This book looks at the relationship between questions of identity formation and modern practices in travelling and tourism. Unprecedented levels of mobility and international exchange over the last 100 years have raised questions about the stability of national and personal identities and new and creative patterns of behaviour and self-realisation are now emerging due to the enormous commercial interests that lie behind the modern travel and tourism industries. The volume will consider these issues and the challenges they create in various geographical contexts (Germany, Spain, Romania, Italy, Africa) and concludes with a number of case studies from the Portuguese context, where the revenues from tourism are integral to its economy and a lifeline in the current economic crisis.

‘Highly eloquent, fascinating and deeply compassionate’ Henry Marsh, author of Do No Harm We cannot know how to fix a problem until we understand its causes. But even for some of the most common mental health problems, specialists argue over whether the answers lie in the person’s biology, their psychology or their circumstances. As a cognitive neuropsychiatrist, Anthony David brings together many fields of enquiry, from social and cognitive psychology to neurology. The key for each patient might be anything from a traumatic memory to a chemical imbalance, an unhealthy way of thinking or a hidden tumour. Patrick believes he is dead. Jennifer's schizophrenia medication helped with her voices but did it cause Parkinson’s? Emma is in a coma – or is she just refusing to respond?  Drawing from Professor David’s career as a clinician and academic, these fascinating case studies reveal the unique complexity of the human mind, stretching the limits of our understanding.

For millennia, human beings have reported hearing 'voices'. These experiences have been a source of fascination, sometimes because they spoke of revelation, sometimes because they presaged madness and destruction. From Socrates to the Yorkshire Ripper, the impact of voices upon human society has been considerable. But after all this time what can we really say about their causes, their meaning and their treatment? In the special issue of Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, Spence and David have edited a contemporary synthesis of what is known about voices ('auditory verbal hallucinations', AVH). Contributions are drawn from an internationally renowned panel of authors, most of whom contributed to a symposium held in Sheffield, England in September 2002 ('Voices in the Brain: The Cognitive Neuropsychiatry of Auditory Verbal Hallucinations'). Topics included in this special issue are: a contemporary voice hearer's perspective on voices and their treatment (Cockshutt); a phenomenological-hermeneutic interpretation of the content of 'voice speech' (Thomas, Bracken & Leudar); a review of the evidence for cognitive interventions used to treat AVH in a group setting (Wykes); a structured literature review of evidence for and against 3 cognitive models of AVH (Seal, Aleman & McGuire); a review of the functional neuroimaging literature on AVH and proposed directions for future discovery (Woodruff); the use of 'virtual acoustics' to model hallucinations in healthy subjects in the brain scanner (Hunter); a critique of contrasting cognitive models of the AVH phenomenon (David), an evolutionary account of schizophrenic voices and the place of language in human speciation (Crow); and the phenomology of a saint who was burned at the stake.

Schizophrenia is being increasingly viewed as a neurological disorder. This book addresses the key questions in modern schizophrenia research. How do abnormalities of the brain produce the characteristic signs and symptoms of this most severe and mysterious malady? Where are these abnormalities? How do they develop? How can we detect them? What clinical and cognitive effects do they have?; This book tackles these questions in a systematic way from a number of allied perspectives, from phenomenology to physiology, from animal behaviour to metacognition, and from PET scans to paper and pencil tests. Each chapter contains a concise review of the particular topic, empirical data and a theoretical overview.

The complexity of modern computer networks and systems, combined with the extremely dynamic environments in which they operate, is beginning to outpace our ability to manage them. Taking yet another page from the biomimetics playbook, the autonomic computing paradigm mimics the human autonomic nervous system to free system developers and administrators from performing and overseeing low-level tasks. Surveying the current path toward this paradigm, Autonomic Computing: Concepts, Infrastructure, and Applications offers a comprehensive overview of state-of-the-art research and implementations in this emerging area. This book begins by introducing the concepts and requirements of autonomic computing and exploring the architectures required to implement such a system. The focus then shifts to the approaches and infrastructures, including control-based and recipe-based concepts, followed by enabling systems, technologies, and services proposed for achieving a set of "self-*" properties, including self-configuration, self-healing, self-optimization, and self-protection. In the final section, examples of real-world implementations reflect the potential of emerging autonomic systems, such as dynamic server allocation and runtime reconfiguration and repair. Collecting cutting-edge work and perspectives from leading experts, Autonomic Computing: Concepts, Infrastructure, and Applications reveals the progress made and outlines the future challenges still facing this exciting and dynamic field.

A powerful personal testimony and an urgent call for Israel to change direction, from an unexpected source: the former director of the internal security service, Shin Bet.

Raised on a kibbutz by parents who had fled the Holocaust, Ami Ayalon’s life exemplified the Zionist dream. His commitment to his country propelled a meteoric career, culminating in being named commander of the navy and receiving the Medal of Valour, Israel’s highest military decoration. All the time, he remained a staunch supporter of his country’s policies.

Then he was appointed director of the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, and the unexpected happened. Forced to try and understand the lives and motivations of Palestinians for the first time, he gained empathy for ‘the enemy’ and learned that when Israel carries out anti-terrorist operations in a political context of hopelessness, the Palestinian public will support violence, because they have nothing to lose.

He came to understand that his patriotic life had blinded him to the self-defeating nature of policies that have undermined Israel’s civil society while heaping humiliation upon its neighbours. In this deeply personal journey of discovery, Ami Ayalon seeks input and perspectives from Palestinians and Israelis whose experiences differ from his own, and draws radical conclusions about what Israel must do to achieve relative peace and security.

Few people thought as deeply or incisively about Germany, Jewish identity, and the Holocaust as Hannah Arendt and Gershom Scholem. And, as this landmark volume reveals, much of that thinking was developed in dialogue, through more than two decades of correspondence. Arendt and Scholem met in 1932 in Berlin and quickly bonded over their mutual admiration for and friendship with Walter Benjamin. They began exchanging letters in 1939, and their lively correspondence continued until 1963, when Scholem's vehement disagreement with Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem led to a rupture that would last until Arendt's death a dozen years later. The years of their friendship, however, yielded a remarkably rich bounty of letters: together, they try to come to terms with being both German and Jewish, the place and legacy of Germany before and after the Holocaust, the question of what it means to be Jewish in a post-Holocaust world, and more. Walter Benjamin is a constant presence, as his life and tragic death are emblematic of the very questions that preoccupied the pair. Like any collection of letters, however, the book also has its share of lighter moments: accounts of travels, gossipy dinner parties, and the quotidian details that make up life even in the shadow of war and loss. In a world that continues to struggle with questions of nationalism, identity, and difference, Arendt and Scholem remain crucial thinkers. This volume offers us a way to see them, and the development of their thought, anew.

'The first of its kind, this self-help book will offer guidance, help and solace to the many sufferers of depersonalization disorder.' Daphne Simeon, Depersonalisation and Dissociation Program, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York Depersonalization disorder can make you feel detached from life and many people describe feeling 'emotionally numb', unreal or even as if their body doesn't belong to them. It can be a symptom of another problem such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and, particularly, of panic disorder, or of an illness like epilepsy or migraine. It can also occur in its own right and/or as a side effect of certain drugs. This self-help book, written by leading experts, will help you to understand what causes depersonalization disorder and what can keep it going, and will introduce you to effective strategies to overcome it: Based on clinically proven cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) techniques Clear and accessible step-by-step exercises and tools, including diary-keeping and problem-solving Overcoming self-help guides use clinically proven techniques to treat long-standing and disabling conditions, both psychological and physical. Many guides in the Overcoming series are recommended under the Reading Well Books on Prescription scheme. Series Editor: Professor Peter Cooper

An international team focuses on current models of self-consciousness from neurosciences and psychiatry in this collection of essays. These are set against introductory essays describing philosophical, historical and psychological approaches. Neuroscience has recently contributed important insights to the concept and construction of the self from conditions, such as schizophrenia, in which the self becomes disordered and can be studied against healthy controls through experiment, building cognitive models of how the mind works, and imaging brain states.

An international team focuses on current models of self-consciousness from neurosciences and psychiatry in this collection of essays. These are set against introductory essays describing philosophical, historical and psychological approaches. Neuroscience has recently contributed important insights to the concept and construction of the self from conditions, such as schizophrenia, in which the self becomes disordered and can be studied against healthy controls through experiment, building cognitive models of how the mind works, and imaging brain states.