When research is so connected to personal interest, experience, and familiarity that objectivity becomes a moveable feast, the line between documentation and invention blurs to near-invisibility. John Freeman asks what it means to locate oneself into research findings and narrative reports, and what happens when one's self goes further and becomes the research. Subjecting received truths to a series of hard questions, readers are taken on a journey through self-performance; traumatic memoir; the lure of weasel words; emotional evocation; the vagaries of memory; creative nonfiction; cultural appropriation; illusion masquerading as truth and the complex ethics of university research. Case studies from international autoethnographers run through the book and appendices provide invaluable advice to university researchers and supervisors. The result is a work that sheds new light on forms of narrative research that connect writers' personal stories to the participatory cultures under investigation.

This book brings together the world's leading perfectionism researchers and theorists to present their latest findings and ideas on how and why perfectionism may confer risks or benefits for health and well-being, as well as the contexts which may shape these relationships. In addition to providing an overview of the latest research in this field, this volume explores new conceptual models that may help further our understanding of when, how, and why perfectionism may be implicated in health and well-being. After presenting an overview of the conceptual and measurement issues surrounding the concepts of perfectionism, health, and well-being, three sections address the implications of perfectionism for health and well-being. The first of these sections provides an overview of research and theory on the role of perfectionism in health and illness, health behaviors, and chronic illness. The next section of the book focuses on the cognitive and affective underpinnings of perfectionism as they relate to psychopathology, distress, and well-being, including how it applies to eating disorders, depression, and anxiety. The final section of the book explores specific contexts and how they may contour the associations of perfectionism with health and well-being, such as in the domains of interpersonal relationships, academic pursuits, and work-related settings. Perfectionism and wellbeing is a topic not just for researchers and scholars, but clinicians and practitioners as well. For this reason, chapters also include a discussion of prevention and treatment issues surrounding perfectionism where relevant. By doing so, this volume is an important resource for not only researchers, but also for those who may wish to use it in applied and clinical settings. By presenting the latest theory and research on perfectionism, health, and well-being with a translational focus, Perfectionism, Health, and Well-Being makes a unique and significant contribution to perfectionism as well as general wellness literature, and highlights the need to address the burden of perfectionism for health and well-being. .

Shaddock makes sense of intersubjectivity, the functional paradigm shift in highbrow psychotherapy, as both a way of thinking about our psychological lives and a way of doing clinical work. Applying it to relational systems means investigating the experience of each partner/ member from inside his/her perspective and without judgment.The book illustrates how that approach lowers defenses and lets in insights, mutual understanding, and renewed hope; it demonstrates that treatment built on empathic awareness of contexts and connections can actually also lead to individual transformation.

This edited volume focuses on women’s empowerment for a sustainable future. It takes cultural and transcultural and positive psychology perspectives into consideration and explores the topic of women’s empowerment from diverse stances, across social strata, cultural divides as well as economic and political divisions. It addresses the critique of the overly Western focus of positive psychology on this topic by adopting a transnational and transcultural lens, and by taking non-WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) samples into in-depth consideration. The chapters therefore focus on women from diverse socio-cultural, political, socio-economic backgrounds and discuss their ways of empowering others and being empowered. They also discuss related positive psychology constructs, such as: coping, resilience, transformation, growth, leadership, creativity, identity development, sustainable action, as well as positive socio-economic, political and eco-sustainable thought and action. The volume as a whole looks at women's leadership as a factor of empowerment. A further fundamental assumption is that women’s empowerment is needed to create a sustainable future at micro-, meso- and macro levels, which presumes safety, peace, ecological considerations, and compassionate leadership. 

In this book, a distinguished historian of medicine surveys the basic elements that have constituted psychological healing over the centuries. Dr. Stanley W. Jackson shows that healing practices, whether they come from the worlds of medicine, religion, or philosophy, share certain elements that transcend space and time. Drawing on medical writings from classical Greece and Rome to the present, as well as on philosophical and religious writings, Dr. Jackson shows that the basic ingredients of psychological healing—which have survived changes of name, the fall of their theoretical contexts, and the waning of social support in different historical eras—are essential factors in our modern psychotherapies and in healing contexts in general.

The Structure of Personality identifies the process of producing a personality, and presents strategies that will reprogramme personality. Coaching the reader in a number of effective and specially adapted NLP techniques, it includes tools such as The RESOLVE model and the Personal Strengths model, making it an essential reference for counsellors, therapists and NLP practitioners. "A major step in creating a cognitive map using Neuro-Semantics and Neuro-Linguistic Programming to understand the relationship between a person's thinking and his or her personality development." Jim Walsh MA, Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Certified School Psychologist, Certified Neuro-Semantics and Neuro-Linguistics Trainer. An exciting new book already proving extremely popular.

The book is focused on defense mechanisms as theoretical constructs as well as the possibilities of their empirical registration by different methods, and the application of these constructs in different fields of psychology with special regard to concurrent and predictive validity. It is argued that defense mechanisms are in many ways to be seen as integrative constructs, not necessarily restricted to psychoanalytic theory and that the potential fields of their application have a wide ranging scope, comprising many fields of psychology. Consequently empirical studies are presented from the fields of clinical and personality psychology, psychotherapy research and psychosomatic phenomena and diseases. Methodological questions have a heavy weight in most of these studies.
* Provides coverage of relevant literature
* Covers different fields of application
* Attempts an integration of the contstruct of defense mechanisms into mainstream psychology
* Provides explanations of the theoretical basis of the construct of defense mechanisms

The psychiatrist who broke into national prominence when it was revealed that Richard Nixon had consulted him, has written a book which history has demanded be written: an examination of the nature of the power drive and how it works in all men, whether they are vying for power in politics, in business, or in marriage. The central question to which Dr. Hutschnecker addresses his book is: "How can we distinguish between mentally healthy leaders and men who, under an appealing facade, hide an inner rage and a mind in disarray?" The answers he gives provide the basis for understanding that the power drive is an essential part of personality, and that it can be channeled into creative and constructive behavior instead of hostile and aggressive acts. Dr. Hutschnecker gives us perspective on the trends in thought in the psychoanalytic world of the seventies as he parses various historical events through his lens of psychotherapy. The Drive for Power is a major statement from a famous doctor whose lifework has been dedicated to the potential for human improvement.

This edited volume offers cross-country and cross-cultural applications of Dialogical Self Theory within the field of education. It combines the work of internationally recognized authors to demonstrate how theoretical and practical innovations emerge at the highly fertile interface of external and internal dialogues. The Theory, developed by Hubert Hermans and his colleagues in the past 25 years, responds fruitfully to the issue of educational experts hitherto working in splendid isolation and does so by combining two aspects of Dialogical Self Theory: the dialogue among individuals as well as dialogical processes within individuals, in this context students and teachers. It is the first book in which Dialogical Self Theory is applied to the field of education. In 13 chapters, authors from different cultures and continents produce theoretical considerations and a wide variety of practical procedures showing that this interface is an ideal ground for the production of new theoretical, methodological, and practical approaches that enrich the work of educational researchers and specialists. Academics, practitioners, and postgraduate students in the field of education, particularly those who are interested in the innovative and community-enhancing potentials of dialogue, will find this book valuable and informative. Ultimately the work presented here is intended to inspire more self-reflection and creative ways to engage in new conversations that can respond to real-world issues and in which education can play a more vital role.

Are we oblivious to the wonders of human consciousness? Stephen DeBerry suggests that we must reintegrate the concept of consciousness into mainstream psychology. He develops, from a general systems perspective, a model of consciousness which he uses to explore the effects of technology - the accelerated and pervasive television video universe - on the quality of our lives. What role has modern technology played in the shifting of human consciousness from intrapersonal and interpersonal dimensions to the predominantly impersonal dimension where only the material world matters? The intent of this volume is to provoke questions and dialogue. A cross-disciplinary study of the relationship of human consciousness and cultural pathology, it is intended for anyone who critically thinks that life has more purpose than we allow it. DeBerry's book presents a new model of human consciousness. It also takes a penetrating look at one of the most serious cultural changes of contemporary life: the relationship of consciousness and technology. The first six chapters function as building blocks that construct DeBerry's model by exploring the use of scientific paradigms to study consciousness; by offering a scientific and philosophic background; by introducing a general systems theory; and by describing concepts of perspective and focus, time and space, values and reality assumptions, and language. Chapter seven demonstrates how concept distortions have externalized consciousness. DeBerry's model is then related to issues of contemporary culture and community. Technology's contribution to distortions in consciousness is explored in chapter nine. The volume concludes with a discussion of the contemporary psychopathology of everyday life. Intended for courses in graduate psychology, this volume's interdisciplinary perspective makes it equally relevant for courses in sociology, anthropology, humanistic philosophy, human studies, and social ecology.

This monograph examines truth in fiction by applying the techniques of a naturalized logic of human cognitive practices. The author structures his project around two focal questions. What would it take to write a book about truth in literary discourse with reasonable promise of getting it right? What would it take to write a book about truth in fiction as true to the facts of lived literary experience as objectivity allows? It is argued that the most semantically distinctive feature of the sentences of fiction is that they areunambiguously true and false together. It is true that Sherlock Holmes lived at 221B Baker Street and also concurrently false that he did. A second distinctive feature of fiction is that the reader at large knows of this inconsistency and isn't in the least cognitively molested by it. Why, it is asked, would this be so? What would explain it? Two answers are developed. According to the no-contradiction thesis, the semantically tangled sentences of fiction are indeed logically inconsistent but not logically contradictory. According to the no-bother thesis, if the inconsistencies of fiction were contradictory, a properly contrived logic for the rational management of inconsistency would explain why readers at large are not thrown off cognitive stride by their embrace of those contradictions. As developed here, the account of fiction suggests the presence of an underlying three - or four-valued dialethic logic. The author shows this to be a mistaken impression. There are only two truth-values in his logic of fiction. The naturalized logic of Truth in Fiction jettisons some of the standard assumptions and analytical tools of contemporary philosophy, chiefly because the neurotypical linguistic and cognitive behaviour of humanity at large is at variance with them. Using the resources of a causal response epistemology in tandem with the naturalized logic, the theory produced here is data-driven, empirically sensitive, and open to a circumspect collaboration with the empirical sciences of language and cognition.

"Religion in Personality Theory" makes clear the link between theory and research and personality and religion. Presently, most personality texts have a limited discussion of religion and reference few theorists other than Freud and Maslow in relation to the subject. This book reviews the theory and the empirical literature on the writings of 14 theorists. Every chapter concludes with a summation of the current research on the theorist s proposals.

Reviews:

"Frederick Walborn has written an excellent text that explores the degree to which classical personality theorists were personally influenced by and focused upon religion in developing their personality theories. Each theorist is presented in sufficient detail so that their personal views of religion are seen to influence the theories they developed. In addition, the current status of the empirical evidence in the psychology of religion is explored in the context of the theorist and theory to which the data is most relevant. Current and up to date, this text is appropriate for either a course in Personality or as an introduction to the Psychology of Religion. The author's own comprehensive theory of religion and spirituality creatively integrates the positive contributions of the classical personality theorist to the contemporary psychology of religion."

-Ralph W. Hood Jr., Professor of Psychology, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

"In this interesting and accessible book, Frederick Walborn thoughtfully probes the place of religion and spirituality in the writings of a broad range of classical psychological thinkers and offers an insightful critique of current empirical research on the complex relation of religion and spirituality to individual well-being."

-Michele Dillon, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Department of Sociology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire
Identifies what major personality theorists say about religionInvestigates whether evidence supports or refutes predictions made by different theories

Concludes with a comprehensive integrative theory on religion and spirituality"

Borderline personality disorder is a diagnosis often given to those who have serious problems with self-image and mood, as well as with interpersonal relations. This text presents a journal of a 15-month course of therapy with a classic splitting borderline patient, followed by an in-depth analysis of the case from three very different, but ultimately converging, perspectives. While there is a large and growing literature on borderline personality disorder, Anatomy of a Splitting Borderline is the first book-length study of a borderline patient, expressly revealing facets of this mental illness and its therapeutic challenge that could only be summarized in previous, briefer case histories. Psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, psychologists, social workers, and those in training in these professions are the audience for this ground-breaking book.

This book takes up the agenda of the late (but unknown) L. S. Vygotsky, who had turned to the philosopher Spinoza to develop a holistic approach to psychology, an approach that no longer dichotomized the body and mind, intellect and affect, or the individual and the social. In this approach, there is only one substance, which manifests itself in different ways in the thinking body, including as biology and culture. The manifestation as culture is premised on the existence of the social. In much of current educational psychology, there are unresolved contradictions that have their origin in the opposition between body and mind, individual and collective, and structure and process-including the different nature of intellect and affect or the difference between knowledge and its application. Many of the same contradictions are repeated in constructivist approaches, which do not overcome dichotomies but rather acerbate them by individualizing and intellectualizing our knowledgeable participation in recognizably exhibiting and producing the everyday cultural world. Interestingly enough, L. S. Vygotsky, who is often used as a referent for making arguments about inter- and intrasubjective "mental" "constructions," developed, towards the end of his life, a Spinozist approach according to which there is only one substance. This one substance manifests itself in two radically different ways: body (material, biology) and mind (society, culture). But there are not two substances that are combined into a unit; there is only one substance. Once such an approach is adopted, the classical question of cognitive scientists about how symbols are grounded in the world comes to be recognized as an artefact of the theory. Drawing on empirical materials from different learning settings-including parent-child, school, and workplace settings-this book explores the opportunities and implications that this non-dualist approach has for educational research and practice.

'The Influence of Attention, Learning, and Motivation on Visual Search' will bring together distinguished authors who are conducting cutting edge research on the many factors that influence search behavior. These factors will include low-level feature detection; statistical learning; scene perception; neural mechanisms of attention; and applied research in real world settings.

Enchanted with novelty and obsessed with power, control, and efficiency, technocrats eagerly and imprudently plow under what they deem anachronistic relics. Utility and ease are their passwords, and the poor individual with sole recourse to personal resources and ingenuity is viewed as a waste of time and energy. What this means for education is that uniformity, predesigned programs, and abdication to an elite corps of experts have come to dominate and characterize our institutions. As antidotes for the technological age, Kuhlman suggests motifs and imagery from the classical world, such as agon, arete, and paideia. He reminds us of the agonies of the artist in the gestation of the great, soul-fulfilling creations of our past. He wonders if truly great accomplishments are possible without the pain and agony of individual struggle. He suggests that the individual psyche is withering on the vine because it is not expected to undergo the suffering necessary to transform it into an educated self.

From former FBI agent and bestselling author Joe Navarro, a field guide companion to his classic What Every BODY is Saying, revealing the more than 400 essential body language indicators. A decade after his huge international bestseller What Every BODY is Saying, which has sold more than half a million copies in the U.S. and been published in dozens of foreign territories, retired FBI agent Joe Navarro offers its follow-up. The Dictionary of Body Language is a companion "field guide" to What Every BODY is Saying, expanding the original work with hundreds of additional behaviours, and presenting them all in an easy-to-reference format. Moving from the head down to the feet, Navarro explains the hidden meanings behind the many conscious and subconscious things we do with our bodies. We learn how to tell a person's true feelings from movement and dilation in their pupils; what to watch for in the lips of a person who may be afraid, or lying; the many different varieties of arm-crossing, and what each one means; how the position of our thumbs when we stand akimbo reflects our mental state; and many other fascinating insights. The applications for readers are numerous, from the business environment to romantic relationships. After reading The Dictionary of Body Language, you'll have a new ability to read other people's true intentions, and to adjust your own body presentation so that you can convey the right messages.