Making Sense of Paranoia provides a refreshing and challenging contribution to debates over mental health. Mainstream psychiatric texts tend to foreground medical explanations for mental distress, with the direct experiences and personal narratives of the sufferers themselves then used as evidence to substantiate pre-existing concepts. This book takes a radically different approach. Here, the personal narratives of sufferers are prioritised and then the prevailing theoretical frameworks are examined to see if they fit with the sufferers’ lifeworld, rather than the other way round. Seen from this perspective, it is argued that we require alternative ways to conceptualise paranoia and new forms of intervention to alleviate the suffering of those who experience distressing beliefs. What the contributors to this book have in common is their direct experience of paranoia, either through lived experience, the provision of professional support, or through developing new theoretical explanations to help us understand both the influences on, and experience of, paranoia.
Making Sense of Paranoia provides a refreshing and challenging contribution to debates over mental health. Mainstream psychiatric texts tend to foreground medical explanations for mental distress, with the direct experiences and personal narratives of the sufferers themselves then used as evidence to substantiate pre-existing concepts. This book takes a radically different approach. Here, the personal narratives of sufferers are prioritised and then the prevailing theoretical frameworks are examined to see if they fit with the sufferers' lifeworld, rather than the other way round. Seen from this perspective, it is argued that we require alternative ways to conceptualise paranoia and new forms of intervention to alleviate the suffering of those who experience distressing beliefs. What the contributors to this book have in common is their direct experience of paranoia, either through lived experience, the provision of professional support, or through developing new theoretical explanations to help us understand both the influences on, and experience of, paranoia.
The only guide currently available on paranoia, this work offers a method for understanding, coping with, and treating this widespread and neglected condition, which can result in serious social consequences from isolation to violence in schools and the workplace.
Every day, we evaluate the people around us: It's one of the most important things we ever do. Making Sense of People provides the scientific frameworks and tools we need to improve our intuition, and assess people more consciously, systematically, and effectively. Leading neuroscientist Samuel H. Barondes explains the research behind each standard personality category: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness. He shows readers how to use these traits and assessments to do a better job of deciding who they'll enjoy spending time with, whom to trust, and whom to keep at a distance. Barondes explains: What neuroscience and psychological research can tell us about how personality types develop and cohere. The intertwined roles of genes, nurture, and education in personality development. How to recognize troublesome personality patterns such as narcissism, sociopathy, and paranoia. How much a child's behavior predicts their adult personality, and how personality stabilizes in young adulthood. How to assess integrity, fairness, wisdom, and other traits related to morality. What genetic testing may (or may not) teach us about personality in the future. General strategies for getting along with people, with specific tactics for special circumstances. Kirkus Reviews A succinct look at personality psychology. As a psychiatrist and neuroscientist at the University of California, Barondes (Molecules and Mental Illness, 2007, etc.) has spent years studying human behavior, and this book reflects his systematic, scientific approach for personality assessment. The average person isn't likely to have time to research a difficult boss or potential love interest, but the author supplements intuition with a useful cornerstone for gauging human behavior: a table of the "Big Five" personality traits, among them Extraversion vs. Introversion and Agreeableness vs. Antagonism. To learn how to apply the Big Five, Barondes supplies a link for a professional online personality test, in addition to a basic introduction of troubling personality patterns–e.g., narcissism and compulsiveness. While genetics may play a heavy hand in influencing personality, Barondes writes, it's awareness of a person's background, character and life story that is paramount in unearthing reasons for adult behavior. Readers might like to see the author weave more everyday examples into the text–his exercise in fostering compassion by imagining an adult as a 10-year-old child is a gem–but there is plenty here to ponder. Those looking for traditional "self-help" advice won't find it here, but this book clearly lays the groundwork for deeper human interaction and better life relationships.
Readers were instantly beguiled by Rob Brezsny's new approach to the humble horoscope when his "Free Will Astrology" column first appeared in 1996. Instead of the generic, one-size-fits-all style of similar columns, Brezsny used witty parables, tender rants, cultural riffs, pagan wisdom, and lively rituals in his playfully positive readings. He brings that same sensibility—and the same message of a smiling universe—to this self-help book for people who may be skeptical about self-help books. Brezsny persuasively advises readers to go along with the universe's good intentions, but his rejection of cynicism and a bleak view of human nature isn't rooted in denial. On the contrary, he makes a case for a cagey optimism that requires a vigorous engagement with the dark forces. He asks us to rethink life as a sublime game created for our amusement and illumination. The book is a chameleon of a tome. You can read it straight through, slowly and surely, or else pick it up and open it at random for tasty hits of inspiration as the spirit moves you. You can even start at the end and weave your way backward. Brezsny has substantially updated this edition—he added nearly one hundred pages—by expanding various sections, adding more than a dozen new pieces and a new chapter, and providing readers with a number of playtime activities and exercises that let them participate through their own writing and drawing. "Brezsny's horoscopes are like little valentines, buoyant and spilling over with mischievousness. They're a soul prognosis." —The New York Times
Making Sense utilises art practice as a pro-active way of thinking that helps us to make sense of the world. It does this by developing an applied understanding of how we can use art as a method of healing and as a critical method of research. Drawing from poststructuralist philosophy, psychoanalysis, arts therapies, and the creative processes of a range of contemporary artists, the book appeals to the fields of art theory, the arts therapies, aesthetics and art practice, whilst it opens the regenerative affects of art-making to everyone. It does this by proposing the agency of 'transformative therapeutics', which defines how art helps us to make sense of the world, by activating, nourishing and understanding a particular world view or situation therein. The purpose of the book is to question and understand how and why art has this facility and power, and make the creative and healing properties of certain modes of expression widely accessible, practical and useful.
This timely reissue of Richard Hofstadter's classic work on the fringe groups that influence American electoral politics offers an invaluable perspective on contemporary domestic affairs.In The Paranoid Style in American Politics, acclaimed historian Richard Hofstadter examines the competing forces in American political discourse and how fringe groups can influence — and derail — the larger agendas of a political party. He investigates the politics of the irrational, shedding light on how the behavior of individuals can seem out of proportion with actual political issues, and how such behavior impacts larger groups. With such other classic essays as “Free Silver and the Mind of 'Coin' Harvey” and “What Happened to the Antitrust Movement?, ” The Paranoid Style in American Politics remains both a seminal text of political history and a vital analysis of the ways in which political groups function in the United States.
Andy Grove, founder and former CEO of Intel shares his strategy for success as he takes the reader deep inside the workings of a major company in Only the Paranoid Survive. Under Andy Grove's leadership, Intel became the world's largest chip maker and one of the most admired companies in the world. In Only the Paranoid Survive, Grove reveals his strategy for measuring the nightmare moment every leader dreads--when massive change occurs and a company must, virtually overnight, adapt or fall by the wayside--in a new way. Grove calls such a moment a Strategic Inflection Point, which can be set off by almost anything: mega-competition, a change in regulations, or a seemingly modest change in technology. When a Strategic Inflection Point hits, the ordinary rules of business go out the window. Yet, managed right, a Strategic Inflection Point can be an opportunity to win in the marketplace and emerge stronger than ever. Grove underscores his message by examining his own record of success and failure, including how he navigated the events of the Pentium flaw, which threatened Intel's reputation in 1994, and how he has dealt with the explosions in growth of the Internet. The work of a lifetime, Only the Paranoid Survive is a classic of managerial and leadership skills.
