This guide to personal empowerment provides 47 exercises for dealing with feelings of despair, isolation, and powerlessness associated with the growing threat of nuclear war, progressive destruction of the environment, and unprecedented human misery. The first of eight chapters describes psychological responses. to planetary perils and discusses world concerns, pain, reactions to peril, causes and effects of repression, and the genesis of "despairwork." Chapter 2 concentrates on the theoretical foundations of despair and empowerment work, explaining basic principles, the interconnectedness of life, methods for shedding outmoded ways of being, power, and ways of shifting toward new levels of consciousness. Chapter 3, despair and empowerment work with individuals, recommends breaking social taboos and talking about planetary perils in ways that are mutually strengthening. Six exercises for children and young people are provided and suggestions are given for professionals in a counseling setting. Chapter 4 provides sections on facilitating despair and empowerment work in groups or workshops. Chapters 5, 6, and 7 describe three major stages of work and provide 37 exercises to help in the facilitation of movement through these stages. Four final meditation exercises are provided in chapter 8. Appendices include sample workshop agendas and announcements, a resource list of organizations and materials, and advice for dealing with terrifying films. (LH)

Bridging many disciplines, Hope and Despair is a major contribution to our knowledge of human behavior.

Hailed as one of the most important works on the Hitler period, this is an “astonishing, compelling, and unnerving” portrait of life in Nazi Germany between 1936 and 1944—from a man who nearly shot Hitler himself (The New Yorker) Friedrich Reck might seem an unlikely rebel against Nazism. Not just a conservative but a rock-ribbed reactionary, he played the part of a landed gentleman, deplored democracy, and rejected the modern world outright. To Reck, the Nazis were ruthless revolutionaries in Gothic drag, and helpless as he was to counter the spell they had cast on the German people, he felt compelled to record the corruptions of their rule. The result is less a diary than a sequence of stark and astonishing snapshots of life in Germany between 1936 and 1944. We see the Nazis at the peak of power, and the murderous panic with which they respond to approaching defeat; their travesty of traditional folkways in the name of the Volk; and the author’s own missed opportunity to shoot Hitler. This riveting book is not only, as Hannah Arendt proclaimed it, “one of the most important documents of the Hitler period,” but a moving testament of a decent man struggling to do the right thing in a depraved world.

For more than 30 years, Yoga Journal has been helping readers achieve the balance and well-being they seek in their everyday lives. With every issue,Yoga Journal strives to inform and empower readers to make lifestyle choices that are healthy for their bodies and minds. We are dedicated to providing in-depth, thoughtful editorial on topics such as yoga, food, nutrition, fitness, wellness, travel, and fashion and beauty.

Motivation has become a multi-billion dollar industry, courtesy of the patronage of corporations and the noble intentions of Executives who lead them. At the heart of this colossal confederation of inspirational speakers, platitudinous posters, parable-filled management books, and increasingly complicated incentive programs lies an alluring promise: that with enough encouragement, empowerment, and esteem, employees will become productive and loyal, to the benefit of both their employers and themselves.Yet, in spite of the staggering expenditures on packaged esteem, polls show that worker morale has reached critical lows, with a majority of employees even claiming to hate their jobs. How is this possible? And more importantly, what can Executives do about this crisis of employee dissatisfaction?In this revolutionary new management book, Despair, Inc.® founder Dr. E. L. Kersten plumbs the depths of employee discontent to find its root cause. Though most live lackluster lives filled with wasted opportunities and trivial accomplishments, employees grow ever more certain of their enormous worth and glorious destinies. Why is this so? Because most are the products of a narcissistic age, the spiritual casualties of a grand social experiment gone terribly awry.Ironically, managers attempting to motivate employees by increasing their self-esteem only compound the very problem they seek to solve.Reinforcing employee delusions of grandeur only increases their irrational sense of entitlement to the wealth, stature and privilege that justice dictates be reserved for the truly accomplished and inarguably worthy: namely, Executives.With The Art of Demotivation former professor and current executive Kersten offers not only a comprehensive analysis of the problem but a prescriptive solution; one grounded not in the fantasies of infinite human potential so often advanced by the motivation industry, but in the grim realities of a broken world. Managers who seek a productive, loyal workforce must first liberate employees from the prison cells of their narcissism by forcing them to confront that which they expend enormous energy to avoid:their true selves.

A New York Times Bestseller A Wall Street Journal Bestseller A New York Times Notable Book of 2020 A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice Shortlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year A New Statesman Book to Read From economist Anne Case and Nobel Prize winner Angus Deaton, a groundbreaking account of how the flaws in capitalism are fatal for America's working class Deaths of despair from suicide, drug overdose, and alcoholism are rising dramatically in the United States, claiming hundreds of thousands of American lives. Anne Case and Angus Deaton explain the overwhelming surge in these deaths and shed light on the social and economic forces that are making life harder for the working class. As the college educated become healthier and wealthier, adults without a degree are literally dying from pain and despair. Case and Deaton tie the crisis to the weakening position of labor, the growing power of corporations, and a rapacious health-care sector that redistributes working-class wages into the pockets of the wealthy. This critically important book paints a troubling portrait of the American dream in decline, and provides solutions that can rein in capitalism's excesses and make it work for everyone.

THEY CALL IT THE CITY OF A HUNDRED ROWS. The ancient city of Thaiburley is a vast, multi-tiered metropolis, where the poor live in the City Below, and demons are said to dwell in the Upper Heights. Forced to flee the city, Tom and Kat find themselves pursued through a merciless land but also find friends and allies in the most unusual places. More fabulous storytelling in a rich fantasy world of adventure, alchemy and magic.