For many years the Handbook of Methods in Nonverbal Behavior Research (Scherer & Ekman, 1982) has been an invaluable text for researchers looking for methods to study nonverbal behavior and the expression of affect. A successor to this essential text, The New Handbook of Methods in Nonverbal Behavior Research includes chapters on coding and methodological issues for a variety of areas in nonverbal behavior: facial actions, vocal behavior, and body movement. Issues relevant to judgment studies, methodology, reliability, analyses, etc. have also been updated. The topics are broad and include specific information about methodology and coding strategies in education, psychotherapy, deception, nonverbal sensitivity, and marital and group behavior. There is also a chapter detailing specific information on the technical aspects of recording the voice and face, and specifically in relation to deception studies.
This volume will be valuable for both new researchers and those already working in the fields of nonverbal behavior, affect expression, and related topics. It will play a central role in further refining research methods and coding strategies, allowing a comparison of results from various laboratories where research on nonverbal behavior is being conducted. This will advance research in the field and help to coordinate results so that a more comprehensive understanding of affect expression can be developed.

Speaking is one of the most complex skills that humans perform. In our everyday communication, we transfer sentences, concepts, thoughts, and ideas. How though, is the speaker able to convert these into movements of the speech apparatus? These speech movements are the observable end-product, but what neurological, psycholinguistic, and perceptual-motor processes lie behind their production? To fully understand speech disorders, such as stuttering, apraxia of speech, and Parkinsonian dysarthria, the disruptions in this complex interplay are highly relevant. Equally important is the question of how the infant develops from random babbling to precisely controlled production of words, syllables, and phonemes. This volume presents state of the art research in the science of speech motor control and speech disorders. All the chapters take a fundamental, model-oriented perspective, as introduced in the first section of the volume. Further topics covered in this book are: brain imaging studies and the rapid progression in comprehending neural mechanisms; developmental studies revealing perceptual-motor continuities and discontinuities; psycholinguistic experimentation showing higher-order influences on speech motor control; and recent notions and applications to the understanding of speech disorders.

Memory, attention, and decision-making are three major areas of psychology. They are frequently studied in isolation, and using a range of models to understand them. This book brings a unified approach to understanding these three processes. It shows how these fundamental functions for cognitive neuroscience can be understood in a common and unifying computational neuroscience framework. This framework links empirical research on brain function from neurophysiology, functional neuroimaging, and the effects of brain damage, to a description of how neural networks in the brain implement these functions using a set of common principles. The book describes the principles of operation of these networks, and how they could implement such important functions as memory, attention, and decision-making. The topics covered include The hippocampus and memory Reward and punishment related learning: emotion and motivation Visual object recognition learning Short term memory Attention, short term memory, and biased competition Probabilistic decision-making Action selection Decision-making Also included are tutorial appendices on Neural networks in the brain Neural encoding in the brain 'Memory, Attention and Decision-Making' will be valuable for those in the fields of neuroscience, psychology, and cognitive neuroscience from advanced undergraduate level upwards. It will also be of interest to those interested in neuroeconomics, animal behaviour, zoology, evolutionary biology, psychiatry, medicine, and philosophy. The book has been written with modular chapters and sections, making it possible to select particular Chapters for course work.

Working memory has been one of the most intensively studied systems in cognitive psychology. It is only relatively recently however that researchers have been able to study the neural processes might underlye working memory, leading to a proliferation of research in this domain.
The Cognitive Neuroscience of Working Memory brings together world class researchers from around the world to summarize our current knowledge of this field, and directions for future research. An historical opening chapter by Alan Baddeley and Graham Hitch sets the context for the subsequent chapters. The scope of the book is exceptionally broad, providing a showcase for leading edge research on all contemporary concepts of working memory, using techniques from experimental psychology, from single cell recording, from neuropsychology, from cognitive neuroimaging and from computational modelling.
The Cognitive Neuroscience of Working Memory will be an important reference text for all those seeking an authoritative and comprehensive synthesis of this field.

What produces emotions? Why do we have emotions? How do we have emotions? Why do emotional states feel like something? This book seeks explanations of emotion by considering these questions. Emotion continues to be a topic of enormous scientific interest. 'Emotion Explained' describes the nature, functions, and brain mechanisms that underlie both emotion and motivation. However it goes beyond examining brain mechanisms of emotion, by proposing a theory of what emotions are, and an evolutionary, Darwinian, theory of the adaptive value of emotion. It also shows that there is a clear relationship between motivation and emotion. The book also examines how cognitive states can modulate emotions, and in turn, how emotions can influence cognitive states. It considers the role of sexual selection in the evolution of affective behaviour. It also examines emotion and decision making, with links to the burgeoning field of neuroeconomics. The book is also unique in considering emotion at several levels - the neurophysiological, neuroimaging, neuropsychological, behavioural, and computational neuroscience levels.

'Working Memory, Thought, and Action' is the magnum opus of one of the most influential cognitive psychologists of the past 50 years. This new volume on the model he created (with Graham Hitch) discusses the developments that have occurred within the model in the past twenty years, and places it within a broader context. Working memory is a temporary storage system that underpins our capacity for coherent thought. Some 30 years ago, Baddeley and Hitch proposed a way of thinking about working memory that has proved to be both valuable and influential in its application to practical problems. This book updates the theory, discussing both the evidence in its favour, and alternative approaches. In addition, it discusses the implications of the model for understanding social and emotional behaviour, concluding with an attempt to place working memory in a broader biological and philosophical context. Inside are chapters on the phonological loop, the visuo-spatial sketchpad, the central executive and the episodic buffer. There are also chapters on the relevance to working memory of studies of the recency effect, of work based on individual differences, and of neuroimaging research. The broader implications of the concept of working memory are discussed in the chapters on social psychology, anxiety, depression, consciousness and on the control of action. Finally, Baddeley discusses the relevance of a concept of working memory to the classic problems of consciousness and free will. This new volume from one of the pioneers in memory research will doubtless emulate the success of its predecessor, and be a major publication within the psychological literature.

Does listening to Mozart make us more intelligent? Is there such a thing as a gay gene? Does the size of the brain matter? Does the moon influence our behaviour? Can we communicate with the dead? Can graphology tell us anything about a person's character? Is the human brain clonable? What role do dreams have in cognition? Can mind conquer matter and diseases? Are out-of-body experiences possible? Can we trust our intuitions? To some, the answer to all these questions might well be a resounding 'no', but to many people these represent serious beliefs about the mind and brain - beliefs that drive their everyday behaviour, beliefs that cost them huge amounts of money. Whole industries have developed founded on these dubious claims about the mind and brain. Even major corporations have dabbled with assessment methods such as those advocated by graphology, accepting and rejecting candidates on the basic of their handwriting. Expectant parents buy books and tapes by the dozen showing them how to improve the intelligence of their child by playing them classical music. People subscribe to expensive therapies founded on beliefs rather than science, or risk their health buying books that tell them how they can conquer illness through positive thinking, perhaps at the expense of more scientifically proven treatments. Tall Tales about the Mind and Brain presents a sweeping survey of common myths about the mind and brain. In a lighthearted and accessible style, it exposes the truth behind these beliefs, how they are perpetuated, why people believe them, and why they might even exist in the first place.

In everyday life, and particularly in the modern workplace, information technology and automation increasingly mediate, augment, and sometimes even interfere with how humans interact with their environment. How to understand and support cognition in human-technology interaction is both a practically and socially relevant problem. The chapters in this volume frame this problem in adaptive terms: How are behavior and cognition adapted, or perhaps ill-adapted, to the demands and opportunities of an environment where interaction is mediated by tools and technology? The authors draw heavily on the work of Egon Brunswik, a pioneer in ecological and cognitive psychology, as well as on modern refinements and extensions of Brunswikian ideas, including Hammond's Social Judgment Theory, Gigerenzer's Ecological Rationality and Anderson's Rational Analysis. Inspired by Brunswik's view of cognition as "coming to terms" with the "casual texture" of the external world, the chapters in this volume provide quantitative and computational models and measures for studying how people come to terms with an increasingly technological ecology, and provide insights for supporting cognition and performance through design, training, and other interventions. The methods, models, and measures presented in this book provide timely and important resources for addressing problems in the rapidly growing field of human-technology interaction. The book will be of interest to researchers, students, and practitioners in human factors, cognitive engineering, human-computer interaction, judgment and decision making, and cognitive science.

Eye movements are a vital part of our interaction with the world. They play a pivotal role in perception, cognition, and education. Research in this field is now proceeding at a considerable pace and casting new light on how the eyes move and what information we can derive during the frequent and brief periods of fixation. However, the origins of this work are less well known, even though much of our knowledge was derived from this research with far more primitive equipment. This book is unique in tracing the history of eye movement research. It shows how great strides were made in this area before modern recording devices were available, especially in the measurement of nystagmus. When photographic techniques were adapted to measure discontinuous eye movements, from about 1900, many of the issues that are now basic to modern research were then investigated. One of the earliest cognitive tasks examined was reading, and it remains in the vanguard of contemporary research. Modern researchers in this field will be astonished at the subtleties of these early experimental studies and the ingenuity of interpretations that were advanced one and even two centuries ago. Though physicians often carried out the original eye movement research, later on it was pursued by psychologists - it is within contemporary neuroscience that we find these two strands reunited. Anyone interested in the origins of psychology and neuroscience will find much to stimulate and surprise them in this valuable new work.

Findings from research on false memory have major implications for a number of fields central to human welfare, such as medicine and law. Although many important conclusions have been reached after a decade or so of intensive research, the majority of them are not well known outside the immediate field. To make this research accessible to a much wider audience, The Science of False Memory has been written to require little or no background knowledge of the theory and techniques used in memory research.
Brainerd and Reyna introduce the volume by considering the progenitors to the modern science of false memory, and noting the remarkable degree to which core themes of contemporary research were anticipated by historical figure such as Binet, Piaget, and Bartlett. They continue with an account of the varied methods that have been used to study false memory both inside and outside of the laboratory. The first part of the volume focuses on the basic science of false memory, revolving around three topics: old and new theoretical ideas that have been used to explain false memory and make predictions about it; research findings and predictions about false memory in normal adults; and research findings and predictions about age-related changes in false memory between early childhood and adulthood. Throughout Part I, Brainerd and Reyna emphasize how current opponent-processes conceptions of false memory act as a unifying influence by integrating predictions and data across disparate forms of false memory.
The second part focuses on the applied science of false memory, revolving around four topics: the falsifiability of witnesses and suspects memories of crimes, including false confessions by suspects; the falsifiability of eyewitness identifications of suspects; false-memory reports in investigative interviews of child victims and witnesses, particularly in connection with sexual-abuse crimes; false memory in psychotherapy, including recovered memories of childhood abuse, multiple-personality disorders, and recovered memories of previous lives. Although Part II is concerned with applied research, Brainerd and Reyna continue to emphasize the unifying influence of opponent-processes conceptions of false memory. The third part focuses on emerging trends, revolving around three expanding areas of false-memory research: mathematical models, aging effects, and cognitive neuroscience. False Memory will be an invaluable resource for professional researchers, practitioners, and students in the many fields for which false-memory research has implications, including child-protective services, clinical psychology, law, criminal justice, elementary and secondary education, general medicine, journalism, and psychiatry.

Das Buch vermittelt Basiswissen uber zwei grundlegende Bereiche der Allgemeinen Psychologie: menschliche Wahrnehmung und Aufmerksamkeit. Welche Theorien sind wichtig? Welche Kontroversen und Fragen beschaftigen die Forscher aktuell, und wie haben sich die Gebiete historisch entwickelt? In klarer, verstandlicher Form fuhren die Autoren in die wichtigsten Grundfragen ein und verhelfen Leserinnen und Lesern so zu Orientierung und UEberblick.

4E cognition (embodied, embedded, enactive, and extended) is a relatively young and thriving field of interdisciplinary research. It assumes that cognition is shaped and structured by dynamic interactions between the brain, body, and both the physical and social environments. With essays from leading scholars and researchers, The Oxford Handbook of 4E Cognition investigates this recent paradigm. It addresses the central issues of embodied cognition by focusing on recent trends, such as Bayesian inference and predictive coding, and presenting new insights, such as the development of false belief understanding. The Oxford Handbook of 4E Cognition also introduces new theoretical paradigms for understanding emotion and conceptualizing the interactions between cognition, language, and culture. With an entire section dedicated to the application of 4E cognition in disciplines such as psychiatry and robotics, and critical notes aimed at stimulating discussion, this Oxford handbook is the definitive guide to 4E cognition. Aimed at neuroscientists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and philosophers, The Oxford Handbook of 4E Cognition will be essential reading for anyone with an interest in this young and thriving field.

Musical Excellence offers performers, teachers, and researchers, new perspectives and practical guidance for enhancing performance and managing the stress that typically accompanies performance situations. It draws together, for the first time in a single collection, the findings of pioneering initiatives from across the arts and sciences. Specific recommendations are provided alongside comprehensive reviews of existing theory and research, enabling the practitioner to place the strategies and techniques within the broader context of human performance and encouraging novel ways of conceptualizing music making and teaching. Part I, Prospects and Limits, sets out ground rules for achieving musical excellence. What roles do innate talent, environmental influences, and sheer hard work play in attaining eminence? How can musicians best manage the physical demands of a profession that is intrinsically arduous, throughout a career that can literally span a lifetime? How can performers, teachers, and researchers effectively assess and reflect on performance enhancement for themselves, their colleagues, and their students? Part II, Practice Strategies, presents approaches for increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of practice. These are examined generally for the individual and ensembles and specifically for the tasks of memorizing, sight-reading, and improvising music. Musicians spend vast amounts of time and energy acquiring and refining their skills, but are there particular rehearsal strategies that they can employ to produce better performance results or to achieve the same results more quickly? What implication does existing knowledge of human information processing and physical functioning have for musical learning and practice? Part III, Techniques and Interventions, introduces scientifically validated methods for enhancing musical achievement, ordered from the more physical to the psychological to the pharmacological; however, they all address issues of both mental and physical significance for the musician. Collectively, they stand as clear evidence that applied, cross-disciplinary research can facilitate musicians' strive for performance excellence. Throughout, the book highlights ways for musicians to make the most of their existing practice, training, and experience and gives them additional tools for acquiring and developing new skills. Each chapter is underpinned by physical and psychological principles relevant to all performance traditions that demand dedication and resilience, unique artistic vision, and effective communication.

Philosophers since Aristotle have explored emotion, so the new emphasis on emotion in Anglo-American philosophy is the rediscovery of a discipline that is very old and has always been essential to the "love of wisdom." Today, it has become evident to most philosophers that emotions are ripe for philosophical analysis, a view supported by a considerable number of excellent publications. Emotions have now become mainstream. In this volume, I have tried to bring together some of the best Anglo-American philosophers now writing on the philosophy of emotion. I have solicited chapters from those philosophers who have already distinguished themselves in the field of emotion research and have interdisciplinary interests, particularly in the social sciences. It is impossible to study the emotions today without engaging with contemporary psychology and the neurosciences. Philosophy has always been (in its own mind, at least) "the queen of the sciences." Thus the essays included here should appeal to a broad spectrum of emotion researchers as well as philosophers interested or at least curious about their emotions. Topics include Emotions, Physiology, Intentionality, Emotion, Appraisal, and Cognition, Emotions and Feelings, Emotions, and Rationality, Emotions, Action, and Freedom, Emotion and Value, On Theories of Emotion. The contributors include Annette Baier, Aaron Ben-Zeev, Purushottama Bilimoria, Cheshire Calhoun, John Deigh, Ronald De Sousa, Jon Elster, Peter Goldie, Pat Greenspan, Paul Griffiths, Jerry Neu, Martha Nussbaum, Jesse Prinz, Jenefer Robinson, Amelie Rorty, Robert C. Solomon, Michael Stocker, ,

Humans, like other primates, are intensely social creatures. One of the major functions of our brains must be to enable us to be as skilful in social interactions as we are in our interactions with the physical world (e.g. recognising objects and grasping them). Furthermore, any differences between human brains and those of our nearest relatives, the great apes, are likely to be linked to our unique achievements in social interaction and communication rather than our motor or perceptual skills. Unique to humans is the ability to mentalise (or mind read), that is to perceive and communicate mental states, such as beliefs and desires. A key problem facing science is to uncover the biological mechanisms underlying our ability to read other minds and to show how these mechanisms evolved. To solve this problem we need to do experiments in which people (or animals) interact with one another rather than behaving in isolation. Such experiments are now being conducted in increasing numbers and many of the leading exponents of such experiments have contributed to this volume. 'The Neuroscience of Social Interactions' will be an important step in uncovering the biological mechanisms underlying social interactions - undoubtedly one of the major programmes for neuroscience in the 21st century.

Music offers a unique opportunity to better understand the organization of the human brain. Like language, music exists in all human societies. Like language, music is a complex, rule-governed activity that seems specific to humans, and associated with a specific brain architecture. Yet unlike most other high-level functions of the human brain--and unlike language--music is a skil at which only a minority of people become proficient. The study of music as a major brain function has for some time been relatively neglected. Just recently, however, we have witnessed an explosion in research activities on music perception and performance that correlates in the human brain. This volume brings together an outstanding collection of international authorities--from the fields of music, neuroscience, psychology, and neurology--to describe the amazing advances being made in understanding the complex relationship between music and the brain.

Creativity is at the heart of successful research, yet researchers are rarely taught how to manage their creative process, and modern academic life is not structured to optimize creativity. Creativity in Research provides concrete guidance on developing creativity for anyone doing or mentoring research. Based on a curriculum developed at Stanford University's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, this book presents key abilities that underlie creative research practice through a combination of scientific literature on creative confidence, experiential exercises, and guided reflection. By focusing attention on how research happens as well as its outputs, researchers increase their ability to address research challenges and produce the outputs they care about. Simultaneously, they may also transform their emotional relationship with their work, replacing stress and a harsh inner critic with a more open and emotionally empowered attitude.

Die Betrachtung der Interaktionen emotionaler und kognitiver Prozesse ist von zentraler Bedeutung fur das Verstandnis der menschlichen Entwicklung und des menschlichen Verhaltens sowie fur das Verstandnis unterschiedlicher psychiatrischer Erkrankungen. In der vorliegenden Monographie werden zunachst grundlegende Erkenntnisse zur Emotions/Kognitions-Kopplung bei Gedachtnisprozessen und deren Relevanz fur affektive Stoerungen dargestellt. Nach einer Einfuhrung in die Methodik der ereigniskorrelierten Hirnpotentiale werden die Moeglichkeiten der Anwendung dieses Verfahrens fur Fragestellungen im Bereich der Emotions/Kognitions-Kopplung bei Patienten mit affektiven Erkrankungen und bei gesunden Probanden untersucht und facherubergreifend (Psychiatrie, Psychologie, Neurobiologie und Elektrophysiologie) diskutiert.

Einflusse von Klangen auf Psyche und Korper des Menschen sind seit der Antike bekannt. In diesem Band werden sie in einem umfassenden System beschrieben und erklart. Der Autor gibt Einblicke in Bau und Funktion des Gehirns und erweitert dadurch das Verstandnis fur dessen bewusste und unterbewusste Leistungen. Auf dieser Grundlage werden die komplexen Einflusse der Musik auf den Menschen und seine Emotionen erklart. Ein Schichten-Modell der Personlichkeit zeigt Moglichkeiten auf, wie heilsame Wirkungen der Musik genutzt werden konnen. Das Buch wendet sich an Arzte, Psychologen, Musiktherapeuten und Studierende in diesen Fachgebieten, daruber hinaus aber auch an interessierte Laien. Fussnoten erlautern unmittelbar die wissenschaftliche Fachterminologie und erleichtern so die Lekture. Ein ausfuhrliches Sachregister macht das Buch gleichzeitig zum Nachschlagewerk, und das Literaturverzeichnis bietet umfassende Hinweise auf weiterfuhrende Literatur."

Herbst-/Winterdepressionen werden bereits seit der Antike beschrieben, und ebenso lang ist der Einfluss des Lichtes auf die seelische Gesundheit bekannt. Neuere systematische Untersuchungen der Herbst-/Winterdepression und der Lichttherapie haben jedoch erst seit etwa 20 Jahren Eingang in die Medizin und in psychiatrische Therapieformen gefunden. Es zeigte sich, dass die Lichttherapie bei den Herbst-/Winterdepressionen und deren subsyndromaler Form als Therapie der ersten Wahl eingesetzt werden kann, und dass die biologischen Veranderungen bei den Herbst-/Winterdepressionen ahnlich wie bei den nicht-saisonal gebundenen Depressionen vorhanden sind, eventuell in einer milderen Auspragung. In diesem Handbuch werden sowohl die Diagnostik der Herbst-/Winterdepression als auch die Praxis der Lichttherapie vom theoretischen und vor allem praktischen Gesichtspunkt international bekannter Forscher, vorwiegend aus dem deutschsprachigen Raum, bearbeitet."

So genannte Heilungswunder werden kontrar beurteilt. Der Frage nach einem ethisch vertretbaren Heilungs(zusatz)angebote aus interdisziplinarer bzw. integrativ pluralistischer Sicht im religioesen Bereich wird hier nachgegangen. Dieses Buch soll dazu beitragen, die voneinander abweichenden Beurteilungen von Heilungswundern in den christlichen Konfessionen transparent zu machen und argumentative Begrundungen darzulegen. Verdeutlicht werden ebenso die unterschiedlichen medizinischen, theologischen, philosophischen und volksfroemmigen Positionen nach einem pluralistischen Modell: - Medizin: meditatives Erleben unter Entspannung und Starkung des Immunsystems - Theologie: vertrauensvolle Hingabe an Gott - Philosophie: neues Verstandnis von Naturgesetzen und Relativierung der Vernunft - Volksfroemmigkeit: Geschenk und konkretes Eingreifen Gottes

Our sense that a waltz is "in three" or a blues song is "in four with a shuffle" comes from our sense of musical meter. Hearing in Time explores the metric aspect of our musical experience from a psychological point of view. Musical meter is taken as a musically-specific instance entrainment, that is, our more general ability to synchronize our actions to the rhythms around us. As such, musical meter is subject to a number of fundamental perceptual and cognitive constraints. These constraints are the cornerstones of Hearing in Time's account of musical meter. Hearing in Time also takes into account the fact that listening to music, like many other rhythmic activities, is something that we do a lot. It also approaches musical meter in the context of music as it is actually performed, with nuances of timing and dynamics, rather than as a theoretical ideal. Hearing in Time's approach to meter is not based on any particular musical style or cultural practice, and so it discusses musical examples from a wide range of musical styles and cultures-from Beethoven and Bach to Brubeck and Ghanaian (Ewe) drumming. In taking this broad approach a number of fundamental similarities between a variety of different metric phenomena-such as the difference between so-called simple versus complex or additive meters-become apparent. Hearing in Time is written for musicians, musicologists, music theorists and psychologists who are interested in rhythm and meter. Only a modest ability read a musical score is presumed, and most musical examples are taken from familiar popular and classical repertory.

The Musical Mind, published in 1985, was written by the relatively unknown John Sloboda. It made ground-breaking inroads in raising crucial questions relating to music's status as a form of human expression and has become the seminal text in the field of music psychology. The scope of that book was impressive: from music perception to production, embracing topics as diverse as music's origin and the circumstances that encourage its skill acquisition. Musical structure, grouping, and perceptual processing, including memory, were key areas where John Sloboda had made early empirical investigations. Discussion of emotional responses and creative processes were far more inductively written, based on his own personal experiences. The Musical Mind laid a research agenda in asking those crucial 'how' and 'why' questions that have since occupied a growing body of researchers from all over the world.
Following a quarter of a century after that seminal work, Music and the Mind celebrates the life and work of John Sloboda whilst taking stock of where the field of music psychology stands 25 years after The Musical Mind first appeared. It reviews key areas of current research in the field, written by world-leading authors, each making a significant and original academic contribution. Offering a timely review of the field of music psychology in the 21st Century, the contributors to Music and the Mind also reflect on how the field has been significantly stimulated by the influential work of John Sloboda. This book is fascinating reading for students and researchers in music psychology and musicology, as well as music professionals.

'I have yet to come away from reading [Bering's] work and not feel considerably better informed than I was minutes before' (Forbes)

This penetrating analysis aims to demystify a subject that knows no cultural or demographic boundaries.

Why do people want to kill themselves?

Despite the prevalence of suicide in the developed world, it's a question most of us fail to ask. On hearing news of a suicide we are devastated, but overwhelmingly we feel disbelief.

In A Very Human Ending, research psychologist Jesse Bering lifts the lid on this taboo subject, examining the suicidal mindset from the inside out to reveal the subtle tricks the mind can play when we're easy emotional prey. In raising challenging questions Bering tests our contradictory superstitions about the act itself.

Combining cutting-edge research with investigative journalism and first-person testimony, Bering also addresses the history of suicide and its evolutionary inheritance to offer a personal, accessible, yet scientifically sound examination of why we are the only species on earth that deliberately ends its own life.

Brief and acute psychotic disorders with a short duration and a generally good prognosis have long intrigued psychiatrists. Although they are included in internationally accepted diagnostic systems, understanding of these disorders remains minimal. This book is the first comprehensive overview of the clinical features, biology, course and long-term outcome of brief and acute psychoses. The authors review the world literature on the topic and they also present data from their own longitudinal study - the most complete investigation of this group of disorders so far conducted. The book concludes with considerations of the nosological status of brief and acute psychoses and their impact on our understanding of the continuum of psychotic and affective disorders.