The Winner's Brain 8 Strategies Great Minds Use to Achieve Success By Jeff Brown and Mark Fenske Review by Roy Sugarman, Ph.D. on Tue, Aug 31st 2010.
Over the last several years, multiple book titles have begun to include the word 'brain' and multiple books have included the word 'winner ' in the title as well. As a society, Western views have continued to drive the need to exploit resource, the 'be all you can be' type, perhaps with the assault on body work started by Charles Atlas, and now with academics and clinicians climbing the Everest of the brain.
Inevitably then someone somewhere would begin looking at perhaps what features of the brain make certain people more resilient than others when it comes to dealing with the d Click here to read the full review!
Inside Assisted Living The Search for Home By J. Kevin Eckert, et al Review by Leo Uzych, J.D., M.P.H. on Tue, Aug 31st 2010.
Inside Assisted Living is an ethnographic study of assisted living. The text is multi authored; Eckert et al. are (or have been) affiliated with the Center for Aging Studies at the Erickson School and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, at the University Maryland. As explained in introductory Chapter 1, the research technique of ethnography is used to study assisted living at six actual assisted living facilities in Maryland. The research process used by Eckert et al. is described, in considerable detail, in an "Appendix" joined to the text.
The pages of the book a Click here to read the full review!
On the Origins of Cognitive Science The Mechanization of the Mind By Jean-Pierre Dupuy Review by Mog Stapleton, MA, MLitt, MSc on Tue, Aug 31st 2010.
On the Origins of Cognitive Science is an excellent review of early twentieth century cognitive science. It stands out amongst other reviews of cognitive science by taking a broad perspective over the ideas that were alive during the cybernetic era and not limiting itself to just that part of history that seems relevant in light of current orthodoxy. Dupuy explicitly states that the book is a testament to the failure of cybernetics, which I feel is not warranted by his exegesis. I found it to be an inspiring story of a research program that had lofty ambitions of exploring the ways in which ne Click here to read the full review!
The Idea of Justice By Amartya Sen Review by Aakash Singh, Ph.D. on Tue, Aug 31st 2010.
Amartya Sen is a scholar well known to have contributed in numerous ways toward the advancement of the humanities and social sciences. Aged 76 at the time he completed the nearly 500-page The Idea of Justice, this book is surely the author's last great work, though there is disagreement whether it may be counted among his best.
It is at least a great one in every sense: capacious, innovative, expansive, multidisciplinary, comprehensive, pioneering, captivating, and – like this description – wordy. It is also Sen's definitive and final break with the Rawlsian approach to political Click here to read the full review!
Depression 101 A Practical Guide to Treatments, Self-Help Strategies, and Preventing Relapse By John D. Preston and Melissa Kirk Review by Beth Cholette, Ph.D. on Tue, Aug 31st 2010.
Depression 101 is a simple yet surprisingly comprehensive self-help book designed to provide an action-oriented approach towards combating depression. Authors John Preston and Melissa Kirk emphasize that treatment for depression is essential, noting that without appropriate treatment, a majority of those with depression are at risk to experience recurrent and/or chronic depression. Although the authors maintain that the self-help strategies which they present are frequently successful, they emphasize that for those with severe depression, professional help is always essential, and Click here to read the full review!
Beyond Blue Surviving Depression & Anxiety and Making the Most of Bad Genes By Therese Borchard Review by Alex Jenson on Tue, Aug 31st 2010.
This is an excellent book. If that sounds like a one-dimensional appraisal, hang on, because I wanted to give this work its due, before I lay out a more critical analysis of what lies within its 240+ pages.
The opening thirty pages had my gut sinking a little with a feeling this was going to be another self-indulgent, painted-by-numbers vision of someone’s personal Hell - lots of egomaniacal tub-thumping through the flames as we reach the inevitable finale, with the Godlike author beaming smugly from ear-to-ear as she kicks the gates of hell shut and lolls across the freshly-cut grass Click here to read the full review!
Racial Paranoia The Unintended Consequences of Political Correctness By John L. Jackson Jr. Review by Gustav Jahoda, Ph.D. on Tue, Aug 31st 2010.
This book, by a distinguished African American anthropologist, puts forward the thesis that 'political correctness' in the context of race is counterproductive. Since his arguments presuppose in an important sense the reality of race, he does not place that term in inverted comas. The preface tells the story of Chappelle, a Black comedian who specializes in racially provocative skits. One day, while the performance was being recorded, a white crew member started laughing. The comedian suddenly felt that the man was laughing at him personally rather than at the performance, and quit the show.&n Click here to read the full review!
Yoga Immortality and Freedom By Mircea Eliade Review by Minna Forsell on Tue, Aug 31st 2010.
Suffering and emancipation from suffering -- the central problem of Buddhism, and the central problem of clinical psychology. In Yoga: Immortality and Freedom, Mircea Eliade, the Romanian historian of religion, philosopher and writer, takes us on a journey through the discipline of yoga, the history, the doctrines, the techniques. For a Westerner, this exhaustive survey, written in the 1950's, is more than an introduction to the theory and practice of yoga, it is a more than 400 pages long erudite exploration.
When I studied to become a psychologist, I found it curious that the study of reli Click here to read the full review!
Claire Craig sits on the management team of the Lab4Living at Sheffield Hallam University. Senior Research Fellow, Senior Lecturer and Occupational Therapist specialized in working with older people or patients with dementia, she declares to be inspired by the beauty of "experience and wrinkled ripe fulfillment" -- quoting from D.H. Lawrence's poem 'Beautiful Old Age'. "The wrinkled smile of completeness", praised by the British novelist, "that follows a life lived undaunted and unsoured", captures her imagery, and defines both her research and clinical commitment. On the one side of a 'design Click here to read the full review!
Free Will and Reactive Attitudes By Michael McKenna and Paul Russell (Editors) Review by Christian Perring on Tue, Aug 31st 2010.
Since the publication of Peter Strawson's classic article "Freedom and Resentment" in 1962, the relation between the freewill and determinism debate and the question of when people are morally responsible for their actions has been a central one for moral psychology. Yet the debate has been quite disparate, appearing in many different places. This collection is therefore extremely useful for people working in this area of academic philosophy. The editors have brought together the original article along with 14 other papers or extracts from books that address precisely these i Click here to read the full review!
The Burden of Proof By Scott Turow Review by Bob Lane, MA on Tue, Aug 31st 2010.
"Nate, you are a scoundrel."
That line from about half way through the novel rings in my mind because it is so odd, so old fashioned, so stilted. Telling some dinner guests the line recently provided us with lots of laughter as we used the word "scoundrel" throughout the rest of the evening at the restaurant. "Would you like more wine?" "Bob, you are a scoundrel!" Most agreed they had not run into the word "scoundrel" since reading 19th century British literature. But, in context the word in Turow's novel is supposed to indicate something about his protagonist: Alejandro Stern, viz. that he h Click here to read the full review!
New York Walks Architecture By Alissa Walker Review by Christian Perring on Tue, Aug 31st 2010.
This is a collection of 25 fold-out cards with 25 walks in New York City: mainly Manhattan, but also some setting foot in Brooklyn, Harlem and the Bronx. Each card has a photograph on the front of one of the places on the walk on the front, and a map of the walk on the back. Each walk is maybe about half a mile long or more. The map has numbers along the route, and inside there is a written description of the walk and the area, with the name of the place associated with the number on the back highlighted in bold. The walks are well chosen, and may lead even veteran New Click here to read the full review!
In what sort of situations do questions of meaning arise? What types of lives would be generally accepted as paradigms of meaning? What is meaningfulness? Susan Wolf addressed these questions in two lectures delivered in Princeton in November 2007. These lectures are here reprinted with some comments from distinguished commentators and her replies to them.
In her lectures Susan Wolf aims to bring out the distinctive character of the reasons and motives that give meaning to our lives, claiming that meaningfulness is an attribute that cannot be reduced to or subsumed under either happiness or m Click here to read the full review!
On Evil By Terry Eagleton Review by Viorel Zaicu, Ph.D. on Tue, Aug 24th 2010.
Diplomatically dedicated to Henry Kissinger, On Evil stays for a bound of vistas experienced by each and every human individual who opened a book (or more), has some knowledge of pretty recent history or simply goes out, just looking around. The first one (as it holds dearly to the author's heart) is that of fiction, in which there are countless examples of evil. However, here we found the subtleties and refinements on the subject. There is nothing on which you can put the finger and say: "This is Evil." But here there are the great peaks of evil. In day by day life evil is a sort of com Click here to read the full review!
Naturalizing Intention in Action By Franck Grammont, Dorothée Legrand and Pierre Livet (Editors) Review by Markus Schlosser, Ph.D. on Tue, Aug 24th 2010.
This book collects fifteen articles from cognitive neuroscientists, psychologists, sociologists, and philosophers on the many facets of intentional action and the prospects for a naturalistic account. Most of the scientific contributions are provided by established and well-known scientists (most notably Vittorio Gallese and Patrick Haggard). The philosophical chapters are from authors who are perhaps better known in the French speaking philosophy community than within the Anglo-American analytical philosophy (with the exception of a chapter by Colin Allen), and the editors themselves have con Click here to read the full review!
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