Social Psychology & Interactions Books - Page 5

The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation

Drew Westen

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Political Brain is a groundbreaking investigation into the role of emotion in determining the political life of the nation. For two decades Drew Westen, professor of psychology and psychiatry at Emory University, has explored a theory of the mind that differs substantially from the more "dispassionate" notions held by most cognitive psychologists, political scientists, and economists—and Democratic campaign strategists. The idea of the mind as a cool calculator that makes decisions by weighing the evidence bears no relation to how the brain actually works. When political candidates assume voters dispassionately make decisions based on "the issues," they lose. That's why only one Democrat has been re-elected to the presidency since Franklin Roosevelt—and only one Republican has failed in that quest.

In politics, when reason and emotion collide, emotion invariably wins. Elections are decided in the marketplace of emotions, a marketplace filled with values, images, analogies, moral sentiments, and moving oratory, in which logic plays only a supporting role. Westen shows, through a whistle-stop journey through the evolution of the passionate brain and a bravura tour through fifty years of American presidential and national elections, why campaigns succeed and fail. The evidence is overwhelming that three things determine how people vote, in this order: their feelings toward the parties and their principles, their feelings toward the candidates, and, if they haven't decided by then, their feelings toward the candidates' policy positions.

Westen turns conventional political analyses on their head, suggesting that the question for Democratic politics isn't so much about moving to the right or the left but about moving the electorate. He shows how it can be done through examples of what candidates have said—or could have said—in debates, speeches, and ads. Westen's discoveries could utterly transform electoral arithmetic, showing how a different view of the mind and brain leads to a different way of talking with voters about issues that have tied the tongues of Democrats for much of forty years—such as abortion, guns, taxes, and race. You can't change the structure of the brain. But you can change the way you appeal to it. And here's how…

Amusing Ourselves to Death: : Public Discourse in the Age of Showbusiness

Neil Postman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 126 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Judge a book by its cover 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Just today I logged on to one of the biggest news channels' website (CNN) and on the front page under "Popular News" was the following headline: "Is that Miley Cyrus flashing her bra on the Web?" I had just finished my second reading of this book and it seemed like a stark reminder of what Neil Postman was talking about over 20 years ago, how television has drastically changed our culture and redefined everything in our society from news to politics, education and even religion. I don't know of any book written during my lifetime that is more socially relevant and whose message is more important to be read and understood by the general public.

In Chapter 6, "The Age of Show Business", Postman writes, "To say television is entertaining is merely banal. Such a fact is hardly threatening to a culture, not even worth writing a book about. It may even be a reason for rejoicing. Life, as we like to say, is not a highway strewn with flowers. The sight of a few blossoms here and there may make our journey more endurable." He goes on to point out that the problem is not that there are entertaining shows on television, but that in order to accommodate itself to the demands of television, *everything* must be presented as entertainment. In order to generate ratings, advertisers and ultimately revenue, no subject is too serious to be presented in any way other than the one that attracts the most viewers. When the local news reports about a murder, it has no relevant meaning to our lives and it's not told so much to inform us of the tragedy of a murder but because it is the most exciting and what people want to see. News producers have a motto for this, "If it bleeds it leads."

Probably the most alarming example Postman cites is how television has changed politics and political discourse. This is where the transformation from a word-based media to an image-based media is felt the most strongly. Politicians have realized that the content of what they say is now largely irrelevant compared to how they appear, how they present themselves. Postman uses the example that when Ted Kennedy made a run for the presidency, Richard Nixon offered him the following advice: "Lose twenty pounds." Nixon had been in politics most of his adult life and knew the name of the game well, that one's ideas, beliefs, actions and words are now almost completely irrelevant in a world where nearly everyone has started getting their information from television only. Before Mike Huckabee entered this political race, he lost over a hundred pounds. If you look at photographs of presidents throughout our history, you notice that most of them certainly never got anywhere in life because of their looks and some of them are downright ugly men. Political races are now completely decided in the arena of television and their coverage of it has become absurd and embarassing. This is the change that Postman has tried to point out, that a literate culture that depends on the printed word for information and communication creates a vastly different culture from one that depends on images, ten second soundbites and information that has no context or relevance to anyone's life, like what Miley Cyrus or Paris Hilton is up to.

It has been over twenty years since Neil Postman wrote this but his ideas are even more relevant today. This book should be read and understood by everyone but it mostly falls on deaf ears. I think it was Mark Twain who said that the man who doesn't read has no advantage over the man who can't read. Television is now an integral part of life not only in America but in Europe, China and pretty much any other developed nation. This would not be a problem but, as Postman points out, one of the nasty side effects of television is that it has degraded literacy rates, so that every year we hear that people are reading less and less. People and specifically children spend an alarming amount of their free time watching television and to get them to read you practically have to force it upon them. Once in a while a book like Harry Potter will become a hit but for many children and even adults that was the only book they purchased or even attempted to read in an entire year. We hear that children in this country are performing worse every year in school but the finger is never pointed at the obvious culprit because we hear about this on TV.

Editorial Review:

A brilliant powerful and important book....This is a brutal indictment Postman has laid down and, so far as I can see, an irrefutable one. --Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World.

The Proper Care and Feeding of Marriage

Dr. Laura Schlessinger

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 94 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A MUST READ!!! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

EVERYONE should read this book! Ladies, it's a great follow-up to The Proper Care & Feeding of Husbands. It has saved my marriage and changed my attitude!

Editorial Review:

Dr. Laura Schlessinger reveals how to bring a marriage back from the brink of disaster.

Jumping off her million-copy bestseller The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands, Dr. Laura Schlessinger exposes the sensitive and loving truths necessary to produce and sustain a wonderfully satisfying marriage. First and foremost, men and women need to understand and appreciate the uniqueness of masculinity and femininity. Both husband and wife have power in their relationship, and both need to realize this to ensure for themselves the personal satisfaction they yearn for. Dr. Laura explores the best ways a couple can relate, caretake, and nurture each other, and how to rescue a troubled marriage that seems doomed to fail.

Using real-life examples from her call-in radio show, Dr. Laura focuses on the typical mistakes made by men and women in their relationships, and gives us real-life solutions for keeping our unions strong, loving, and lasting.

Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy, Fifth Edition

Irvin D. Yalom, Molyn Leszcz

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 35 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

happy customer 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

i was very pleased with the product i ordered arriving on time and in the condition promised

Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Yalom did a superb job in taking his readers through the process- the world of group psychotherapy. I especially appreciate reading about the cases to see how the theories actually came together. I have learned so much from a pro!

Masters Student 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This was a very helpful manual for Group Therapy. It was a little lengthy in spots, but I would recommend it for anyone interested in improving their skills as a group counselor.

still waiting... 1 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

It's been a month... where is my book? I don't know, I haven't gotten it yet. I've gotten the other book I bought in the same order, a used book. I have yet to see the new book. This is very disappointing. It's hard to wait for a book and get further and further behind in my studies. I should have gone to a different site.

Editorial Review:

In this completely revised and updated fifth edition of group psychotherapy’s standard text, Dr. Yalom and his collaborator present the most recent developments in the field, drawing on nearly a decade of new research as well as their broad clinical wisdom and expertise. Among the significant new topics: Online therapy Specialized groups Ethnocultural diversity Trauma Managed care Plus hundreds of new references and clinical vignettes

Man And His Symbols

Carl G Jung

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 45 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

This book changed my life 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I picked up a copy of this book in Mendocino, CA just after I graduated from college and was trying to figure out what to do with my life. For those of you who are somewhat introverted, academic, or artistic, you may find that his book changes your view and helps begin the process of what Jung (and now other therapists) call the "individuation" process, or normal unfolding of human life. I ended following my bliss and doing all kinds of things that have made me a very happy, very satisfied and yet unendingly curious person. I am now studying to be a therapist, and whether or not I graduate is not the point. The journey and the dream images and meaning we assign to them are the whole point. Life became a meaningful joy for me and (no kidding) this book was the ONLY source of that inspiration.

I have the coffetable version of this book, which is much larger and in color, but the smaller paperback will also do...I'm sure the pictures are good enough. It is the words, not the pictures, that change your life. Who knew that western individualistic humanism was such a powerful and compelling force of psychology?

This book changed my life for the better permanently. Read it.

The Wonder of Boys

Michael Gurian

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 79 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

lots of redundancy, but some useful advice 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

When my son was about to be born, I panicked, because I thought I would not know how to give a good upbringing to a boy. I have only a sister and my husband is an only child. We discussed the issue a lot and we sometimes had different views on how to deal with boys, to do everything to make our son happy and fulfilled. So - we decided to buy a book and chose "The Wonder of Boys".

The book is not bad, but it is not very good. First of all, there is nothing new in the notion that boys are different from girls and that testosterone is physiologically responsible for these obvious differences, boys being more competitive and aggressive etc. Many things described by the author are obvious and instinctive. I would be happy to see more scientific dissection of the differences, something similar to "Brain Sex" by Anne Moir and David Jessel (a really valuable book, by the way), but with the focus on children and the education of boys.
The "old-new" rules of the boys' education and need for the male presence in their lives, the importance of the group, sports and discipline, are nicely presented at the beginning, but later on the book gets very repetitive, full of redundant information and artificially blown out of proportion. Maybe the purpose was to make the reader memorize the rules subconsciously (after all, it is one of the therapy principles, I think). For me, it just made the book boring and I could not help thinking it would be much more useful in a form of an article or essay. It seems to me more like an introduction to Gurian's guidelines, more developed in his later books on various aspects of the boys' character and education.

There is some advice I found good there, though: the rules for disciplining the boys at different stages of life, the details of the father's role, the discussion on spanking, the teaching of morals and spirituality. I could do without superficial examples from the world cultures.

I did not find this book particularly challenging for feminism, on the contrary, I think it presents reasonably the roles of both parents and the methods for building the family life beneficial for the offspring, which happens to be male.

Altogether, I rate "The Wonder of Boys" at three stars, it is neither outstanding, nor hopeless, but the useful advice needs to be extracted from a lot of meaningless words and the book could only benefit from being more concise and to the point.

Editorial Review:

I n this edition of his parenting classic, Michael Gurian considers how the culture has changed in the ten years since The Wonder of Boys was first published, including the impact of the Internet.

True Love: A Practice for Awakening the Heart

Thich Nhat Hanh

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

An Onion Layer Pealer 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I just finished reading Thich Nhat Hanh's "True Love: A Practice for Awakening the Heart." This little 100 page meditation simply changed my perspective on many things.

Talking about a powerful read on how to show and demonstrate love in your life. It all comes back to mindful presence, being there, not just in body, but in full absolute awareness. A true demonstration of love is not monetary or even a gesture but the action of being truly present.

The book really helped me see things differently. If my soul was a gorgeous red onion, and the sweet, yet spicy heart was my true essence, then True Love peeled away a couple of layers to help me see things better. And it put the way I care for others into a perspective, some of which I really didn't want to see. I think the book made me a better person.

There many fantastic meditations, which get your mind to calm itself and focus on true love. It focuses on making oneself loving in your actions towards wife/husband, etc., rather than other-centric love. Though Buddhist at its heart, one of the things that makes Hanh so accessible is his ability to tie his meditation and theory back to Christian theology. In essence, he knows his reader is Western and caters to us.

The book begins with the four aspects of love, which Hanh describes as:
1) Maitri: Loving kindness
2) Karuna: Sympathy, or the ability to ease others pain
3) Mudita: Joyful loving
4) Upeksha: Freedom through love

Really, quite a good book if spirituality and/or matters of the heart are important to you.

Editorial Review:

In this little treasure, Thich Nhat Hanh, the renowned Zen monk, offers timeless insight into the nature of real love. With simplicity, warmth, and directness, he explores the four key aspects of love as described in the Buddhist tradition: lovingkindness, compassion, joy, and freedom—explaining how to experience them in our day-to-day lives. He also emphasizes that in order to love in a real way, we must first learn how to be fully present in our lives, and he offers simple techniques from the Buddhist tradition that anyone can use to establish the conditions of love.

Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, is an internationally known author, poet, scholar, and peace activist who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King Jr.

The Four Agreements Toltec Wisdom Collection: 3-Book Boxed Set

don Miguel Ruiz

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

Editorial Review:

This three-book set by bestselling author don Miguel Ruiz offers his most widely acclaimed works:

 

The Four Agreements reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering.

 

The Mastery of Love illuminates the fear-based beliefs and assumptions that undermine love and lead to suffering and drama in our relationships.

 

The Voice of Knowledge reminds us of a profound

and simple truth: The only way to end our emotional suffering and restore our joy in living is to stop believing in lies — mainly about ourselves.

Fine Art of Small Talk

Debra Fine

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 63 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

A lot of Technique but very little Social IQ 2 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Based on some of the 4 and 5 stars reviews here I approached this book with excitement and high expectations only to be let down - hard.

The author states that her background is in Engineering and, frankly, I'm not surprised. The "problem" of small talk and conversation is treated like an engineering project rather than the fine art that it truly is (regardless the title). If you're an engineer (like I am) you might be tempted to believe that the litany of manipulative formulas presented here actually make sense and will work. And, I'm sure that they do - with OTHER socially challenged engineers (and others who are socially awkward). So, it's hardly surprising that the Author's client list is filled with companies with a strong engineering culture!

However, in the rest of the real world they're finding out that what is truly effective when it comes to relationships and conversations is "Social IQ". So, therefore, in leiu of this book I would recommend any of the following:

Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships

Social Intelligence: The New Science of Success

AND that is what is sorely (I would even say conspicuously) missing from this book. Without Social IQ the techniques outlined here are not only ineffective they could be downright irritating to "normies". (and, speaking as an engineer, I would be hard pressed to call most engineers "normal" when it comes to social matters)

However, if you develop Social IQ the techniques that are presented in this book would actually be quite effective - powerful in fact. So this reviewer's consumer advice would be, get this book AFTER you've developed (or refined) your Social IQ skills. Then you will have the essential skills required to be a superb conversationalist and friend!

This may sound daunting (it was for me) but, believe it or not it really isn't and you probably have all that you need lying latent inside you! Social IQ -- that's the key NOT JUST the words and approach that you use.

The Practice of Everyday Life

Michel de Certeau

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Enigmatic and enlightening 5 out of 5 stars.
112 of 114 people found this review helpful.

Sometimes I am simply proud that I have read a book. This slim volume falls into that category. The fourteen short chapters explode with new ideas, fresh perspectives, and tantalizing viewpoints. To summarize these riches is unlikely to do them justice, yet I will try.

De Certeau inverts social values and cultural hierarchies. His hero metaphor is not the exemplar, but rather the ant. Wisdom resides not in the pronouncement of expert or philosopher, but in the routine discourse between ordinary people. To De Certeau the definitional constraints imposed by the experts result in artificial distinctions. Only the discourse of ordinary people is firmly rooted in experience and embraces the varieties and logical complexities of living.

Among these complexities of life is the amazing adaptive capacity of the ordinary. Even the most oppressive and controlling of cultures cannot eradicate the subversive agency of the peasant. This subversive agency is expressed through mythic stories, common proverbs, and verbal tricks. De Certeau refers to the adaptive capacity of the ordinary as tactics of living, and these tactics may be best exemplified when the worker does the personal while on the clock.

The distinction between strategy and tactics is central to De Certeau's thought. Strategy refers to the top-down exercise of power to coerce compliance. Tactics refer to the opportunistic manipulations offered by circumstance. The conflict between strategies and tactics is ironic - as strategic forces expand to increase dominance, there is a corresponding increase in opportunity for tactical subversion.

De Certeau relates his ideas to the theoretical work of Foucault and Bourdieu, and continues his inverted perspective by looking anew at the concept of city, commuter travel by rail, story telling, writing, reading, and believing.

This book is more of a riddle than a narrative; de Certeau provides glimpses of his meaning from time to time, but deliberately avoids propositional clarity. This style requires that the reader take an unusual stance toward this book. Instead of expecting the author to communicate, the reader must content himself with hints and suggestions of meaning. I am convinced that these hints and suggestions are more than worth the reader's investment of time. Find a quiet place and enjoy!

Editorial Review:

In this incisive book, Michel de Certeau considers the uses to which social representation and modes of social behavior are put by individuals and groups, describing the tactics available to the common man for reclaiming his own autonomy from the all-pervasive forces of commerce, politics, and culture.