New Books in Psychology

Human brains have two hemispheres whose major connection is the corpus callosum, which enables information to be shared between the hemispheres. Split-brain subjects are people whose corpus callosum has been surgically cut to alleviate epilepsy. This and other similar operations or conditions yield an odd phenomenon in which the patient appears to be two agents: for example, in controlled experiments they may only be conscious of stimuli shown to just their right eye, but when asked to draw the stimulus with the left hand they draw the stimulus shown to just their left eye. It is as if each hemisphere is its own self, with its own eye. In Self-Consciousness and Split Brains: The Mind's I (Oxford University Press, 2018), Elizabeth Schechter argues that while split brain subjects have two minds and two subjective perspectives, and are two intentional agents, they nevertheless constitute one person. Schechter, who is an assistant professor of philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis, offers an in-depth exploration of the neuroscience and psychology of split brains and their implications for our understanding of minds, selves, agents and persons. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

Emily Baum’s The Invention of Madness: State, Society, and the Insane in Modern China, published by the University of Chicago Press in 2018 as part of the Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute book series, is a genealogy of “psychiatric modernity,” of the invention and reinvention of modern mental illness in Beijing, 1901-1937. Focusing on the pivotal roles of the city’s police-run municipal asylum and the Peking Union Medical College, Baum chronicles the transition from eclectic but largely family-centered premodern apprehensions and treatments of “mad behaviors” to a more unified, biomedical, institutionalized view of madness that was intimately linked to questions of social control, political legitimacy, and the rubric of “mental hygiene.” Along the way, this history of neuropsychiatry’s penetration of the administrative and social fabric of modern China examines topics including disjunctures between state and civil actors concerning new understandings and practices around mental illness, as well as the “psychiatric entrepreneurs” who profited from—and sometimes helped to invent or define—new psychiatric conditions. Baum’s careful unearthing of these tensions and innovations sheds informative light on the ways in which madness was invented not just as a top-down administrative or biomedical-neuropsychiatric project but in negotiation with a wide range of actors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

Most of us have behavior changes we would like to make, but behavior change can be hard! In this motivational interview, cross-posted from the podcast Psychologists Off The Clock, Dr. Diana Hill interviews behavior Dr. Dr. DJ Moran, co-author of the book Committed Action in Practice: A Clinician’s Guide to Assessing, Planning, and Supporting Change in Your Client (Context Press, 20187). Dr. Moran discusses obstacles to behavior change, taking committed action toward one’s values, and how mindfulness can help people make lasting changes.Dr. Daniel J. Moran is the founder and executive director of the MidAmerican Psychological Institute, and founder of Pickslyde Consulting. He co-authored ACT in Practice and Committed Action in Practice – two books using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help people reduce suffering and improve quality of living. Dr. DJ has appeared on The Learning Channel, Animal Planet, and the Oprah Winfrey Network discussing behavioral health concerns. He also received the Outstanding Mentor Award from the Association for Behavior Analysis International. Dr. DJ is a Recognized ACTrainer, Board Certified Behavior Analyst, and the past president of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science, the worldwide Acceptance and Commitment Therapy organization.Diana Hill, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist practicing in Santa Barbara, California, and a co-host of the podcast Psychologists Off The Clock. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

Essentialism is a systematic discipline designed to support making life decisions that help you to make your highest possible contribution towards the things that really matter. In this episode, cross-posted from the podcast Psychologists Off The Clock, Dr. Yael Schonbrun interviews Greg McKeown , author of the best-selling book, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. They discuss the importance of distinguishing the essential from the nonessential, how to identify what is most essential, and strategies to support the disciplined pursuit of what is essential to you. Greg McKeown is the author of the best-selling book, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. He is also afrequent contributor to Harvard Business Review, a sought after keynote speaker, a repeating guest on the Steve (Harvey) show, and his work on Essentialism is regularly written about in media (see Resources). Greg is also founder/CEO of McKeown, Inc., a strategy design center.Dr. Yael Schonbrun is a clinical psychologist in private practice, an assistant professor at Brown University, and a co-host of the podcast Psychologists Off The Clock.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

Emotional Intelligence involves self awareness, self control, relationship management and social awareness. Being emotionally intelligent can make you a better leader, parent, friend and partner. In this episode, interview, cross-posted from the podcast Psychologists Off The Clock, Dr. Diana Hill interviews Dr. Goleman, a pioneer in the field of positive psychology, about the neuroscience of emotions and why it is important to foster emotional intelligence in kids and leaders. Dr. Goleman also explores how meditation can result in permanent trait changes so that we are better able to regulate emotions and survive an “amygdala highjack.”Daniel Goleman, best known for his worldwide bestseller Emotional Intelligence, is most recently co-author (with Richard Davidson) of Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain and Body(Avery, 2017). A frequent speaker to businesses of all kinds and sizes, Goleman has worked with leaders around the globe, examining the way social and emotional competencies impact the bottom-line. Goleman’s articles in the Harvard Business Review are among the most frequently requested reprints of all time: his article there, “The Focused Leader”won the 2013 HBR McKinsey Award for best article of the year. Goleman has been ranked among the 25 most influential business leaders by several business publications including TIME and The Wall Street Journal. Apart from his writing on emotional intelligence, Goleman has written books on topics including self-deception, creativity, transparency, meditation, social and emotional learning, ecoliteracy and the ecological crisis.Diana Hill, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist practicing in Santa Barbara, California, and a co-host of the podcast Psychologists Off The Clock.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

Increasing self-compassion and compassion for others, may just be the key to your well-being. In this this interview, cross-posted from the podcast Psychologists Off The Clock, Dr. Diana Hill interviews Dr. Christopher Germer, leader in the integration of mindfulness in therapy and co-developer of the international Mindful Self Compassion Program. Germer discusses “Self-Compassion 101” while also exploring how they practice self-compassion on and off the couch.Chris Germer, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist in private practice and lecturer on psychiatry (part-time) at Harvard Medical School. He teaches on the faculty of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy and the Center for Mindfulness and Compassion, both based in Cambridge, MA. He is a co-developer (with Kristin Neff) and popular teacher of the Mindful Self-Compassion program (which has been taught to over 50,000 people around the world), author of The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion, co-author of The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook (which is consistently the #3 book in Social work on Amazon since its release) and co-editor of Mindfulness and Psychotherapy and Wisdom and Compassion in Psychotherapy.His next book, written for professionals, Teaching the Mindful Self Compassion Program will be released in Summer 2019.Diana Hill, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist practicing in Santa Barbara, California, and a co-host of the podcast Psychologists Off The Clock. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

When Susie Orbach set out to depict how psychotherapy sessions really work, she did not want to go the conventional route—that is, taking real case material and distorting and disguising it into a form with minimal resemblance to the original. Such depictions are inevitably filtered through the therapist-author’s biases, and Susie wanted to share psychotherapy’s rawness and spontaneity. So she recorded a radio series involving actors playing patients who come into her real office to discuss fictional yet unscripted problems for which she has no preparation. And then she turned that series into a book, In Therapy: How Conversations with Psychotherapists Really Work(Profile Books, 2016). She joined me on New Books in Psychology to discuss the making of the show and the book and share her thoughts on what real therapy is like. In our interview, she walks us through what she was thinking and feeling during challenging clinical moments in the book, as well as what such moments can teach us about the magic of therapy. This interview is a must for anyone who has always wanted to know what therapists really think and how they think about what they do.Dr. Susie Orbach is a psychoanalyst and psychotherapist with a practice seeing individuals and couples and, also, consulting to organizations.  She co-founded The Women’s Therapy Centre in London in 1976 and The Women’s Therapy Center Institute in New York City in 1981. She is author of twelve books, including Fat is a Feminist Issue, and co-editor of a further volume. She has also published many papers and she frequently writes for the press.  She wrote a column in The Guardian for ten years. Her book Bodies won the Women in Psychology award for best book. She is the recipient of the first Lifetime Achievement Award for Psychoanalysis given by the British Psychoanalytical Society.Eugenio Duarte, Ph.D. is a psychoanalyst practicing in Miami and university psychologist at Florida International University. He treats individuals and couples with specialties in gender and sexuality, eating and body image problems, and relationship issues. He is a graduate of the psychoanalytic training program at William Alanson White Institute and former chair of their LGBTQ Study Group. He is also a contributing author to the book Introduction to Contemporary Psychoanalysis: Defining Terms and Building Bridges (2018, Routledge). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

The opioid crisis in America is considered by many to be the worst national public health crisis in the last 100 years. In his new book, The Opioid Crisis Wake Up Call: Health Care is Stealing the American Dream. Here is How We Take It Back (Health Rosetta Media, 2018), Dave Chase dives into the history and causes of the crisis and outlines a path towards fixing it. Dave takes a thoughtful look at our dysfunctional healthcare system and sees ways it can be fixed using technologies and strategies that are already in use at some organizations. He talks about ways to eliminate waste and corruption while restoring hope to the American public.Jeremy Corr is the co-host of the hit Fixing Healthcare podcast along with industry thought leader Dr. Robert Pearl. A University of Iowa history alumnus, Jeremy is curious and passionate about all things healthcare, which means he’s always up for a good discussion! Reach him at jeremyccorr@gmail.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

With Paris as the organizing locus of his new book, Du moyen âge à nos jours, expériences et représentations de la folie à Paris [From the Middle Ages to Today, Experiences and Representations of Madness in Paris], Benoît Majerus uses an impressively wide range of visual sources, from religious images and architectural photographs to neuroleptic advertisements and administrative maps. These images are integrated into the text and function not only as illustrations, but also as images with their own story to tell.  Majerus’ narrative arc follows the twists and turns of madness in a city long associated with mental pathogens and their cures and reveals how the history of psychiatry can be told differently through the lens of visual culture. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

Much of the debate about the roles of nature vs. nurture in the development of individual people has settled into accepting that it's a bit of both, although what each contributes to a given trait or feature, how much, and they interact are still matters of dispute. In What's Left of Human Nature? A Post-Essentialist, Pluralist, and Interactive Account of a Contested Concept(MIT Press, 2018), Maria Kronfeldner critically examines instead the 'nature' side of this dichotomy: what exactly is a human "nature"? Is it some kind of fixed human essence, a statistical norm, a normative ideal of how a human being ought to be? Kronfeldner, who is an associate professor of philosophy at Central European University in Budapest, argues against an essentialist view of nature, and replaces it with three concepts – descriptive, classificatory, and explanatory natures – that can do the various jobs that we want a "nature" concept to do without contributing to dehumanization, as the essentialist concept frequently has. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology