Psychology Gone Wrong: The Dark Sides of Science and Therapy explores the dark sides of psychology, the science that penetrates almost every area of our lives. It must be read by everyone who has an interest in psychology, by all those who are studying or intend to study psychology, and by present and potential clients of psychotherapists. This book will tell you which parts of psychology are supported by scientific evidence, and which parts are simply castles built on sand. This is the first book which comprehensively covers all mistakes, frauds and abuses of academic psychology, psychotherapy, and psycho-business.

This book shows how scientific and psychotherapeutic practices change into worthless rituals called by the famous physicist, Richard Feynman, "cargo cult." It is a must-read for everybody who is interested in psychology, who is studying or intends to study it, but also for present and potential clients of psychotherapists and parents of mentally-disabled children. Readers will learn which parts of psychology and therapy are cargo-cult-like and which are reliable. This book is the second part of trilogy devoted to the dark side of psychology. The first volume was published under the title"Psychology Gone Wrong: The Dark Sides of Science and Therapy," also released by BrownWalker Press.

For decades the psychological assessment and treatment of offenders has run on invalid and untested programmes. Robert A. Forde exposes the current ineffectiveness of forensic psychology that has for too long been maintained by individual and commercial vested interests, resulting in dangerous prisoners being released on parole, and low risk prisoners being denied it, wasting enormous amounts of public money. Challenging entrenched ideas about the field of psychology as a whole, and how it should be practised in the criminal justice system, the author shows how effective changes can be made for more just decisions, and the better rehabilitation of offenders into society, while significantly reducing the cost to the taxpayer. This is a fearless account calling for a return to scientific evidence in the troubled field of forensic psychology.

Shaping Psychology is a unique collection of in-depth conversations with a selection of the most influential psychologists working today, conducted at the end of a decade that shook psychological science. They provide insights into the controversies at the heart of contemporary psychology, revealing a clash of visions of what psychological science is all about and what its future holds. They are candid on the crisis in psychology and explore its causes, consequences and how to overcome it. They also discuss challenges in the field, their careers, and the experiences that shaped their worldview. Those interviewed include pioneers who have shaped psychology as we know it today and who represent a wide range of specializations, from research to mental health practice, mainstream psychology to critical psychology and neuroscience to the Open Science movement. Elizabeth F. Loftus, Stanford University, USA Jerome Kagan, Harvard University, USA Michael I. Posner, University of Oregon, USA Scott O. Lilienfeld, Emory University, USA Robert J. Sternberg, Cornell University, USA Robert Plomin, King’s College London, UK Susan J. Blackmore, University of Plymouth, UK Joseph E. LeDoux, New York University, USA Noam Chomsky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA Roy F. Baumeister, University of Queensland, Australia Erica Burman, University of Manchester, UK Brian A. Nosek, University of Virginia, USA Vikram H. Patel, Harvard Medical School, USA Daniel Kahneman, Princeton University, USA Carol A. Tavris, independent academic, USA,

In the relatively short history of psychology as a science, our understanding of human behavior, cognition, emotion, and perception has moved forward in leaps and bounds. This knowledge is frequently applied today to help make improvements in people's lives, from more effective therapies for the mentally ill to educational strategies to increased work productivity. But if we step back in time only a few decades, we find psychologists playing a key role in a very different effort: the attempt to support racist and sexist attitudes and policies with results from experiments and other forms of research. This book provides a window into this period, reprinting over 20 journal articles from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with commentary from noted educators Abramson and Lack. Will we continue to twist science to fit our preformed beliefs or can we learn from the mistakes of our past? "This is an important contribution to the literature in psychology regarding a very uncomfortable time in our history. I applaud the authors for taking on this challenging topic and shining light on this dark time in the history of social science." Dr. Robert Mather, Associate Professor of Experimental Psychology, University of Central Oklahoma

A New York Times Notable Book for 2011 Since the 1960s, ideas developed during the civil rights movement have been astonishingly successful in fighting overt discrimination and prejudice. But how successful are they at combating the whole spectrum of social injustice-including conditions that aren't directly caused by bigotry? How do they stand up to segregation, for instance-a legacy of racism, but not the direct result of ongoing discrimination? It's tempting to believe that civil rights litigation can combat these social ills as efficiently as it has fought blatant discrimination. In Rights Gone Wrong, Richard Thompson Ford, author of the New York Times Notable Book The Race Card, argues that this is seldom the case. Civil rights do too much and not enough: opportunists use them to get a competitive edge in schools and job markets, while special-interest groups use them to demand special privileges. Extremists on both the left and the right have hijacked civil rights for personal advantage. Worst of all, their theatrics have drawn attention away from more serious social injustices. Ford, a professor of law at Stanford University, shows us the many ways in which civil rights can go terribly wrong. He examines newsworthy lawsuits with shrewdness and humor, proving that the distinction between civil rights and personal entitlements is often anything but clear. Finally, he reveals how many of today's social injustices actually can't be remedied by civil rights law, and demands more creative and nuanced solutions. In order to live up to the legacy of the civil rights movement, we must renew our commitment to civil rights, and move beyond them.

How eugenics became a keystone of modern educational policy

Do you ever think you’re the only one making any sense? Or tried to reason with your partner with disastrous results? Do long, rambling answers drive you crazy? Or does your colleague’s abrasive manner rub you the wrong way? You are not alone. After a disastrous meeting with a highly successful entrepreneur, who was genuinely convinced he was ‘surrounded by idiots’, communication expert and bestselling author, Thomas Erikson dedicated himself to understanding how people function and why we often struggle to connect with certain types of people. Surrounded by Idiots is an international phenomenon, selling over 1.5 million copies worldwide. It offers a simple, yet ground-breaking method for assessing the personalities of people we communicate with – in and out of the office – based on four personality types (Red, Blue, Green and Yellow), and provides insights into how we can adjust the way we speak and share information. Erikson will help you understand yourself better, hone communication and social skills, handle conflict with confidence, improve dynamics with your boss and team, and get the best out of the people you deal with and manage. He also shares simple tricks on body language, improving written communication, advice on when to back away or when to push on, and when to speak up or shut up. Packed with ‘aha!’ and ‘oh no!’ moments, Surrounded by Idiots will help you understand and communicate with those around you, even people you currently think are beyond all comprehension. And with a bit of luck you can also be confident that the idiot out there isn’t you!

From a New York Times–bestselling author: A chilling psychological thriller about one man’s murderous obsession with his childhood sweetheart. Growing up in the roughest part of London, Guy Curran never imagined he would fall in love with a rich girl. But from the moment he meets Leonora Chisholm, he knows it’s their destiny to be together. They have a short, passionate teenage fling—over almost before it begins. Leonora moves on, but Guy never will. His love for her is dangerous, and it will destroy them both. Over the next ten years, Guy becomes a millionaire, selling hard drugs and bad art to the jet set of Western Europe. He and Leonora remain friends, sharing weekly lunches—until the day he learns she’s fallen in love with someone else. Seized by murderous jealousy, Guy is about to embark on a mad quest to claim the woman he desires—or die trying. “Rendell is a master of depicting the long, slow slide into madness” and Going Wrong shows her brilliant ability to walk the line between elegance and terror (Publishers Weekly).

In a fascinating analysis of the great psychological and sociological thinkers—including Freud, Maslow, McClelland, Durkheim, Skinner, Lewin and Mead—this erudite text challenges the models, myths and metaphors of modern psychology. Psychologists have promoted the view that human beings are the victims of internal and external forces, and have laboured to absorb free and responsible individuals into a pseudo-scientific framework that denies moral agency and thus renders them incapable of recognising notions of right and wrong. This book will appeal to anyone who has read enough psychology to have been perplexed and frustrated by its famous emperors. It demonstrates that if we take these naked emperors seriously and deny human freedom and personal responsibility, we shall have contributed to the undermining of our civilisation. With skill and verve, the book carries readers through an array of ideas to a ‘purposive psychology’ that enables individuals to gain insight into, and mastery of, themselves.