2017, ISBN: 9781550023619

Melbourne: Scribe Publications, 2010. Australian ed.. Paperback, very good condition, minor edgewear. 306 pp. Ethan Watters reveals that the most devastating consequence of the spread of… Meer...

Melbourne: Scribe Publications, 2010. Australian ed.. Paperback, very good condition, minor edgewear. 306 pp. Ethan Watters reveals that the most devastating consequence of the spread of American culture has not been its golden arches or bomb craters, but the bulldozing of the human psyche itself: it is in the process of homogenising the way the world goes mad. For the past 30 years, America has been the world leader in mental-health research, and Western definitions of mental illness are prevailing over indigenous beliefs around the globe. He travels from China to Tanzania to bring home an unsettling conclusion: as America introduces Westernised ways of treating mental illnesses, it is in fact spreading the diseases. In post-tsunami Sri Lanka, Watters reports on the Western trauma counsellors who, in their rush to help, inadvertently trampled local expressions of grief, suffering, and healing. In Japan, Watters reveals the truth about a multi-million-dollar campaign by one of the world's biggest drug companies to change the Japanese experience of depression - literally marketing the disease along with the drug. By examining the Western impact on the psyches of people in other cultures, Watters forces us to take a fresh look at our own approaches to mental health and healing. It turns out that we may have as much to learn from other cultures' beliefs about the mind as we have to teach them. (Scarce Australian edition.)., Scribe Publications, 2010, 0, ISBN: 9781107416413Cambridge University Press | 13 March 2017Paperback | 516 pagesIn this new edition of his critically acclaimed book, Jon Elster examines the nature of social behavior, proposing choice as the central concept of the social sciences. Extensively revised throughout, the book offers an overview of key explanatory mechanisms, drawing on many case studies and experiments to explore the nature of explanation in the social sciences; an analysis of the mental states - beliefs, desires, and emotions - that are precursors to action; a systematic comparison of rational-choice models of behavior with alternative accounts, and a review of mechanisms of social interaction ranging from strategic behavior to collective decision making. A wholly new chapter includes an exploration of classical moralists and Proust in charting mental mechanisms operating 'behind the back' of the agent, and a new conclusion points to the pitfalls and fallacies in current ways of doing social science, proposing guidelines for more modest and more robust procedures., 0, Tight and unmarked-" Each murder trial brings its own tangle of evidence, legal parameters, medical factors, social circumstances, and personalities. The tangle gets trickier when we must keep in mind that: "A person shall not be criminally responsible for an act or omission if they suffer from a mental disorder such that they were not able to appreciate the nature and quality of their actions or to know that it was wrong." Forensic Psychiatrist Stanley Semrau takes us through some of the more terrible and fascinating tales from his career and from historical sources, including several cases that came to national attention: Clifford Olson and Terry Driver (The Abbotsford Killer) and the Daniel McNaughten case that marked the beginning of the insanity defense in Britain in 1843. These chilling and thought-provoking stories delve deep into the psychiatric aspects of homicide law and into the psychology of the murderous mind. Semrau's examination of these thrilling cases also offers a critique of the existing laws in Canada as he argues for profound changes. ", Dundurn, 2001, 3<