Why is America so rich and powerful? The answer lies in our genes, according to psychologist John Gartner.

Hypomania, a genetically based mild form of mania, endows many of us with unusual energy, creativity, enthusiasm, and a propensity for taking risks. America has an extraordinarily high number of hypomanics -- grandiose types who leap on every wacky idea that occurs to them, utterly convinced it will change the world. Market bubbles and ill-considered messianic crusades can be the downside. But there is an enormous upside in terms of spectacular entrepreneurial zeal, drive for innovation, and material success. Americans may have a lot of crazy ideas, but some of them lead to brilliant inventions.

Why is America so hypomanic? It is populated primarily by immigrants. This self-selection process is the boldest natural experiment ever conducted. Those who had the will, optimism, and daring to take the leap into the unknown have passed those traits on to their descendants.

Bringing his audacious and persuasive thesis to life, Gartner offers case histories of some famous Americans who represent this phenomenon of hypomania. These are the real stories you never learned in school about some of those men who made America: Columbus, who discovered the continent, thought he was the messiah. John Winthrop, who settled and defined it, believed Americans were God's new chosen people. Alexander Hamilton, the indispensable founder who envisioned America's economic future, self-destructed because of pride and impulsive behavior. Andrew Carnegie, who began America's industrial revolution, was sure that he was destined personally to speed up human evolution and bring world peace. The Mayer and Selznick families helped create the peculiarly American art form of the Hollywood film, but familial bipolar disorders led to the fall of their empires. Craig Venter decoded the human genome, yet his arrogance made him despised by most of his scientific colleagues, even as he spurred them on to make great discoveries.

While these men are extraordinary examples, Gartner argues that many Americans have inherited the genes that have made them the most successful citizens in the world.

When Viscount Castlereagh, leader of the House of Commons and architect of the Grand Alliance, committed suicide in 1822, the coroner's inquest could consider only two legal verdicts: insanity or self-murder. Public outrage greeted his burial in Westminster Abbey; the tradition lingered that a suicide's burial place be at a crossroads, with a stake through the heart to keep the lost soul from wandering. Probing a remarkable variety of sources and individual cases, Barbara Gates shows how attitudes toward suicide changed between Castlereagh's death and the end of the century. By 1900 the Victorians' moral censure of suicide and the accompanying denial that it was a widespread problem had been replaced by a more compassionate response--and also by an unfounded belief in a "suicide epidemic," which Thomas Hardy described as a "coming universal wish not to live.."

Exposing a rich area of interaction between history and literature, and utilizing the methodology of the new historicism, Gates discusses topics ranging from the plot for Wuthering Heights to Victorian shilling shockers. Among other findings she includes evidence that Victorian middle-class men, particularly, tended to make suicide the province of other selves--of men belonging to other times or places, of "monsters," or of women.

Originally published in 1988.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

More than twenty years ago, a little-known Swiss psychoanalyst wrote a book that changed the way many people viewed themselves and their world. In simple but powerful prose, the deeply moving Drama of the Gifted Child showed how parents unconsciously form and deform the emotional lives of their children. Alice Miller's stories about the roots of suffering in childhood resonated with readers, and her book soon became a backlist best seller.In The Truth Will Set You Free Miller returns to the intensely personal tone and themes of her best-loved work. Only by embracing the truth of our past histories can any of us hope to be free of pain in the present, she argues. Miller uses vivid true stories to reveal the perils of early-childhood mistreatment and the dangers of mindless obedience to parental will. Drawing on the latest research on brain development, she shows how spanking and humiliation produce dangerous levels of denial, which leads in turn to emotional blindness and to mental barriers that cut off awareness and the ability to learn new ways of acting. If this cycle repeats itself, the grown child will perpetrate the same abuse on later generations- a message vitally important, especially given the increasing popularity of programs like Tough Love and of "child disciplinarians" like James Dobson. The Truth Will Set You Free will provoke and inform all readers who want to know Alice Miller's latest thinking on this important subject.

There are currently about 21 million people over 6S years in the United States and over a million of them suffer from a severe degree of mental impairment. This number will undoubtedly increase as more and more people attain their full lifespan. The Veterans Administration is acutely aware of this problem in the population it serves. Currently, there are about 31 million veterans in the United States. About 13 percent of these veterans are over 6S years of age and the number is expected to increase to 40 percent by the turn of the century. In recognition of the pressing need to address this problem, eight Geriatric Research, Educational and Clinical Centers (GRECC) have been established under the auspices of the Veterans Administration and the guiding spirit of Dr. Paul Haber, Assistant Chief Medical Director for Professional Services, Veterans Administration. The purpose of these centers is to develop a better understanding of the complex biomedical and socio-economic problems of the aged in general and to enhance the quality of life of the older veterans in particular o Gerontologists working towards a better understanding of the aging process and better care of the aged have made major progress in the biomedical field in the last decade. Among the efforts made by the Veterans Administration, the department of Extended Care and Academic Affairs have sponsored a number of symposia in the field of Gerontology.

The new edition of this successful text builds on the very latest research to present an original and unique exploration of the psychology of both spirituality and psychosis. The editor brings together fascinating perspectives from a broad range of distinguished contributors. * This new edition covers the most recent body of research, both qualitative and quantitative, in its exploration of the interface between psychosis and spirituality, and investigation into anomalous experiences * Ten new chapters added and the remaining text completely updated * New to this edition is an expanded clinical section, relevant to clinicians working with psychosis * Offers a fundamental rethink of the concept of psychosis, and proposes new insights into spirituality * Includes feature chapters from a distinguished list of contributors across a broad range of disciplines, including Peter Fenwick, Peter Chadwick, David Kingdon, Gordon Claridge, Neil Douglas Klotz and David Lukoff

The heart-warming true holiday story of a little boy and the cat that changed his life. Julia's nine-year-old son George was autistic. Quiet and withdrawn, he appeared lost in his own world. Then one day a small black-and-white stray cat appeared in her garden and George's face lit up. George bonded with Ben and began to open up to his mother as well. For three happy years, the trio was inseparable and George made remarkable progress. But then disaster struck-Ben went missing and George regressed. The weeks turned into months, and Christmas was fast approaching, but on December 21, Julia got a call from a family more than fifty miles away, which finally offered a ray of hope... Genuinely touching, The Cat Who Came Back for Christmas is a story about devotion, love, and a holiday miracle, and is the perfect gift for cat lovers as well as fans of Lil Bub, I Am Pusheen the Cat, and A Street Cat Named Bob. Perfect for: * White elephant gifts * Animal lover gifts * Cat gifts * Gifts for cat lovers * Christmas gifts

The Reason for this Volume If we were to judge the seriousness of a psychosocial problem by the attention that the popular media give to it, we would have to conclude that the modem world is in the midst of an epidemic of pedophilic child sexual abuse. One can scarcely go more than a few weeks in any large metropolitan area without reading about one of the community's upstanding citizens discovered to have been sexually involved with children or adolescents. The attention that the popular media give this topic is paralleled by the attention that it receives in the social sciences, where literally dozens of books and more than a thousand articles have been published on it in the past few years. In fact, "child sexual abuse," along with "co-dependency" and "dysfunctional family," have become the avant-garde psychological cliches of the decade. However, most of the lay and professional literature, although voluminous, reflect a narrow anthropo-, ethno-, and chronocentrism that precludes any real understanding of the topic with anything more than the preconceptions of our times.

Psychiatry and psychology have constructed a mental health system that does no justice to the problems it claims to understand and creates multiple problems for its users. Yet the myth of biologically-based mental illness defines our present. This book rethinks madness and distress reclaiming them as human, not medical, experiences.

An award-winning reporter for the Washington Post, Tracy Thompson was thirty-four when she was hospitalized and put on suicide watch during a major depressive episode. This event, the culmination of more than twenty years of silent suffering, became the point of departure for an in-depth, groundbreaking book on depression and her struggle with the disease. The Beast shattered stereotypes and inspired countless readers to confront their own battles with mental illness. Having written that book, and having found the security of a happy marriage, Thompson assumed that she had learned to manage her illness. But when she took on one of the most emotionally demanding jobs of all&#8212being a mother&#8212depression returned with fresh vengeance.

Very quickly Thompson realized that virtually everything she had learned up to then about dealing with depression was now either inadequate or useless. In fact, maternal depression was a different beast altogether. She tackled her problem head-on, meticulously investigating the latest scientific research and collecting the stories of nearly 400 mothers with depression. What she found was startling: a problem more widespread than she or any other mother struggling alone with this affliction could have imagined. Women make up nearly 12 million of the 19 million Americans affected by depression every year, experiencing episodes at nearly twice the rate that men do. Women suffer most frequently between the ages of twenty-five and forty-four&#8212not coincidentally, the primary childbearing years.

The Ghost in the House, the result of Thompson's extensive studies, is the first book to address maternal depression as a lifelong illness that can have profound ramifications for mother and child. A striking blend of memoir and journalism, here is an invaluable resource for the millions of women who are white-knuckling their way through what should be the most satisfying years of their lives. Thompson offers her readers a concise summary of the cutting-edge research in this field, deftly written prose, and, above all, hope.

*First printing: 6,000 *This is the third title in our successful "Borderline Personality Disorder Awareness Series" for people who struggle with the disorder and their families (2015 and 2018) *This book follows in the tradition of the top-selling Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous and other similar Big Books for addictions and disorders *The author, who was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder and has been in recovery many years, writes from first-person perspective of one who has struggled and recovered, instead of the typical "written by psychiatrists/psychologists" perspective. *The author has a 6,000+ YouTube following (Recovery Mum) where she has more than 250 videos on Borderline Personality Disorder and she actively communicates with her followers from all points of the globe. *The author will actively promote the book through her YouTube channel; through www.bpdhouse.com, a site for those affected with Borderline Personality Disorder; through speaking events; and through a planned podcast on the disorder. *Strong potential in mental health/psychology sections of any bookstore when placed next to other books on Borderline Personality Disorder, because it provides an insider's look at the diagnostic criteria of the disorder and how to recover from it. *Galleys (and egalleys via Edelweiss) available 4 months in advance of publication.

'A riveting ride through your own brain' - Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Originals WINNER of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology's book prize for 'The Promotion of Social and Personality Science' If humans are fundamentally good, why do we engage in acts of great cruelty? If we are evil, why do we sometimes help others at a cost to ourselves? Whether humans are good or evil is a question that has plagued philosophers and scientists for as long as there have been philosophers and scientists. Many argue that we are fundamentally selfish, and only the rules and laws of our societies and our own relentless efforts of will can save us from ourselves. But is this really true? Abigail Marsh is a social neuroscientist who has closely studied the brains of both the worst and the best among us-from children with psychopathic traits whose families live in fear of them, to adult altruists who have given their own kidneys to strangers. Her groundbreaking findings suggest a possibility that is more optimistic than the dominant view. Humans are not good or evil, but are equally (and fundamentally) capable of good and evil. In The Fear Factor Marsh explores the human capacity for caring, drawing on cutting edge research findings from clinical, translational and brain imaging investigations on the nature of empathy, altruism, and aggression and brings us closer to understanding the basis of humans' social nature. 'You won't be able to put it down' - Daniel Gilbert, New York Times bestselling author of Stumbling on Happiness '[It] reads like a thriller... One of the most mind-opening books I have read in years' - Matthieu Ricard, author of Altruism

Understanding Psychopathology: South African Perspectives 3e provides a solid introduction to the study of mental disorders that incorporates socio-cultural, psychological and biomedical dimensions. It refers to criteria from both the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM–5) and the International Classifications of Diseases (ICD–10) to describe and define mental disorders. It also looks at the ICD–11, and how this new version has been harmonised with the DSM–5.

The third edition of this book, previously published as Abnormal Psychology revised second edition, presents South African debates and data to ensure that it is relevant to the local context. In addition, research from the rest of Africa has been integrated into the book to show how other countries in our region are grappling with topical issues.

This book is aimed at second- and third-year students following courses in Psychopathology or Abnormal Psychology as part of a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Social Sciences degree at Universities. It has been written by academics and practitioners from across South Africa.

This book examines the role of British object relations theory in order to explore our understanding and treatment of depression. It challenges current conceptualizations of depression while simultaneously discussing the complex nature of depression, its long-lasting and chronic implications and the susceptibility to relapse many may face.

Illuminated throughout by case studies, areas of discussion include:

• Freuda (TM)s theory of depression
• analytic subtypes of depression
• a theoretical contribution to the problem of relapse
• the correlation between dream work and the work of mourning.

Object Relations in Depression offers a psychoanalytic discussion of the multifaceted nature of depression and as such will be of great interest to all those in the psychoanalytic field.

Breaking through Schizophrenia builds on the ideas of Jacques Lacan who argued that schizophrenia is a deficient relationship to language, in particular the difficulty to master the metaphoric dimension of language, which children acquire by the Oedipal restructuring of the psyche. This book is thus a countercultural move to present a less damaging view and a more efficient treatment method for schizophrenic persons. Through a collection of published and unpublished articles, Ver Eecke traces the path of Lacanian thought. He discusses the importance of language for the development of human beings and examines the effectiveness of talk therapy through case studies with schizophrenic persons.

This book provides easy-to-access, reliable, up-to-date information on the numerous advances in research, assessment, treatment, and service delivery for clinicians, academics, administrators and other mental health professionals. It examines issues surrounding intellectual and developmental disabilities in a real-world sociopolitical framework. In addition, the book summarizes the major domains and emerging subspecialties of this vast area into one useful reference and so offers a wide range of assessment and diagnostic tools and tactics, including cognitive and adaptive behavior assessments.