A master neurologist's clinical tales--both funny and profound--of the evolution of the brain. No matter what the ailment--painful foot syndrome or mad cow disease--Dr. Klawans ultimately treated, or diagnosed, peoples brains. Here are his deductions from years of study.
This volume brings together two authors, one a psychiatrist, one a philosopher, to listen to one another’s reading of five stories of what it’s like to bear a different mental or physical illness. The beginning story, or anchor, for the conversation that unfolds between them is that of a person subject to recurring spells of catatonia, the uncanniest of human conditions. They discover that truly understanding what an illness is calls for understanding it within the context of who suffers it, that to understand illness is to establish the right relation between what is being suffered and who is suffering it. This deceptively simple way of talking, which is labelled who/what talk, will prove more practical and more clarifying than will terms like “mental” and “physical.” Furthermore, it has this additional dividend: it intrinsically resists a temptation toward medical prejudice—the inclination for doctors and other caregivers to lose the who of the sufferer through their focus on the what of her illness.
A neurologist and author draws on his own clinical practice to discuss the evolution of the human brain and the origins of a range of neurological ailments.
This book invites theatre and performance scholars to incorporate many of the insights of cognitive science into their work and to begin considering all of their research projects from the perspective of cognitive studies. As well as including a comprehensive introduction to the challenges of cognitive studies for theatre and performance scholarship, the volume features essays in all of the major areas of theatre and performance. Several of the contributions use cognitive studies to challenge some of the key scholarly and practical orientations in theatre and performance studies. The experimentally based insights of cognitive science are shown to be at odds with Saussurean semiotics, psychoanalysis, and aspects of deconstruction, new historicism, and Foucauldian discourse theory. Performance and Cognition opens up fresh perspectives on theatre studies – with applications for dramatic criticism, performance analysis, acting practice, audience response, theatre history, and other important areas –and sets the agenda for future work, helping to map the emergence of this new approach.
A thought-provoking treatise on understanding and treating the aging mind and brain This handbook recognizes the critical issues surrounding mind and brain health by tackling overarching and pragmatic needs so as to better understand these multifaceted issues. This includes summarizing and synthesizing critical evidence, approaches, and strategies from multidisciplinary research—all of which have advanced our understanding of the neural substrates of attention, perception, memory, language, decision-making, motor behavior, social cognition, emotion, and other mental functions. Written by a plethora of health experts from around the world, The Wiley Handbook on the Aging Mind and Brain offers in-depth contributions in 7 sections: Introduction; Methods of Assessment; Brain Functions and Behavior across the Lifespan; Cognition, Behavior and Disease; Optimizing Brain Function in Health and Disease; Forensics, Competence, Legal, Ethics and Policy Issues; and Conclusion and New Directions. Geared toward improving the recognition, diagnosis, and treatment of many brain-based disorders that occur in older adults and that cause disability and death Seeks to advance the care of patients who have perceptual, cognitive, language, memory, emotional, and many other behavioral symptoms associated with these disorders Addresses principles and practice relevant to challenges posed by the US National Academy of Sciences and National Institute of Aging (NIA) Presents materials at a scientific level that is appropriate for a wide variety of providers The Wiley Handbook on the Aging Mind and Brain is an important text for neurologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, physiatrists, geriatricians, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, and other primary caregivers who care for patients in routine and specialty practices as well as students, interns, residents, and fellows.
A travelogue full of adventure, A Place to Belong is the story of a young teenage boy's search for self worth and faith in a cruel world. Paul Miller was eight years old when his parents took him on a mystifying, zigzagging journey, from Detroit to Florida, to California and back again. His father's tenuous grip on reality becomes as changeable as the landscapes they travel through. Paul's simple questions are ignored or answered by the back of his Father's hand. Paul jumps the roof-tops of Detroit slums, butts heads with the gangs of Los Angeles and gets caught up in a world of petty theft. Life hangs by bus fare, the surprising kindness of a loving family, a filthy motorist with a penchant for young boys, the kiss of a young girl. Along the way, Noah, a wise fisherman, shows Paul that God isn't some imperious judge sitting on top of a throne, but can become your best friend, a buddy you can talk to. " But can such a simple view account for all the misery Paul experiences?" In this captivating and at turns humorous story, a young man travels into the depths of despair and back again to find a place he can call home. "I got hooked and couldn't stop. This is a splendidly written story and quite a story to tell. So candid, unpretentious, and courageous." David Morris, Senior Editor Guideposts Books. "Miller tells a remarkable story, one that is in a sense an American Angela's Ashes but with the added element of faith as a factor in surviving an incredibly rough childhood." Michael Wilt, Editor, Nimble Spirit.