"[A] fascinating read... Contrary to what the title might suggest, this is an upbeat exploration of suicide with a positive message." --Jeanine Connor, Therapy Today, December, 2018 This thought-provoking volume offers a distinctly human evolutionary analysis of a distinctly human phenomenon: suicide. Its 'pain and brain' model posits animal adaptations as the motivator for suicidal escape, and specific human cognitive adaptations as supplying the means , while also providing a plausible explanation for why only a relatively small number of humans actually take their own lives. The author hypothesizes two types of anti-suicide responses, active and reactive mechanisms prompted by the brain as suicide deterrents. Proposed as well is the intriguing prospect that mental disorders such as depression and addiction, long associated with suicidality, may serve as survival measures. Among the topics covered: * Suicide as an evolutionary puzzle. * The protection against suicide afforded to animals and young children. * Suicide as a by-product of pain and human cognition. * Why psychodynamic defenses regulate the experiencing of painful events. * Links between suicidality and positive psychology. * The anti-suicide role of spiritual and religious belief. In raising and considering key questions regarding this most controversial act, The Evolution of Suicide will appeal to researchers across a range of behavioral science disciplines. At the same time, the book's implications for clinical intervention and prevention will make it useful among mental health professionals and those involved with mental health policy.

Behavioral, biobehavioral, and biomedical interventions are programs with the objective of improving and maintaining human health and well-being, broadly defined, in individuals, families, schools, organizations, or communities. These interventions may be aimed at, for example, preventing or treating disease, promoting physical and mental health, preventing violence, or improving academic achievement. This book provides additional information on a principled empirical framework for developing interventions that are more effective, efficient, economical, and scalable. This framework is introduced in the monograph, "Optimization of Behavioral, Biobehavioral, and Biomedical Interventions: The Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST)" by Linda M. Collins (Springer, 2018). The present book is focused on advanced topics related to MOST. The chapters, all written by experts, are devoted to topics ranging from experimental design and data analysis to development of a conceptual model and implementation of a complex experiment in the field. Intervention scientists who are preparing to apply MOST will find this book an important reference and guide for their research. Fields to which this work pertains include public health (medicine, nursing, health economics, implementation sciences), behavioral sciences (psychology, criminal justice), statistics, and education.

Horrified by the Holocaust, social psychologist Stanley Milgram wondered if he could recreate the Holocaust in the laboratory setting. Unabated for more than half a century, his (in)famous results have continued to intrigue scholars. Based on unpublished archival data from Milgram's personal collection, volume one of this two-volume set introduces readers to a behind the scenes account showing how during Milgram's unpublished pilot studies he step-by-step invented his official experimental procedure-how he gradually learnt to transform most ordinary people into willing inflictors of harm. Volume two then illustrates how certain innovators within the Nazi regime used the very same Milgram-like learning techniques that with increasing effectiveness gradually enabled them to also transform most ordinary people into increasingly capable executioners of other men, women, and children. Volume two effectively attempts to capture how step-by-step these Nazi innovators attempted to transform the Fuhrer's wish of a Jewish-free Europe into a frightening reality. By the books' end the reader will gain an insight into how the seemingly undoable can become increasingly doable.

This book explores the practice and transmission of Lacanian and Freudian theory. It discusses the pure versus applied analysis of Lacanian and Freudian theory in practice; and the hierarchical versus circular transmissions within psychoanalytic organizations. Underpinned by extensive practical knowledge of the clinic, this work examines the differences between Freud and Lacan in their understanding of the subject and the unconscious and pushes them in new directions. The book also offers an analysis and commentary of several key Lacanian texts including an accessible study of the notoriously challenging text L'etourdit. Offering both divergent and reinforcing takes on Lacan, the author explores the traits that separate out the psychoanalyst from other twentieth-century thinkers and theorists. This book offers a clear clinical picture of where Lacanian psychoanalysis is today, both in the US and internationally.

Taking philosophical principles as a point of departure, this book provides essential distinctions for thinking through the history and systems of Western psychology. The book is concisely designed to help readers navigate through the length and complexity found in history of psychology textbooks. From Plato to beyond Post-Modernism, the author examines the choices and commitments made by theorists and practitioners of psychology and discusses the philosophical thinking from which they stem. What kind of science is psychology? Is structure, function, or methodology foremost in determining psychology's subject matter? Psychology, as the behaviorist views it, is not the same as the psychoanalyst's view of it, or the existentialist's, so how may contemporary psychology philosophically-sustain both pluralism and incommensurability? This book will be of great value to students and scholars of the history of psychology.

Subjectivity, the Unconscious and Consumerism is a unique and imaginative psycho-sociological exploration of how postmodern, contemporary consumerism invades and colonises human subjectivity. Investigating especially consumerism's unconscious aspects such as desires, imagination, and fantasy, it engages with an extensive analysis of dreams. The author frames these using a synthesis of Jungian psychology and the social imaginaries of Baudrillard and Bauman, in a dialogue with the theories of McDonaldization and Disneyization. The aim is to broaden our understanding of consumerism to include the perennial consumption of symbols and signs of identity - a process which is the basis for the fabrication of the commodified self. The book offers a profound, innovative critique of our consumption societies, challenging readers to rethink how we live, and how our identities are impacted by consumerism. As such it will be of interest to students and scholars of critical psychology, psychoanalysis, sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, but is also accessible to anyone interested in the complex psychology of contemporary subjectivity.

Since the late 19th century, when the "new science" of psychology and interest in esoteric and occult phenomena converged - leading to the "discovery" of the unconscious - the dual disciplines of depth psychology and mysticism have been wed in an often unholy union. Continuing in this tradition, and the challenges it carries, this volume includes a variety of inter-disciplinary approaches to the study of depth psychology, mysticism, and mystical experience, spanning the fields of theology, religious studies, and the psychology of religion. Chapters include inquiries into the nature of self and consciousness, questions regarding the status and limits of mysticism and mystical phenomenon, and approaches to these topics from multiple depth psychological traditions.

This book addresses the premise that therapy can be understood, practiced, and researched as a discursive activity. Using varied forms of discourse analysis, it examines the cultural, institutional, and face-to-face communications that shape, and occur within, therapies that are discursively understood and practiced. By first providing an overview of commonalities across discursive therapies and research approaches, the authors discursively examine general aspects of therapy. Topics explored include subjectivity, psychological terms, institutional influences, therapeutic relationships, therapists' ways of talking and questioning, discursive ethics, and assessment of therapeutic processes and outcomes. This book offers a macro-analysis of the conversational practices of a discursively informed approach to therapy; as well as a micro-analysis of the ways in which language shapes and is used in a discursively informed approach to therapy. This book will interest practitioners seeking to better understand therapy as a discursive process, and discourse analysts wanting to understand therapy as discursive therapists might practice it.

This book explores the ways in which the spatio-temporal contingency of human life is being conceived in different fields of research. Specifically, it looks at the relationship between the situatedness of human life, the situation or place in which human life is supposed to be situated, and the dimensions of space and time in which both situation and place are usually themselves supposed to be situated. Over the last two or three decades, the spatio-temporal contingency of human life has become an important topic of research in a broad range of different disciplines including the social sciences, the cultural sciences, the cognitive sciences, and philosophy. However, this research topic is referred to in quite different ways: while some researchers refer to it in terms of "situation", emphasizing the "situatedness" of human experience and action, others refer to it in terms of "place", emphasizing the "power of place" and advocating a "topological" or "topographical turn" in the context of a larger "spatial turn". Interdisciplinary exchange is so far hampered by the fact that the notions referred to and the relationships between them are usually not sufficiently questioned. This book addresses these issues by bringing together contributions on the spatio-temporal contingency of human life from different fields of research.

This edited volume contains reports of current research, and literature reviews of research, involving self-efficacy in various instructional technology contexts. The chapters represent international perspectives across the broad areas of K- 12 education, higher education, teacher self-efficacy, and learner self-efficacy to capture a diverse cross section of research on these topics. The book includes reviews of existing literature and reports of new research, thus creating a comprehensive resource for researchers and designers interested in this general topic. The book is especially relevant to students and researchers in educational technology, instructional technology, instructional design, learning sciences, and educational psychology.

Psychological research can provide constructive explanations of key problems in the criminal justice system--and can help generate solutions. This state-of-the-art text dissects the psychological processes associated with fundamental legal questions: Is a suspect lying? Will an incarcerated individual be dangerous in the future? Is an eyewitness accurate? How can false memories be implanted? How do juries, experts, forensic examiners, and judges make decisions, and how can racial and other forms of bias be minimized? Chapters offer up-to-date reviews of relevant theory, experimental methods, and empirical findings. Specific recommendations are made for improving the quality of evidence and preserving the integrity of investigative and legal proceedings.

This book seeks to re-define the role of fantasy in human life by overturning mainstream psychology's understanding of daydreams as being task-distracted mind wandering by proposing that all waking fantasies function to transform mood states into specific emotional reactions.

This book reflects the current thinking and research on how consumers' perception of product risks and benefits affects their behavior. It provides the scientific, regulatory and industrial research community with a conceptual and methodological reference point for studies on consumer behavior and marketing. The contributions address various aspects of consumer psychology and behavior, risk perception and communication, marketing research strategies, as well as consumer product regulation. The book is divided into 4 parts: Product risks; Perception of product risks and benefits; Consumer behavior; Regulation and responsibility.

Strategies and Tactics of Behavioral Research and Practice focuses on the most effective methods for measuring and evaluating changes in behavior. The authors provide the rationale for different procedures for measuring behavior and designing within-subject comparisons between control and intervention conditions. The text explains the strengths and weaknesses of methodological alternatives for every topic so that behavioral researchers and practitioners can make the best decisions in each situation. This classic text has been extensively revised to be more accessible and practical. Not only does it feature much more discussion of how research methods are relevant to today's practitioners, it also includes additional examples based on field research and service delivery scenarios. With expanded coverage on creating experimental designs, as well as new chapters on behavioral assessment, the statistical analysis of data, and ethical issues associated with research methods, this book provides a strong foundation for direct behavioral measurement, within-subject research design, and interpretation of behavioral interventions. Enriched with more pedagogical features, including key terms, tables summarizing important points, figures to help readers visualize text, and updated examples and suggested readings, this book is an invaluable resource for students taking courses in research methods. This book is appropriate for researchers and practitioners in behavior analysis, psychology, education, social work, and other social and health science programs that address questions about behavior in research or practice settings.

This book sheds new light on the life and the influence of one of the most significant critical thinkers in psychology of the last century, Theodore R. Sarbin (1911-2005). In the first section authors provide a comprehensive account of Sarbin's life and career. The second section consists in a collection of ten publications from the last two decades of his career. The essays cover topics such as the adoption of contextualism as the appropriate world view for psychology, the establishment of narrative psychology as a major mode of inquiry, and the rejection both mechanism and mentalism as suitable approaches for psychology. The book is historically informed and yet focused on the future of psychological theory and practice. It will engage researches and scholars in psychology, social scientists and philosophers, as well general readership interested in exploring Sarbin's theories.

Why psychology is in peril as a scientific discipline-and how to save it Psychological science has made extraordinary discoveries about the human mind, but can we trust everything its practitioners are telling us? In recent years, it has become increasingly apparent that a lot of research in psychology is based on weak evidence, questionable practices, and sometimes even fraud. The Seven Deadly Sins of Psychology diagnoses the ills besetting the discipline today and proposes sensible, practical solutions to ensure that it remains a legitimate and reliable science in the years ahead. In this unflinchingly candid manifesto, Chris Chambers shows how practitioners are vulnerable to powerful biases that undercut the scientific method, how they routinely torture data until it produces outcomes that can be published in prestigious journals, and how studies are much less reliable than advertised. Left unchecked, these and other problems threaten the very future of psychology as a science-but help is here.

This book combines autobiography and innovative narrative research to create an original psychosocial perspective on the often taboo subject of sudden, unexpected child death. Beginning with the author's own experience, the book investigates manifold aspects of sudden, unexpected child death, including the professional rapid response; contemporary cultural reactions to death; theories of grieving; child death inquiries and popular media reporting. At the heart of the book are intimate personal stories, drawn from unprecedented psychosocial research on this topic, which combine to create a unique record of parent's experiences following the sudden and unexpected death of a child. Additionally, the book offers original guidance on the Biographic Narrative Interpretive methodology, which extends knowledge of group data analysis. The book will be of great methodological interest to the psychosocial community, as well as to health and social care professionals and lay readers interested in both sudden, unexpected child death and the wider field.

This collection of essays by scholars from Europe, Asia, North America, and Latin America offers new perspectives of the phenomenological investigation of experiential life on the basis of Husserl's phenomenology. Not only well-known works of Husserl are interpreted from new angles, but also the latest volumes of the Husserliana are closely examined. In a variety of ways, the contributors explore the emergence of reason in experience that is disclosed in the very regions that are traditionally considered to be "irrational" or "pre-rational." The leading idea of such explorations is Husserl's view that perception, affectivity, and volition are regarded as the three aspects of reason. Without affectivity, which is supposedly irrational, no rationality can be established in the spheres of representation and volition, whereas volitional and representational acts consistently structure the process of affective experience. In such a framework, it is also shown that theoretical and practical reason are inseparably intertwined. Thus, the papers collected here can be regarded as a collaborative phenomenological investigation into the entanglement and mutual dependency of the supposedly "rational" and the "irrational" as well as that of the "practical" and the "theoretical."

This book describes mindfulness and meditation practices and programs for adolescents by situating the topic in a bio-psychosocial-cultural approach. Using this framework, the benefits of these practices and programs for adolescents- with an emphasis on evidence-based practices-are explored. In addition to programs based on mindfulness, meditation programs using Transcendental Meditation, Herbert Benson's Relaxation Response, and the Center for Mind Body Medicine's group programs are discussed. The book is targeted toward educators, mental health professionals, researchers, and graduate students interested in the application, development, and study of mindfulness and meditation practices and programs for adolescents.

This book describes a series of ground-breaking residential workshops in therapeutic counselling in the 1960s, for people working in mental health and social care disciplines seeking to expand and deepen their reach. The work is unique in the scope of its research into the process and outcomes of such active immersive enquiry in this area. Besides a wealth of more systematic features, the author invites us into the initial conversations in the meeting room, and then follows the group members back into their lives, allowing us to see both early outcomes and the impact of participation up to ten years later. Finally, Barrett-Lennard reflects on the extended history of the intensive workshops and the related group work in other contexts they led into. He makes a compelling argument that such an intensive participatory process is as powerful today as it was in the 1960s. The blend of rich qualitative and empirical data and theory is a unique strength. It will be a great resource for students and scholars in applied psychology and psychotherapy, as well as for practicing therapists and trainees committed to meaningful work with their client groups.

This book examines and explores Jacques Lacan's controversial topologisation of psychoanalysis, and seeks to persuade the reader that this enterprise was necessary and important. In providing both an introduction to a fundamental component of Lacan's theories, as well as readings of texts that have been largely ignored, it provides a thorough critical interpretation of his work. Will Greenshields argues that Lacan achieved his most pedagogically clear and successful presentations of his most essential and notoriously complex concepts - such as structure, the subject and the real - through the deployment of topology. The book will help readers to better understand Lacan, and also those concepts that have become prevalent in various intellectual discourses such as contemporary continental philosophy, politics and the study of ideology, and literary or cultural criticism.

This book offers original knowledge, debate, and understanding from frontline fieldwork data and the relations between mental health difficulties, mental healthcare provision, and social theory. Dominant discourse of the last half century has followed a medical perspective. This has marginalised contributions from social science. Furthermore purely medical approaches to mental healthcare have profound shortcomings. Thus, this book draws upon innovative research findings to rejuvenate the relationship between psychiatry and social science. It frames this by reference to certain inevitable and uncertain elements of mental health which characterise this field. Over nine chapters the volume is a unique contribution to several intersecting areas of intellectual enterprise, research, and learning - as well as a source of insight into how mental health practice and policy might be modified and improved. As a result, it appeals to a wide range of audiences including social scientists, mental health practitioners, mental health researchers, social theorists, mental health service users, and policy-makers.

Discovering hidden recurring patterns in observable behavioral processes is an important issue frequently faced by numerous advanced students and researchers across many research areas, including psychology, biology, sports, robotics, media, finance, and medicine. As generally, themany powerful methods included in statistical software packages were not developed for this kind of analysis, discovering such patterns has proven a particularly difficult task, due to a lack of a) adequate formalized models of the kinds of patterns to look for, b) corresponding detection algorithms and c) their implementation in available software. The research described in this book is based on the application of such pattern types, algorithms and software developed from the late seventies to the present in the context of research in collaboration with human and animal behavioral research teams at internationally leading universities in the US and Europe, thus testing the usefulness and validity of the pattern types, algorithms and software in numerous research areas. With the (scale independent statistical hierarchical and fractal-like) T-Pattern at its heart, a set of proposed pattern types, called the T-System, forms the basis for the search algorithms implemented as the software THEME (TM) (vs. 6), which is easily available in free educational and full commercial versions.