Showing results by publisher "Blackstone Publishing" in Psychology

Fifteen years ago, Richard Boothby received a fateful call from his ex-wife that their 23-year-old son, Oliver, was dead. Although he had been dreading this news, given Oliver’s prolonged struggle with drug dependency, nothing could have prepared him for the devastating shock. He became obsessed with uncovering the truth of why Oliver shot himself—had he been self-medicating an undiagnosed mental illness?—and what they could have done to prevent it. In an attempt to stem the pain, Boothby turned to psychoanalysis.

It is easy to be depressed if you live in a neighborhood that has few supportive resources available or is marred by gun violence. We are able to diagnose people with depression, but how does one heal a neighborhood? This City Is Killing Me brings policy and psychology together. Through case studies, Jonathan Foiles opens up his therapy door to allow us to overhear the stories of individual poor Chicagoans. Through statistics and the example of Chicago, he teaches us how policy decisions have contributed to these individuals’ suffering.

Autism is one of three diagnoses that the DSM-5 includes in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). While our understanding of this condition has grown exponentially, research has been fraught with controversy. Autism appears to be on the rise, depending on how you define it, and its causes more complex than imagined.

In this audiobook, Barry Schwartz and Richard Schuldenfrei offer a different way to think about the choices we make every day. Drawing from economics, psychology, and philosophy—and both inspired by and challenging Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow—they show how the focus on rationality, narrowly understood, fails to fully describe how we think about our decisions, much less help us make better ones.

The study of classic and contemporary films can provide a powerful avenue to understand the experience of mental illness. In Madness at the Movies, James Charney, MD, a practicing psychiatrist and long-time cinephile, examines films that delve deeply into characters’ inner worlds, and he analyzes moments that help define their particular mental illness.

By beginning a conversation that encourages self-examination and compassion, Combined Destinies invites listeners to look at how white Americans have been hurt by the very ideology that their ancestors created. Editors Ann Todd Jealous and Caroline T. Haskell, both experienced psychotherapists skilled at facilitating dialogue about racial issues, are cognizant of the challenges that even the thought of such conversations often presents. Their book is based on the premise that for positive and lasting change to occur, hearts as well as minds must be opened.

The pandemic of fear continues to grip our world long past the clinical effects of COVID-19. Many people cannot let go of the fear fueling the Mass Delusional Psychosis which has plagued millions since early 2020. In his latest book, Freedom from Fear, Dr. Mark McDonald applies his well-honed psychiatric acuity to the undiagnosed epidemic of fear addiction. Just like a drug, fear becomes an unhealthy mental and emotional dependency that must be broken.

Anger now dominates American politics. It wasn’t always so. Both the left and right now summon anger as the main way to motivate their supporters. Post-election, both sides became even more indignant. The left accuses the right of “insurrection.” The right accuses the left of fraud. This is a book about how we got here―about how America changed from a nation that could be roused to anger but preferred self-control, to a nation permanently dialed to eleven.

Much has been written about our polarized media, social bubbles, and intractable biases. Award-winning journalist Bastian Berbner circled the world to find a different narrative. In Search of Common Ground is his profound collection of true stories that prove it is possible to mend even our fiercest divides. Berbner gets to the root of what pushes people apart, and shows that we can dissolve divisions by simply meeting face to face.

Early in her career, Katie Pryal learned that being a professor isn’t easy if your brain isn’t quite right. “I was a junior in college when I finally realized that I was different in a way that my medically inclined parents would call ‘clinical.’” In these deeply personal, fiery essays, Pryal tells her story of transformation that began the moment she chose to publicly disclose her own mental illness and leave her career in higher education to begin fighting for a better world for people with psychiatric disabilities.

Author, social critic, and “New York City’s career elegist” (New York Times), Jeremiah Moss felt alienated in a town that had become suburbanized and sanitized. Then lockdown launched an unprecedented urban experiment: What happens when an entire social class abandons the city? Out in streets made vibrant by New Yorkers left behind, Moss found a sense of freedom he never thought possible.

Unity is the most influential factor in team performance and, although it is frequently discussed, it is often misunderstood. This book explains how disunity is the root cause of all team dysfunctions and provides clear instructions on how to define, measure, and increase unity in your organization. Through entertaining and impactful stories, John Ross divides Team Unity into four components—focus, direction, trust, and conflict—and examines how they are related and measured. Notably, Ross introduces The Unity Formula, a simple equation useful for leaders at all levels.

Nearly one in every five Americans deals with mental illness in a given year, and the rates are climbing. Among physicians, the rate is even higher as the time spent in medical training significantly increases the risk of poor mental health. None of us is fully immune from the ravages of mental health problems. This book is about the fallibility of us all, including the doctors who are supposed to care for us. It is about the fine line of illness and normal emotion and about how to change the norms of medical practice in light of human weakness.

Bystander intervention is simply overcoming that “freeze” instinct and getting back to the very human desire to take care of one another. It’s not about being the hero, strapping on spandex, and saving the day. And it certainly isn’t about sacrificing your own safety. From the nonprofit organization Hollaback!, I’ve Got Your Back teaches listeners the ins and outs of bystander intervention using Hollaback!’s methodology: the 5D’s of bystander intervention—distract, delegate, document, delay, and direct.

This is the poignant life-and-death story of Johnny Stack, whose young and vibrant life ended by suicide after his descent into addiction to high-potency marijuana and cannabis-induced psychosis. You’ll laugh and cry with his mother, Laura Stack, as she retells the story of Johnny’s joyful childhood and then takes you through the unthinkable tragedy of his loss. It’s every parent’s nightmare. But this book is much more than Johnny’s story.

Properly valuing brain gender diversity in the workplace is one of the biggest and largely untapped sources of competitive advantage for modern businesses. Recent advances in neuroscience provide the key to unlocking it. Leading applied neuroscientists and international corporate coaches Kate Lanz and Paul Brown tell you why and how to access all the brains in your business.

Proven tips and tools. There are a lot of resources out there for managing anxiety. However, many of them are based on opinion rather than science. Dr. Craig April, founder of the April Center for Anxiety Attack Management, relies on the latter. By employing cognitive behavioral therapy, a research-proven method for anxiety treatment, listeners can find the breakthrough they desire.

UFOs are a myth, says David J. Halperin, but myths are real. The power and fascination of the UFO has nothing to do with space travel or life on other planets. It’s about us, our longings and terrors, especially the greatest terror of all: the end of our existence. This is a book about UFOs that goes beyond believing in them or debunking them, to a fresh understanding of what they tell us about ourselves as individuals, as a culture, as a species.

It happens to us all: We think we’ve settled into an identity, a self, and then out of nowhere and with great force, the traces of our parents appear to us, in us - in mirrors, in gestures, in reaction and reactivity, at weddings and funerals, and in troubled thoughts that crouch in dark corners of our minds. In this masterful collection of new essays, the apple looks at the tree.

From irrational phobias to a midlife crisis, we’ve all experienced moments of utter confusion about the nature of our own behavior, emotions, or perception of reality. In this audiobook, neurologists and other scientists share what they know about how the mind works, including some of these baffling psychological experiences.