Do defective genes give rise to defective thought? The revolution in molecular genetics has given rise to the increasing optimism that advancements in biotechnology will soon uncover the causes of all disturbances of mind and behavior. In this book Leff, a leading psychiatrist, emphasizes what is known about the psychological, social, and cultural factors underlying mental illness.

In this ambitious book, acclaimed writer Marilynne Robinson applies her astute intellect to some of the most vexing topics in the history of human thought—science, religion, and consciousness. Crafted with the same care and insight as her award-winning novels, Absence of Mind challenges postmodern atheists who crusade against religion under the banner of science. In Robinson’s view, scientific reasoning does not denote a sense of logical infallibility, as thinkers like Richard Dawkins might suggest. Instead, in its purest form, science represents a search for answers. It engages the problem of knowledge, an aspect of the mystery of consciousness, rather than providing a simple and final model of reality.By defending the importance of individual reflection, Robinson celebrates the power and variety of human consciousness in the tradition of William James. She explores the nature of subjectivity and considers the culture in which Sigmund Freud was situated and its influence on his model of self and civilization. Through keen interpretations of language, emotion, science, and poetry, Absence of Mind restores human consciousness to its central place in the religion-science debate.

WARREN KEITH VAN GAASBECK HAS RELEASED HIS FIRST BOOK OF POETRY, A CHEMICALLY UNBALANCED MIND IS A TERRIBLE THING TO WASTE: POETIC BATTLES AND THOUGHTS THRU DEPRESSION. WARREN INVITES THE READER INTO HIS WORLD, AS DEALING WITH THE DAILY STRUGGLES, PAIN AND EMOTIONS PEOPLE FACE, THEY ALL RESONATE WITH HOPE, PERSONAL AND SPIRITUAL STRENGTH FOR THE FUTURE THAT EVERYONE CAN RELATE TO. THE READER COMES AWAY FEELING EMPOWERED.

Unbalanced Symmetry is a deliberation of a poets mind and inner emotions toward past, potential, and rekindled relationships, but mainly the relationships that are impossible to both have and let go. Each piece has its own significance to a life wherein it has changed or improved the woman she has become today. Shermaine allows her readers to fully understand her on another level with life experiences and feelings she struggles expressing versus the perceptions people have toward her on a daily basis. As you continue to get more in depth with each reading, you will begin to see Shermaines motive as she concedes you to learn and absorb the different aspects of pain and its attributes.

A study of how ordinary people deal with everyday problems through self-mastery and mental health care practices. Everyday suffering—those conditions or feelings brought on by trying circumstances that arise in everyone’s lives—is something that humans have grappled with for millennia. But the last decades have seen a drastic change in the way we approach it. In the past, a person going through a time of difficulty might keep a journal or see a therapist, but now the psychological has been replaced by the biological: instead of treating the heart, soul, and mind, we take a pill to treat the brain. Chemically Imbalanced is a field report on how ordinary people dealing with common problems explain their suffering, how they’re increasingly turning to the thin and mechanistic language of the “body/brain,” and what these encounters might tell us. Drawing on interviews with people dealing with struggles such as underperformance in school or work, grief after the end of a relationship, or disappointment with how their life is unfolding, Joseph E. Davis reveals the profound revolution in consciousness that is underway. We now see suffering as an imbalance in the brain that needs to be fixed, usually through chemical means. This has rippled into our social and cultural conversations, and it has affected how we, as a society, imagine ourselves and envision what constitutes a good life. Davis warns that what we envision as a neurological revolution, in which suffering is a mechanistic problem, has troubling and entrapping consequences. And he makes the case that by turning away from an interpretive, meaning-making view of ourselves, we thwart our chances to enrich our souls and learn important truths about ourselves and the social conditions under which we live. Praise for Chemically Imbalanced “Chemically Imbalanced is an excellent addition to the works in social sciences and humanities that examine the distress of ordinary Americans from the second half of the twentieth century onward, a period when commercialized pills and the psychology-based notion of self-improvement entered the minds of Americans.” —Metascience “Chemically Imbalanced raises important questions, offers new insight into the power and reach of the biomedical model and neurobiological thinking, and I highly recommend it. I encourage readers to assign it, especially in graduate-level mental health and illness classes—or any class looking for a discussion on people’s experiences with suffering and the broad impacts of biomedical thinking and treatment.” —Social Forces

Excerpt from Tendency of Misdirected Education and the Unbalanced Mind to Produce Insanity On the other hand, as in the decline of fortune every pecuniary loss, and every neglect to secure due and honorable advantage, increases the danger of another sacrifice, and diminishes the power of preventing it, so in the mental and moral constitution every neglect of study or discipline, every misapplication of intellectual force, every perversion of any of the faculties, every undue indulgence of any appc tite or passion, every error or sin, increases the danger and the chance of the repetition of the same mistake or fault, and diminishes the securities against their influence; for whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he bath. The practical operation of this law, both of growth and of decline, is manifested everywhere and among all men, and few are they who cannot trace it in some form or other, even in themselves, in the cultivation of any or all of the intellectual powers, in the study of language, mathematics, natural history, or any other branch of litera ture or science, in the cultivation of the moral and spiritual affections, the religious element, the conscience, the sense of right and wrong, regard to truth, love of man. In the intellectual progress, the more one learns, the greater is his power of acquisition, and the taste for and the facility of acquiring increase with it. In the moral progress, the more the heart is warmed, the greater warmth does it demand to satisfy its desires; the more the spirit is elevated, the higher are its aspirations towards the true and the infinite. We see the same law in the cultivation of the tastes, the love of nature, of the beautiful, of music, of painting, of any of the fine arts. In these, indulgence creates strength, and strength gives enjoyment and a. Craving for more and more, and with these come the means and resolution to obtain greater gratification. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.