From their inception, video games quickly became a major new arena of popular entertainment. Beginning with very primitive games, they quickly evolved into interactive animated works, many of which now approach film in terms of their visual excitement. But there are important differences, as Arthur Asa Berger makes clear in this important new work. Films are purely to be viewed, but video involves the player, moving from empathy to immersion, from being spectators to being actively involved in texts. Berger, a renowned scholar of popular culture, explores the cultural significance of the expanding popularity and sophistication of video games and considers the biological and psychoanalytic aspects of this phenomenon. Berger begins by tracing the evolution of video games from simple games like Pong to new, powerfully involving and complex ones like Myst and Half-Life. He notes how this evolution has built the video industry, which includes the hardware (game-playing consoles) and the software (the games themselves), to revenues comparable to the American film industry. Building on this comparison, Berger focuses on action-adventure games which, like film and fiction, tell stories but which also involve culturally important departures in the conventions of narrative. After defining a set of bipolar oppositions between print and electronic narratives, Berger considers the question of whether video games are truly interactive or only superficially so, and whether they have the potential to replace print narratives in the culture at large. A unique dimension of the book is its bio-psycho-social analysis of the video game phenomenon. Berger considers the impact of these games on their players, from physical changes (everything from neurological problems to obesity) to psychological consequences, with reference to violence and sexual attitudes. He takes these questions further by examining three enormously popular games-Myst/Riven, Tomb Raider, and Half-Life-for their attitudes toward power, gender, violence, and guilt. In his conclusion, Berger concentrates on the role of violence in video games and whether they generate a sense of alienation in certain addicted players who become estranged from family and friends. Accessibly written and broad-ranging in approach, Video Games offers a way to interpret a major popular phenomenon.

"Writing in a lively straightforward tone and offering numerous examples, Polansky demonstrates that verbal communication plays a major role in mental health and is essential to preventing and curing emotional disorders. He shows why the inability to achieve effective speech reflects neurosis, interferes with self-healing potentials in the personality, and hampers patients in their efforts to make use of any of the talking therapies. He also makes clear how verbal expression leads to the growth of intimacy between people on a mature organized level and guards the individual against the existential anxiety of being completely alone in a potentially meaningless universe.Synthesizing basic theory that underlies skilled interviewing, the book serves as an introduction to ego psychology. It offers an appraisal of the role of verbal communication, especially in casework, individual therapy, and counseling, as well as in most group treatments situations. The author covers such topics as the resiliency of the ego, the logic of defenses, coping mechanisms, and the theory of object relations. He provides numerous illustrations of specific security and distance maneuvers found in everyday practice. He also describes techniques for dealing with these maneuvers by patients in face-to-face situations.This book is as vital to the field as when it first appeared in 1971. Polansky summarizes major concepts of modern ego psychology and relates them to what is known today about the process of verbal communication. It will be especially useful for those who seek to understand and treat the human personality through speech. Ego Psychology and Communication is designed for courses in social work, clinical psychology, educational counseling, guidance, and psychiatric nursing. Practitioners in social work, psychology, and psychiatry will find it to be a valuable addition to their personal reference libraries."--Provided by publisher.

A powerful meditation on the nature and dangers of ego, from the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Stillness is the Key, and Obstacle is the Way - over 1 million copies sold 'Re-read it each year. It's that important' Derek Sivers, author of Anything You Want 'Ryan Holiday is one of his generation's finest thinkers' Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art 'This is a book I want every athlete, aspiring leader, entrepreneur, thinker and doer to read' George Raveling, Nike's Director of International Basketball 'Inspiring yet practical' Robert Greene, author of The 48 Laws of Power It's wrecked the careers of promising young geniuses. It's evaporated great fortunes and run companies into the ground. It's made adversity unbearable and turned struggle into shame. Every great philosopher has warned against it, in our most lasting stories and countless works of art, in all culture and all ages. Its name? Ego, and it is the enemy - of ambition, of success and of resilience. In Ego is the Enemy, Ryan Holiday shows us how and why ego is such a powerful internal opponent to be guarded against at all stages of our careers and lives, and that we can only create our best work when we identify, acknowledge and disarm its dangers. Drawing on an array of inspiring characters and narratives from literature, philosophy and history, the book explores the nature and dangers of ego to illustrate how you can be humble in your aspirations, gracious in your success and resilient in your failures. The result is an inspiring and timely reminder that humility and confidence are our greatest friends when confronting the challenges of a culture that tends to fan the flames of ego, a book full of themes and life lessons that will resonate, uplift and inspire.

Whether we are dealing with a rude clerk, our child saying, "That's not fair ," our spouse ignoring us, or an uncooperative co-worker, in our struggle to respond effectively, we often become defensive - sometimes without even realizing it. Despite good intentions, we can become manipulative and controlling, even with those we love most. In this groundbreaking book, Sharon Ellison takes us to the root of our communication problems. She shows us how defensiveness functions in our lives and can lead to hurtful power struggles, outlining the six basic patterns we use: * Self-Betrayal * Avoidance * Excuses * Sabotage * Vindictiveness * Blame Using her Powerful, Non-Defensive Communication process, you can express yourself with a compelling blend of vulnerability and honesty. Learn to: * Ask disarming questions that prompt others to drop their defenses and open up * Give direct feedback to others without being judgmental * Express your own beliefs, feelings, and ideas passionately without being adversarial, so you can be heard and respected * Set firm boundaries that create security and clear expectations. "Taking the War Out of Our Words" provides us with vital tools for healing conflict, enhancing self-esteem, becoming more open and spontaneous, strengthening relationships, transforming organizations, and guiding the way toward peace in our global community.

This offers an integrated theory of communication, an alternative to classical, contemporary relational and inter-subjective approaches to treatment.

The Phantom of the Ego is the first comparative study that shows how the modernist account of the unconscious anticipates contemporary discoveries about the importance of mimesis in the formation of subjectivity. Rather than beginning with Sigmund Freud as the father of modernism, Nidesh Lawtoo starts with Friedrich Nietzsche’s antimetaphysical diagnostic of the ego, his realization that mimetic reflexes—from sympathy to hypnosis, to contagion, to crowd behavior—move the soul, and his insistence that psychology informs philosophical reflection. Through a transdisciplinary, comparative reading of landmark modernist authors like Nietzsche, Joseph Conrad, D. H. Lawrence, and Georges Bataille, Lawtoo shows that, before being a timely empirical discovery, the “mimetic unconscious” emerged from an untimely current in literary and philosophical modernism. This book traces the psychological, ethical, political, and cultural implications of the realization that the modern ego is born out of the spirit of imitation; it is thus, strictly speaking, not an ego, but what Nietzsche calls, “a phantom of the ego.” The Phantom of the Ego opens up a Nietzschean back door to the unconscious that has mimesis rather than dreams as its via regia, and argues that the modernist account of the “mimetic unconscious” makes our understanding of the psyche new.

Social Judgment and Intergroup Relations: Essays in Honor of Muzafer Sherif is a stimulating collection which paints a crisp and fascinating picture of social psychology during its decades of growth into a mature science. With his important contributions in the study of social norms, attitudes, self concept, group relations, and other areas, Muzafer Sherif was a key figure in the discipline. Each essay in this book illustrates the lasting influence of Muzafer Sherif's seminal work in social psychology.