Winner of the 2006 Outstanding Recent Contribution Award from the American Sociological Association, Sociology of Emotions Section Many search and rescue workers voluntarily interrupt their lives when they are called upon to help strangers. They awake in the middle of the night to cover miles of terrain in search of lost hikers or leave work to search potential avalanche zones for missing skiers, snowboarders, and snowmobilers in blizzard conditions. They often put their own lives in danger to rescue stranded, hypothermic kayakers and rafters from rivers. Drawing on six years of participant observation and in-depth interviews, Jennifer Lois examines the emotional subculture of “Peak,” a volunteer mountain-environment search and rescue team. Rescuers were not only confronted by physical dangers, but also by emotional challenges, including both keeping their own emotions in check during crisis situations, and managing the emotions of others, such as those they were rescuing. Lois examines how rescuers constructed meaning in their lives and defined themselves through their heroic work. Heroic Efforts serves as an easy to understand sociological introduction to the ways emotions develop and connect us to our surroundings, as well as to the links between the concept of heroism and other sociological theories such as those on gender stereotypes and edgework.

Heroic Efforts is an ethnography of a volunteer mountain search and rescue group, which the author joined and actively participated in for six years. It examines the motivations behind the volunteers' altruistic behaviour.

The coauthors of the bestselling Peak Performance dive into the fascinating science behind passion, showing how it can lead to a rich and meaningful life while also illuminating the ways in which it is a double-edged sword. Here’s how to cultivate a passion that will take you to great heights—while minimizing the risk of an equally great fall. Common advice is to find and follow your passion. A life of passion is a good life, or so we are told. But it's not that simple. Rarely is passion something that you just stumble upon, and the same drive that fuels breakthroughs—whether they're athletic, scientific, entrepreneurial, or artistic—can be every bit as destructive as it is productive. Yes, passion can be a wonderful gift, but only if you know how to channel it. If you're not careful, passion can become an awful curse, leading to endless seeking, suffering, and burnout. Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness once again team up, this time to demystify passion, showing readers how they can find and cultivate their passion, sustainably harness its power, and avoid its dangers. They ultimately argue that passion and balance--that other virtue touted by our culture--are incompatible, and that to find your passion, you must lose balance. And that's not always a bad thing. They show readers how to develop the right kind of passion, the kind that lets you achieve great things without ruining your life. Swift, compact, and powerful, this thought-provoking book combines captivating stories of extraordinarily passionate individuals with the latest science on the biological and psychological factors that give rise to—and every bit as important, sustain—passion.

Heroes Without Halos is an ongoing record of sessions channeled since 2002 by a gifted reflexologist. Elijah, the lead speaker, was a teacher/commander in both the Marines and NYPD. He, fellow officers, and others tell of 9/11/2001 events, how they crossed and how things really work on the Other Side. They come now to enlighten, awaken, and prepare souls on Earth for the accelerated natural disasters now occurring and the cataclysmic events to precede the Thousand Years of Peace. Those who choose to cross over must prepare for the soul cleansing process and those who choose to remain must prepare for physical and spiritual survival. Angelo, a retired FDNY chief, tells in graphic detail of his cleansing and how there is no hell except that of your own making in the treatment of others while on Earth. You, during soul cleansing, feel all the pain you inflicted on others and the duration of this depends upon many factors. Angelo seeks forgiveness from those he hurt. He hopes to help his family and others clear their misdeeds before they cross so they will not feel what he felt.

Following their book "Racism and Mental Health", the authors here re-examine the intersections of racism and mental health, adding sexism as another divisive issue that profoundly affects mental health. The book aims to offer fresh perspectives on contemporary controversial issues, including: interracial adoptions, teenage motherhood, gender bias in mental health diagnosis and therapy, prisons used as substitutes for hospitals, homeless families, and increasing violence in the home and on the streets.

The 1980s witnessed the emergence of an applied subdiscipline within de mography that is coming to be termed health demography. As yet there is no distinct body of research formally categorized under this heading, nor are there professionals who bear the title of health demographer. In fact, most of those involved with health demography are not demographers but sociologists, economists, epidemiologists, and others who are applying concepts and tech niques from demography to concrete problems in the delivery of health care. Nevertheless, the vague boundaries of this subdiscipline are becoming in creasingly visible, and the 1990s promise to be the era of health demography. Many factors have contributed to the emergence of this new field. The transition the health care industry underwent during the 1980s served to modify dramatically the mindset of those in health care from one based on a philanthropic orientation to a highly competitive business orientation. Al most overnight the industry became market driven and consumer oriented, resulting in an explosion in the demand for both demographic data and health statistics. The need to integrate and interpret data from these two fields has provided a major impetus for the development of health demography. At the same time, the redefining of health and illness along lines more in keeping with a social than a clinical perspective, and the reconceptualization of etiology within a lifestyles framework, have further emphasized the need for health demography.

Learn how to work with people who are in need of long-term care to achieve a higher quality of life A person living with a disAbling condition has issues and challenges much different from others. Pastoral Care with Young and Midlife Adults in Long-Term Care puts a needed spotlight on various disAbling conditions needing long-term care; the issues facing people who are disAbled individually and collectively; theology available to address concerns; insights into individual spirituality; and practical recommendations for pastoral care staff. Focusing specifically on adults between the ages of 18 to 64 rather than those over that age, this source examines ways to effectively work with those who have disAbling conditions achieve a higher quality of life. Pastoral Care with Young and Midlife Adults in Long-Term Care discusses in-depth the issues which face people with physical or mental disAbling conditions. These include; the fragmentation of family life; health care issues; expenses; rights for people which varying disAbling conditions; labeling; suffering; ethics; sense of self; and coping with the adjustments of needing long-term care. The book contains a bibliography of source material; a glossary; and an annotated list of movies and videos that illuminate pastoral care issues and offer perspectives on death, dying, and grieving. Some issues covered in Pastoral Care with Young and Midlife Adults in Long-Term Care include: disAbling conditions health care of women health care of men economics of disAbility the impact of disAbling conditions upon the family long-term care rights and ethics for people with disAbling conditions language suffering grief acceptance spirituality and faith the faith journey ethics readjustment and more Pastoral Care with Young and Midlife Adults in Long-Term Care is an insightful, important book for pastoral care professionals, counselors, educators, health professionals, psychologists, and anyone with a disAbling condition.

This edited collection provides an innovative and comprehensive contribution to the study of historical revolutions and their commemoration, as well as contemporary protests and uprisings, and how they are communicated today in everyday networked media.