New Books in Psychology
1,038 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 months ago - ★★★★ - 44 ratingsInterviews with Psychologists about their New Books
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Episodes
Veronica Raggi, “Exposure Therapy for Treating Anxiety in Children and Adolescents: A Comprehensive Guide” (New Harbinger, 2018)
August 30, 2018 10:00 - 1 hourWhile most children experience some fear and anxiety, some develop more extreme forms of anxiety that can impair their daily functioning. In this episode, cross-posted from the podcast Psychologists Off The Clock, Dr. Veronica Raggi, expert on childhood and adolescent anxiety disorders, discusses her book Exposure Therapy for Treating Anxiety in Children and Adolescents: A Comprehensive Guide (New Harbinger Publications, 2018). Dr. Raggi provides some information about anxiety in young people...
Susan Greenfield, “You and Me: The Neuroscience of Identity” (Notting Hill Editions, 2016)
August 21, 2018 10:00 - 38 minutesWhat makes you who you are? What makes you distinct from me? What is identity? In the book You and Me: The Neuroscience of Identity (Notting Hill Editions, 2016), Baroness Susan Greenfield scientifically dives into concepts of identity from, a biological perspective, that are usually reserved for philosophers. In this interview Dr. Greenfield discusses individual and cultural identity, what they mean, and how they are formed. She talks about why people believe irrational things that all evid...
Michael Kearney, “The Nest in the Stream: Lessons from Nature on Being with Pain” (Parallax Press, 2018)
August 10, 2018 10:00 - 59 minutesIn this episode, cross posted from the podcast Psychologists Off the Clock, Dr. Diana Hill interviews Dr. Michael Kearney, a palliative care physician who takes an interpersonal, integrative approach to healing. Dr. Kearney shares with us how he has had to learn to “breathe underwater” and allow pain to move through him and he discusses his new book: The Nest in the Stream: Lessons from Nature on Being with Pain (Parallax Press, 2018). Michael Kearney trained at St Christopher’s Hospice in L...
Barry Schwartz and Kenneth Sharpe, “Practical Wisdom: The Right Way to Do the Right Thing” (Riverhead Books, 2011)
August 09, 2018 10:00 - 54 minutesIn this episode, cross-posted from the podcast Psychologists Off The Clock, Dr. Yael Schonbrun interviews Dr. Barry Schwartz, co-author (with Kenneth Sharpe) of the book Practical Wisdom: The Right Way to Do the Right Thing (Riverhead Books, 2011). Dr. Schwartz dives into a discussion of his writing on the ways that practical wisdom has been diminished in our modern society, and how to overcome these challenges and nurture your own internal wisdom. Dr. Schwartz received his Ph.D. from the Un...
Damien Riggs, “The Psychic Life of Racism in Gay Men’s Communities” (Lexington Books, 2018)
August 07, 2018 10:00 - 56 minutesIn order to fully grasp the workings of racism, we cannot limit ourselves to examining it within majority cultures. Racism exists in minority cultures, such as the gay community, but the intersection of diverse minority identities can make the operation of racism difficult to see. This is the subject of Damien Riggs’ new anthology, The Psychic Life of Racism in Gay Men’s Communities (Lexington Books, 2018). The book brings together various authors who address topics such as islamophobia, orie...
Russell Kolts, “Experiencing Compassion: Focused Therapy from the Inside Out” (The Guilford Press, 2018)
August 02, 2018 10:00 - 55 minutesIn this this interview, cross-posted from the podcast Psychologists Off The Clock, Dr. Diana Hill interviews Dr. Russell Kolts, expert in Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) about his new workbook for therapists Experiencing Compassion-Focused Therapy from the Inside Out (The Guilford Press, 2018). In their discussion, Hill and Kolts explore the tricky human brain and compassion as “the only thing that makes sense” given the nature of our minds. Dr. Kolts describes the emotion regulation model o...
Edward Khantzian, “Treating Addiction: Beyond the Pain” (Rowman and Littlefield, 2018)
July 23, 2018 10:00 - 48 minutesTreatment of addiction often focuses on abstinence or ‘harm reduction.’ While many people benefit greatly from such approaches, the underlying pain and heartache often go untreated, leaving individuals vulnerable to relapse. Focusing on the emotional undercurrents of addiction can help individuals address, once and for all, the deep-seated factors that drive them to substances in the first place. This approach is explained and elaborated by Dr. Edward Khantzian in his new book, Treating Addic...
James M. Jasper, “The Emotions of Protests” (U Chicago Press, 2018)
June 28, 2018 10:00 - 1 hourHow do emotions affect participation in protests, and in politics more generally? In The Emotions of Protests (University of Chicago Press, 2018), James M. Jasper develops a solid critique to approaches that present political action as strictly rational and emotions as something outside the realm of strategy. Instead, Jasper speaks about feeling-thinking processes to highlight the interaction between strategic thinking and emotions, and the impact they have on participation in politics. Jasp...
Sandra Allen, “A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise: A True Story about Schizophrenia” (Scribner, 2018)
June 14, 2018 10:00 - 53 minutesWhat is it really like to have a family member with serious mental illness? Sandra Allen’s unique book, A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise: A True Story about Schizophrenia (Scribner, 2018), addresses this question. In the book, a hybrid between memoir and third-person narrative, Sandra publishes excerpts from her schizophrenic uncle’s autobiography interlaced with her own narrative about her uncle and his life. This poignant combination offers readers a rare, real-life glimpse into the mind and h...
Alex Pang, “Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less” (Basic Books, 2016)
June 13, 2018 10:00 - 56 minutesOur modern culture prompts us to work ever harder. But it turns out the most successful and creative among us don’t just work hard, they actually rest more skillfully. In this this interview, cross-posted from the podcast Psychologists Off The Clock, Dr. Yael Schonbrun interviews Dr. Alex Pang, the author of Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less (Basic Books, 2016) to learn about the science and practice of using rest to get more done more effectively. Dr. Alex Pang is the founder o...
John Forsyth, “Anxiety Happens: 52 Ways to Find Peace of Mind” (New Harbinger, 2018)
June 11, 2018 10:00 - 52 minutesEveryone experiences anxiety and worry sometimes. However, when anxiety controls your life, it pulls you away from things that you care about. In this this interview, cross-posted from the podcast Psychologists Off The Clock, Dr. Diana Hill interviews Dr. John Forsyth about his new book Anxiety Happens: 52 Ways to Find Peace of Mind (New Harbinger Publishing, 2018). Dr. Forsyth shares why he was drawn to researching and applying Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for anxiety. He discusses the ...
Jonathan W. Marshall, “Performing Neurology: The Dramaturgy of Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016)
May 29, 2018 10:00 - 56 minutesFrench neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot is perhaps most well known today from the images of his “hysterical” female patients featured in Bourneville’s Iconographie Photographique de la Salpêtrière. While not diminishing the epistemological and aesthetic importance of “the image” to Charcot, Jonathan W. Marshall argues in Performing Neurology: The Dramaturgy of Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) that the work of the French neurologist is best understood through the lens of drama...
Ruth G. Millikan, “Beyond Concepts: Unicepts, Language, and Natural Information” (Oxford UP, 2018)
May 15, 2018 10:00 - 1 hourKant famously asked the question, how is knowledge possible? In her new book, Beyond Concepts: Unicepts, Language, and Natural Information (Oxford University Press, 2018), Ruth Garrett Millikan responds to this question from a naturalistic, and specifically evolutionary, perspective. Millikan, who is distinguished professor emerita at the University of Connecticut, has long been a leading figure in theorizing about language and thought. Her latest work considers the “clumpy” world that organi...
John J. Pitney, “The Politics of Autism: Navigating the Contested Spectrum” (Rowman and Littlefield, 2015)
May 08, 2018 10:00 - 50 minutesAutism as a condition has received much focused attention recently, but less attention has been paid to its politics. It is a condition that necessitates significant accommodations and interventions, which can be difficult for people with autism and their loved ones to obtain, depending on the state of autism public policy. Sociologist John J. Pitney argues that political science needs to more rigorously study autism policy and politics, as he outlines in his book The Politics of Autism: Navi...
Richard S. Marken and Timothy A. Carey, “Controlling People” (Australian Academic Press, 2015)
May 04, 2018 11:43 - 1 hourThe word “control”, with its seemingly instantaneous mental associations with forms of top-down oppression, is one that makes even some cyberneticians nervous and is often downplayed in contemporary descriptions of the field. Perhaps this is one reason why William Powers’ fundamentally cybernetic Perceptual Control Theory, or PCT, has, in recent decades, continued its substantial development outside the disciplinary boundaries of cybernetics proper. But, in fact, PCT stands as one of the m...
Omina El Shakry, “The Arabic Freud: Psychoanalysis and Islam in Modern Egypt” (Princeton UP, 2017)
May 01, 2018 10:00 - 50 minutesOften, when writing the intellectual history of the Middle East, we make assumptions about the influence of ideas from other places on the Middle East itself. We assume what ideas are being adapted in their entirety and not necessarily as challenged and critiqued; this is often influenced by power dynamics themselves the products of historical processes like colonialism and capitalism. Omnia El Shakry challenges this approach to ideas in The Arabic Freud: Psychoanalysis and Islam in Modern Eg...
Eric Yarbrough, “Transgender Mental Health” (American Psychiatric Association, 2018)
April 30, 2018 10:00 - 51 minutesHow and where do transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) people find good mental healthcare? And how can psychotherapists and other mental health professionals become competent in this kind of care? Furthermore, what are the most important mental health issues faced by TGNC people? These are some of the questions with which TGNC people grapple regularly, and they motivated Dr. Eric Yarbrough to write his new book, Transgender Mental Health (2018, American Psychiatric Association). In our...
Eva Ritvo, “Bekindr: The Transformative Power of Kindness” (Momosa Publishing, 2017)
April 27, 2018 10:01 - 45 minutesAfter working clinically with patients for over 25 years, it’s natural that one would learn something about what heals or harms humans. Such is the case with Dr. Eva Ritvo, who discovered through her work and personal life the power of human kindness and put together a book about it entitled Bekindr: The Transformative Power of Kindness (2017, Momosa Publishing). The book contains short stories by people from all walks of life, depicting poignant moments of human vulnerability and kindness. I...
Sam Kean, “The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons” (Little, Brown and Co., 2015)
April 26, 2018 10:00 - 58 minutesEarly studies of the functions of the human brain used a simple method: wait for misfortune to strike—strokes, seizures, infectious diseases, lobotomies, horrendous accidents-and see how the victim coped. In many cases survival was miraculous, and observers could only marvel at the transformations that took place afterward, altering victims’ personalities. An injury to one section can leave a person unable to recognize loved ones; some brain trauma can even make you a pathological gambler, pe...
Gloria Origgi, “Reputation: What it is and Why it Matters” (Princeton UP, 2018)
April 02, 2018 10:00 - 1 hourWe all put a great deal of care into protecting, managing, and monitoring our reputation. But the precise nature of a reputation is obscure. In one sense, reputation is merely hearsay, a popular perception that may or may not have any basis in fact. Yet we rely heavily on reputations for example, when were choosing a restaurant, mechanic, or physician. Accordingly, multiple sites on social media are devoted to helping us to discover the reputation of service providers, social events, and even...
Robert Pearl, “Mistreated: Why We Think Were Getting Good Health Care and Why We’re Usually Wrong” (PublicAffairs, 2017)
March 27, 2018 10:00 - 1 hourThe biggest problem in American health care is us. Do you know how to tell good health care from bad health care? Guess again. As patients, we wrongly assume the best care is dependent mainly on the newest medications, the most complex treatments, and the smartest doctors. But Americans look for healthcare solutions in the wrong places. For example, hundreds of thousands of lives could be saved each year if doctors reduced common errors and maximized preventive medicine. For Dr. Robert Pear...
Gina Biegel, “Be Mindful and Stress Less: 50 Ways to Deal with Your (Crazy) Life” (Shambhala, 2018)
March 15, 2018 10:00 - 35 minutesIn her book, Be Mindful and Stress Less: 50 Ways to Deal with Your (Crazy) Life (Shambhala, 2018), Gina Biegel shows how the demands and pressures of everyday life can really stress you out! She shows how even the little things when stacked one on top of another can eventually build up to much bigger and deeper problems. Using her background in psychology, she crafts an easy to follow format that can help to illustrate some of the bigger points that are missed in a traditional mindfulness boo...
Christina Twomey, “The Battle Within: POWs in Postwar Australia” (NewSouth Books, 2018)
March 13, 2018 10:00 - 17 minutesIn her new book, The Battle Within: POWs in Postwar Australia (NewSouth Books, 2018), Christina Twomey, Professor of History at Monash University, explores the “battle within,” the individual and collective challenge of rehabilitating Australian prisoners of war in the post-war decades. Using a variety of sources, including memoirs and the archives of the Prisoners of War Trust Fund, Twomey argues that the commemorations of the 1980s and more recent decades were actually a change from the qui...
Andrew Lees, “Mentored by a Madman: The William Burroughs Experiment” (Notting Hill Editions, 2017)
March 12, 2018 10:00 - 1 hourMentored by a Madman: The William Burroughs Experiment (Notting Hill Editions, 2017) is a fascinating account by one of the world’s leading and most decorated neurologists of the profound influence of William Burroughs on his medical career. Dr. Andrew Lees relates how Burroughs, author of Naked Lunch and troubled drug addict, inspired him to discover a ground-breaking treatment for Parkinson’s Disease, and learns how to use the deductive reasoning of Sherlock Holmes to diagnose patients. Lee...
Radhule Weininger, “Heartwork: The Path of Self-Compassion” (Shambhala, 2017)
March 11, 2018 13:41 - 55 minutesDr. Radhule Weininger is a clinical psychologist and meditation teacher who integrates psychodynamic, Jungian and Gestalt psychotherapies with Buddhist psychology. In her new book Heartwork: The Path of Self-Compassion (Shambhala, 2017), Dr. Weininger shares the path she took from medical school to Buddhist Psychologist and how she applies the principles of Buddhist practice in therapy. Heartwork defines self-compassion and offers tangible practices to increase a felt sense of kindness toward...
Betsy DiSalvo, et al., “Participatory Design for Learning: Perspectives from Practice and Research” (Routledge, 2017)
March 01, 2018 11:00 - 33 minutesBetsy DiSalvo, assistant professor in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology, joins us in this episode to discuss the recently published co-edited volume entitled, Participatory Design for Learning: Perspectives from Practice and Research (Routledge, 2017). The book puts into conversation ideas from the fields of the learning sciences and participatory design research. Betsy describes the learning sciences as already an interdisciplinary field of computing and...
Anita Johnston, “Eating in the Light of the Moon” (Gurze Books, 2000)
February 22, 2018 11:00 - 50 minutesAnita Johnston, author of Eating in the Light of the Moon: How Women Can Transform Their Relationships with Food Through Myth, Metaphor, and Storytelling (Gurze Books, 2000), is an expert in the field of eating disorders treatment, who looks beyond eating itself in her approach. In this interview, Dr. Johnston describes why myth and metaphors are effective strategies for uncovering and understanding the function and meaning of disordered eating. Dr. Johnston shares examples of metaphors she u...
Karen Neander, “A Mark of the Mental: In Defense of Informational Teleosemantics” (MIT Press, 2017)
February 15, 2018 11:00 - 1 hourThe two biggest problems of understanding the mind are consciousness and intentionality. The first doesn’t require introduction. The latter is the problem of how we can have thoughts and perceptions that about other things for example, a thought about a tree, or a perception of a tree. How can mental states be about other things? A naturalistic theory of intentionality is one that explains intentionality using just those resources available from the natural sciences, such as causal relationsh...
Howard I. Kushner, “On the Other Hand: Left Hand, Right Brain, Mental Disorder, and History” (Johns Hopkins UP, 2017)
February 14, 2018 11:00 - 49 minutesIn the early twentieth century, Robert Hertz, a French anthropologist, and Cesare Lombroso, the Italian criminologist, debated the causes and consequences of left-handedness. According to Lombroso, left-handed individuals were more likely to be criminals. Hertz disagreed. For him, to restrict left-handedness was to suppress individual expression. In his book, On the Other Hand: Left Hand, Right Brain, Mental Disorder, and History (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017), Howard I. Kushner explo...
Ty Tashiro, “Awkward: The Science of Why We’re Socially Awkward and Why That’s Awesome” (Harper Collins, 2017)
February 13, 2018 11:00 - 53 minutesSome people can’t help but be ‘awkward’ despite their lifelong efforts to blend in. They feel ashamed of their social ineptitude and end up shying away from social situations, yet research offers insights that could help. In his new book, Awkward: The Science of Why We’re Socially Awkward and Why That’s Awesome (Harper Collins, 2017), Ty Tashiro reviews research findings that explain socially ‘awkward’ behavior and offer strategies for acquiring social fluency. In our interview, Tashiro expla...
Robert Meyer and Howard Kunreuther, “The Ostrich Paradox: Why We Underprepare for Disasters” (Wharton Digital Press, 2017))
February 07, 2018 11:00 - 57 minutesIn The Ostrich Paradox: Why We Underprepare for Disasters (Wharton Digital Press, 2017), Robert Meyer and Howard Kunreuther summarize six major cognitive biases that explain why humans fail to adequately prepare for potential disasters. Leveraging examples of high-impact events, The Ostrich Paradox summarizes how preparedness efforts are affected by issues with human memory, risk probability comprehension, and information overload. Finally, the authors provide a tool for assessing and mitigat...
Erika Dyck and Alex Deighton, “Managing Madness” (U Manitoba Press, 2017)
January 31, 2018 15:06 - 55 minutesEmbracing a multi-perspectival authorial voice, Managing Madness: Weyburn Mental Hospital and the Transformation of Psychiatric Care in Canada (University of Manitoba Press, 2017), tells the story of the “last and largest” asylum in the British Commonwealth. From its founding in the 1920s until the age of deinstitutionalization, Weyburn Mental Hospital was central to the changing landscape of psychiatric care in Canada and beyond. Using a wide variety of documentary sources, Erika Dyck and Al...
Roger Frie, “Not in My Family: German Memory and Responsibility After the Holocaust” (Oxford UP, 2017)
January 30, 2018 11:00 - 1 hourWhat if you suddenly discovered a cherished member of your family was a Nazi? How would you make sense of the code of silence that had kept an uncomfortable reality at bay? How would you resolve the wartime suffering of your family with their moral culpability for the Holocaust? Roger Frie explores the thorny issue of historical memory and intergenerational trauma in his new award winning book Not in My Family: German Memory and Responsibility After the Holocaust (Oxford University Press, 201...
Mark S. Hamm and Ramon Spaaij, “The Age of Lone Wolf Terrorism” (Columbia UP, 2017)
January 19, 2018 15:50 - 45 minutesThe Age of Lone Wolf Terrorism (Columbia University Press, 2017), by Mark S. Hamm and Ramon Spaaij, identifies patterns among individuals that commit acts of terror outside of a group or network. Hamm and Spaaij follow these individuals, commonly called lone wolf terrorists, through multiple data points to inform a model of radicalization. The trends and changes in lone wolf terrorists, targets of violence, and radicalization pathways over time provides valuable insights for counterterrorism ...
Christian B. Miller, “The Character Gap: How Good Are We?” (Oxford UP, 2017)
January 13, 2018 19:25 - 55 minutesAre we good people? Or do we just think we are? In his new book The Character Gap: How Good Are We? (Oxford University Press, 2017), author Christian B. Miller tackles these questions and more, breaking down what character is, how to measure it, and how to distinguish good from bad moral behavior. In our interview, Miller talks to us about finding his way into this area of study and what research says about our tendencies to display our best and worst qualities. His insights and findings offe...
Jason Lillis, “The Diet Trap” (New Harbinger Publications, 2014)
January 06, 2018 12:10 - 47 minutesObesity and weight loss are notoriously challenging areas of research and intervention. Traditional behavioral psychology methods for weight loss are known to be ineffective in the long-term for many people. At a time of year when many of us are resolving to eat better, exercise more, and lose weight, obesity and weight loss expert Dr. Jason Lillis offers a different, evidence-based perspective on this complicated issue. In this interview, cross-posted from the podcast Psychologists Off The C...
Kieran Setiya, “Midlife: A Philosophical Guide” (Princeton UP, 2017)
January 01, 2018 11:30 - 1 hourMiddle-agedness is a curious phenomenon. In many ways, one is at one’s peak and also at the early stages of decline. There is much to do, but also dozens of paths irretrievably untaken. Successes, but also regrets. It’s no wonder that the idea of a midlife crisis is so familiar. But midlife is not commonly a subject of explicit philosophical study. In Midlife: A Philosophical Guide (Princeton University Press, 2017), Kieran Setiya develops a philosophical account of the crises associated with...
Mario Luis Small, “Someone to Talk To” (Oxford UP, 2017)
December 19, 2017 11:00 - 56 minutesWho do people turn to when they want to talk about serious issues in their life? Do they end up confiding in people they list as confidants? In his new book, Someone to Talk To (Oxford University Press, 2017), Mario Luis Small uses in-depth interviews with first-year graduate students to uncover how intimate conversations are executed in real time. This book is interesting in the way that the interviews unfold; readers will find themselves nodding in agreement and thinking about social networ...
Owen Flanagan, “The Geography of Morals: Varieties of Moral Possibility” (Oxford UP, 2017)
December 15, 2017 13:30 - 1 hourWhat is it to be moral, to lead an ethically good life? From a naturalistic perspective, any answer to this question begins from an understanding of what humans are like that is deeply informed by psychology, anthropology, and other human-directed perspectives as these are constrained by evolution. In The Geography of Morals: Varieties of Moral Possibility (Oxford University Press, 2017), Owen Flanagan sets out to clarify the landscape of moral possibility for actual human beings. He defends ...
Margot Esther Borden, “Psychology in the Light of the East” (Rowman and Littlefield, 2017)
December 11, 2017 11:00 - 46 minutesPsychology and spirituality have a complicated relationship. Dating back to ancient times, we see them treated as sister disciplines which inform and enhance one another. But at some point in the last century, Western psychology decided to divorce itself from Eastern philosophy and spirituality, leaving us with an incomplete way of understanding human experience. Author Margot Esther Borden takes up this story in her new book, Psychology in the Light of the East (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017), ...
Daniel R. DeNicola, “Understanding Ignorance: The Surprising Impact of What We Don’t Know” (The MIT Press, 2017)
December 01, 2017 11:00 - 1 hourEpistemology is the area of philosophy that examines the phenomena of and related to knowledge. Traditional core questions include: How is knowledge different from lucky guessing? Can knowledge be innate? Is skepticism a threat, and if so, how should it be countered? And: Is it possible to know something simply on the basis of another person’s say-so? In the background of all of these traditional questions is a broad concern thats not often explicitly addressed—the concern is with ignorance. ...
Mindy Fried, “Caring for Red: A Daughter’s Memoir” (Vanderbilt UP, 2016)
November 29, 2017 10:00 - 51 minutesIn her new book, Caring for Red: A Daughter’s Memoir (Vanderbilt University Press, 2016), Mindy Fried shares her experiences with providing care for her father at the end of his life. With rich stories and memories of her father, the book introduces the reader to Manny “Red” Fried, in addition to Mindy as a daughter as caregiver. The book really focuses on how families can preserve the dignity of older family members as they age, as well as how we can keep older family members active and enga...
Jean Kazez, “The Philosophical Parent: Asking the Hard Questions about Having and Raising Children” (Oxford UP, 2017)
November 01, 2017 10:00 - 54 minutesWe all recognize that parenting involves a seemingly endless succession of choices, beginning perhaps with the choice to become a parent, through a sequence of decisions concerning the care, upbringing, acculturation, and education of a child. And we all recognize that many of these decisions are impactful. More specifically, we know that the choices parents make often deeply impact the lives of others, including especially the life of the child. Given the sheer number of impactful and other-...
Julia Beltsiou, “Immigration in Psychoanalysis: Locating Ourselves” (Routledge, 2016)
October 24, 2017 20:13 - 45 minutesImmigrant experiences are complex and varied. People who leave their home countries for a new one often feel torn between two identities and struggle to feel at home in either place. Dr. Julia Beltsiou, my guest for this episode, has put together an anthology addressing the various dimensions of the immigration experience entitled, Immigration in Psychoanalysis: Locating Ourselves (Routledge, 2016). In our interview, we discuss her own immigrant experience as it shapes her sense of self and h...
Debra L. Safer, “Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Binge Eating and Bulimia” (The Guilford Press, 2009)
October 17, 2017 11:31 - 56 minutesFor many people who binge eat, strong emotions can be a cue that leads to a pattern of maladaptive eating behaviors. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is an evidence-based psychotherapy approach to treating binge eating (and other disorders), which works simultaneously on both acceptance and change processes. Traditional DBT techniques like mindfulness, emotion regulation, and distress tolerance, are a promising approach to the treatment of binge eating and underlying emotional processes. I...
Ron Mallon, “The Construction of Human Kinds” (Oxford University Press, 2016)
October 15, 2017 09:00 - 1 hourSocial constructionists hold that the world is determined at least in part by our ways of representing it. Recent debates regarding social construction have focused on categories that play important roles in the human social world, such as race and gender. Social constructionists argue that these categories are not biological or natural and that alleviating social injustice begins with recognizing they are not. At the same time, the case of Rachel Dolezal, a woman born of white parents who co...
Leigh Straw, “After the War: Returned Soldiers and the Mental and Physical Scars of World War I” (UWA Publishing, 2017)
October 13, 2017 10:00 - 15 minutesIn her new book, After the War: Returned Soldiers and the Mental and Physical Scars of World War I (UWA Publishing, 2017), Leigh Straw, a Senior Lecturer in Aboriginal Studies and History at the University of Notre Dame, explores the history of repatriation and return of WWI soldiers to Western Australia. The soldiers’ physical and mental scars, including tuberculosis and what we today call PTSD, did not end with the armistice, as soldiers and their families struggled with the consequences of...
Deborah Parker and Mark L. Parker, “Sucking Up: A Brief Consideration of Sycophancy” (U. of Virginia Press, 2017)
October 03, 2017 21:31 - 41 minutesEver since Donald Trump was elected President, he’s created a non-stop torrent of news, so much so that members of the media regularly claim that he’s effectively trashed the traditional news cycle. Whether that’s true or not, it is hard to keep up with what’s going on in the White House, and each new uproar makes it difficult to remember what’s already happened. Take Trump’s first cabinet meeting, way back on June 12, 2017. Remember that? It began with Trump proclaiming, “Never has there bee...
Nina Savelle-Rocklin, “Food for Thought: Perspectives on Eating Disorders” (Rowman and Littlefield, 2017)
September 12, 2017 11:00 - 53 minutesThe psychology of eating disorders is poorly understood. Recent trends in research and treatment focus near-exclusively on behaviors around food and weight without sufficiently attending to their psychic undercurrents. Yet evidence shows that, when patients start putting words to the pain their eating disorders express, they start gaining freedom from these vexing patterns. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is well positioned to offer individuals such an opportunity, and the rationale for such an ...
Robert Wright, “Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment” (Simon and Schuster, 2017)
August 25, 2017 10:58 - 56 minutesAll “true believers” believe their beliefs are true. This is particularly true of true religious believers: for Christians, Christianity is the true religion, for Jews, Judaism is the true religion, for for Muslims, Islam is the true religion. Few true believer, however, would make the claim that their religion is “scientifically true”; religion, after all, is a matter of faith, and faith and science are somewhat different things. But that’s the claim Robert Wright is making in his thought-p...