African Americans have come a long way in the difficult upward struggle from slavery to the relatively broad freedoms enjoyed today. Together, as a potent and well-knit group, they have battled endlessly in their march toward freedom. Finally, according to psychologist James Davison Jr, the last step to freedom for black Americans has arrived. But, that last step must be taken as individuals - not as a collective. In this assessment of the problems and potentials facing African Americans, Dr Davison argues that in order for achieving individuals to advance to the final step of freedom, they must break free from the mental shackles created by the black community.The central theme of "Sweet Release" is that the forces that impinge most upon psychological freedom for black Americans come from within. Guilt for being successful, shame in reaction to the misbehaviours of race peers, demands to give back to the community, and accusations of trying to be white are just a few of the mechanisms that thwart psychological freedom for black persons. Dr Davison argues that individual lifestyles, aspirations, even identities are constrained by the spectre of racial unity. As a result, for black advancers, what remains to be overcome is not 'the system' or 'them', but internalised community attitudes that put a choke hold on individual freedom. Unafraid of controversy or candid assessment, Dr Davison addresses these and other thorny issues with psychological insight while offering strategies to move beyond group constrictions toward personal freedom.

This text, based on a course taught by Randall O'Reilly and Yuko Munakata over the past several years, provides an in-depth introduction to the main ideas in the computational cognitive neuroscience. The goal of computational cognitive neuroscience is to understand how the brain embodies the mind by using biologically based computational models comprising networks of neuronlike units. This text, based on a course taught by Randall O'Reilly and Yuko Munakata over the past several years, provides an in-depth introduction to the main ideas in the field. The neural units in the simulations use equations based directly on the ion channels that govern the behavior of real neurons, and the neural networks incorporate anatomical and physiological properties of the neocortex. Thus the text provides the student with knowledge of the basic biology of the brain as well as the computational skills needed to simulate large-scale cognitive phenomena. The text consists of two parts. The first part covers basic neural computation mechanisms: individual neurons, neural networks, and learning mechanisms. The second part covers large-scale brain area organization and cognitive phenomena: perception and attention, memory, language, and higher-level cognition. The second part is relatively self-contained and can be used separately for mechanistically oriented cognitive neuroscience courses. Integrated throughout the text are more than forty different simulation models, many of them full-scale research-grade models, with friendly interfaces and accompanying exercises. The simulation software (PDP++, available for all major platforms) and simulations can be downloaded free of charge from the Web. Exercise solutions are available, and the text includes full information on the software.

In this broad overview of humanity's predicament, psychiatrist Benjamin Kovitz illustrates the parallels between anxiety in the individual and discord in civilisation as a whole. Kovitz emphasises that civilisation rests upon the precarious foundation of human nature, with its age-old tendencies toward self-deception, violence, and pursuit of power. He argues that resistance to facing our hidden motives is what lies at the core of political and religious strife as well as individual anxiety. At the heart of the book is an illuminating chapter on the meaning of anxiety, explaining with clarity and detail how the pathology arises, how it is expressed, and how it can be relieved. The complexities of the condition are portrayed in vivid clinical examples, often using the patients' own words. Kovitz takes issue with the current practice of relying solely on psychiatric medication without addressing the patient's understanding of what his or her symptoms mean.On the societal level, Kovitz shows how evasion of reality complicates our efforts at progress and peaceful coexistence, despite the advances of science and democracy, and how defensive behaviour among nations can culminate in war. Turning to religion, Kovitz explores the psychological underpinnings of our need for religion and briefly summarises the major world faiths with an eye to their underlying attitudes and assumptions. While pointing out the contradictions inherent in a literal approach to religious dogma, the author appreciates the need for faith that transcends logic. In a psychiatric evaluation of the life of Saint Teresa of Avila, Kovitz recognises pathological anxiety yet respects the therapeutic value of her religious visions. Writing with eloquence while avoiding psychological jargon, Kovitz elucidates our human dilemmas with a clarity and depth that can help us move toward sanity in an unpredictable and troubled world.

This collection of cutting-edge chapters contributes to the psychology of personhood especially (but not only) as applied in psychotherapy. The chapters are written from Jungian, dialogical-self, or both perspectives and give insights into the history of ideas, and clinical and research applications of these perspectives in the East and West.

This innovative work offers a new approach to the study of self-representation, drawing on both the older "study of lives" tradition in personality psychology and recent work in "narrative psychology." Gary S. Gregg presents a generative theory of self-representation, applying methods of symbolic analysis developed by cultural anthropologists to the texts of life-historical interviews. This model accounts for the continual shifting of identity among contradictory "surface" discourses about the self, as it shows how each discourse is defined as a reconfiguration of a stable cluster of "deep" structurally-ambigious elements. Gregg not only examines the nature of narrative, but also addresses more mainstream issues in cognitive science, such as: How is knowledge of the self and its social world represented? What are the elementary units of self-cognition? How are cognition and affect linked? After a brief introduction, the book raises critical questions about self-representation by presenting re-analyses of two famous case studies--Freud's "Rat Man" and "Mack and Larry" from The Authoritarian Personality--and initial observations from Gregg's fieldwork in Morocco. A theoretical chapter then introduces the notion of structured ambiguity, which enables a person to shift between identities by figure or ground-like reversals of key symbols and metaphors. Three original life-narrative analyses follow, which, with increasing complexity, develop the model via analogies to basic structures of tonal music. The work concludes with a theoretical chapter that reexamines the ideas of William James, George Herbert Mead, and Erik Erikson about the self's unity and multiplicity, and then summarizes agenerative model. The book presents a compelling alternative to prevailing views of self-cognition and identity, and will be a valuable resource for courses in psychology, anthropology, and sociology, as well as an important tool for researchers and professionals in these fields.

"Teamology: The Construction and Organization of Effective Teams" demonstrates how psychiatrist C. G. Jung's cognition theory, a cornerstone of modern personality typology, may be used to form and organize effective problem-solving teams through a novel quantitative transformation of numbers from the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) psychological instrument directly on to Jung's eight cognitive modes. The resulting quantitative mode scores make obvious what is needed to make a good team.

The product of sixteen years of studying student teams in engineering design project courses at Stanford University, "Teamology: The Construction and Organization of Effective Teams" is of value to educators in charge of engineering project courses, as well as to students and working professionals on project teams at all levels of engineering, architecture and business. The book is also useful for users of MBTI, and counselors interested in personal self-awareness and the development of interpersonal ability.

"Personal Peacefulness" examines the existing theories and knowledge about the peacefulness of individuals, including inner peace, interpersonal peacefulness, and peaceful attitudes towards groups and nations. It uses the term "personal peacefulness" to refer to the peaceful states, attitudes, and behaviors of individuals, and it discusses the phenomena and determinants of personal peacefulness in the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and intergroup domains. Also addressed is the relationship between personal peacefulness and well-being, describing various methods for enhancing the peacefulness of individuals. Within the framework of a scholarly and scientific approach to the study of personal peacefulness, various psychological perspectives are represented: personality, social, clinical, and positive psychology perspectives, peacefulness as nonviolence, attachment theory and the development of affect regulation, a human needs theory approach, Buddhist conceptions of compassion and mindfulness, a natural science perspective describing physiological foundations for personal peacefulness, phenomenological perspectives, and peacefulness as the promotion of conflict resolution. The book is an important resource for scholars, researchers, and educators in psychology, political science and in a variety of other areas who study and teach topics such as empathy, prosocial behavior, personality, psychological well-being, mental health, personal development, peace and conflict and conflict resolution.

Studies on subjective well-being derive from two main perspectives: hedonism and eudaimonism. The former emphasizes human search for pleasure and satisfaction The latter stems from Aristotle s concept of eudaimonia as the fulfilment of one s true nature, that includes both self-actualization and commitment to socially shared goals. The framework adopted in this book belongs to the eudaimonic approach, and it is grounded in the scientific tradition of bio-cultural studies.

Most researchers agree that humans are living systems equipped with biological and cultural features. Theoretical approaches however differ in their emphasis on the role and relevance of biology and culture in influencing human behavior. In particular, the impact of culture and social norms on individual behavior and quality of life can hardly be overestimated. Day by day, people acquire cultural information from their social contexts by means of various forms of learning, and they subsequently replicate and transmit it. These cultural constraints can be used as objective indicators to evaluate quality of life and well-being, but they are not sufficient to grasp the real life conditions of an individual. This book introduces a third perspective in this debate: it emphasizes the role of individuals as active agents in shaping their cultural environment and in promoting both their own development and culture complexity.

Each person within her culture has a more or less wide extent of autonomy and freedom in facing challenges and in discovering opportunities in daily activities, in interpreting life events and in setting self-selected goals. Far from simply being recipients and vehicles of cultural information, human beings actively take part in the process of cultural transmission and change. A process of psychological selection takes place at the individual level, promoting the differential reproduction of cultural information units. A great number of cross-cultural studies have been conducted, in order to detect the basic criterion which guides this process. Results show the paramount role played by the quality of experience people associate with their daily activities and social contexts. In particular, individuals preferentially select and cultivate activities connected with optimal experience, or Flow, in which individuals describe themselves as active and deeply involved in the task at hand, excited and relaxed at the same time. In optimal experience people perceive high challenges in the activity, and adequate personal skills in facing them. They report engagement, activation, enjoyment, and autonomy.

However, provided that individuals play a central role in the process of cultural transmission and change, they should be supported in finding in meaningful and socially relevant challenges. From childhood, citizens should be exposed to opportunities for engagement, enjoyment and optimal experiences in socially useful activities. They should be taught to appreciate the development potential embedded in agency and co-operation towards community objectives. Intrinsic motivation and the autonomous search for meanings and goals should be sustained. The individual effort and ability to find a personalized way toward well-being and complexity have to be primarily supported. At the social level, the individual tendency to pursue self-selected goals and personal wellbeing could be channelled to foster at the same time co-operation and community empowerment.

In this historical period it is of paramount importance for positive psychology to contextualize the study of individual well-being within the broader perspective of social empowerment and cultures cooperation. Following the long tradition initiated by Aristotle with his studies on virtues and ethics, we strongly believe in the human potential to match the pursuit of optimal experiences and personal wellbeing with agency and the active contribution to the empowerment of societies."

The Neurobiology of C. elegans assembles together a series of chapters describing the progress researchers have made toward solving some of the major problems in neurobiology with the use of this powerful model organism. The first chapter is an introduction to the anatomy of the C. elegans nervous system. This chapter provides a useful introduction to this system and will help the reader who is less familiar with this system understand the chapters that follow. The next two chapters on learning, conditioning and memory and neuronal specification and differentiation, summarize the current state of the C. elegans field in these two major areas of neurobiology. The remaining chapters describe studies in C. elegans that have provided particularly exciting insights into neurobiology.

Consciousness is one of the major unsolved problems in science. How do the feelings and sensations making up conscious experience arise from the concerted actions of nerve cells and their associated synaptic and molecular processes? Can such feelings be explained by modern science, or is there an entirely different kind of explanation needed? And how can this seemingly intractable problem be approached experimentally? How do the operations of the conscious mind emerge out of the specific interactions involving billions of neurons? This multi-authored book seeks answers to these questions within a range of physically based frameworks, i.e, the underlying assumption is that consciousness can be understood using the intellectual potential of modern physics and other sciences. There are a number of theories of consciousness in existence, some of which are based on classical physics while some others require the use of quantum concepts. The latter ones have drawn a lot of criticism from the present-day scientific establishment while simultaneously claiming that classical approaches are doomed to failure. This book presents the reader with a spectrum of opinions from both sides of this on-going scientific debate, letting him/her decide which of these approaches are most likely to succeed.

The construct quality of life (QoL), since the 1980s, when it was introduced, is being used mainly in the context of health problems. Areas of one s life that contribute to QoL are good physical and mental health, efficient cognitive functioning, social support, being able to meet the requirements of professional life, positive emotions, etc (Power, 2003). Work on subjective well-being (SWB), on the other hand, was developed in the context of healthy everyday life; it also has a history of more than 30 years. During this 30-year period factors that have an impact on SWB, such as SES, gender, health, age, and religiosity have been identified (Diener, 2000). A third independent line of research pertains to what has been called Positive Psychology (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000), that is, an emphasis on human strengths, such as optimism, hope, wisdom, positive emotions, resilience, etc., which contribute to positive functioning in life.

Recently, SWB has been associated to human strengths and to the movement of positive psychology but this did not happen for QoL, possibly because of its emphasis on people with health problems. However, QoL can be conceived of as a generic term that pertains to all people, healthy or not. In this sense, it is closely related to SWB defined as happiness (Diener, 2000). Also, QoL encompasses positive emotions that go beyond happiness and has the advantage that it can be applied to many different domains of life such as interpersonal relations, health-related situations, and professional and educational strivings. Moreover, the mechanism(s) that underpin QoL and SWB can be studied in relation to people s goals and strengths of character, that is, from a positive psychological perspective. Such a perspective can reveal the specificities of quality in the various domains of life and, specifically, the positive emotions and strengths that contribute to a happier, healthier, and more successful life, even in face of adversity.

Therefore, despite the differences among the three theoretical traditions, namely QoL, SWB, and positive psychology, it is possible to find the common ground they share and each of them can benefit from notions developed in the others. The aim of the present book is to bring together these three traditions, show the interactions of variables emphasized by them, and give an integrative perspective from the positive psychology point of view. It also aims to extend the range of life situations in which one can look for quality and which go beyond the traditional emphasis of QoL on health problems. Thus, the content of the proposed book covers different age populations (from children to older adults), healthy and people facing health problems as well as people facing problems in their interpersonal lives or in their pursuits. It also discusses factors that contribute to marital satisfaction, well being in the school context, and things that people value and cherish. The chapters refer to notions such as happiness, interest, resilience, wisdom, hope, altruism, optimism, and spirituality/religiosity that represent unique human strengths. Finally, it emphasizes the role of goals and motivation that connect SWB with self-regulation and managing of one s life priorities.

To conclude, the chapters included in the proposed edited book aim at bringing to the fore new theoretical developments and research on QoL, SWB, and positive psychology that bridges previously distinct theoretical traditions. The proposed book covers a broad range of topics, addresses different theoretical interests and paves the way for a more integrative approach. Finally, it brings together an international set of authors, from USA, Europe, Australia, and Asia. "

While much has been written on Descartes' theory of mind and ideas, no systematic study of his theory of sensory representation and misrepresentation is currently available in the literature. Descartes and the Puzzle of Sensory Misrepresentation is an ambitious attempt to fill this gap. It argues against the established view that Cartesian sensations are mere qualia by defending the view that they are representational; it offers a descriptivist-causal account of their representationality that is critical of, and differs from, all other extant accounts (such as, for example, causal, teleofunctional and purely internalist accounts); and it has the advantage of providing an adequate solution to the problem of sensory misrepresentation within Descartes' internalist theory of ideas. In sum, the book offers a novel account of the representationality of Cartesian sensations; provides a panoramic overview, and critical assessment, of the scholarly literature on this issue; and places Descartes' theory of sensation in the central position it deserves among the philosophical and scientific investigations of the workings of the human mind.

This book discusses what Jacques Lacan's oeuvre contributes to our understanding of psychosis. Presenting a close reading of original texts, Stijn Vanheule proposes that Lacan's work on psychosis can best be framed in terms of four broad periods.