Psychoanalysis Books - Page 5

Sybil: The True Story of a Woman Possessed by Sixteen Separate Personalities

Flora Rheta Schreiber

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 90 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Compelling 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This book is the allegedly true story of Sybil, whose name was changed for the story to protect her privacy. Almost from the time she was born, Sybil was subjected to horrific physical, emotional, and sexual abuse at the hands of her schizophrenic mother. As a toddler, Sybil learned that she would be severely punished for getting angry, or for crying, or for exhibiting a wide variety of other normal emotions. In order to cope with her situation, her mind broke apart and comparmentalized her personality, eventually creating fifteen other "selves." Each separate personality was assigned a specific role in Sybil's life, such as Vicky, the outgoing and worldly one who could be at ease in social situations, Peggy Lou, who got angry and smashed things, and Mike and Sid, who handled construction and handyman duties.

Although the created personalities were aware of each other and able to communicate with each other to some degree, Sybil was completely unaware that they existed. What she knew was that there were many things she couldn't remember from her childhood, that seemingly ordinary objects and situations had the power to fill her with absolute terror, and that there were long periods of time she'd somehow blacked out. The most dramatic example of lost time was after Sybil's beloved grandmother's funeral, when Sybil was in third grade. She blacked out and returned to herself in a fifth-grade classroom. Her Peggy Lou personality had controlled her body for over a year.

This novel covers the course of Sybil's psychological treatment, leading her toward coming to terms with her childhood abuse and toward integrating her personalities into one complete self.

Although the validity of this story has been challenged, it is a compelling read even if treated as fiction. I was fascinated by the different personalities and the duties they adopted. I like the thought that the human brain is complex enough to put into effect this unique coping mechanism in order to save a child from completely falling apart.

Editorial Review:

"Sybil" is the fascinating, incredibly moving true story of a woman with sixteen personalities - two of whom were men - and her struggle, against overwhelming odds, for health and happiness. 'Astonishing book...it forces you to look at yourself and the people around you in a new way' - Doris Lessing.

He: Understanding Masculine Psychology

Robert A. Johnson

List Price: $9.95 By: Macmillan Audio Amazon Marketplace: 5 new & used starting at $23.46

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 25 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

HE--for women who want to understand men, and for men, to better understand themselvesThe myth of Parsifal and his search for the Holy Grail is a timeless allegory that provides powerful insights into the complex nature of the male psyche. In Jungian terms, it describes the stages and challenges faced by every man in his passage from boyhood to manhood--a passage that is essentially the same today as it has been for untold centuries.Understanding Parsifal's trials in his quest of the Grail--a symbol of all that is feminine--helps us understand why men behave as they do, and how they attempt to relate to the feminine elements in their world. It also helps to explain the difficulties a man may have in reconciling his masculinity with his anima, the unconscious feminine element within his personality.Newly updated and revised, HE includes a special introduction by the author, and is narrated by nenowned actress Marsha Mason and by Ralph Blum, bestselling author of The Book of Runes.

Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious

Gerd Gigerenzer

Amazon Price: $17.13 List Price: $25.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Viking Adult Amazon Marketplace: 79 new & used starting at $5.23

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Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

An engaging explanation of the science behind Malcolm Gladwell’s bestselling Blink

Gerd Gigerenzer is one of the researchers of behavioral intuition responsible for the science behind Malcolm Gladwell’s bestseller Blink. Gladwell showed us how snap decisions often yield better results than careful analysis. Now, Gigerenzer explains why our intuition is such a powerful decision-making tool. Drawing on a decade of research at the Max Plank Institute, Gigerenzer demonstrates that our gut feelings are actually the result of unconscious mental processes—processes that apply rules of thumb that we’ve derived from our environment and prior experiences. The value of these unconscious rules lies precisely in their difference from rational analysis—they take into account only the most useful bits of information rather than attempting to evaluate all possible factors. By examining various decisions we make—how we choose a spouse, a stock, a medical procedure, or the answer to a million-dollar game show question—Gigerenzer shows how gut feelings not only lead to good practical decisions, but also underlie the moral choices that make our society function.

In the tradition of Blink and Freakonomics, Gut Feelings is an exploration of the myriad influences and factors (nature and nurture) that affect how the mind works, grounded in cutting-edge research and conveyed through compelling real-life examples.

Career Paths in Psychology: Where Your Degree Can Take You

List Price: $19.95 By: American Psychological Association (APA) Amazon Marketplace: 63 new & used starting at $0.09

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

As "Career Paths in Psychology" shows, the range of work that psychologists find themselves doing goes far beyond the traditional laboratory researcher or the individual therapist. Psychologists work in all areas of education, in government, with private companies, and in communities. They supply research on immunization programmes, suggest improvements to airplane cockpit design, conduct studies on why peope buy what they buy, and design community programmes for reducing crime in neighbourhoods. In this book, fourteen prominent psychologists describe what they do in their fields and what led them into it. Each psychologist is from a different subfield of psychology, and each describes typical activities in the field, how to prepare for it, what the advantage and disadvantages are, what a typical work week is like, average salary levels, and the type of person who would enjoy the work. These eminent psychologists offer advice, information and the inspiration of their own career paths. The careers discussed include academic, clinical and counselling careers, as well as positions in non-academic (business, government, hospitals) and community settings. "Career Paths in Psychology" is the ideal guide for anyone contemplating a career in psychology: students, recent graduates, career-switchers, or psychologists looking for new challenges.

Psychology: Themes and Variations, Briefer Edition (with Concept Charts)

Wayne Weiten

Amazon Price: $133.23 List Price: $135.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Wadsworth Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 35 new & used starting at $67.99

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Book came in great, great shape 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The book was used but looked brand new, came quickly and with it looking so clean, I should have no problems selling it back. Thanks!

Did not expect playing cards 1 out of 5 stars.
0 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Item arrived on time. Cover of book intack, however, that was all that was intack. The pages were like a deck of cards - not bonded to the cover. Not what I expected, especially after the price of the item and the vendor's description. Needed it desperately for school, therefore, was forced to keep item.

Editorial Review:

The BRIEFER EDITION, of PSYCHOLOGY: THEMES AND VARIATIONS, SEVENTH EDITION, help you experience the excitement of this fascinating field, while helping you study and retain what you learn! Filled with practical ways that you can apply psychology to your everyday life, this best-selling psychology textbook is an experience in learning that you'll remember long after you complete your introductory psychology course. "Critical Thinking Applications" in every chapter give you specific critical thinking strategies you can apply to what you read. Every chapter of this book offers tools to help you focus on what's important-showing you how to study in ways that help you retain information and do your very best on exams.

101 Sexy Dares

Laura Corn

Amazon Price: $17.13 List Price: $25.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Simon Spotlight Entertainment Amazon Marketplace: 36 new & used starting at $14.00

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Just What We Needed! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

She does it AGAIN!!! This book is so much fun and filled with anticipation. I purchased Laura's game awhile ago, but this was my first Laura Corn book to try. And with great success it has helped my boyfriend and I, add excitement back into our relationship! The book is broken up in a way that we each have 50 dares to plan for each other each week and 1 at the end to do together. My first dare was no. 56 "My Dirty Valentine," even though this one was marked for a special occasion, I just loved the title and I had to do it. Let me just say, that Laura was able to get me to do something that I never would have thought of on my own and it was so easy. My guy was just floored! In a great way. I highly recommend this book for any couple even if you are not in a little rut.

Editorial Review:

It's easy. Just tear one of the Dares from this book, read it in private...and then do it with your lover. Each week, you'll re-create one of Laura Corn's famously hot seductions. Everything you need is inside these sealed pages.

It's fun. You'll enjoy reading the Dares almost as much as you'll enjoy making them come to life. They're flirty and full of surprises, like the best date you ever had.

It's really, really hot. Remember that feeling of unstoppable, sheet-scorching desire when you first fell for your mate? Get ready to feel it again -- 101 times in a row.

It's fifty-fifty. Half of these Dares are written for women and half for men. (No peeking! You don't want to spoil your surprise.) Each of you gets to plan a delicious, erotically charged seduction for the other...and then enjoy the deep satisfaction of being seduced, week after week.

Healing Trauma

Peter Levine

Amazon Price: $13.57 List Price: $19.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Sounds True, Incorporated Amazon Marketplace: 91 new & used starting at $2.84

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Peter Levine does it again 1 out of 5 stars.
5 of 8 people found this review helpful.

I was introduced to the work of Peter Levine several years ago with his book "Waking the Tiger" so was very interested to see his most recent work. After reading it and listening to the CD I have been pleasantly surprised by its impact. As a psychologist treating people who have been traumatised I find the work challenging and sometimes difficult due to vicarious traumatisation. His book and CD will not only be a useful resource for my clients but will assist me to stay healthy while I help others. Highly recommended.

Good starting point but the techniques are not useful 2 out of 5 stars.
4 of 11 people found this review helpful.

You start this book thinking that this is the reason why I'm suffering but the techniques he created don't seem to work at all. They look artificial and you get an instinctive feeling that they're not gonna work, and for me they really don't seem to have an effect. I'd suggest you go to a Rosen Method practioner. This method has scientific evidence of how it works and seems to cure everyone's stuck feelings who has tried it.

Editorial Review:

Trauma is perhaps the most avoided, ignored, denied, misunderstood, and untreated cause of human suffering. But what is trauma-and how do we heal it?

Frogs into Princes : Neuro Linguistic Programming

Richard; Grinder, John; Stevens, John O. (editor) Bandler

By: Real People Press Amazon Marketplace: 9 new & used starting at $84.81

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 27 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

frogs into princes 2 out of 5 stars.
26 of 29 people found this review helpful.

This book is a little hard to get into because it is essentially a transcript of a Seminar that Richard and John put on to discuss their views on Neuro-Linguistic Programming to other therapists... These are two of the founders of NLP and it was written in 1979, a time when NLP was trying to establish itself in the therapeutic community. This is readily apparent by the stabs the authors make at existing paradigms. The book does not mention which author is talking so it is difficult to get a grasp of who`s viewpoints are whoms, so it is assumed that both authors are in agreement with the concepts presented. If you get out of the mindset of expecting the concept of NLP being presented in an organized easy to understand manner, then one can glean some interesting information and pearls from this book that I will share.

The authors refer to themselves as modelers. Meaning they are masters of modeling others behaviors:
" We pay very little attention to what people say and a great deal of attention to what they do...The function of modeling is to arrive at descriptions which are useful....We're not offering you something that is true just things that are useful"

They take a certain pride in separating themselves apart from other branches of therapy in that most of the other fields "focus on truth and may or may not get results." However, they re-establish their status in the therapy field by modeling some of the greatest therapists in existence like Virginia Satir and Milton Erickson. There is included a therapy session by Satir with the authors explaining how she intuitively employs NLP by matching the client rather than trying to make the client match them.

They came up with the concept of "if what you do does not work, do something else," which you would think was intuitive. They go on to criticize other therapists who label their clients as "resistant" and accuse the non-NLP therapist that they are shifting the blame of poor results to the client when they should simply be trying something else. To cement this concept they offered discuss an experiment from the eighties where the B.J Skinner did work with rats and mazes. One day, he decided to add humans to the experiment. Over several weeks he performed the experiment where he taught the rats or human to run thru a maze for the reward of cheese or a 5 dollar bill found at the end of the maze. Of course, he noticed the humans were quicker learners as expected. Further results were counter intuitive. When he tried to extinguish the behavior by removing the reward found at the end of the maze, it became interesting. After multiple attempts the rats no longer attempted to run the maze...."however, the humans never stopped!! They are still there! They break into the lab at night looking for 5 dollar bills at the end of the maze." That is the peculiar trait about human beings. "If they find something they can do that does not work, they do it again." Thus the concept of "if what you do does not work, do something else." I could not help but to have visions of Las Vegas and people putting their life savings into the slot machines looking for the reward at the end of the maze.

There was an intriguing sentence on matching where they discussed representational systems and said that to establish good rapport one merely had to match the predicated words of the other person's representational system. But if you want to alienate the other person you could deliberately mismatch the predicates. This skill could be very useful in situation where one would not want to converse like on an airplane.

Another pearl was their view on what words mean. "Words are triggers that tend to bring into your consciousness certain parts of your experience and not others." So you cannot hear a word without having an associative experience. Since everyone's experience is different. everyone's perception of a word will be slightly different. This is called slippage. There is a slippage between the words and a persons experience as well as a slippage between two peoples corresponding experience for the same word. This is their explanation for maps of reality although they do not distinctly label it as such.

The authors went into a great deal of detail explaining to the audience how to attain visual acuity with respect to the eye motions indicating a person's representational system that they are using. They did this with putting several audience members on stage and then asking them questions to see exactly what their body language and eye directions were. They went into greater detail with assessing one audience member as " leads visually, represents kinesthetically and then has an auditory reference system check which tells him that his feelings are valid" I think part of this detail was to impress their audience with complexity rather than present an easily duplicatable system.

They do offer hope in their view of humans. They see people as having only a few strategies. That is why they are good at some things but not others. But by increasing the number of strategies available to a person, they claim that "if any human can do something then so can you." I do agree with this statement as I attribute my life's successes on the ability to successfully model other people's behaviors.

Bandler and Grinder have a unique definition of conscious and unconsciousness. They state that the conscious is defined as whatever you are aware of at that moment in time and subconscious is everything else" Which puts a more tangible definition of what the unconscious mind is, as most definitions quantify it as a limitless entity.

During the seminar the author made a large arc arm movement that startled people. He explained the startled feeling by saying that the hand motion unconsciously told people to process what he was saying auditorily and that it knocked any visual based pictures out of the air. He stated that "if you can determine what a persons lead and representational systems are, you can package information in a way that is irresistible for them" He goes on to say that "the meaning of communication is the response that you get, if you are not getting what you want, change what you are doing." This is similar to Genie Labourde's viewpoint.

The authors site a good explanation for the NLP dictate to not use a negative when discussing a desired outcome. They refer to a child who is instructed "not to fall down." In order for the child to understand the sentence they have to refer to their internal representation of falling down. That internal representation will result in the behavior the parent is trying to prevent. Positive instructions "like pay attention to your balance and move slowly" can yield a more positive outcome.

Concepts from earlier books by the same authors, The Structure of Magic, were reviewed with respect to the metamodel of eliciting more specific responses to questions. The authors demonstrated several examples of metamodel questions. They said to do NLP well one must have mastery over the metamodel questions, otherwise techniques will be sloppy. "Metamodel questions are the questions that really give you the appropriate information immediately"

The second day of the book discusses mirroring and crossover mirroring, gives some example of anchoring and collapsing of anchors and past experiences that the authors had with clients. Overall not as interesting as the fist day as they are merely trying to show the therapists how they have used NLP in their practices.

The third day, discussed states and several organizing principles of states which we find useful. The first principle is that it is better to have choice than no choice. It is the therapist's job to broaden the clients' choices. The second is the notion of unconscious choice. This is where a behavior is exhibited because it fulfills a need even though it is counter to a person's stated conscious desire. For example, overeating as a way of compensating for a failing marriage. The third in that people already have the resources they need in order to change, if they can be helped to use them in the appropriate context. Again, the bally wick of the successful therapist. The forth is that each and every single piece of behavior has a positive function in some context and there is a difference between the behavior and the intention. So when someone exhibits bizarre behavior that is a good signal to you that the person is responding to something that is not available to the typical observers' sensory experience. They are responding to some internal represented thought that is giving them an intended positive experience even though they will not consciously admit it. This is evident when examining unhealthy behaviors that fulfill a secondary gain of some sort. Examples are given on how to reframe these unhealthy behaviors by resolving the conflict between conscious desires and the program that provides a secondary gain. Reframing is accomplished by having the client's sub-personalities talk the situation out and come up with alternative behaviors that serve the whole. If the behavior does not change or reverts, that is a sign that the new kind of behavior was not as effective at fulfilling the sub personalities desires in a congruent way and the discussion must begin anew. Several real life examples are given.

Over all a deep book for my first introduction to NLP. I found myself breezing it rather than reading it because of its more sophisticated intended audience of therapists. After studying Genie Labourde's book a lot of what Bandler and Grinder discussed made more sense than it did when I re-read the book with more knowledgeable eyes. However, I could not shake the feeling that they could have presented the information in a different way and it would have made more sense to all audiences and not been so dry. I got the impression that they were fulfilling the publishers request for this years books and that they didn't write one. The way they spoke in the book, they seemed to be the cowboys of their field. This is evident in the way they buck traditional therapeutics themes and their sometimes irreverent examples of their own therapy experiences with other clients. But sometimes it takes cowboys to rope the existing therapeutic community into seeing a new concept. Bandler and Grinder are perceived to be some of the godfathers of NLP, as such, I am glad to have experienced the book, but aside from its historic perspective, I do no recommend it to the novice NLP student

In Search of the Miraculous

P.D. Ouspensky

List Price: $61.90 By: Paul H. Crompton Amazon Marketplace: 12 new & used starting at $48.35

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Total reviews: 65 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A new edition of the groundbreaking spiritual treasure, with a foreword by bestselling author Marianne Williamson .Since its original publication in 1949, In Search of the Miraculous has been hailed as the most valuable and reliable documentation of G. I. Gurdjieff's thoughts and universal view. This historic and influential work is considered by many to be a primer of mystical thought as expressed through the Work, a combination of Eastern philosophies that had for centuries been passed on orally from teacher to student. Gurdjieff's goal, to introduce the Work to the West, attracted many students, among them Ouspensky, an established mathematician, journalist, and, with the publication of In Search of the Miraculous, an eloquent and persuasive proselyte.Ouspensky describes Gurdjieff's teachings in fascinating and accessible detail, providing what has proven to be a stellar introduction to the universal view of both student and teacher. It goes without saying that In Search of the Miraculous has inspired great thinkers and writers of ensuing spiritual movements, including Marianne Williamson, the highly acclaimed author of A Return to Love and Illuminata. In a new and never-before-published foreword, Williamson shares the influence of Ouspensky's book and Gurdjieff's teachings on the New Thought movement and her own life, providing a contemporary look at an already timeless classic.

The Portable Jung (Viking Portable Library)

Carl G. Jung

Amazon Price: $12.24 List Price: $18.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Penguin (Non-Classics) Amazon Marketplace: 119 new & used starting at $2.32

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

dense and yet...dense 2 out of 5 stars.
23 of 33 people found this review helpful.

I don't consider myself to be a total idiot. I've read a little psychology, a lot of philosophy, quite a bit of mythology, and have a fair grasp of history. At the same time, I'm also open to what today we call "New Age" or "occult" even if I am always going to be a bit of a skeptic. None of that really helped here. Ever read a paragraph and realize that you didn't really get what you just read? This might happen if you're tired, or lose your focus for a minute. Then you go back and re-read it and it makes more sense. Well, The Portable Jung reads like that initial scenario for me from start to finish, no matter how focused I am. The thing is, when I read a summary of Jung's ideas from another writer, I understand exactly what is being said. The collective unconscious,anima/animus, the shadow...it makes sense. Then I read Jung's own writing and can't connect the sentences. My grandmother says it just must be "bad writing." I don't know. Maybe Jung sensed in his own time the hostility and ultimate rejection of his ideas by the scientific community and always wrote and spoke that way to avoid the ridicule that plainer speaking of such unorthodox subject matter would provoke. (Wow, multiply the awkwardness of that sentence by 10 and you'd think I was channeling the spirit of ol' Gustav). Ironically, Jung has pretty much been ditched by the psychological community and embraced by English majors, such as myself, who would receive the written equivalent of a scowl from our professors if we ever wrote with the pretentiousness and virtually alien syntax of this book. Anyway, I worked and worked at appreciating The Portable Jung, reading as carefully as possible. I really wanted to like it. But first I needed to understand what I was reading sentence by sentence. I never did (however, the reasoning, when the clouds occasionally parted, seems to be pretty much what you'd expect from anyone trying to justify what is essentially parapsychology. Check out the references to the 300-something "random" interpretations of a patient's dreams, which, ta-da, remarkably revolve around the idea of alchemy and an Asiatic symbol called a mandala). 2 stars, though, since I did start keep track of my dreams a bit more (however I have concluded that a recent dream involving rollerskating had more to a movie preview I saw the day before of "ATL" rather than the Wheel Of Life).