Showing results for "barbara mcdermott"

Cults have captivated public imagination, gained visibility in the media, and become a popular topic of discourse. While anecdotal and journalistic accounts offer compelling insights, systematic study on the structure, psychological predispositions, and relevance to clinical and legal settings are comparatively scarce. This disparity highlights a crucial need for rigorous scholarly inquiry, moving beyond media portrayals to uncover the foundational mechanisms that sustain and shape these e...

Psychiatry in Prisons provides a comprehensive overview of the history, problems and development of psychiatric health care in prisons, focusing particularly on the UK. The contributors tackle a broad range of issues, from familiar mental health issues such as substance misuse, self-injury and health screening to complex legal, moral and philosophical dilemmas. It also draws comparisons with the US correctional mental health system and the delivery of mental health services in New Zealand ...

Is anything more terrifying than a dragon? Bat-winged nightmares swooping down from the sky to breathe fire and ice on the wretched humans below, kidnapping princesses, hoarding treasure, swallowing cows.Or not.In DRAGONESQUE, the latest fantastic anthology from Zombies Need Brains, you finally get to experience all that awfulness from the dragon’s point of view. And what if it isn’t necessarily that awful? What if the princess wants to be kidnapped, or the dragon is tired ...

A NEW EDITION UPDATED IN 2020 • Why is it so hard to say "I made a mistake" — and really believe it?When we make mistakes, cling to outdated attitudes, or mistreat other people, we must calm the powerful cognitive dissonance that jars our feelings of self-worth. And so, unconsciously, we create fictions that absolve us of responsibility, restoring our belief that we are smart, moral, and right—a belief that often keeps us on a cour...

If you're reading CCMC for the first time, please know that you've found a safe, respectful, compassionate place. This book can help you protect-or regain-your sanity, freedom, and health. It can also help you protect others from the use of mind-control techniques. In this 30th anniversary volume you'll find:• New stories of people who fell under the sway of cults and other forms of undue influence but who were able to break free.• New information on the many sophisticated ...

"A breakthrough book. In a world of increasingly specialized knowledge, it takes a particular gift and some stubbornness to cut across the fields of neuroscience, psychiatry, philosophy and psychology and to ask the fundamental question: Why it is that we can allow our best selves to be captured by and torpedoed by thoughts and actions that sink us?. . . . [Kessler's] ultimate answer is profound and one that could be life-changing and life-saving. I know I will be handing this book...

How did human societies scale up from small, tight-knit groups of hunter-gatherers to the large, anonymous, cooperative societies of today--even though anonymity is the enemy of cooperation? How did organized religions with "Big Gods"--the great monotheistic and polytheistic faiths--spread to colonize most minds in the world? In Big Gods, Ara Norenzayan makes the surprising and provocative argument that these fundamental puzzles about the origins of civilization are one and the sa...

In our current era of holy terror, passionate faith has come to seem like a present danger. Writers such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens have been happy to throw the baby out with the bathwater and declare that the danger is in religion itself. God, Hitchens writes, is not great.But man, according to George E. Vaillant, M.D., is great. In Spiritual Evolution, Dr. Vaillant lays out a brilliant defense not of organized religion but of man’s ...

In innumerable discussions and activities dedicated to better understanding and helping teenagers, one aspect of teenage life is curiously overlooked. Very few such efforts pay serious attention to the role of religion and spirituality in the lives of American adolescents. But many teenagers are very involved in religion. Surveys reveal that 35% attend religious services weekly and another 15% attend at least monthly. 60% say that religious faith is important in their lives. 40% report tha...

In this invaluable resource, psychiatrist Brian Trappler explains how victims of childhood abuse, spousal battery, and political terrorism can identify and recover from post-traumatic strress disorder and other forms of psychological trauma. Drawing on his extensive experience treating patients with psychological trauma, Dr. Trappler leads the reader through a hierarchy of stress responses. While the most common symptoms are usually benign, Dr. Trappler identifies a progressive hierarchy i...

Robert Simon's Bad Men Do What Good Men Dream: A Forensic Psychiatrist Illuminates the Darker Side of Human Behavior is that rare title that is both essential reading for the mental health professional and accessible in style and content to the fascinated lay reader. In twelve powerful and provocative chapters, the author introduces readers to a psychological perspective on evil, character and destiny, as well as the making of good men and women. Simon also illuminates the psychology of ps...