Mental Health Science

While plenty of entertaining books have been written about the history of alcohol and other intoxicants, none have offered a comprehensive, convincing answer to the basic question of why humans want to get high in the first place. Drunk elegantly cuts through the tangle of urban legends and anecdotal impressions that surround our notions of intoxication to provide the first rigorous, scientifically grounded explanation for our love of alcohol.

The media and politicians have been sounding the alarm for years, and with every fresh tragedy involving a young perpetrator comes another flurry of articles about the dangers of violent media. The problem is this: Their fear isn't supported by the evidence. In fact, unlike the video game-trained murder machines depicted in the press, school shooters are actually less likely to be interested in violent games than their peers. In reality, most well-adjusted children and teenagers play violent video games, all without ever exhibiting violent behavior in real life.

Alexandra Horowitz’s brilliant On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes shows us how to see the spectacle of the ordinary - to practice, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle put it, "the observation of trifles". On Looking is structured around a series of eleven walks the author takes, mostly in her Manhattan neighborhood, with experts on a diverse range of subjects, including an urban sociologist, the well-known artist Maira Kalman, a geologist, a physician, and a sound designer. She also walks with a child and a dog to see the world as they perceive it.

In The Suggestible Brain, world-renowned expert on the science of suggestion Amir Raz, PhD, brings together cognitive aspects of psychology, sociology, and anthropology with issues in our contemporary culture and media alongside a series of case studies of patients with disorders ranging from Tourette’s syndrome to false pregnancies, lactose intolerance, and asthma to show exactly how suggestions can cut deep into our brains, shake our fundamental knowledge, and override our core human values.

Dr. Brian Goldman always believed that caring came naturally to physicians but over time was left wondering if he might not be the same caring doctor he was at the beginning of his career. The Power of Kindness takes us far from the theatre of medicine and into the world at large and investigates why kindness is so vital to our existence.

The Insecure Girl's Handbook will guide you through your insecurity no matter what life stage you're at, pointing out the pitfalls of people pleasing, negative backchat and crippling comparison along the way. It's a carefully curated toolkit of tried and tested mechanisms and small pearls of wisdom to start combatting that feeling that holds us back from speaking up, from following our dreams or even feeling that our dreams aren't good or big enough. I hope it will provide you with a comforting hug and pep talk, from one insecure girl to another.

Why is Jane Austen so phenomenally popular? Why do we go back to Pride and Prejudice again and again? Why do we delight in Emma's mischievous schemes? Why do we care that Anne Elliot of Persuasion suffers? We care because the human brain is a social brain. And Austen's characters are so believable, that for many of us, they are not just imaginary beings, but friends whom we know and love. We see ourselves and others reflected in Austen's work.

"L'infidélité" est un phénomène à la fois courant et tabou : on la pratique mais on la tait ! Selon des études méthodologiques européennes et américaines, 20 à 30 % des hommes et 15 à 20 % des femmes auraient eu des relations sexuelles extraconjugales. Yvon Dallaire, dans ce texte bref mais fulgurant, mène une analyse fine et intelligente de l'infidélité : quelle est la réalité de l'infidélité ? À quoi reconnaît-on l'infidèle ? Quelles sont les idées préconçues portant sur ce phénomène ? Pourquoi devient-on infidèle ? Et à qui la faute ? Le couple peut-il survivre à l'infidélité ?

This is the story of LSD told by a concerned yet hopeful father, organic chemist Albert Hofmann, PhD. He traces LSD's path from a promising psychiatric research medicine to a recreational drug sparking hysteria and prohibition. In LSD: My Problem Child, we follow Dr. Hofmann's trek across Mexico to discover sacred plants related to LSD, and listen in as he corresponds with other notable figures about his remarkable discovery.

The coauthors of the New York Times best-selling Difficult Conversations take on the toughest topic of all: How we see ourselves. Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen have spent the past 15 years working with corporations, nonprofits, governments, and families to determine what helps us learn and what gets in our way. In Thanks for the Feedback, they explain why receiving feedback is so crucial yet so challenging. They blend the latest insights from neuroscience and psychology with practical, hard-headed advice.

Exploring the process of recovery from addiction as it affects the entire family, this audiobook presents an innovative model for understanding and treating families navigating this difficult period. The authors draw upon extensive clinical and research experience to demonstrate how families can be helped to regroup after abstinence, weather periods of emotional upheaval, and find their way to establishing a more stable, yet flexible, family system.

The Herons are home in Skandia, but the usually peaceful country is in danger. The Temujai - ruthless warriors from the Eastern Steppes - have never given up on their ambition to claim Skandia for their own...and now they're on the move. Hal and his crew will have to brave the treacherous icy river and rapids to stop them, no matter the cost. Climb aboard with the Herons in Return of the Temujai, the exciting eighth installment of the Brotherband Chronicles!

What does it really mean to be a man? What are some of the landmarks along the road to mature masculinity? And what of the feminine components of a man's personality? Women have developed, over the centuries, considerable expertise in the technique of adapting to men, and for good reason, but that is not the same as truly understanding them. The transition from male childhood to real manhood is a complicated struggle, and explored in this book. As timely today as when it was first published, He provides a fascinating look into male identity and how female dynamics influence men.

A stevedore on the San Francisco docks in the 1940s, Eric Hoffer wrote philosophical treatises in his spare time while living in the railroad yards. The True Believer—the first and most famous of his books—was made into a bestseller when President Eisenhower cited it during one of the earliest television press conferences.

When Cole Harper is compelled to return to Wounded Sky First Nation, he finds his community in chaos: a series of shocking murders, a mysterious illness ravaging the residents, and re-emerging questions about Cole’s role in the tragedy that drove him away 10 years ago. With the aid of an unhelpful spirit, a disfigured ghost, and his two oldest friends, Cole tries to figure out his purpose and unravel the mysteries he left behind a decade ago. Will he find the answers in time to save his community?

We live in a time of vast changes that include accelerating globalization, mounting quantities of information, the growing hegemony of science and technology, and the clash of civilizations. Those changes call for new ways of learning and thinking in school, business, and the professions. Listen as psychologist Howard Gardner defines the cognitive abilities that will command a premium in the years ahead.

In the real world, Bugz is a shy and self-conscious Indigenous teen who faces the stresses of teenage angst and life on the Rez. But in the virtual world, her alter ego is not just confident but dominant in a massively multiplayer video game universe.

Weeks after landing on Earth, the Hundred have managed to create a sense of order amid their wild, chaotic surroundings. But their delicate balance comes crashing down with the arrival of new dropships from space.

Renowned media scholar Sherry Turkle investigates how a flight from conversation undermines our relationships, creativity, and productivity - and why reclaiming face-to-face conversation can help us regain lost ground. We live in a technological universe in which we are always communicating. And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection. Preeminent author and researcher Sherry Turkle has been studying digital culture for over 30 years. Long an enthusiast for its possibilities, here she investigates a troubling consequence.

An “absorbing, provocative, and far-reaching” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) look at what power is, who gets it, and what happens when they do, based on over 500 interviews with those who (temporarily, at least) have had the upper hand - from the creator of the Power Corrupts podcast and Washington Post columnist Brian Klaas.