Ce ne poate învăţa psihologia despre sex? Cum reacţionează oamenii – corpuri și minţi diferite – atunci când vine vorba despre sex? Cum putem să ne opunem stigmatizării oamenilor pe considerente ce ţin de sexualitatea lor?

Psihologia sexului îţi va arăta diferitele modalităţi prin care psihologii au creat și au susţinut anumite perspective de-a lungul timpului asupra sexului și sexualităţii. Având în permanenţă în vedere caracterul subiectiv al sexului, cartea explorează preocupările culturale care planează asupra sexualizării, pornografiei și dependenţei de sex și, de asemenea, apelează la cercetările realizate în diferite comunităţi sexuale și la domeniul aplicat al terapiei sexuale.

Meg‑John Barker este autoare și terapeut, cu specializare în domeniul sexului, al genului și al relațiilor. Este conferențiar în Psihologie la Open University și psihoterapeut acreditat UKCP

(United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy).

Ce spun despre noi hainele pe care le purtăm? În ce mod ne afectează îmbrăcămintea dispoziţia și emoţiile? Cum reușește industria modei să ne inducă dorinţa de a arăta intr‑un anumit fel?

Fashion. Psihologia modei ne oferă o introducere lucidă în universul captivant și dinamic al modei, văzut în raport cu comportamentul uman, de la felul în care hainele ne pot afecta procesele cognitive până la cel în care comercianţii manipulează reacţiile consumatorilor. Cartea explorează capacitatea creaţiei vestimentare de a influenţa obiectivitatea percepţiei pe care o avem asupra propriei persoane, modul în care psihologia poate oferi o perspectivă mai practică asupra procesului de producţie și de reciclare a hainelor, precum și motivele pentru care dezvoltăm anumite obiceiuri consumeriste.

Intr‑un moment în care străzile, revistele și canalele audiovizuale abundă de imagini promovând moda, volumul de faţă ne arată cum hainele și psihologia pot aduce o schimbare pozitivă în vieţile noastre.

Prof. Carolyn Mair este consultant independent, specializat în psihologia modei. Colaborează cu instituţii de învăţământ, companii producătoare de îmbrăcăminte și canale mass‑media. A creat

programele de licenţă și de masterat în psihologia modei de la College of Fashion din Londra.

Cum ne afectează muzica starea de spirit? Care este cel mai bun mod de a‑ți dezvolta abilitățile muzicale? Cum variază defi­niția muzicii de la o cultură la alta?

Music. Psihologia muzicii explorează impactul fundamental pe care muzica îl are asupra vieții noastre de zi cu zi și influența acesteia asupra societății, grupurilor și indivizilor. Lucrarea de­monstrează beneficiile muzicii în ceea ce privește funcționarea intelectului nostru, sănătatea și starea generală de bine și anali­zează talentul muzical dintr‑o dublă perspectivă: ca dar înnăscut și ca abilitate ce poate fi cultivată și dezvoltată prin practică și exercițiu.

Muzica ne prilejuiește o mai bună înțelegere a umanității și a vieții moderne, iar volumul de față ne arată semnificația ei și pu­terea pe care o răsfrânge asupra comportamentului nostru.

Susan Hallam este profesor emerit de Educație și Psihologie a Muzicii în cadrul Institutului de Educație de la UCL (Colegiul Universitar din Londra). În 2015 a fost distinsă cu un ordin ono­rific – MBE (The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire); îna­inte de a deveni profesor universitar, Susan Hallam s‑a bucurat de o carieră de succes atât ca muzician profesionist, cât și ca profesor de muzică.

Când se transformă un obicei nevinovat în dependenţă? De ce doar unii dintre noi devenim dependenţi? Cum este posibilă recuperarea?

Psihologia dependenţei și a comportamentului adictiv este o introducere fascinantă în problemele psihologice din jurul adicţiei, prezentând impactul pe care îl au acestea asupra politicilor sociale, recuperării și vieţii de zi cu zi a unei persoane dependente. Cartea se concentrează pe adicţiile de droguri și alcool și dezbate subiecte precum: „importanţa reţelelor sociale în recuperare” sau „consumul de droguri conduce întotdeauna la adicţie?”. De asemenea, atinge și teme ca dependenţa de activităţi precum pariurile, jocurile video și sexul.

Jenny Svanberg este psiholog clinician consultant. Are o experiență clinică bogată în lucrul cu persoanele dependente de droguri și alcool.

The staggering toll of gun violence � which claims 31,000 U.S. lives each year � is an urgent public health issue that demands an effective evidence-based policy response. The Johns Hopkins University convened more than 20 of the world's leading experts on gun violence and policy to summarize relevant research and recommend policies that are both constitutional and have broad public support. Collected for the first time in one volume, this reliable, empirical research and legal analysis will help lawmakers, opinion leaders, and concerned citizens identify policy changes to address mass shootings, along with the less-publicized gun violence that takes an average of 80 lives every day. Selected recommendations include: - Background checks: Establish a universal background check system for all persons purchasing a firearm from any seller. - High-risk individuals: Expand the set of conditions that disqualify an individual from legally purchasing a firearm. - Mental health: Focus federal restrictions on gun purchases by persons with serious mental illness on the dangerousness of the individual. - Trafficking and dealer licensing: Appoint a permanent director to ATF and provide the agency with the authority to develop a range of sanctions for gun dealers who violate gun sales or other laws. - Personalized guns: Provide financial incentives to states to mandate childproof or personalized guns. - Assault weapons and high-capacity magazines: Ban the future sale of assault weapons and the future sale and possession of large-capacity ammunition magazines. - Research funds: Provide adequate federal funds to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, and National Institute of Justice for research into the causes and solutions of gun violence. The book includes an analysis of the constitutionality of many recommended policies and data from a national public opinion poll that reflects support among the majority of Americans � including gun owners � for stronger gun policies.

Presents what you need to know about modern physics, the universe and our place in the world in seven lessons. In this introduction to modern physics, the author explains Einstein's theory of general relativity, quantum mechanics, black holes, the complex architecture of the universe, elementary particles, gravity, and the nature of the mind.

Emile Durkheim’s 1897 On Suicide is widely recognized as one of the foundational classic texts of sociology. It is also one that shows the degree to which strong interpretative skills can often provide the bedrock for high-level analysis. Durkheim's aim was to analyse the nature of suicide in the context of society itself – examining it not just as an individual decision, but one in which different social factors played important roles. In order to do this, it was vital that he both define and classify suicide into subtypes – kinds of suicide with different causal factors at play. From his research, Durkheim identifed four broad types of suicide: egoistic (from a sense of not-belonging), altruistic (from a sense that group goals far outweigh individual well-being), anomic (from lack of moral or social direction), and fatalistic (in response to excessive discipline or oppression). These definitions opened the way for Durkheim to pursue a close social analysis examining how each type related to different social contexts. While his study is in certain ways dated, it remains classic precisely because it helped define the methodology of sociology itself – in which interpretative skills remain central.

First published in 1516, Saint Thomas More's "Utopia" is one of the most important works of European humanism and serves as a key text in survey courses on Western intellectual history, the Renaissance, political theory, and many other subjects. Preeminent More scholar Clarence H. Miller does justice to the full range of More's rhetoric in this masterful translation. In a new afterword to this edition, Jerry Harp contextualizes More's life and "Utopia" within the wider frames of European humanism and the Renaissance.

Claude Lévi-Strauss is probably the most complex anthropological theorist of all time. His work continues to influence present-day thinkers in his field, but he is perhaps even more influential beyond it. As one of the key figures in the development of what is known today as ‘French theory,’ Lévi-Strauss was one of the most important thinkers of the 20th-century. His theories of interpretation, meaning and culture have helped shape the ideas and methodologies of a range of disciplines, above all literature and philosophy. At the heart of Lévi-Strauss’s work are the questions of meaning and where meaning comes from. As an anthropologist, he was primarily interested in what completely different and separate cultures might have in common. Crucially, he saw how common ground resides not on the surface of cultures (i.e., in similar customs), but deep inside invisible background structures of thought. His quest was to peel away the surface of different cultures through careful interpretation, advancing from one layer to another until he discovered the structures that lay behind all of the exterior practices and meanings. Infamously challenging, his work shows interpretative skills working at the highest, most abstract level possible.

Ferdinand de Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics is one of the most influential texts of the 20th-century – an astonishing feat for what is, at heart, a series of deeply technical lectures about the structure of human languages. What the Course’s vast influence shows, fundamentally, is the power of good interpretative skills. The interpretative tasks of laying down and clarifying definitions are often vital to providing the logical framework for all kinds of critical thinking – whether it be solving problems in business, or esoteric academic research. At the time sat which Saussure gave his lectures, linguistics was a scattered and inconsistent field, without a unified method or rigorous approach. He aimed to change that by setting down and clarifying definitions and distinctions that would provide a coherent methodological framework for the study of language. The terms laid down in the Course did exactly that – and they still make up the core of linguistic terminology a full century later. More than this, however, Saussure also highlighted the centrality of linguistic interpretation to understanding how we relate to the world, founding “semiotics”, or the study of signs – a field whose influence on academics across the humanities and social sciences is unparalleled.

Michel Foucault is famous as one of the 20th-century’s most innovative and wide-ranging thinkers. The qualities that made him one of the most-read and influential theorists of the modern age find full expression in History of Sexuality, the last project Foucault was able to complete before his death in 1984. Central to Foucault’s appeal is the creativity of his thought. Creative thinking takes many forms – from redefining an issue in a novel way to making unexpected and illuminating connections. Foucault’s particular talent could perhaps best be described as turning questions inside out. In the case of sexuality, for instance, his interpretation of the historical evidence led him to argue that the sexual categories that we are used to (homosexual, lesbian, straight, and so on) are not “natural,” but constructs that are products of the ways in which power and knowledge interact in society. Such categories, Foucault continues, actually serve to produce the desires they seek to name. And their creation, in turn, is closely linked to the power that society exerts on those who belong to different sexual groups. Foucault’s ideas – familiar now – were so novel in their time that they proved highly challenging. But to see the world through Foucault’s thought is to see it in a profoundly different and illuminating way – an example of creative thinking at its best.

This best-selling dictionary is written by one of the most famous philosophers of our time, and widely recognised as the best dictionary of its kind. Wide-ranging and authoritative, it covers every aspect of philosophy from Aristotle to Zen. Clear, concis

We Are All Weird is Seth Godin's cult classic on celebrating (and marketing to) the individual, now repackaged and relaunched World of Warcrafters, LARPers, Settlers of Catan? Weird. Beliebers, Swifties, Directioners? Weirder. Paleos, vegans, carb loaders, ovolacto vegetarians? Definitely weird.

Face it. We're all weird. So why are companies still trying to build products for the masses? Why are we still acting like the masses even exist? Weird is the new normal.

And only companies that figure that out have any chance of survival. In this book, Seth Godin shows you how. "Read this book slowly and read it again, for the lessons are rich and wise." (Jacqueline Novogratz, founder, Acumen).

Our happiness and success depend on clear thinking. But too many of us are compromised by confusion, trying to do too much at once, and not knowing what to do next. In Teach Yourself to Think, Edward de Bono shows that good thinking depends on a simple five-stage process that anyone can learn.

It will enable you to assess your goals, sort available information, identify the available choices, make a decision and, finally, turn thought into action.

This book offers brilliant advice for anyone who needs to be able to respond to and deal with a vast range of situations at work and in life quickly, efficiently and intelligently.

Meetings are a crucial part of all our lives, but too often they go nowhere and waste valuable time. In Six Thinking Hats, Edward de Bono shows how meetings can be transformed to produce quick, decisive results every time.

The Six Hats method is a devastatingly simple technique based on the brain's different modes of thinking. The intelligence, experience and information of everyone is harnessed to reach the right conclusions quickly.

These principles fundamentally change the way you work and interact. They have been adopted by businesses and governments around the world to end conflict and confusion in favour of harmony and productivity.

Thinking Fast and Slow offers a whole new look at the way our minds work, and how we make decisions. Why is there more chance we'll believe something if it's in a bold type face? Why are judges more likely to deny parole before lunch? Why do we assume a good-looking person will be more competent? The answer lies in the two ways we make choices: fast, intuitive thinking, and slow, rational thinking. This book reveals how our minds are tripped up by error and prejudice (even when we think we are being logical), and gives you practical techniques for slower, smarter thinking. It will enable to you make better decisions at work, at home, and in everything you do.

What is the condition of the suspect in a post-9/11 world? Do perpetual detention, ubiquitous surveillance cameras, and the legal apparatus of the USA Patriot Act target suspects accurately or generate suspicion indiscriminately? Suspect, the latest in a series from Alphabet City and the first in its new format of topical book-length magazines, gathers hard evidence about the fate of the suspect in a culture of suspicion with contributions from writers, artists, and filmmakers.Their testimony takes a multiplicity of forms and formats. Among them: A 24-page color comic by graphic novelist Joey Dubuc asks the reader to make narrative choices in a web of surveillance, suspicion, and fear. Harper's contributor Mark Kingwell observes that while suspicion tries to isolate the suspect, in fact we are all the suspect. Slavoj Zizek reflects on the new cultural status of the suspect after Abu Ghraib. Philosopher George Bragues argues that even as the United Nations looks for ways to discipline "suspect nations," it simply cannot succeed under current international conditions. Alphabet City editor John Knechtel interviews Naomi Klein, author of No Logo, about the legal and political strategies of the Bush administration. Sylwia Chrostowska describes what happens, in the the 1970 Italian film Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, when a corrupt official investigates himself. Screenwriter Timothy Stock and illustrator Warren Heise create a documentary in comic form about Critical Ensemble artist Steve Kurtz, charged under the bioterrorism provisions of the Patriot Act. Novelist Camilla Gibb portrays, in "Things Collapse," the terrifying effects of a "separating sickness" of unknown origin, which perhaps exists only in the fears of the population it strikes. And novelist Diana Fitzgerald Bryden follows her character Rafa Ahmed, a PFLP hijacker from the 1970s, as, many years later, she is to appear at a peace conference. Filmmaker Patricia Rozema, director of Mansfield Park and other films, contributes a 16-page film-in-a-book, "Suspect." Suspect is a non-partisan handbook on the mechanisms and machinations of suspicion for the twenty-first century national security state.

Writers, artists, and filmmakers investigate the proposition that we are what we throw away - Trash: the emptied out, the used up, the broken, the outgrown, the obsolete; the dispossessed, the lost, the left behind. In "Trash", writers, artists, and filmmakers look at how we are defined by what we waste and discover that we are what we throw away. "Trash" surveys a terrain that ranges from micro (a typology of dust bunnies) to macro (studies of landfill design and the trashed space of urban brownfield sites). It investigates the logic of trash as it is applied to humans and looks at lives intimately dependent on trash, taking us from the abducted girls of Juarez to the recycling communities of China. These excavations of trash include philosopher Barry Allen's tracing of the borderline where thought turns to trash, Susan Coolen's collection of paper airplanes found in the streets of Montreal, and the strange and obsessive project of artist Kristan Horton to recreate tableaux from the film Dr. Strangelove with bits of trash. Poet, Priscilla Uppal writes about her Uncle Fernando, known to his neighbors in Brasilia as "Dr. Garbage" ("When they go to the movies/he goes through their garbage"), and Karilee Fuglem's photographs reveal the intricacy of household fluff. Rebecca Duclos and David Ross create an advertisement for a fictional museum that houses artifacts discarded by other museums, and Priya Sarukkai Chabria's cantos of "Refuse/Refused" give voice to an old woman in India discarded, like trash, by her family, a shard of a broken mirror ("My time will come when/yours is done"), and a worm in a "cathedral of rot." "Trash" explores the ethics and psychology of trash and what these reveal about contemporary industrial society. The investigations range from the whimsical to the disturbing, and offers a variety of approaches to rehabilitating and rediscovering what is too commonly tossed aside.

The authentic spiritual quest is marked not by certainties but by questions and doubt. How To Be An Agnostic explores the wonder of science, the ups and downs of being ‘spiritual but not religious,’ the insights of ancient philosophy, and God, the biggest question. Mark Vernon was an Anglican priest, left a conviction atheist, and now finds himself to be a committed, searching agnostic. Part personal story, part spiritual search, this journey through physics and philosophy concludes that the contemporary lust for certainty is demeaning of our humanity. We live in a time of spiritual crisis, but the key to wisdom – as Socrates, the great theologians and the best scientists know – is embracing the limits of our knowledge. This much expanded edition was previously published as After Atheism, and includes new chapters looking at mindfulness meditation, 'pic’n’mix' religion, quantum spirituality, the probability of God and why Stephen Hawking is wrong about nothing.

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Including more than 11,000 definitions, this authoritative and up-to-date dictionary covers all branches of psychology. Clear, concise descriptions for each entry offer extensive coverage of key areas including cognition, sensation and perception, emotion and motivation, learning and skills, language, mental disorder, and research methods. The range of entries extends to related disciplines including psychoanalysis, psychiatry, the neurosciences, and statistics. Entries are extensively cross-referenced for ease of use, and cover word origins and derivations as well as definitions. More than 100 illustrations complement the text. This fourth edition has incorporated a large number of significant revisions and additions, many in response to the 2013 publication of the American Psychiatric Association's latest edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, bringing the Dictionary fully up to date with the most recent literature of the subject. In addition to the alphabetical entries, the dictionary also includes appendices covering over 800 commonly used abbreviations and symbols, as well as a list of phobias and phobic stimuli, with definitions. Comprehensive and clearly written, this dictionary is an invaluable work of reference for students, lecturers, and the general reader with an interest in psychology.

Originally published more than fifty years ago, "The Courage to Be" has become a classic of twentieth-century religious and philosophical thought. The great Christian existentialist thinker Paul Tillich describes the dilemma of modern man and points a way to the conquest of the problem of anxiety. This edition includes a new foreword by Harvey Cox that situates the book within the theological conversation from which it first emerged and conveys its continued relevance in the current century. It is selected as one of the Books of the Century by the New York Public Library.

Iris Murdoch once observed: 'philosophy is often a matter of finding occasions on which to say the obvious'. What was obvious to Murdoch, and to all those who read her work, is that Good transcends everything - even God. Throughout her distinguished and prolific writing career, she explored questions of Good and Bad, myth and morality. The framework for Murdoch's questions - and her own conclusions - can be found here.

This remarkable book takes as its subject one of the most outstanding men that ever lived. The ultimate prodigy, Leonardo da Vinci was an artist of great originality and power, a scientist, and a powerful thinker. According to Sigmund Freud, he was also a flawed, repressed homosexual. The first psychosexual history to be published, Leonardo da Vinci was the only biography the great psychoanalyst wrote. When Jung first saw it, he told Freud it was 'wonderful', and it remained Freud's favourite composition. The text includes the first full emergence of the concept of narcissism and develops Freud's theories of homosexuality. While based upon controversial research, the book offers a fascinating insight into two men - the subject and the author. If you've ever wondered just what lies behind the Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile, read Freud on Leonardo. It's genius on genius.

Blake was a visionary like no other. To some, like William Wordsworth, the only explanation for the remarkable spiritual world Blake witnessed and brought to life in his books was 'insane genius'. Although such a view persisted well into the twentieth cen

Scholar, theologian and philosopher, Martin Buber is one of the twentieth century's most influential thinkers. He believed that the deepest reality of human life lies in the relationship between one being and another. Between Man and Man is the classic wo

Along with Why I Am Not a Christian, this essay must rank as the most articulate example of Russell's famed atheism. It is also one of the most notorious. Used as evidence in a 1940 court case in which Russell was declared unfit to teach college-level philosophy, What I Believe was to become one of his most defining works. The ideas contained within were and are controversial, contentious and - to the religious - downright blasphemous. A remarkable work, it remains the best concise introduction to Russell's thought.

Think of developmental psychology, and the name of Jean Piaget immediately springs to mind. His theory of learning lies at the very heart of the modern understanding of the human learning process, and he is celebrated as the founding father of child psychology. A prolific writer, is the author of more than fifty books and several hundred articles. The Psychology of Intelligence is one of his most important works. Containing a complete synthesis of his thoughts on the mechanisms of intellectual development, it is an extraordinary volume by an extraordinary writer. Given his significance, it is hardly surprising that Psychology Today pronounced Piaget the Best Psychologist of the twentieth century.

Jean-Paul Sartre was one of the most important philosophical and political thinkers of the twentieth century. His writings had a potency that was irresistible to the intellectual scene that swept post-war Europe, and have left a vital inheritance to contemporary thought. The central tenet of the Existentialist movement which he helped to found, whereby God is replaced by an ethical self, proved hugely attractive to a generation that had seen the horrors of Nazism, and provoked a revolution in post-war thought and literature. In What is Literature? Sartre the novelist and Sartre the philosopher combine to address the phenomenon of literature, exploring why we read, and why we write.

Helping both parents and psychologists to arrive at a better understanding of the inner emotional world of the infant, this selection of key lectures by Bowlby includes the seminal one that gives the volume its title. Informed by wide clinical experience, and written with the author's well-known humanity and lucidity, the lectures provide an invaluable introduction to John Bowlby’s thought and work, as well as much practical guidance of use both to parents and to members of the mental health professions.

In The Undiscovered Self Jung explains the essence of his teaching for a readership unfamiliar with his ideas. He highlights the importance of individual responsibility and freedom in the context of today's mass society, and argues that individuals must organize themselves as effectively as the organized mass if they are to resist joining it. To help them achieve this he sets out his influential programme for achieving self-understanding and self-realization. The Undiscovered Self is a book that will awaken many individuals to the new life of the self that Jung visualized.

Love is a force of destiny whose power reaches from heaven to hell.' So Jung advises while reflecting on 'The Love Problem of a Student', an essay contained in this volume. But it is not just love that Jung speaks of in this book. Taking as its theme Jung

Hailed by Andre Gide as the patron saint of all outsiders, Simone Weil's short life was ample testimony to her beliefs. In 1942 she fled France along with her family, going firstly to America. She then moved back to London in order to work with de Gaulle. Published posthumously The Need for Roots was a direct result of this collaboration. Its purpose was to help rebuild France after the war. In this, her most famous book, Weil reflects on the importance of religious and political social structures in the life of the individual. She wrote that one of the basic obligations we have as human beings is to not let another suffer from hunger. Equally as important, however, is our duty towards our community: we may have declared various human rights, but we have overlooked the obligations and this has left us self-righteous and rootless. She could easily have been issuing a direct warning to us today, the citizens of Century 21.

Modern life is hectic and relentless: trains delayed, endless emails filling the inbox, kids squabbling before bedtime. There has never been a more important time to rediscover your pause button. Calm is the book that will show you how to take back a little bit of peace, space, and all-important calm. This book contains the simple tools, tricks and habits that will change the rest your life. It is a practical and pleasurable guide to 21st century mindfulness. Regular meditation is medically proven to be good for you - it increases focus and creativity, productivity and job satisfaction, and mental, and even physical, health. But in reality most of us don't have time to sit on a cushion with our eyes closed for half an hour every day. And many people associate meditation with hard work and huge lifestyle shifts: you might be imagining Buddhist monks locked in a mountain retreat and living off gruel. This is where Calm comes in. Calm is about simple, achievable habits that work with the demands of your busy life instead of pretending those demands don't exist. Calm does not require specialist training: it uses abilities that every single one of us is born with, like creativity, spontaneity, and simply noticing the world around you. Calm is not a set of rules that you need to worry about following or breaking. It is inspirational, practical, and non-prescriptive. Onerous, time-consuming meditation might seem out of reach, but everyone can achieve calm—including you. Calm combines extracts from fascinating neurological research with wisdom from history's great thinkers and the real-life experiences of individuals across the globe. It demystifies mindfulness and shows you the many simple ways to be mindful while carrying on with your life. It is also a beautifully crafted object, filled with artwork and artistry, that will change your perspective by showing you the pleasures of the world anew. Take a walk with nowhere to go, savor a chocolate on the tip of your tongue, plant a seed, doodle aimlessly, turn off your mobile phone for five short minutes. Smile, breathe, and go slowly. Calm is divided into eight sections that everyone should have in their life: nature, work, creativity,·children, travel, relationships, food,·and sleep. Each section contains a mixture of fascinating research, creative prompts, activities and instructions, sensory stimuli, and inspiration. Pick up Calm whenever you need it, dip in and out, read it, and choose which bits work best for you.

In the fiftieth anniversary of this book�s first release, Winch�s argument remains as crucial as ever. Originally published in 1958, The Idea of a Social Science and Its Relation to Philosophy was a landmark exploration of the social sciences, written at a time when that field was still young and had not yet joined the Humanities and the Natural Sciences as the third great domain of the Academy. A passionate defender of the importance of philosophy to a full understanding of 'society' against those who would deem it an irrelevant 'ivory towers' pursuit, Winch draws from the works of such thinkers as Ludwig Wittgenstein, J.S. Mill and Max Weber to make his case. In so doing he addresses the possibility and practice of a comprehensive 'science of society'.

Also published under the title of Principals of Social Reconstruction, and written in response to the devastation of World War I, Why Men Fight lays out Bertrand Russell's ideas on war, pacifism, reason, impulse, and personal liberty. He argues that the individualistic approach of traditional liberalism has reached its limits and that when individuals live passionately, they will have no desire for war or killing. Conversely, excessive restraint or reason causes us to live unnaturally and with hostility toward those who are unlike ourselves. This formidable work greatly contributed to Russell’s fame as a formidable social critic and anti-war activist.

Nearly one thousand colleges and universities in the United States face major challenges � from catastrophic hurricanes to loss of accreditation to sagging enrollment. What can leaders of such at-risk institutions do to improve their situation? "Turnaround" gives college and university leaders the tools they need to put their fragile institutions back on a path to success. This comprehensive handbook outlines how board members, presidents, and administrators can identify their institutions' weaknesses, implement plans for improvement, and mitigate existing damage. "Turnaround" also identifies the legal pitfalls that often accompany institutional change, offering solutions for how to overcome such obstacles or avoid them altogether. Evaluating the experiences of two hundred college leaders, the contributors share such critical information as: - 20 indicators of institutional vulnerability - 10 necessary skills for presidents directing a turnaround - 5 characteristics of institutions that have completed successful turnarounds - 10 lessons of successful turnarounds Featuring candid advice from decision makers who have faced severe challenges, "Turnaround" is a valuable resource for college and university leaders facing tough times.

In a culture obsessed with youth, financial success, and achieving happiness, is it possible to live an authentic, meaningful life? Nassir Ghaemi, a psychiatrist with a wide grasp of philosophy, reflects on our society's current quest for happiness and rejection of anything resembling sadness. "On Depression" asks readers to consider the benefits of despair and the foibles of an unexamined life. Too often depression as disease is mistreated or not treated at all. Ghaemi warns against the "pretenders" who confuse our understanding of depression – those who deny disease excessively for instance or those who use psychiatric diagnosis (the DSM system) "pragmatically" and unscientifically. But sadness, even depression, can also have benefits. Ghaemi asserts that we can create a "narrative of ourselves such that we know and accept who we are", leading to a deeper, lasting level of contentment and a more satisfying personal and public life. Depression is complex, and we need guides to help us understand it, guides who comprehend it existentially as part of normal human experience and clinically as sometimes needing the right kind of treatment, including medications. Ghaemi discusses these guides in detail, thinkers like Viktor Frankl, Rollo May, Karl Jaspers, and Leston Havens, among others. "On Depression" combines examples from philosophy and the history of medicine with psychiatric principles informed by the author's clinical experience with people who struggle with mental illness. He has seen great achievements arise from great suffering and feels that understanding depression can provide important insights into happiness.

After several million years of jostling for ecological space, only one survivor from a host of hominid species remains standing: us. Human beings are extraordinary creatures, and it is the unprecedented human brain that makes them so. In this delightfully accessible book, the authors present the first full, step-by-step account of the evolution of the brain and nervous system. Tapping the very latest findings in evolutionary biology, neuroscience, and molecular biology, Rob DeSalle and Ian Tattersall explain how the cognitive gulf that separates us from all other living creatures could have occurred. They discuss the development and uniqueness of human consciousness, how human and nonhuman brains work, the roles of different nerve cells, the importance of memory and language in brain functions, and much more. Our brains, they conclude, are the product of a lengthy and supremely untidy history – an evolutionary process of many zigs and zags – that has accidentally resulted in a splendidly eccentric and creative product.

"Really interesting...a very, very good book." (Steve Wright, BBC Radio 2). In Do Less, Get More, entrepreneur and bestselling author Shaa Wasmund reveals that the key to fulfilment isn't doing more, it's doing what matters. Is your life how you imagined it would be, or is the reality more stressful than you planned? Do you put yourself under too much pressure to succeed? Are you struggling to find time for the things, and people, you love? It doesn't have to be this way.
Anything is possible when you stop trying to do everything at the same time. This life changing book gives you the tools to ditch your to-do list and follow your dreams. It will be your essential guide to doing what you love - and letting go of the rest.

In the last three decades we've experienced increasing "intense moral individualism," and at the same time we've witnessed massive globalization. To some degree, at least, these trends are in opposition and even conflict. Patricia Illingworth explores concepts, structures and institutions that we might develop to make their interactions constructive, rather than destructive, and makes the case that "social capital" is a moral good and that ethics and law can play a vital role in both replenishing our reservoir of social capital, and in sustaining it at higher levels. Thisshort, powerful and passionate book argues that "social capital" should be an essential ethical concept guiding our actions, and explains how one might go about implementing this idea in a positive way.

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In France, a country that awards its intellectuals the status other countries give their rock stars, Michel Foucault was part of a glittering generation of thinkers, one which also included Sartre, de Beauvoir and Deleuze. One of the great intellectual he

When one defines "order" as a sorting of priorities, it becomes beautifully clear as to what Foucault is doing here. With virtuoso showmanship, he weaves an intensely complex history of thought. He dips into literature, art, economics and even biology in The Order of Things, possibly one of the most significant, yet most overlooked, works of the twentieth century. Eclipsed by his later work on power and discourse, nonetheless it was The Order of Things that established Foucault's reputation as an intellectual giant. Pirouetting around the outer edge of language, Foucault unsettles the surface of literary writing. In describing the limitations of our usual taxonomies, he opens the door onto a whole new system of thought, one ripe with what he calls "exotic charm". Intellectual pyrotechnics from the master of critical thinking, this book is crucial reading for those who wish to gain insight into that odd beast called Postmodernism, and a must for any fan of Foucault

Erich Fromm sees right to the heart of our contradictory needs for community and for freedom like no other writer before or since. In Fear of Freedom, Fromm warns that the price of community is indeed high, and it is the individual who pays. Fascism and authoritarianism may seem like receding shadows for some, but are cruel realities for many. Erich Fromm leaves a valuable and original legacy to his readers - a vastly increased understanding of the human character in relation to society. At the beginning of the 21st century, it is more important than ever to be aware of his powerful message. Listen, and take heed.

Nobel laureate Erwin Schrödinger's What is Life? is one of the great science classics of the twentieth century. It was written for the layman, but proved to be one of the spurs to the birth of molecular biology and the subsequent discovery of DNA. What is Life? appears here together with Mind and Matter, his essay investigating a relationship which has eluded and puzzled philosophers since the earliest times. Brought together with these two classics are Schrödinger's autobiographical sketches, which offer a fascinating account of his life as a background to his scientific writings.

Never before has there been a greater need for deeper listening and more open communication to cope with the complex problems facing our organizations, businesses and societies. Renowned scientist David Bohm believed there was a better way for humanity to discover meaning and to achieve harmony. He identified creative dialogue, a sharing of assumptions and understanding, as a means by which the individual, and society as a whole, can learn more about themselves and others, and achieve a renewed sense of purpose.

In this remarkable book Michel Foucault, one of the most influential thinkers of recent times, calls us to look critically at specific historical events in order to uncover new layers of significance. In doing so, he challenges our assumptions not only ab

Thomas Nagel's Mortal Questions explores some fundamental issues concerning the meaning, nature and value of human life. Questions about our attitudes to death, sexual behaviour, social inequality, war and political power are shown to lead to more obviously philosophical problems about personal identity, consciousness, freedom, and value. This original and illuminating book aims at a form of understanding that is both theoretical and personal in its lively engagement with what are literally issues of life and death.

This book is the most important gift that anyone can have in order to better understand the role of science and technology, future of education and research in society. It's cultures worth adopting as your own.

In Morality Bernard Williams confronts the problems of writing moral philosophy, and offers a stimulating alternative to more systematic accounts which seem nevertheless to have left all the important issues somewhere off the page. Williams explains, analyses and distinguishes a number of key positions, from the purely amoral to notions of subjective or relative morality, testing their coherence before going on to explore the nature of 'goodness' in relation to responsibilities and choice, roles, standards, and human nature. A classic in moral philosophy.

Many scientists regard mass and energy as the primary currency of nature. In recent years, however, the concept of information has gained importance. Why? In this book, eminent scientists, philosophers and theologians chart various aspects of information, from quantum information to biological and digital information, in order to understand how nature works. Beginning with a historical treatment of the topic, the book also examines physical and biological approaches to information, and its philosophical, theological and ethical implications.

The threat of terrorism and the increasing power of terrorist groups has prompted a rapid growth of the security services and changes in legislation, permitting the collection of communications data. This provides journalism with acute dilemmas. The media claims responsibility for holding power to account, yet cannot know more than superficial details about the newly empowered secret services. This book is the first to analyze, in the aftermath of the Snowden/NSA revelations, relations between two key institutions in the modern state: the intelligence services and the news media. It provides the answers to crucial questions including: how can power be held to account if one of the greatest state powers is secret? How far have the Snowden/NSA revelations damaged the activities of the secret services? And have governments lost all trust from journalists and the public?

A treasure for all ages. Why Life Speeds Up As You Get Older is entertaining, moving and informative. It's a gift full of 'good memory' that will never leave you.

In recent years, social scientists have engaged in a deep debate over the methods appropriate to their research. Their long reliance on passive observational collection of information has been challenged by proponents of experimental methods designed to precisely infer causal effects through active intervention in the social world. Some scholars claim that field experiments represent a new gold standard and the best way forward, while others insist that these methods carry inherent inconsistencies, limitations, or ethical dilemmas that observational approaches do not. This unique collection of essays by the most influential figures on every side of this debate reveals its most important stakes and will provide useful guidance to students and scholars in many disciplines.

What is the value of the arts and humanities today? This question points to a long and extensively discussed dilemma. Eleonora Belfiore and Anna Upchurch have compiled a collection of original essays that offer a novel approach to tackling this difficult question. These contributions offer examples that show that, rather than relying on the narrowly utilitarian notion of 'research impact' that has developed within current educational policies and debates, it may be more appropriate to look at the ways in which arts and humanities research is already engaged in collaborative endeavours, both within academia and beyond, in order to address the big ethical, political, technological and environmental challenges of contemporary life. The contributors are scholars from diverse backgrounds, cultural and business professionals as well as policy makers from both the UK and the US. The wealth and diversity of perspectives and experiences they bring to the consideration of the place and role of the arts and humanities in contemporary society allows for a refreshed debate that does not rely on simplistic and questionable notions of socio-economic impact as a proxy for value.

As Bowlby himself points out in his introduction to this seminal childcare book, to be a successful parent means a lot of very hard work. Giving time and attention to children means sacrificing other interests and activities, but for many people today these are unwelcome truths. Bowlby’s work showed that the early interactions between infant and caregiver have a profound impact on an infant's social, emotional, and intellectual growth. Controversial yet powerfully influential to this day, this classic collection of Bowlby’s lectures offers important guidelines for child rearing based on the crucial role of early relationships.

According to a profile in The Guardian, Mary Midgley is 'the foremost scourge of scientific pretensions in this country; someone whose wit is admired even by those who feel she sometimes oversteps the mark'. Considered one of Britain's finest philosophers, Midgley exposes the illogical logic of poor doctrines that shelter themselves behind the prestige of science. Always at home when taking on the high priests of evolutionary theory - Dawkins, Wilson and their acolytes - she has famously described evolution as 'the creation-myth of our age'. In Evolution as a Religion, she examines how science comes to be used as a substitute for religion and points out how badly that role distorts it. As ever, her argument is flawlessly insightful: a punchy, compelling, lively indictment of these misuses of science. Both the book and its author are true classics of our time.

Men and Masculinity: The Basics is an accessible introduction to the academic study of masculinity which outlines the key ideas and most pressing issues concerning the field today. Providing readers with a framework for understanding these issues, it explores the ways that masculinity has been understood in the Social Sciences and Humanities to date. Addressing theories which view masculinity as being in a permanent state of flux and crisis, it explores such problem areas as: the male body men and work men and fatherhood male sexuality male violence. With a glossary of key terms, case studies reflecting the most important studies in the field of masculinity research and suggestions for further study, Men and Masculinity: The Basics is an essential read for anyone approaching the study of masculinity for the first time.

As a physician who personally suffers from depression, Susan J. Noonan draws on her own expertise and empathy to create a guide for people who suffer from the disease. Explaining the basics of mental health – including sleep hygiene, diet and nutrition, exercise, routine and structure, and avoiding isolation – "Managing Your Depression" empowers people to participate in their own care, offering them a better chance of getting, and staying, well. Noonan's depression management strategies draw on the best available educational resources, psychoeducational programs, seminars, expert health care providers, and patient experiences. The book is specifically designed to be highly readable for people who are finding it difficult to focus and concentrate during an episode of depression. Cognitive exercises and daily worksheets help track progress and response to therapy and provide valuable information for making treatment decisions. A relapsing and remitting condition, depression affects nearly 15 percent of people in the United States. "Managing Your Depression" will bring depression management strategies to people who do not have access to mental health programs or who want to learn new skills.

Humans are social animals and are constantly interacting with each other through conversation, written communication, symbols and other expressions . Discourse: The Basics is an accessible and engaging introduction to the analysis of those interactions and the many forms and meanings they can take. The book draws on a range of international case studies and examples from literature, political speech, advertising and newspaper articles to address key questions such as: What is discourse? Why are there different approaches to understanding discourse? How are individual interactions connected with the larger discourses that frame our ways of thinking and behaving? How can discourse be analysed and researched? Discourse: The Basics includes subject summaries, a glossary of key terms and suggestions for further reading. It will be of particular relevance to students of language and the social sciences but also useful to all students who are interested in how meanings are made.

Logic: The Basics is an accessible introduction to several core areas of logic. The first part of the book features a self-contained introduction to the standard topics in classical logic, such as: · mathematical preliminaries · propositional logic · quantified logic (first monadic, then polyadic) · English and standard ‘symbolic translations’ · tableau procedures. Alongside comprehensive coverage of the standard topics, this thoroughly revised second edition also introduces several philosophically important nonclassical logics, free logics, and modal logics, and gives the reader an idea of how they can take their knowledge further. With its wealth of exercises (solutions available in the encyclopedic online supplement), Logic: The Basics is a useful textbook for courses ranging from the introductory level to the early graduate level, and also as a reference for students and researchers in philosophical logic.

This volume initiates a much-needed conversation about the ethical and policy concerns facing health care providers in the rural United States. Although 21 percent of the population lives in rural areas, only 11 percent of physicians practice there. What challenges do health care workers face in remote locations? What are the differences between rural and urban health care practices? What particular ethical issues arise in treating residents of small communities? Craig M. Klugman and Pamela M. Dalinis gather philosophers, lawyers, physicians, nurses, and researchers to discuss these and other questions, offering a multidisciplinary overview of rural health care in the United States. Rural practitioners often practice within small, tight-knit communities, socializing with their patients outside the examination room. The residents are more likely to have limited finances and to lack health insurance. Physicians may have insufficient resources to treat their patients, who often have to travel great distances to see a doctor. The first part of the book analyzes the differences between rural and urban cultures and discusses the difficulties in treating patients in rural settings. The second part features the personal narratives of rural health care providers, who share their experiences and insights. The last part introduces unique ethical challenges facing rural health care providers and proposes innovative solutions to those problems. This volume is a useful resource for bioethicists, members of rural bioethics committees and networks, policy makers, teachers of health care providers, and rural practitioners themselves.

What is the ethical anchoring of psychoanalysis? What does it mean to be a subject and how is it different from being a self? Is analytic psychotherapy doomed to promote individualism? Psychoanalysis and Social Involvement conducts a comparative investigation of psychoanalytic psychotherapy and activism, especially as it manifests in the Israeli-Palestinian arena. The basis for this comparative analysis is laid by means of a critical look at what it means to be a subject across social levels; the manner in which subjecthood develops and its inherent reliance on ethical positioning. Methodologically, the book interfaces theory with the empirical fields of psychotherapy and social activism, further strengthening its rooting in psychosocial studies. This book will appeal to professionals including mental health workers, social workers, political scientists, and socio-political activists, especially those with liberal and radical agendas.

Paul McKenna Ph.D. has helped people from all walks of life and helped them to change their lives for the better. He has investigated nearly every method of therapy, coaching and personal change available, and as a result has recently created an amazing new system that could help you breakthrough in the areas of your life you truly want to! If you're ready to . . . Have infinitely more power over the direction of your life? Uncover the secrets of luck, confidence and motivation? Feel like you are the master of your own destiny? Release your true potential? Become the person you were born to be? Then let Paul McKenna help you!

Ten years after the publication of "Transforming a College", Elon University continues to thrive as a school that reinvented itself and its community around the idea of inspiring and guiding students. George Keller's now-classic account has been used as a

The recent trend of trying to measure higher education's return on investment misses a fundamental point, argue Charity Johansson and Peter Felten. The central purpose of a college or university is to transform the lives of students – not to merely change

More people today report feeling anxious than ever before – even while living in relatively safe and prosperous modern societies. Almost one in five people experiences an anxiety disorder each year, and more than a quarter of the population admits to an anxiety condition at some point in their lives. Here Allan V. Horwitz, a sociologist of mental illness and mental health, narrates how this condition has been experienced, understood, and treated through the ages – from Hippocrates, through Freud, to today. Anxiety is rooted in an ancient part of the brain, and our ability to be anxious is inherited from species far more ancient than humans. Anxiety is often adaptive: it enables us to respond to threats. But when normal fear yields to what psychiatry categorizes as anxiety disorders, it becomes maladaptive. As Horwitz explores the history and multiple identities of anxiety – melancholia, nerves, neuroses, phobias, and so on – it becomes clear that every age has had its own anxieties and that culture plays a role in shaping how anxiety is expressed.

Using social media and peer-to-peer networks to teach people about science and health may seem like an obvious strategy. Yet recent research suggests that systematic reliance on social networks may be a recipe for inequity. People are not consistently inc

Witty and insightful, "How Universities Work" is destined to be an essential handbook for anyone working or hoping to work in a university. John V. Lombardi gives readers an insider's view of the American academy, introducing them to the structure, logic, dynamics, and operational styles of both public and private institutions of higher education. Lombardi defines and describes all the bits and pieces that compose a university with remarkable economy – from budgeting systems to tenure, from the library to the athletic field. Although focused on research universities, much of the discussion applies to other types of post-secondary institutions. Ideal for students, this book will form a solid foundation for courses in higher education, but it will also be a welcome addition to faculty and administrators' personal libraries.

Did Omar Little die of lead poisoning? Would a decriminalization strategy like the one in Hamsterdam end the War on Drugs? What will it take to save neglected kids like Wallace and Dukie? "Tapping into 'The Wire'" uses the acclaimed television series as a road map for exploring connections between inner-city poverty and drug-related violence. Past Baltimore City health commissioner Peter Beilenson teams up with former Baltimore Sun reporter Patrick A. McGuire to deliver a compelling, highly readable examination of urban policy and public health issues affecting cities across the nation. Each chapter recounts scenes from episodes of the HBO series, placing the characters' challenges into the broader context of public policy. A candid interview with the show's co-creator David Simon reveals that one of the intentions of the series is to expose gross failures of public institutions, including criminal justice, education, labor, the news media, and city government. Even if readers haven't seen the series, the book's detailed summaries of scenes and characters brings them up to speed and engages them in both the story and the issues. With a firm grasp on the hard truths of real-world problems, "Tapping into 'The Wire'" helps undo misconceptions and encourage a dialogue of understanding.

What are the origins of creativity and how can we develop it - whether within ourselves or in others? Not only does Playing and Reality address these questions, it also tackles many more that surround the fundamental issue of the individual self and its relationship with the outside world. In this landmark book of twentieth-century psychology, Winnicott shows the reader how, through the attentive nurturing of creativity from the earliest years, every individual has the opportunity to enjoy a rich and rewarding cultural life. Today, as the 'hothousing' and testing of children begins at an ever-younger age, Winnicott's classic text is a more urgent and topical read than ever before.

We can't imagine our lives without the Internet. It is the tool of our existence; without it we couldn't work, plan our social and leisure activities, and interact with friends. The Internet’s influence on contemporary society extends across every aspect of our personal and professional lives, but how has this altered us in psychological terms? How are we to understand how the Internet can promote enormous amounts of caring and kindness to strangers and yet be the source of unremitting acts of terror? This book, grounded in the latest cutting-edge research, enhances our understanding of how we, and our children, behave online. It explores questions such as: Why does our self-control abandon us sometimes on the Internet? Why does the Internet create a separate realm of social and personal relationships? How does all that change us as people? Are youngsters really as exposed and threatened on the web as people think? Internet Psychology: The Basics is a vital and fascinating guide to the online world, drawing on classic theories of human behaviour to shed fresh light on this central facet of modern life. It argues that, even in an age of constant technological advancement, our understanding of the human psyche remains rooted in these well-established theories. Embracing both positive and negative aspects of Internet use, this easy introduction to the subject will appeal to students and general readers alike.

Disability: The Basics is an engaging and accessible introduction to disability which explores the broad historical, social, environmental, economic and legal factors which affect the experiences of those living with an impairment or illness in contemporary society. The book explores key introductory topics including: the diversity of the disability experience; disability rights and advocacy; ways in which disabled people have been treated throughout history and in different parts of the world; the daily realities of living with an impairment or illness; health, education, employment and other services that exist to support and include disabled people; ethical issues at the beginning and end of life. Disability: The Basics aims to provide readers with an understanding of the lived experiences of disabled people and highlight the continuing gaps and barriers in social responses to the challenge of disability. This book is suitable for lay people, students of disability studies as well as students taking a disability module as part of a wider course within social work, health care, sociology, nursing, policy and media studies.

A collection of essays, which critique structures of power and oppression as they operate within American society and provide a way of thinking about human dignity and difference. It explores the politics and philosophy of America, the role of the black intellectual, and the fate of African Americans.

Magic: The Basics is a concise and engaging introduction to magic in world history and contemporary societies. Presenting magic as a global phenomenon which has manifested in all human cultures, this book takes a thematic approach which explores the historical, social, and cultural aspects of magic. Key features include: attempts to define magic either in universal or more particular terms, and to contrast it with other broad and potentially fluid categories such as religion and science; an examination of different forms of magical practice and the purposes for which magic has been used; debates about magic’s effectiveness, its reality, and its morality; an exploration of magic’s association with certain social factors, such as gender, ethnicity and education, among others. Offering a global perspective of magic from antiquity through to the modern era and including a glossary of key terms, suggestions for further reading and case studies throughout, Magic: The Basics is essential reading for anyone seeking to learn more about the academic study of magic.

Health inequality is a global issue. This book examines the problem through an in-depth look at a remote Australian Aboriginal community characterized by a degree of premature morbidity and mortality similar to that in other disadvantaged populations. Its synthesis of cognitive anthropology with frameworks drawn from epidemiology, evolutionary theory, and social, psychological and biological sciences illuminates the actions, emotions, and stresses of daily life. While this analysis implicates structures and processes of inequality in the genesis of ill health, its focus remains on the people who suffer, grieve, and live with the dilemmas of an intercultural life.

Can writing about therapy be a kind of therapy in itself? Set in strike-frenzied Paris, this diary account takes the reader on a journey through the dark and underground tunnels of Lacanian psychoanalysis. The patient must negotiate with his silent therap

This third edition of the bestselling textbook has been fully revised, continuing to provide a concise introduction to the key concepts of semiotics in accessible and jargon-free language. Demystifying what is a complex, highly interdisciplinary field, key questions covered include: What are signs and codes? What can semiotics teach us about representation and reality? What tools does it offer for analysing texts and cultural practices? With further examples and images and new end of chapter resources, this must-have resource is both the ideal introductory text and an essential reference guide for students at all levels of language and communication, media and cultural studies

Over recent years, Europe has witnessed a series of diverse crises in food, including BSE, GM food, obesity, dioxin scares and avian flu. Consumer trust has become a critical issue, affecting not only markets, but state regulators, scientists and the media. This major comparative research project, combining both public opinion surveys and detailed analysis of regulatory and food provisioning systems, demonstrates surprising contrasts in trust and distrust in different countries to reveal that trust is high in countries most affected by crisis, such as the UK, and low in countries with a reputation for good food, such as Italy. Examining six European countries in depth - Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Norway and Portugal - as well as examining policy at EU level, Trust in Food presents an in-depth analysis of the complex social and relational bases for trust, challenging dominant ideas of the consumer as a sovereign individual and highlighting the 'triangular affairs' between consumers, states and market provisioners.

After observing the varying reactions to the 1998 death of James Byrd, Jr. in Texas, called a lynching by some, denied by others, Ashraf Rushdy determined in order to understand this event he needed to understand the long history of lynching in the United States. In this meticulously researched and accessibly written interpretive history, Rushdy shows how lynching in America has endured, evolved, and changed in meaning over the course of three centuries, from its origins in early Virginia to the present day. Rushdy argues that we can understand what lynching means in American history by examining its evolution – that is, by seeing how the practice changes in both form and meaning over the course of three centuries, as well as by analyzing the rationales its advocates have made in its defence, and, finally, by explicating its origins. The best way of understanding what lynching has meant in different times, and for different populations, during the course of American history is by seeing both the continuities in the practice over time and the specific features in different forms of lynching in different eras.

At the turn of the twentieth century, medicine's imperative to cure disease increasingly took priority over the demand to relieve pain and suffering at the end of life. Filled with heartbreaking stories, "The Inevitable Hour" demonstrates that professional attention and resources gradually were diverted from dying patients. Emily K. Abel challenges three myths about health care and dying in America. First, that medicine has always sought authority over death and dying; second, that medicine superseded the role of families and spirituality at the end of life; and finally, that only with the advent of the high-tech hospital did an institutional death become dehumanized. Abel shows that hospitals resisted accepting dying patients and often worked hard to move them elsewhere. Poor, terminally ill patients, for example, were shipped from Bellevue Hospital in open boats across the East River to Blackwell's Island, where they died in hovels, mostly without medical care. Some terminal patients were not forced to leave, yet long before the advent of feeding tubes and respirators, dying in a hospital was a profoundly dehumanizing experience. With technological advances, passage of the Social Security Act, and enactment of Medicare and Medicaid, almshouses slowly disappeared and conditions for dying patients improved – though, as Abel argues, the prejudices and approaches of the past are still with us. The problems that plagued nineteenth-century almshouses can be found in many nursing homes today, where residents often receive substandard treatment. A frank portrayal of the medical care of dying people past and present, "The Inevitable Hour" helps to explain why a movement to restore dignity to the dying arose in the early 1970s and why its goals have been so difficult to achieve.

Perhaps America's best environmental idea was not the national park but the garden cemetery, a use of space that quickly gained popularity in the mid-nineteenth century. Such spaces of repose brought key elements of the countryside into rapidly expanding cities, making nature accessible to all and serving to remind visitors of the natural cycles of life. In this unique interdisciplinary blend of historical narrative, cultural criticism, and poignant memoir, Aaron Sachs argues that American cemeteries embody a forgotten landscape tradition that has much to teach us in our current moment of environmental crisis. Until the trauma of the Civil War, many Americans sought to shape society into what they thought of as an Arcadia – not an Eden where fruit simply fell off the tree, but a public garden that depended on an ethic of communal care, and whose sense of beauty and repose related directly to an acknowledgement of mortality and limitation. Sachs explores the notion of Arcadia in the works of nineteenth-century nature writers, novelists, painters, horticulturists, landscape architects, and city planners, and holds up for comparison the twenty-first century's – and his own – tendency toward denial of both death and environmental limits. His far-reaching insights suggest new possibilities for the environmental movement today and new ways of understanding American history.

Writing in the tradition of Leslie Fiedler and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, David Greven offers a sweeping reassessment of American masculinity in the antebellum period. Greven's figure of the "inviolate male" of the period's literature - sexually and emotionally unavailable to women or other men - was a complex response to the competing, often incoherent pressures on men in the era. Lesbian desire, argues Greven, emerged through similar patterns of sexual inviolability. Carefully re-examining such important works as Washington Irving's "Legend of Sleepy Hollow," Cooper's Leatherstocking novels, Poe's tales, Hawthorne's novels, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and later works such as Macaria, The Grandissimes, Native Son, and Melville's Billy Budd, Sailor, this spirited study offers a penetrating account of male sexuality as the chief cultural and social battleground for a volatile and uneasy nation.

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The relationship between religion and liberal-democratic society has emerged as one of the defining issues of the twenty-first century. Drawing together insights from political philosophy and theory, philosophy of religion, theology, epistemology, and metaphysics, Derek Malone-France argues for a fundamental reorientation of religious conceptions of faith and reframes the debate regarding what role, if any, religious justifications should play in public discourse and the law. Through an innovative re-reading of the existentialist notion of "anxiety," Malone-France develops a "fallibilist" warrant for classic liberal norms of tolerance, non-coercion, and individual freedom, disclosing "the religious logic of liberal autonomy."

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Neuroscience has made astounding progress in the understanding of the brain. What should we make of its claims to go beyond the brain and explain consciousness, behaviour and culture? Where should we draw the line? In this brilliant critique Raymond Tallis dismantles "Neuromania", arising out of the idea that we are reducible to our brains and "Darwinitis" according to which, since the brain is an evolved organ, we are entirely explicable within an evolutionary framework. With precision and acuity he argues that the belief that human beings can be understood in biological terms is a serious obstacle to clear thinking about what we are and what we might become. Neuromania and Darwinitis deny human uniqueness, minimise the differences between us and our nearest animal kin and offer a grotesquely simplified account of humanity. We are, argues Tallis, infinitely more interesting and complex than we appear in the mirror of biology.

Combative, fearless and thought-provoking, Aping Mankind is an important book and one that scientists, cultural commentators and policy-makers cannot ignore.

This Routledge Classics edition includes a new preface by the Author.

Is the Bible far more earthy and crude than we often realise? In a provocative and thoroughly enjoyable study, Roland Boer covers the Bible's testicular logic, the spermatic spluttering pen(ise)s of the scribal prophets, the moist and juicy sensuality of the Song of Songs, and paraphilias, whether prostitution or pornography, lascivious rabbis, masturbating prophets, bestiality, or necrophilia. The book strikes a fine balance between serious, rigorous scholarship and a close attention to matters of sex, masculinity, and carnal delights – precisely those delights that escape many readers of the Bible.

For 50 years Thomas J.J. Altizer has been at the forefront of public and academic debate in theology and the philosophy of religion. The central figure of the so-called 'death of god' debate of the 1960s, Altizer has continued to write on the issues and conditions for theology in modernity, and to influence new generations of students, scholars and readers worldwide, arguing for a Christian atheism that challenges institutional, orthodox Christianity to its core. In this latest, audacious book, Altizer demands nothing less than a radical rethinking of the theology of the Trinity, forcing into question both the residual liberal piety and the conservative faith that still undergird so much of religious studies and theology. Yet this volume is at the same time a work that returns the Trinity to centrality within Christian theology and existence. The Apocalyptic Trinity seeks to call forth a uniquely Christian Godhead that embodies absolute apocalypse—that very apocalypse originally enacted by Jesus as apocalyptic prophet.