses with a few added ideas about how the different yoga posture…
Better Sex Through Yoga
Having previously made a 3-DVD yoga instruction set called…
Beyond Reason
Beyond ReasonBeyond Reason contains about 150 color plates of works from the Prinzhorn Collection, as well as 3 introductory essays illustrated with many small…
Black Mass
Black MassJohn Gray's new book may be one of the most significant publications of the year. It presents in clear, unambiguous but scholarly sound language a st…
Blind Spots
Blind SpotsNear the end of her book Van Hecke relates an approach used by a high school history teacher to get his students to think about the complex notion of cau…
Blink
BlinkA disclaimer: Malcolm Gladwell is a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, and I am a big fan of his articles. In the 6,000-10,000 word essays…
Blood and Guts
Blood and GutsWhen Roy Porter got into his stride there was probably no better communicator of the richness, diversity, inter-connectedness and exhilaration of the soc…
Bodies out of Bounds
Bodies out of BoundsIn a country known for its excessive consumption, it’s no surprise that obesity has become one of the major public health issues of our time. …
Brain Longevity
Brain LongevityThis is indeed an instructive book. Written with a great deal of research into the subject and I am sure, with a sincere desire to deal with the events i…
Brainwashing
BrainwashingNot so much a 'how to ...' guide to brainwashing, as a 'how to avoid being brainwashed', Taylor's 15 chapter volume is a timely addition to the bookshel…
Breaking Murphy's Law
Breaking Murphy's LawThis appears at first sight to be one of those irritating 'positive psychology' books that exhort the reader to smile, or whatever, and her/his w…
Breathing
BreathingRarely does the implied promise of any self improvement program lead to complete fulfillment in its delivery. Half-believing, we think, "Oh well, le…
Brief Encounters
Brief EncountersBrandreth likes to portray himself as lightweight -- a bit if a dilettante, chat show host sort of thing, whereas this book, a selection of interviews of…
Brothel
Brothel"Legal brothels are one alternative in dealing with prostitution. However disturbing the idea of commercial sex may be to some of us, it's naive to bel…
Building Healthy Minds
Building Healthy MindsBuilding Healthy Minds is a practical book for parents of babies and young children written by an expert in child development and a well-known an…
Burn Unit
Burn UnitThis is an awesomely well-researched and well-written book by a professional writer about health issues. She is best known for her books on dieting perha…
Calling Our Spirits Home
Calling Our Spirits HomeCarla Woody writes a fascinating book in which she introduces thought provoking concepts. Her blend of metaphysics, myth & legend, and mysticism is s…
Choosing Civility
Choosing CivilityAs a psychotherapist, I work with many patients who, for a variety of reasons, just can’t seem to get along with other people. As a teacher o…
CIA
CIAProfessor Millick begins his short (136pgs.) but absolutely fun to read book with a bit about how he came to fulfill his lifetime desire to work for the CIA: When I got older, I wanted a job that was just as exciting. What were some other possibilities? M
Classical Pilates Technique DVD
Classical Pilates Technique DVDClassical Pilates Technique is a 75 minute DVD. It has a 2-minute introduction, and there is a 17-minute discussion of the benefits of Pilates wi…
Cognitive Neuroscience of Emotion
Cognitive Neuroscience of EmotionCognitive Neuroscience of Emotion is a patchy collection of seventeen articles on the neuropsychology of emotion. It comprises some interesting and o…
Combating Physican Burnout
Combating Physican BurnoutWhen this book first appeared, in early 2020, just before news of the COVID epidemic emerged, this book about physician burnout seemed so timely. I never imagined that it could become even timelier, yet that has happened, yet again.
Consider the Lobster
Consider the LobsterThis substantial collection of exceptional essays of various lengths and on diverse subjects stands as a another round in David Foster Wallace's prot…
Contraception
ContraceptionContracept just one sexual act, far enough back in time, and no one reading this page would now exist. That's my concise history of contraception. Donna Drucker's is different; more comprehensive, with a lot more pictures.
Conversations About Psychology and Sexual Orientation
Conversations About Psychology and Sexual OrientationConversations About Psychology and Sexual Orientation is a relatively brief book considering the breadth of the subject matter. What is the contri…
Read the full review of Conversations About Psychology and Sexual Orientation
Cool Women
Cool WomenAlso reviewed: `` `` Mindy Morgenstern. The Real Rules for Girls. Los Angeles: Girl Press, 1999.
Creative Core Abs
Creative Core AbsCreative Core Abs is a nicely produced DVD featuring Shiva Rea demonstrating her free flowing exercise program for strengthening your core. …
Creative Writing In Health And Social Care
Creative Writing In Health And Social CareThis is a book of different stories with a similar theme. It involves a number of healthcare settings and how writing can be palliative in each. The set…
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Creatures of Accident
Creatures of AccidentWallace Arthur sets himself the goal to convince a wide audience that science can explain with ease the rise of complex creatures from simple beginnings.…
Cross-Cultural Topics in Psychology
Cross-Cultural Topics in PsychologyThis is the second edition of a very well received introductory text. It has been substantially updated and revised since the 1994 edition, and there are…
Crossing
CrossingThirty-nine years on earth as a biological woman--about half of those as a professional woman with an office of my own--and never, never have I thought to d…
Crossing the Unknown Sea
Crossing the Unknown Sea“It does not take much to spark the imagination, but just what will do it is always the question, and the answers can be very queer indeed. Ge…
Customers and Patrons of the Mad-Trade
Customers and Patrons of the Mad-TradeThis is an excellent contribution to the Medicine and Society series published by the University of California Press and a companion volume to U…
Read the full review of Customers and Patrons of the Mad-Trade
Dance the Chakras Yoga Workout
Dance the Chakras Yoga WorkoutDance of the Chakras is an hour long workout of Kundalini style yoga. It consists of…
Death in the Air
Death in the AirDeath in the Air: Globalism, Terrorism & Toxic Warfare by Leonard G. Horowitz had record sales at bookstores this past Fall (2001). In the aft…
Debunked!
Debunked!Debunked! is a translation (by Bart K. Holland) of the French book, Devenez Sorciers, Devenez Savants (2002), written by Nobel‑laureate phys…
Deep Gossip
Deep GossipIn this assemblage combining previously published and new essays, Henry Abelove addresses the purposeful misinterpretation of Freudian theories of homose…
Defying Dementia
Defying DementiaDementia is a frightening experience for those afflicted and provokes anxiety for those approaching the later years of their lives when the potential for…
Depression In Later Life
Depression In Later LifeIn this short book, Depression in Later Life, Manthorpe and Iliffe examine the ways in which older people exhibit depression and the ways that the…
Dirty Details
Dirty DetailsMarion Deutsche Cohen's husband Jeffrey Cohen was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at the age of 36. Cohen helped her husband as he became less able to…
Divine Madness
Divine MadnessWhy are so many creative people apparently crazy? Is mental illness, for some people, a doorway to creativity, something that unlocks latent genius that…
Do-It-Yourself Eye Movement Techniques for Emotional Healing
Do-It-Yourself Eye Movement Techniques for Emotional HealingThe claim championed for Friedberg's Eye Movement Technique (EMT) that it may be used to "rapidly reduce emotional stress and redirect thinki…
Read the full review of Do-It-Yourself Eye Movement Techniques for Emotional Healing
Doing Good
Doing Good"It is the voices of counselors, therapists, nurses, physicians, philanthropists, teachers, public service personnel, and volunteers who give this book…
Dreaming and Other Involuntary Mentation
Dreaming and Other Involuntary MentationEvery so often a brilliant idea comes along that falls victim to a less than adequate exploration. Dr. Arthur Epstein’s book, Dreaming and Other…
Read the full review of Dreaming and Other Involuntary Mentation
DSM-IV-TR Case Studies
DSM-IV-TR Case StudiesThis 350-page book was really a disappointment to me. Not that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual [DSM] itself is, in my opinion, the bes…
Dutiful Daughters
Dutiful DaughtersAs a researcher in ethnogerontology, I was delighted when the opportunity arose to review this series of collected essays about women's experiences of careg…
Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves
Earthly Bodies, Magical SelvesMan. Woman. Birth. Death. Infinity. As a Maine Woods girl growing up in the television age of the 60s, what I liked most about…
Eastern Body, Western Mind
Eastern Body, Western MindThe title is rather intriguing and invites the reader who is interested in exploring his/her self. The author is a trained psychologist with additional…
Eccentrics
EccentricsWhile I feel that I am pretty normal, and that it is other people who are strange, I have been occasionally told that I am somewhat eccentric. People in ac…
Ecological Medicine
Ecological MedicineThe topics in this book are drawn largely from the annual Bioneers Conference. Kenny Ausubel, is the founder of the Bioneers, and author of the highly ac…
Emergencies in Mental Health Practice
Emergencies in Mental Health PracticeManning the front lines of mental health crises is a demanding and dangerous occupation. However, according to a recent American Psychological Associatio…
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Emotion
EmotionNo topic seems more complicated, fascinating and important to us than ourselves. And within the human domain, it is emotion that continues to baffle us down…
Emotions Revealed
Emotions RevealedIn his most recent book, Emotions revealed: recognizing faces and feelings to improve communication and emotional life, Paul Ekman examines the un…
Every Day Yoga for Every Body DVD
Every Day Yoga for Every Body DVDIn Basic Series 3 for Yoga for the Young at Heart DVD, Susan Winter Ward continues her classes for people in midlife and beyond. She starts with standin…
Everyday Greens
Everyday GreensIt's a truism to say that different people have wildly different food tastes, and so it can be hard to know which cookbooks to recommend. Narrowing it d…
Everyday Simplicity
Everyday SimplicityWhen I first received this book for review I was quite excited and looked forward to reading it. In the beginning pages, the reader is giving wonderful exam…
Exuberance
ExuberanceKay Redfield Jamison is best known for her memoir An Unquiet Mind, her work on the relationship between manic depression and creativity as set out…
Eyes of Sophia
Eyes of SophiaEyes of Sophia, a true love story that took place in our days is not a fable or fiction. It's the story of a love that appeared within the rarest…
Fashion and Its Social Agendas
Fashion and Its Social AgendasThrough the media of cross-sectional interviews and the published literature, Diana Crane attempts to paint a vivid picture of the evolution of the twin…
Fashion, Desire And Anxiety
Fashion, Desire And Anxiety‘Fashion colludes in society’s obsession with thinness; the whole process of making and marketing a collection is based upon the production o…
Fear and Other Uninvited Guests
Fear and Other Uninvited GuestsFear and Other Invited Guests is as well-written and useful as Lerner's previous books, such as The Dance of Anger and The Dance of Inti…
Final Exam
Final ExamWell written, informative essays on the state of contemporary medicine by thoughtful physicians are not unknown, but Pauline Chen's wise, eloquent re…
Flirting With Danger
Flirting With DangerThe declared aim of this book is a worthy one, yet the author's political constraint upon the interpretation of testimony largely frustrates that aim. Throu…
Flow and Yin
Flow and YinThis yoga DVD consists of two parts, one a 50 minute yoga flow and the other a 68 minute slow yin practice. Donna Helm-Yost leads a class of 9 women and…
Frida
FridaFrida: Bringing Frida Kahlo's Life and Art to Film is an absolutely gorgeous book! The book contains the movie script lavishly illustrated with ph…
From Certainty to Uncertainty
From Certainty to UncertaintyIn his book David Peat endorses the claim that the world is much more complex than the clockwork model projected and, in consequence, the idea of progres…
From Joy Division to New Order
From Joy Division to New OrderThe recent release of the movie 24 Hour Party People drew attenti…
Full Steam Ahead!
Full Steam Ahead!At the center of this ambitious program on visioning in business is a decision to tell a story rather than narrate a program in logical sequence. The…
Genius
GeniusI cannot see how one could possibly read Harold Bloom’s most recent book without developing mixed, very mixed feelings and thoughts about it. As a m…
Getting a Good Night's Sleep
Getting a Good Night's SleepBeing a philosophy professor who specializes in a critical scrutiny of psychology, I often doubt that I represent the typical consumer. I tend to find s…
Gilded City
Gilded CityGilded City: Scandal and Sensation in Turn-of-the-Century New York by M. H. Dunlop is an in-depth study of the themes that permeated the liv…
Girl in the Curl
Girl in the CurlGirl in the Curl takes the reader on a journey through the history of women's surfing. The contributions that women made to this sport are both cruci…
Girls on the Verge
Girls on the VergeGo undercover for a sorority rush, crash a Debutante ball, and experience Burning Man in Vendela Vida's Girls on the Verge: Debutante Dips, Drive-bys, an…
Good Karma
Good KarmaGood Karma is best seen as a fun book with a range of ideas and quotations about karma that is not meant to be taken very seriously. It us…
Good Work
Good WorkGood Work is essentially a report on the results of a qualitative research project that was designed to uncover factors that promote and impede good…
Good Work If You Can Get It
Good Work If You Can Get ItBrennan's book is a good introduction to graduate school and to the search for a position once you have finished your degrees. It is not easy!
Gracefully Insane
Gracefully InsaneMost histories having to do withmental illness recount horrific tales of desperately ill people abandoned bytheir families and doomed to spend their re…
Great Psychologists and Their Time
Great Psychologists and Their TimeThe book “Great Psychologists and their times” is not what you might think it is. Readers not familiar with D.K. Simonton’s previous work…
Happiness Is.
Happiness Is.In Happiness Is, psychiatrist Shawn Christopher Shea, somewhat abstrusely, derives a human matrix model, from quantum mechanics; and engrossingly…
Health And the Media
Health And the MediaThis slim volume, 175 pages of text and 10 essays, serves as a good introduction to the consideration of the often symbiotic and always involved relation…
Health Online
Health OnlineDr. Ferguson's effort is compelling, and sometimes uniquely personal overview of the world of online health, medicine, and support groups. A comprehensive g…
Hello from Heaven!
Hello from Heaven!Is there life after death? What happens to us after we die? Have you ever wanted to communicate with a deceased loved one? Can our loved ones communicate…
Hemalayaa's Yoga for Young Bodies DVD
Hemalayaa's Yoga for Young Bodies DVDThe Yoga for Young Bodies DVD has two main workouts plus a few extras. The workouts are done by three young people practicing on mats which are a…
Read the full review of Hemalayaa's Yoga for Young Bodies DVD
Heroes, Rogues, and Lovers
Heroes, Rogues, and Lovers"Testosterone" is one of those funny words that actually has a real, scientific meaning, but is bandied around so much in non-scientific contexts…
Heterophobia
HeterophobiaDaphne Patai, currently a professor of Brazilian literature at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, spent ten years there with a joint appointment in…
History of Shit
History of ShitThe thesis of Laporte's text is, in a certain sense, a logically consequent assertion arising from an appreciation of Marxist materialism in conjunction wit…
History of Suicide
History of SuicideThe History of Suicide by Georges Minois is a detailed, thorough study of suicide in Western Culture. The study, noting that the period between the s…
Hooked!
Hooked!Hooked: Buddhist Writings on Greed, Desire and the Urge to Consume edited by Stephanie Kaza is just what its sub-heading promises it to be. It i…
Hot Body Cool Mind: Waking Energy
Hot Body Cool Mind: Waking EnergyThe Hot Body Cool Mind DVDs featuring the approach of Jennifer Kries are different from other yoga/Pilates DVDs. Kries emphasizes a divers…
Hot Chocolate for the Mystical Lover
Hot Chocolate for the Mystical Lover"Through the hearts, minds and souls of men and women searching for that one true love, we experience the extraordinary power of the divine in our everyd…
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HotHouse
HotHouseOn the cover is a picture of Angelina Jolie looking sultry in a swimming pool. Inside you will find pictures of Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jude Law, Christina…
How Children Learn the Meanings of Words
How Children Learn the Meanings of WordsThis book was awarded the 2002 Eleanor Macoby Book Award by the American Psychological Association. This award is given to a book that has had or promise…
Read the full review of How Children Learn the Meanings of Words
How Doctors Think
How Doctors ThinkThe topic of how doctors think has been popular for several decades. Cognitive psychologists who study reasoning and decision making have found medicine…
How Our Lives Become Stories
How Our Lives Become StoriesThis book surprised me by being more scholarly techinical than I anticipated. It actually reads more like four essays on what “self” means in wri…
How Proust Can Change Your Life
How Proust Can Change Your LifeThe subtitle of this small book ,"Not a Novel", slyly hints at the author’s sophistication and playfulness. A more naïve being might ask why a…
How Science Works
How Science WorksStatistical literacy is becoming an issue of growing concern for scientists and philosophers alike, the underlying drive being the social impact it has o…
Humankind
HumankindThere is little doubt that Fernández-Armesto likes the big topic. Previous works have been The History of Food, the Millenium and, perhaps…
Hunger
HungerHunger: An Unnatural History takes a look at hunger from a variety of perspectives, from the biochemical to the sociopolitical. Less of a histor…
I Only Say This Because I Love You
I Only Say This Because I Love YouDeborah Tannen has written another great book. In I Only Say This Because I Love You, she confronts the communication problems that often arise in…
If Men Could Talk
If Men Could TalkThe first question for If Men Could Talk, by the psychologist Alon Gratch, is “Does it live up to its title?” And the answer is . . . ye…
In the Line of Duty
In the Line of DutyIn The Line of Duty is a softcover collection of photographs taken on and after September 11, 2001 in New York City, along with a number of short…
Indivisible by Two
Indivisible by TwoNancy Segal's work, herself one of a twin, has taken her many places, in search of lives that do not cleanly reduce by two. Identical twins, as we know,…
Information Hunters
Information HuntersThis book tells a story that has not been told before. It tells the story of the many people who saved the documents, books and pictures produced by the Nazis in WWII. As the author tells us in the Prologue "This book grew our of a chance discovery of an
Integrative Medicine
Integrative MedicineWhen I have seen Andrew Weil on PBS fund-raising specials, I've always been impressed by how articulate and smart he is, and he is just as convincing here.…
Intensive Care
Intensive CareDoctors in inner-city hospitals toil on the front lines of medicine. They fight the battles no one else wants to fight, treating patients who cannot or w…
Introduction to Yoga DVD
Introduction to Yoga DVDThe main program in this Introduction to Yoga DVD is the Workout, which lasts about 50 minutes. Evamarie Pilipuf leads the viewer through a serie…
It's Up to You
It's Up to YouAt the heart of the Dharma is the aspiration of bodhichitta: compassion for others and their struggles in samsara. We ‘wish,’ so Dzigar Kongt…
Judo with Words
Judo with WordsThis is a book review that I think I could do without ever having read the book. “Judo With Words” trades on the supposed analogy between physi…
Knowing the Nature of Fear
Knowing the Nature of FearIf you have ever read any of Pema Chodron's books, and if you liked them, then you will probably want to own this nice lecture series on tapes. Four tape…
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Landscapes in My Mind
From the Publisher`` Using his own subjective experiences, those of his patients with multiple personalities or schizophrenia,`` Kasparov and Deep Blue, Eros and Psyche, the author makes a major contribution to the science of the`` mind, describi
Lessons Learned on My Way Home
Lessons Learned on My Way HomeThis book is classified as "inspirational" and it truly is inspirational. I have read a lot of self-help, motivational, and inspirational book…
Lies! Lies! Lies!
In 1955, Erving Goffman stated in his classic, The Presentation of Self i…
Life Coaching
Life CoachingMost people don't know there exists a nascent profession called "Life Coaching" and would be surprised to learn, according to Dave Ellis, t…
Listening in the Silence, Seeing in the Dark
Listening in the Silence, Seeing in the DarkListening in the silence, seeing in the dark is Ruthann Knechel Johansen’s account of her son Erik’s recovery following an acquired br…
Read the full review of Listening in the Silence, Seeing in the Dark
Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked
Little Red Riding Hood UncloakedLittle Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality, and the Evolution of a Fairy Tale by Catherine Orenstein is an engrossing study of the evolving r…
Mad Mary Lamb
Mad Mary LambSusan Tyler Hitchcock's recent work Mad Mary Lamb: Lunacy and Murder in Literary London is a rather unique account of the major, and ill acknowled…
Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian
Madhur Jaffrey's World VegetarianMany vegetarians who enjoy food from Asia will be familiar with Jaffrey’s earlier books, such as the award-winning…
Make America Healthy Again
Make America Healthy AgainNicole Sapier is a NYC physician, working in radiology. She is also a Fox News contributor, and given her statements it is not hard to imagine that she is a Trump supporter, although she does not say who she voted for. She does argue often against the ACA
Making Your Mind Matter
Making Your Mind MatterThis book is very much down the philosophy end of the psychology-philosophy spectrum although it is littered with psychological insights. International…
Malefemale
Malefemale105 photographs chosen by staff at Aperture Magazine (or maybe just Vince Aletti -- it's not quite clear) on the theme of gender. There are some wonderful i…
Mary Pope Osborne's Tales from the Odyssey
Mary Pope Osborne's Tales from the OdysseyMary Pope Osborne's Tales from the Odyssey: The One-Eyed Giant/the Land of the Dead is a retelling for young children of a few of the more p…
Read the full review of Mary Pope Osborne's Tales from the Odyssey
Matters of Substance
Matters of SubstanceMatters of Substance, with enviable erudition, examines the many headed Hydra of mind acting drugs, both licit and illicit. The esteemed a…
Measuring What Counts
Measuring What CountsEarly in Measuring What Counts the authors, led by Nobel winner Joseph Stiglitz, state, “What we measure affects what we do. If we measure the wrong thing, we will do the wrong thing.” This is a book about economists using the wrong measure, GDP, as an in
Medicine and Philosophy in Classical Antiquity
Medicine and Philosophy in Classical AntiquityTwo basic errors have confounded the writing of histories of medicine: the popularist accounts that labor under hearsay scholarship where the writers hav…
Read the full review of Medicine and Philosophy in Classical Antiquity
Medieval Writings on Female Spirituality
Medieval Writings on Female SpiritualityMedieval Writings on Female Spirituality edited by Elizabeth Spearing is an interesting compilation of writings by and about individual medieval w…
Read the full review of Medieval Writings on Female Spirituality
Memoires 1995
Memoires 1995The photograph on page 80 is dated 1986, taken in East Berlin. On the old building apparently dead vines grasp the front wall, and a sign to the left of the…
Memory, Brain, and Belief
Memory, Brain, and BeliefThis collection of essays is based upon presentations delivered to a conference at Harvard University in 1997 entitled "Memory and Belief." The decidedly…
Millennium Girls
Millennium GirlsThis contribution to feminism and critical studies has three goals: to “create a space” for girls who have not had a chance to speak; to adopt a c…
Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me)
Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me)There is a vast body of literature on how to do well, how to be happy, what to do and choose for one's own benefit and that of others. This body cove…
Mortification
MortificationWriting is a notoriously private activity. It is not the sort of thing that prepares its exponents for public performance. And yet there is increasing pr…
Music
MusicTed Gioia gives a history of music from ancient times up to rock and rap, highlighting the ways in which the most innovative music is most commonly at first disruptive and even a threat to the establishment ways, and then gets absorbed into the mainstream
My Misspent Youth
My Misspent YouthEssayist Meghan Daum, in her ten-essay collection My Misspent Youth, is beautifully and painfully honest even when it is self-incriminating to be…
Nature
NatureAs I was starting in on Coates's Nature: Western Attitudes since Ancient Times, I had a conversation with my colleague Baylor Johnson, who had fin…
Near Death Experience
Near Death ExperienceThis fine book offers both an interesting examination and an explanation of near-death experiences. In the course of doing as much, it also provides a s…
Neurons and Networks
Neurons and NetworksJohn E. Dowling, in the preface to the second edition of Neurons and Networks: An Introduction to Behavioral Neurosciences, describes behavioral n…
Nomadland
NomadlandFirst, the book has also been made into a film, directed by Chloe Zhao and starring Frances McDormand,“as a vandwelling working nomad who leaves her hometown after her husband dies and the sole industry closes down, to be "houseless" and travel around the
Nothing to Hide
Nothing to HideNothing to Hide: Mental Illness in the Family is a collection of interviews and photographs of families in which one or more have experienced ment…
Nymphomania
NymphomaniaThe sex expert Alfred Kinsey famously defined a nymphomaniac as 'someone who has more sex than you do.' In her book, 'Nymphomania', Carol Groneman sets out…
Objects of Our Desire
Objects of Our DesireObjects of our Desire fascinatingly plumbs the vastly intricate psychological pathways of physical objects, or things. The author, Salman Akhtar,…
Of One-eyed and Toothless Miscreants
Of One-eyed and Toothless MiscreantsThe book entitled Of One-eyed and Toothless Miscreants: Making the Punishment Fit the Crime? is a treat for those who are interested in the administration of justice. Michael Tonry has edited a collection of well-developed commentaries from a variety of s
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Of Two Minds
Of Two MindsManaged care is drastically shortening the time in which the mentally ill can afford to be hospitalized, and making it harder for most people to afford outp…
Out of the Dust
Out of the DustAs a novel, Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse is somewhat unconventional as it is written in a combination diary-poetry form. However, those with po…
Over My Head
Over My HeadOver My Head is the common story of head trauma viewed from an odd view: the injured brain itself. If you look for a purely scientific factbook on he…
Overkill
OverkillPaul Offit has written a number of books, mostly on how people misuse medicine and give bad medical advice. Overkill is largely about how doctors themselves often make serious mistakes and give patients the wrong recommendations. It is a book that may cha
Oxford Guide to the Mind
Oxford Guide to the MindIn 1987, the Oxford University Press produced its excellent Oxford Companio…
Pain
PainBoth patients and doctors express confusion today about chronic pain management in the medical community. The issue of how to cope with chronic pain is a gr…
Pain and Prejudice
Pain and PrejudiceGabrielle Jackson is an editor and writer for The Guardian in Australia. Pain and Prejudice addresses how the medical system has discriminated against women. There's overlap with two other recent books, Sex Matters by Alyson J. McGregor and Doing Harm by
Paranoia of Everyday Life
Paranoia of Everyday LifeThe Paranoia of Everyday Life disentangles meticulously the knotty strands of psychological dynamics sorely entangling patients in the grip of e…
Parents Do Make a Difference
Parents Do Make a DifferenceIt would make sense for parenting practice to be a form of applied psychology, in the way that the space shuttle embodies physics, and Viagra applied bioche…
Passing
PassingThe publishers of this book, Public Affairs in New York, categorize it as sociology. This is an interesting comment on the contemporary blurring of so…
Passionate Vegetarian
Passionate VegetarianAt over 1100 pages, Passionate Vegetarian is a massive cookbook, with over 1000 recipes. It is organized into fifteen chapters, giving recipes fo…
Perceptual Neuroscience
Perceptual NeuroscienceIn his attempt to bring together the breadth of knowledge required for the determination of how brain cortical operations underlay perceptual experience,…
Pilates for Men
Pilates for MenPilates for Men is a short DVD with a 26 minute exercise program aimed especially at men. There's a 5-minute introduction by Alisa Wyatt with a q…
Pink Think
Pink ThinkI always hoped to be ladylike when I grew up, but somehow, I never quite made it. Despite a fascination with etiquette books and flower gardens, and a wh…
Postcards from the Brain Museum
Postcards from the Brain MuseumThe central thesis of Postcards from the Brain Museum is an attempt to answer the question: is there such a thing as a criminal or indeed a…
Power Yoga for Happiness
Power Yoga for HappinessPower Yoga for Happiness has five versions of a yoga workout. They all contain the same core, but they vary in length. The first DVD…
Pox
PoxPox: Genius, Madness, and the Mysteries of Syphilis by Deborah Hayden reached me for review, not by my choice, but because my editor thought that…
Practicing Feminist Ethics in Psychology
Practicing Feminist Ethics in PsychologyMary Brabeck, Dean of the School of Education of Boston College, offers here a dozen articles…
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Prader-Willi Syndrome
Prader-Willi SyndromePrader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) is a relatively rare genetically determined neurodevelopmental disorder. People with the syndrome have their own individual c…
Pretty in Punk
Pretty in PunkLauraine Leblanc’s Pretty in Punk: Girls’ Gender Resistance in a Boys’ Subculture (Rutgers University Press, 1999) is an exemplary…
Print Literacy Development
Print Literacy DevelopmentBased upon an extensive study of the literacy practices of adult learners across the United States at the beginning of the decade, Victoria Purcell-Gates…
Private Life in New Kingdom Egypt
Private Life in New Kingdom EgyptMany of us who love history have a peeping Tom desire to peek into the figurative windows of people of the past. When the pyramid builders laid down thei…
Propelled
PropelledBoredom, frustration and anticipation are states of mind that most people try to avoid. In search of happiness, pleasure and meaningful activities we tend to see these emotions as a failure to achieve the good life. In Propelled, Andreas Elpidirou argues
Psychology and the Media
Psychology and the MediaIn the introduction to the book Psychology and the Media: A Second Look, editor Lita Linzer Schwartz makes a convincing case for her collection o…
Pure Yoga Pilates with Kerry Bestwick
Pure Yoga Pilates with Kerry BestwickKerry Bestwick is an Englishwoman who moved to the USA in 1999. In Pure Yoga Pilates she has two sessions: one 40-minute practice for yoga…
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Quantum Archetypes
Quantum ArchetypesThis writer has submitted a work as substantial as any that would generate 190 pages (though all the diagrams and blank areas probably make it fewer than…
Raising America
Raising AmericaHulbert has written a long book about child-rearing advice in America over the past century. I found it a fascinating book. She has read and…
Ready for Anything
Ready for AnythingThe David Allen Company is a consulting firm of a dozen or so highly capable people who follow or support David (and Kathryn) Allen bringing better produ…
Ready or Not
Ready or NotIt has often been remarked that citizens of the American republic are possessed of a distinctly Manichean sensibility. Certainly the literature, film, an…
Ready or Not, Here Life Comes
Ready or Not, Here Life ComesReady or Not, Here Life Comes! is an uneven yet interesting treatment of an important issue in America today: the widely perceived lack of prepar…
Real Sex
Real SexThere's real pleasure in reading about the stupidity and misfortunes of other people, so long as you don't know too much about their lives. From a s…
Reclaiming Our Children
Reclaiming Our ChildrenA long-time critic of mainstream psychiatry, and of the recent near-exclusive emphasis on the biological aspects of mental illness in particular, Peter Breg…
Remaking a World
Remaking a WorldRemaking the World is a remarkable book which emerges from an ambitious project to 'examine anthropological questions on the relation of violence to…
Reviving Ophelia
Reviving OpheliaDescribed by many as a must-read, especially if you have an adolescent or teenage daughter, I highly recommend it. Dr. Pipher accurately and painsta…
Rewarding Specialties for Mental Health Clinicians
Rewarding Specialties for Mental Health CliniciansLoPresti and Zuckerman's book, Rewarding Specialties for Mental Health Clinicians: Developing Your Practice Niche (henceforth referred to as Re…
Read the full review of Rewarding Specialties for Mental Health Clinicians
Sabbath
SabbathA distant relative of mine recently asked me to read and comment on the draft of a book she had recently finished. I agreed to do so with the proviso that s…
Same Difference
Same DifferenceThe first wave of American feminism included an elite group of heroic women who fought for the right to vote. After women's suffrage was achieved in the…
Satisfaction
SatisfactionAs the title indicates, this book attempts to explain how true satisfaction can be achieved. The author, who is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, puts f…
Science Wars
Science WarsImagine yourself at a bowling alley where a match between two teams of bowlers is underway. The bowlers themselves are intensely involved in the match a…
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.
Self Hypnosis for Cosmic Consciousness
Self Hypnosis for Cosmic ConsciousnessStated (xiii, 35, 52) and implicated motives show Havens wants us readers to increase positive awareness and to minimize or avoid the negative, as he did…
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Self-Help, Inc.
Self-Help, Inc.The last quarter of the twentieth century has witnessed a dramatic rise in sales of "self-help" books: between 1972 and 2000, the number of sel…
Seven Challenges To Change Your Life DVD
Seven Challenges To Change Your Life DVDCrane Style Yoga is the creation of Maureen Goss. It combines both Eastern and Western ideas and practices. 7 Challenges to Change Your Life is…
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Sex Matters
Sex MattersCuriously titled "Sex Matters," McGregor's book gets grouped on Amazon with books about sexuality like "Living an Orgasmic Life". But it is actually about sexism in medical research and practice, overlapping strongly with Doing Harm from 2018, by Maya Dus
Sex, Time and Power
Sex, Time and PowerIn this ambitious tome Shlain sweeps the millennia, suggesting that all of the puzzling or bizarre human behaviors seen nowhere else in the animal world…
Sexing the Body
Sexing the BodySaving Ryan's Privates: Anne Fausto-Sterling again Disarms the Medical Establishment Fiveminute sketches on the popular American live tele…
Shadow, Self, Spirit
Shadow, Self, SpiritMichael Daniels has succeeded in writing a thoroughly mulled mead hoping to inform if not enliven a sophisticated reader's appreciation of so-called myst…
Sleeping With Extra-Terrestrials
Sleeping With Extra-TerrestrialsWendy Kaminer has written some of the most interesting popular cultural analysis and criticism in recent years. She has a sharp eye for detail, and stron…
Slut!
Slut!This book is written with both passion and academic certitude. I found it shocking, not because of the behavior of the protagonists but because it depict…
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Social Representations
This collection of Moscovici's papers aims at elucidating the American social psychology with a new perspective on social phenomena. The category of social…
Solar Flow Yoga DVD
Solar Flow Yoga DVDThis Solar Flow Yoga DVD is aimed at people who are already somewhat fit and flexible and have some prior experience with yoga. It is produced in…
Some Kind of Genius
Some Kind of GeniusThis book is about an astonishing man who was born prematurely weighing in at only just over one and a half pounds. Because of his poorly developed lungs…
Sometimes Madness Is Wisdom
Sometimes Madness Is WisdomSometimes Madness Is Wisdom: Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald, A Marriage, by cultural historian Kendall Taylor, offers a rare glimpse into the private…
Soul Made Flesh
Soul Made FleshIn the Soul Made Flesh, Carl Zimmer cleverly and elegantly recounts the events that led to the acknowledgment of the brain as the physical substra…
Sounds from the Bell Jar
Sounds from the Bell JarBuy the book from BN.com: Sounds from the Bell Jar: Ten Psychotic Authors
States of Mind
States of MindStates of Mind is subtitled 'New Discoveries about How Our Brains Make Us Who We Are'. It is a collection of essays about a diverse range of subjects…
Status Anxiety
Status AnxietyAlain de Botton writes books that take the reader on fascinating philosophical journeys. They are filled with short sections of discussion and illustrat…
Stiffed
StiffedEarly on in Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Male, Susan Faludi imagines a scene that might have taken place on a summer evening in 1960: a…
Still Here
Still HereI had never read any of Ram Das’ work before I picked up Still Here, his latest effort that describes his/our adaption and accommodation to t…
Strange Behavior
Strange BehaviorOriginally published under the title Defending the Cavewoman, this book by the late Dr. Harold Klawans uses case studies in clinical neurology as…
Sun Salutations
Sun SalutationsOn this excellent yoga DVD, you can program your own exercise from a menu, and then play the whole program without having to go back to the DVD remote co…
Super Natural Cooking
Super Natural CookingSuper Natural Cooking is a glorious collection of unusual vegetarian recipes. Swanson uses whole and natural ingredients, and avoids proce…
Sylvia Plath Reads
Sylvia Plath ReadsThe first impression one gets from listening to Sylvia Plath read her poetry is that she possessed the most haunting of voices. Her voice echoes througho…
Talking Science
Talking ScienceThis is the latest in a string of books produced by the author who is Lansdowne Professor of Applied Cognitive Science at the University of Victoria. His…
Teach Yourself Meditation
Teach Yourself MeditationTeach Yourself Meditation has under 200 pages, and is divided into twelve chapters. The chapters have titles such as "es…
Teaching Sex
Teaching SexJeffrey Moran has written an informative and entertaining book with an accessible style of writing that displays a non-intrusive sense of humor. The book is…
Teen Love
Teen LoveHave you ever wondered who you are? Why you do the things you do? Teen Love: A Journal on Relationships will help you connect with the inner self. Jo…
The American Hotel
The American HotelAs the weather warms and the official start of summer approaches, thoughts of travel and adventure enter the minds of many. With travel comes the need fo…
The American Paradox
The American ParadoxWhen a writer criticizes "radical individualism and cultural corrosion," and advocates a return to "a new communitarianism" that replac…
The Anatomy of Hope
The Anatomy of HopeJerome Groopman's ability to weave together moving tales of his patients with thoughtful reflections on the nature of medicine has been well established…
The Angelica Home Kitchen
The Angelica Home KitchenFor most people, when they think of organic vegan food, they think of health rather than taste. The Angelica Home Kitchen should help to change t…
The Ape and the Sushi Master
The Ape and the Sushi MasterWriting with a broad, non-academic audience in mind, The Ape and the Sushi Master provides an enjoyable and informative exploration of our human cult…
The Architecture of Madness
The Architecture of MadnessWhat a fascinating book!Yanni is an architect who has written this book about the architecture of hospitals for the mentally ill. It is a to…
The Art of Exceptional Living
The Art of Exceptional LivingThe metaphors and models that dominate Jim Rohn's speaking are drawn from the life of rural America, with particular emphasis on paying close attention t…
The Bard on the Brain
The Bard on the BrainBard on the Brain is an odd book. At first glance, the subject matter is too broad to make coherent. It proposes to discuss both Shakespeare and b…
The Barmaid's Brain
The Barmaid's BrainJay Ingram's recent compilation of "strange tales from science", The Barmaid's Brain, aims to give the reader a practical understanding of not so ord…
The Beginner's Guide to Healthy Eating
The Beginner's Guide to Healthy EatingIn The Beginner's Guide to Healthy Eating, Andrew Weil spells out the essentials to his approach to nutrition and the optimum diet in 70 minutes. …
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The Birth of Pleasure
The Birth of PleasureThe Birth of Pleasure contains no chapters, no section headings, and no footnotes. Despite the fact that psychological studies, novels, poems, lyr…
The Blackwell Handbook of Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management
The Blackwell Handbook of Organizational Learning and Knowledge ManagementOf the social sciences, management is the least recognized as a field of scientific scholarship and the least respected in terms of scientific rigor, bas…
Read the full review of The Blackwell Handbook of Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management
The Book of the Penis
The Book of the PenisImagine that you are on a flight from London to New York. Perhaps you are even flying the world's fav…
The Breathing Field
The Breathing FieldThe Breathing Field is an unusual little book of poems by Wyatt Townley accompanied by artistic illustrations by Eric Dinyer. The preface explains…
The Brooklyn Nobody Knows
The Brooklyn Nobody KnowsIn 400 pages, CUNY sociologist William Helmreich describes the neighborhoods of Brookl…
The Cafe Brenda Cookbook
The Cafe Brenda CookbookThe Café Brenda Cookbook has some great vegetarian recipes that are hard to find elsewhere. Chef Brenda Langton has a strong sense of flavors an…
The Cambridge Illustrated History of Medicine
The Cambridge Illustrated History of MedicineRoy Porter, the recently deceased Professor of the History of Social Medicine at University College, London, was a prolific writer. He edited this formid…
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The Childless Revolution
The Childless RevolutionThis book is organized chiefly around the causes of childlessness among contemporary American women. Cain identifies ten categories: those who rarely doubt…
The Clitoral Truth
The Clitoral Truth"Dismissed and misunderstood for hundred of years, the clitoris is the one part of the female body whose sole purpose is pleasure." Included in this book is…
The Complete Vegetarian Handbook
The Complete Vegetarian HandbookThe Complete Vegetarian Handbook is an appealing introduction to cooking without meat. It has over seventy recipes, which is still far fewer than…
The Contemplative Heart
The Contemplative HeartDr. Finley's five years in a cloistered Trappist monastery left him with the question, "How can I live a contemplative life in the world?" The Contemp…
The Course of Gay and Lesbian Lives
The Course of Gay and Lesbian LivesQueer thing about psychoanalysis: instead of answering the question, it explains the query instead. There are not too many contemporary books addressing the…
The Creation of the Modern World
The Creation of the Modern WorldThere are books that, in the manner of a legal brief, seek to present a case, by marshalling evidence around a central thesis or ‘claim’. Then…
The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition
The Cultural Origins of Human CognitionThe problem that Tomasello sets out to solve is how is it possible that a wide range of human cognitive skills evolved in such a short time. He states that…
Read the full review of The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition
The Da Vinci Dog
The Da Vinci DogBrinks the Dog slobbers over windows, making distinctive marks. His owner and manager Paul Amelchenko celebrates the art of his canine prodigy, whi…
The Deadly Truth
The Deadly TruthGerald Grob has taken on an enormous challenge and accomplished it superbly. In The Deadly Truth he seeks to chart the history of human and social…
The Decency Wars
The Decency WarsThis really is an excellent book. For complete disclosure I must say the reviewer is not knowingly related to the author. However, I hope I am related to…
The Dynamic Neuron
The Dynamic NeuronThe Dynamic Neuron, by John Smythies, is an important review and survey of the biochemistry literature on the neurochemical basis of synaptic plas…
The Easy Yoga Workbook
The Easy Yoga WorkbookThe Easy Yoga Work Book is an introduction to yoga with a CD that provides a work out. It has five chapters:…
The Era of Choice
The Era of ChoiceThere are many ways to describe western contemporary society and management sciences professor, Rosenthal takes part in this debate, arguing that choice…
The Essential Doug Holder
The Essential Doug HolderDoug Holder, founder of the Ibbetson Street Press of Somerville, MA, is a well-known and well-loved figure on the New England literary landscape. His recent publication: The Essential Doug Holder: New & Selected Works begins with a long introduction (not
The Farm Colonies: Caring for New York City's Mentally Ill In Long Island's State Hospitals
The Farm Colonies: Caring for New York City's Mentally Ill In Long Island's State HospitalsThe Farm Colonies is a fascinating collection of photographs of the state mental hospitals of Long Island over the last century. These four hospi…
The Fate of Early Memories
The Fate of Early MemoriesHowe's book presents a good overview of much of the latest research on early memory. A great many APA books suffer from the fate of edited volumes: a multit…
The Forgetting
The ForgettingMost of us know or know of someone who has Alzheimer’s or a similar form of dementia. It is frightening to be told in this book that there are about…
The Good Enough Child
The Good Enough ChildThe Good Enough Child appears to be written as a kind of antidote to the all too prominent disposition of parents to self -denigration and blame on t…
The Great Betrayal
The Great BetrayalSeveral cases of malpractice by scientists, the consequence of either intentional hoax or sloppiness, have been discovered over the last forty years, and…
The Hand
The HandFrank Wilson's work as a neurologist and the medical director of a Health Program for Performing Artists at the University of Californian School of Medicine…
The Health Psychology Handbook
The Health Psychology HandbookThe Health Psychology Handbook is a reference text primarily aimed at Health Psychologists working in the area of behavioral medicine. The text i…
The Healthy Kitchen
The Healthy KitchenEating well is important for both physical and emotional health. Not only does it directly enable the healthy functioning of body and mind, but enjoying…
The Homework Myth
The Homework MythSocrates in Plato's Apology warned the Athenians that his death at their hands would be a greater loss to them than to him. This is a…
The Importance of Being Lazy
The Importance of Being LazyPeople work too much, or at least Americans do, according to self-confessed workaholic Al Gini, author of The Importance of Being Lazy. This slim…
The Indian Vegetarian
The Indian VegetarianIt’s well known that vegetarian food tends to be healthy and that a healthy diet can promote emotional well-being. What’s more, spicy food stim…
The Insider's Guide to Mental Health Resources Online
The Insider's Guide to Mental Health Resources OnlineSee the review of the 2000/2001 edition.…
Read the full review of The Insider's Guide to Mental Health Resources Online
The Insider's Guide to Mental Health Resources Online
The Insider's Guide to Mental Health Resources OnlineThis is a very straightforward reference book for mental health professionals not familiar with the Web and its offerings. Divided into three sections; Basic Map and Tools, Getting Answers to Professional Questions and, Patient Education Resources; it is…
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The Insider's Guide to Mental Health Resources Online
The Insider's Guide to Mental Health Resources OnlineBefore reviewing this book I must detail my own limitations. I am not a skilled net surfer, nor am I professional writer and researcher like the author, John M.Grohol whose academic qualifications are similarly impressive. A mental health consumer of lo…
Read the full review of The Insider's Guide to Mental Health Resources Online
The Insider's Guide to Mental Health Resources Online
Before reviewing this book I must detail my own limitations. I am not a skilled net surfer, nor am I professional writer and researcher like the author,…
Read the full review of The Insider's Guide to Mental Health Resources Online
The Intuitive Writer
The Intuitive WriterThis is no 'how-to' instruction book for writers. Indeed, it does not pretend to be – it is described as a 'guidebook', which is slightly misleading…
The Irreducible Needs of Children
The Irreducible Needs of ChildrenFor many decades both psychology and general public witnessed a science of in a way 'split-up' babies. Different authors developed theories about different…
The Irritable Male Syndrome
The Irritable Male SyndromeThis attempt at a self-help book (291 pages) offers a complex and well-documented, argument that there is a corresponding male syndrome to women's PMS ca…
The Jewel Tree of Tibet
The Jewel Tree of TibetSeveral years ago I woke early to a countryside cloaked in fog. As I gazed toward the mountains I became aware of a mulberry tree slowly emerging into si…
The Joy of Meditating
The Joy of MeditatingThis is a one-hour meditation tape with four guided meditations. They are meant to help the listener relax. Redfield first tells the listener to relax h…
The Language Imperative
The Language ImperativeSuzette Haden Elgin's latest endeavor, The Language Imperative: The Power of Language to Enrich Your Life and Expand Your Mind, explores the intricac…
The Light of Days
The Light of DaysA moving story, told by a talented writer, and bound to remind the reader of a dark time in our world history, the book should be required reading in many university courses as the years between the big war and today grow and grow. One hopes that it is no
The Little Book of Healthy Teas
The Little Book of Healthy TeasHere is another in the Little Book series by Erika Dillman, this time on healthy teas. This surprisingly informative guide to teas is divided into…
The Little Soy Book
The Little Soy BookA healthy diet can contribute to mental health, and there’s good reason to include soy in its various forms in everyday meals. These days most super…
The Little Yoga Book
The Little Yoga BookThis helpful introduction to yoga keeps it simple. Erika Dillman explains some of the ideas about mind-body connections and the benefits of regular yoga…
The Lonely Patient
The Lonely PatientMichael Stein is a professor of medicine, and the author of four novels (This Room Is Yours, The Lynching Tree, The White Life…
The Lucifer Principle
The Lucifer PrincipleSometimes it takes a chapter or two to settle yourself into a book. “Get to chapter three,” a librarian might urge you, “then you’ll…
The Madness of Adam and Eve
The Madness of Adam and EveHorrobin has written a timely, well argued and fascinating book with two arguments; indeed, this book could have (and perhaps should have) been two books --…
The Madwoman in the Attic
The Madwoman in the AtticIn a time when books seem to go out of print faster than they are published, the fact that this hefty 1979 volume (at over 700 pages paperback) has been rep…
The Making of Dr. Phil
The Making of Dr. PhilThe authors convey shimmering angst in their prose from the start. They want to bring down this big, balding media mogul from his self-aggrandizing pedes…
The Manhattan Nobody Knows
The Manhattan Nobody KnowsWilliam Helmreich died of coronavirus in March 2020. He had three volumes of urban walks in Brooklyn (2016), Manhattan (2018) and Queens (2020). They are great books to dip into if you are interested in New York City, and they may serve as a record of the
The Manual of Epictetus
The Manual of EpictetusVirtue and Happiness is a nicely produced book featuring some of the sayings of the ancient philosopher Epictetus about how to live well, accompan…
The Mature Mind
The Mature MindIn this readable, concise report of his own and relevant research into the aging brain, Dr. Cohen delivers a real basis for hope. We're not just gett…
The Medical Advisor
The Medical AdvisorThe Medical Advisor (First Edition) is a large and heavy book, with 1152 large format pages. It calls itself a complete guide to alternative and c…
The Medicalization of Society
The Medicalization of SocietyMany of today's common medical conditions, from osteoporosis to hyperactivity, were not recognized as medical conditions a century ago. Medicalizatio…
The Mind's Past
The Mind's PastUpon reflection, I have decided that I am perhaps not the best person to review this book, for I have spent my entire professional career in and around psyc…
The Misunderstood Gene
The Misunderstood GeneThe original, French edition of this book, La Part des Genes, was published in 1998, but the content has been updated for this English edition. Th…
The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences
The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive SciencesPhilosopher and psychologist William James has called the relationship between knowledge and the brain "the most mysterious thing in the world". I…
Read the full review of The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences
The Moral Intelligence of Children
The Moral Intelligence of Children"Many the wonders," concluded the ancient chorus in Sophocles’ Antig…
The Moves That Matter
The Moves That MatterChess has always hinted to the intellect of the players. Most individuals consider those who play chess to be brilliant, even though the game has slowly lost its popularity within most societies of the Western World. Jonathan Rowson, Ph.D., illustrates th
The Mystery of Mary Rogers
The Mystery of Mary RogersSee the publisher's web site.
The Myth of Freedom and the Way of Meditation
The Myth of Freedom and the Way of MeditationChogyam Trungpa, Ripoche (1939-1987), meditation master, scholar and artist, was the founder and president of Vajrahatu, Naropa University and Shambhala…
Read the full review of The Myth of Freedom and the Way of Meditation
The Not Good Enough Mother
The Not Good Enough MotherIn The Not Good Enough Mother, Sharon Lamb discusses her role as a psychologist who is often asked to be an expert witness for the Department of Child and Family. Lamb’s role is to provide her observations, knowledge and expertise through assessments of c
The Orchid Thief
The Orchid ThiefThe Orchid Thief paints a picture of an obsession – collecting orchids. The book starts with a legal case, John Laroche on trial for st…
The Paradox of Choice
The Paradox of ChoiceThis book is a serious look at a serious subject but done with a lightness of touch that makes it an easy read. The author, who is the Dorwin Cartwright…
The Paradox of Sleep
The Paradox of SleepMichel Jouvet is Emeritus Professor of Experimental Medicine at the University of Lyon, France. While he and a small group of neurobiologists were pionee…
The PDR Family Guide to Natural Medicines & Healing Therapies
The PDR Family Guide to Natural Medicines & Healing TherapiesTwo of the five parts of this book take up the bulk of the 615 pages: a guide to 51 alternative and complementary therapies, and a guide to natural medic…
Read the full review of The PDR Family Guide to Natural Medicines & Healing Therapies
The Placebo Effect and Health
The Placebo Effect and HealthThe Placebo Effect and Health sheds light on some of the nooks and crannies of the edifice housing the enigma laden placebo effect. The author…
The Portfolio and the Diagram
The Portfolio and the DiagramStudying history provides us with references to the past that are frozen moments in time. Whether cognizant or not, we are observers looking to gain from…
The Praeger Handbook of Learning and the Brain
The Praeger Handbook of Learning and the BrainDuring the past decade the neurological and cognitive sciences have produced a vast frontier of knowledge on how the brain processes, stores and retrieve…
Read the full review of The Praeger Handbook of Learning and the Brain
The Private Life of the Brain
The Private Life of the BrainThis is a must for those wanting to add an up-to-date and readable book containing ‘mind’ or ‘brain’ in the title to their collectio…
The Psychology of Religion and Coping
The Psychology of Religion and CopingIn the past, religion qua culture provided a consistent and valuable Weltanschauung, but this is no longer true in most modern societies. The plur…
Read the full review of The Psychology of Religion and Coping
The Psychology Of The Internet
The Psychology Of The InternetCommunication between human beings is increasingly mediated by electronic personae developed for the Internet. In her taxonomy of environments opening up wi…
The Rabbit Effect
The Rabbit EffectHarding argues for the social effects on health, especially the benefits of people demonstrating their care. She argues that this is a crucial determinant on health. She draws on her experience as a doctor, her own research and interviews.
The Rise of Mental Health Nursing
The Rise of Mental Health NursingGeertje Boschma's account of the origins of mental health nursing in the Netherlands offers an insightful and scholarly analysis of a period of social hi…
The Science of Good and Evil
The Science of Good and EvilThis book's author is already well known for being the founder of the Skeptics Society, the publisher of Skeptic magazine and the author of Why…
The Science of Optimism and Hope
The Science of Optimism and HopeThis volume contains twenty-five papers presented in a 1998 symposium by thirty-five ‘eminent and developing scholars’ (as the editor Jane E. G…
The Scientist In The Crib
The Scientist In The CribSold in Britain as How``Babies Think
The Seat of the Soul
The Seat of the SoulHow interested are you in power? Do you crave it? Fear it? How well do you understand it? Gary Zukav's latest book, Seat of the Soul, devotes several illumi…
The Seven Sins of Memory
The Seven Sins of MemoryIn this well-written book, Daniel Schacter, chairman of Harvard’s Psychology Department, provides the non-specialist reader with a guided tour of th…
The Social Psychology of Stigma
The Social Psychology of StigmaThis collection is the fruit of the papers presented and discussed during Minary Conference on "Golden Pond." The organizers of the conference and…
The Sociopath Next Door
The Sociopath Next DoorIf the statistics are correct, one person in twenty-five can be classified as a sociopath. That means that almost all of us have met at least one such pe…
The Spa Deck
The Spa Deck50 recipes for relaxation & rejuvenation, the Spa decks describes itself. Each recipe is on a card, with a pretty photograph on the other side of the card…
The Strange Case of Hellish Nell
The Strange Case of Hellish NellThe case of Helen Duncan is a strange one indeed. Duncan was a practicing Spiritualist who held regular séances during which she channeled the spi…
The Triumph of Narrative
The Triumph of Narrative"…We can say that narrative, after facing every conceivable challenge in modern times, remains central to our existence, our companion, forever puzz…
The True Path
The True PathWell first of all you can put away your yoga mat -- this isn't that kind of book. In The True Path, Roy Mathew gives us an insightful look into a…
The Truth About Chronic Pain
The Truth About Chronic PainChronic Pain couldn't be timelier considering how the United States is finally waking up to the issues that millions of Americans suffer from ever…
The Way of Stretching
The Way of StretchingAs someone who is interested in the health benefits of yoga, but who at the same time is rather skeptical about some of the assumptions of Eastern medici…
The Why Café
The Why CaféA man gets lost trying to dodge a freeway traffic jam and finds the Meaning of Life in a remote café. It could happen to you. If I thought it was going to happen to me I'd stay on the freeway. John P Streckley is a motivational speaker who has "posi…
The Will to Live and Other Mysteries
The Will to Live and Other MysteriesRachel Naomi Remen argues in this audiotape that we should cultivate our sense of Mystery because this will strengthen and deepen our lives. She gives se…
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TheraScribe 4.0
TheraScribe 4.0For nearly all mental health-care practitioners, the most satisfying aspect of our practice is our clinical interaction with patients. However, any practici…
Think Cat
Think CatThink Cat is a British guide to feline behavioral problems, but fortunately British cats are much like cats all over the world. It is set out in…
Thinking With Animals
Thinking With AnimalsThinking with Animals collects nine essays that grew out of talks presented at a corresponding workshop at the Max Planck Institute for the Histor…
Tomboy
TomboyIn a 2017 New York Times opinion piece My Daughter Is Not Transgender. She’s a Tomboy., Lisa Selin Davis wrote about her daughter, who was 7 at the time. Her daughter, 7 years old at the time, rejected girly clothes and stereotypical girl behavior, and wa
Total Astanga
Total AstangaIt is common knowledge that having a healthy body can help with one's mental equilibrium and peace of mind. Keeping fit can help one avoid physical prob…
Total Pilates
Total PilatesTotal Pilates with Lynne Robinson is a package with an instructional DVD and an audio CD with ambient music. Robinson is British, and this DVD wa…
Transcendence
TranscendenceInsofar as the author is a science journalist, we might expect a popularization or a "dumbing down" of her data and arguments, but happily, this is not the case. She presents a cogent and intriguing - but possibly eclectic - case for the essential adaptab
Traumatic Pasts
Traumatic PastsTraumatic Pasts is a collection of papers originally presented at a conference on the history of medicine and psychological trauma held at the Univer…
Treatment and Rehabilitation of Severe Mental Illness
Treatment and Rehabilitation of Severe Mental IllnessOften in treatment paradigms, what is new doesn't work, and what works, is not new. This is part of the dilemma in presenting an integrated approach to…
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Tutoring as a Successful Business
Tutoring as a Successful BusinessIt is almost a year now since I started my maths tuition business. It truly is an interesting and satisfying occupation, especially when students whose…
Under the Medical Gaze
Under the Medical GazeUnder the Medical Gaze is author Susan Greenhalgh’s first-person account of her experience as a sufferer of chronic pain,specifically, her mi…
Understanding Child Molesters
When it comes to the topic of child molesters, we'd all prefer to believe they don't exist. However, the reality is they do -- and, in large numbers! If…
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Unholy Madness
If one read only the first two chapters of Unholy Madness: The Church's Surrender to Psychiatry, one might get the impression that the entire book is…
Varieties of Anomalous Experience
Varieties of Anomalous ExperienceRare phenomena, such as near-death and past-life experiences, alien abduction, telepathy and clairvoyance, steadily become the object of scientific inves…
Vegetarian Turkish Cooking
Vegetarian Turkish CookingThis excellent cookbook starts out with a description of the author's visit with her husband to Turkey. Unusually, the first 77 pages give details of th…
Vertigo Visions
Vertigo VisionsAs a teenager in the 1970s I was a big fan of Marvel Comics, and Marvel's superiority over its main rival DC Comics was clear to me. Marvel had Spiderman…
Voices Of Alzheimer's
Voices Of Alzheimer'sVoices of Alzheimer's is a collection of quotations from people who have Alzheimer's, or have received a diagnosis of a similar disease, or people…
Voluntary Simplicity
Voluntary SimplicityVoluntary Simplicity is an assemblage of historical and present-day dissertations from fourteen different contributors, expressing a wide variety…
Waiting for an Echo
Waiting for an EchoIt has long been clear that the US prison system is brutal, that mentally ill people are likely to be imprisoned, and that imprisonment is likely to either cause or worsen mental illness in prisoners. In Waiting for an Echo, Christine Montross spells out
Waking Up to What You Do
Waking Up to What You DoThis book is about the effective practice for meeting every moment of our lives with mindfulness, using the Zen precepts as tools to develop a keen aware…
Walking
WalkingWalking is a two audio CD package with an introduction by Andrew Weil and a more detailed discussion by Mark Fenton. Weil is known for his work o…
Walking a Literary Labyrinth
Walking a Literary LabyrinthIf you love reading, you'll love this book. Nancy Malone, a Roman Catholic nun in the Ursuline order, has written an account of how our identities are sh…
Ways of Knowing
Ways of KnowingIf it's helpful shorthand, think of this book as "Science, Consciousness and Reality Part II" (1.) in the publisher's stable. That's good or bad depending what religion and fidelity to the terms of a title mean to you. The two differ in that Sci…
Ways of Knowing
If it's helpful shorthand, think of this book as "Science, Consciousness and Reality Part II" (1.) in the publisher's stable. That's goo…
We've Got Blog
We've Got BlogThis book will satisfy the reader hoping to gain some insight into the relatively new phenomenon of weblogging. Rebecca Blood manages a scholarly job in…
What in the World Are Your Kids Doing Online?
What in the World Are Your Kids Doing Online?Children start using the Internet very early these days, even when they are pre-school. They can spend hours instant messaging, playing online game…
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What Our Children Teach Us
What Our Children Teach UsParents often possess an Achilles heel when approached with advice or suggestions on how to raise their children. Piero Ferucci's What Our Children Teach…
When History Is a Nightmare
When History Is a NightmareWhen History is a Nightmare is an ambitious book. In Part One, entitled "Surviving Ethnic Cleansing," Weine explores the recollections of a few…
Why God Won't Go Away
Why God Won't Go AwayIn their new book Why God Won't Go Away: Brain Science and The Biology of Belief freelance writer Vince Rause, psychiatrist Eugene d'Aquili and radio…
Why We're Wrong About Nearly Everything
Why We're Wrong About Nearly Everything"Everything you know is wrong," proclaimed Firesign Theatre in 1974. Firesign always lived on the edge between surrealism and scathing accuracy. Duffy now seems to push their proclamation a bit toward the accuracy side, insofar as his revelations show hum
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Witchcraze
WitchcrazeWitchcraze: A New History Of The European Witch Hunts by Anne Llewellyn Barstow presents an in-depth study of the mid-sixteenth and sevente…
Woman
WomanBucking a trend, exemplified in magazines as apparently disparate as Ms,…
Working With Emotional Intelligence
Working With Emotional IntelligenceI enjoyed Goleman’s previous bestseller Emotional Intelligence…
Yoga & Pilates Workouts for Dummies
Yoga & Pilates Workouts for DummiesOne DVD in this set is devoted to Pilates, and the other is devoted to yoga. Each has a basic and an intermediate workout. As part of the "for Dum…
Yoga for Everyone
Yoga for EveryoneYoga for Everyone is split into three parts, each by one of the three authors. The first, about 134 pages, is Iyengar Yoga; the second, about 28…
Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It
Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do ItWriting a review of Dyer's book, Yoga For People Who Can't Be Bothered To Do It, has taken me several tries. I have come to the conclusion that…
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Yoga for Regular Guys
Yoga for Regular GuysDiamond Dallas Page (DDP) is a world champion professional wrestler who has also appeared in some TV shows and movies. His main message, as stated on the…
Yoga Sculpt
Yoga SculptYoga Sculpt is a collection of 3 previously released videos: New Yoga, New Yoga Challenge, and Functionally Fit--Lower Body Firming. These are al…
Yoga Shakti
Yoga ShaktiThis 2-DVD package of Shiva Rea yoga is a little different from the others that come from Sounds True. The yoga instruction was shot in the same locatio…
Zen-Brain Reflections
Zen-Brain ReflectionsJames Austin's 458-page expansion of a 1998 "twin" runs to nearly 1200, defying general readers with a neuro-dense Part III (Note 1 below) h…