New Books in Psychology

Today I talked to DDS Dobson-Smith about You Can Be Yourself Here: Your Pocket Guide to Creating Inclusive Workplaces by Using the Psychology of Belonging (Lioncrest, 2022).While the episode’s title wasn’t directly addressed during my conversation with DDS, the answer can be found in his remark prior to taping: namely, the Great Resignation is really the Great Self-Realization. In other words, employees are realizing what matters to them and are changing jobs and careers to better align with their own values and desire to be themselves on the job. What’s standing in the way? Too often, the answer is executives who implore employees to change while not really wanting to take a candid look at their own assumptions. Besides acknowledging that dynamic, DDS is forthright about how employee resource groups work best when their groups’ leaders can financially compensated for what proves to be work over and above their official call of duty. From a variety of angles, this episode is about inspiring greater empathy in the workplace.DDS Dobson-Smith is the founder of the executive coaching consultancy Soul Trained and was certified as an Executive Coach by the Oxford School of Coaching and Mentoring. Prior to founding Soul Trained, he held senior roles at Marks & Spencer, Eurostar International, Sony Music Entertainment, and the world’s largest advertising agency, WPP.Dan Hill, PhD, is the author of nine books and leads Sensory Logic, Inc. (https://www.sensorylogic.com). His new book is Blah, Blah, Blah: A Snarky Guide to Office Lingo. To check out his related “Dan Hill’s EQ Spotlight” blog, visit https://emotionswizard.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

Today I talked to Zarak Khan and Laurel Newman about their book Building Behavioral Science in an Organization (Action Design Press, 2021).As an academic discipline, behavioral science is as the book’s introduction states, an umbrella term that includes social psychology, behavioral economics, and sociology among other fields. As applied in business and government, for instance, behavioral science is often a matter of creating small “nudges” in designing changes to human behavior in hopes of achieving buy-in rather than resistance from those who are wedded to the status quo. Khan and Newman, who co-edited and contributed to this book, are candid about the challenges involved. They are also faithfully committed as professionals to achieving real innovations and transformational advances whenever feasible. In particular, this episode focuses on a pair of behavioral science applications: in HR and in promoting innovation.Zarak Khan is a Senior Behavioral Researcher at Duke University’s Center for Advanced Hindsight, as well as a Behavioral Science Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and a board member of Action Design Network. Lauren Newman is a behavioral scientist at Edward Jones, and a former psychology professor at Fontbonne University.Dan Hill, PhD, is the author of nine books and leads Sensory Logic, Inc. (https://www.sensorylogic.com). His new book is Blah, Blah, Blah: A Snarky Guide to Office Lingo. To check out his related “Dan Hill’s EQ Spotlight” blog, visit https://emotionswizard.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

An innovative reassessment of philosopher P. F. Strawson's influential "Freedom and Resentment" P. F. Strawson was one of the most important philosophers of the twentieth century, and his 1962 paper "Freedom and Resentment" is one of the most influential in modern moral philosophy, prompting responses across multiple disciplines, from psychology to sociology. In Freedom, Resentment, and the Metaphysics of Morals (Princeton UP, 2020), Pamela Hieronymi closely reexamines Strawson's paper and concludes that his argument has been underestimated and misunderstood. Line by line, Hieronymi carefully untangles the complex strands of Strawson's ideas. After elucidating his conception of moral responsibility and his division between "reactive" and "objective" responses to the actions and attitudes of others, Hieronymi turns to his central argument. Strawson argues that, because determinism is an entirely general thesis, true of everyone at all times, its truth does not undermine moral responsibility. Hieronymi finds the two common interpretations of this argument, "the simple Humean interpretation" and "the broadly Wittgensteinian interpretation," both deficient. Drawing on Strawson's wider work in logic, philosophy of language, and metaphysics, Hieronymi concludes that his argument rests on an implicit, and previously overlooked, metaphysics of morals, one grounded in Strawson's "social naturalism." In the final chapter, she defends this naturalistic picture against objections. Rigorous, concise, and insightful, Freedom, Resentment, and the Metaphysics of Morals sheds new light on Strawson's thinking and has profound implications for future work on free will, moral responsibility, and metaethics. The book also features the complete text of Strawson's "Freedom and Resentment." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

Today I talked to Morris Altman about his book Worker Satisfaction and Economic Performance (Routledge, 2021).What sometimes gets overlooked is that Adam Smith not only became the “father of capitalism” by writing The Wealth of Nations; he also wrote The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Empathy matters, and this week’s guest Morris Altman argues that sustainable capitalism practices fairness. Too often the basic, economic needs of rank-and-file workers are being overlooked in a global economic where the wealthy are calling the shots. From anti-immigrant rhetoric to events in Ukraine, this is a timely episode that puts the purported move from shareholder capitalism to stakeholder capitalism under the lens for skeptical examination. Want more engaged workers? Make them more truly empowered, and the beneficiaries of reciprocity whereby their input is acted on and rewarded alike.Morris Altman is the Dean of the University of Dundee’s School of Business. He’s published over 130 referred papers and 17 books. He’s also held academic posts at the University of Saskatchewan, Victoria University, Newcastle University, and at Hebrew University, Stanford, Cornell and Duke.Dan Hill, PhD, is the author of nine books and leads Sensory Logic, Inc. (https://www.sensorylogic.com). His new book is Blah, Blah, Blah: A Snarky Guide to Office Lingo. To check out his related “Dan Hill’s EQ Spotlight” blog, visit https://emotionswizard.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

Few would disagree that inclusion is both the right thing to do and good for business. Then why are we so terrible at it? If we believe in the morality and the profitability of including people of diverse and underestimated backgrounds in the workplace, why don’t we do it? Because, explains Ruchika Tulshyan in this eye-opening book, we don’t realize that inclusion takes awareness, intention, and regular practice. Inclusion doesn’t just happen; we have to work at it. Tulshyan presents inclusion best practices, showing how leaders and organizations can meaningfully promote inclusion and diversity. Tulshyan centers the workplace experience of women of color, who are subject to both gender and racial bias. It is at the intersection of gender and race, she shows, that we discover the kind of inclusion policies that benefit all. Tulshyan debunks the idea of the “level playing field” and explains how leaders and organizations can use their privilege for good by identifying and exposing bias, knowing that they typically have less to lose in speaking up than a woman of color does. She explains why “leaning in” doesn’t work—and dismantling structural bias does; warns against hiring for “culture fit,” arguing for “culture add” instead; and emphasizes the importance of psychological safety in the workplace—you need to know that your organization has your back. With Inclusion on Purpose: An Intersectional Approach to Creating a Culture of Belonging at Work (MIT Press, 2022), Tulshyan shows us how we can make progress toward inclusion and diversity—and we must start now.Sine Yaganoglu trained as a neuroscientist and bioengineer (PhD, ETH Zurich). She currently works in innovation management and diagnostics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

Today, we will be chatting with EWP core faculty Helge Osterhold about the uniqueness of the EWP container and how he facilitates transformative pedagogy in the classroom. We then explore Jungian notions of East-West spirituality and address the importance of individuation in contemporary approaches to the activist-scholar paradigm. The interview ends with Helge outlining his recent paper “The dance between individuation and death anxiety: an interdisciplinary reflection on cultural polarization in apocalyptic times”.Dr. Helge Osterhold is a psychotherapist and integrative educator. Teaching graduate level psychology courses since 2006, he joined the EWP department as a core faculty member in 2017 and offers courses in Jungian Psychology, Archetypal Psychology, Dreamwork, Spiritual Counseling, and the Psychology of Death and Dying. His theoretical and clinical orientation includes transpersonal, depth and humanistic-existential psychologies with a special appreciation for systemic thinking, indigenous wisdom and multiculturalism.For 10 years, Dr. Osterhold served at the University of California San Francisco - in pediatric palliative care and as an educator on mindful caregiving and clinician resiliency at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital and UCSF School of Medicine.Originally from Germany, Dr. Osterhold received a B.A. in Human Relations, an M.A. in Integral Counseling Psychology and a PhD in East West Psychology and is licensed as a psychotherapist in California. Dr. Osterhold maintains a private psychotherapy practice with a focus on life transitions. He is the author of The Body’s Code – Synchronicity and Meaning in Illness and Injury. Through a depth psychological lens, his book explores how viewing serious health crisis as synchronistic events can provide an understanding as to how such suffering may meaningfully impact and transform psychological, spiritual, relational and professional-creative levels of a person’s life.Connect with EWP: Website Youtube FacebookHosted by Stephen Julich (EWP adjunct faculty, program manager) and Jonathan Kay (PhD student, EWP assistant) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

How to Do Things with Emotions: The Morality of Anger and Shame across Cultures (Princeton UP, 2021) is an expansive look at how culture shapes our emotions—and how we can benefit, as individuals and a society, from less anger and more shame The world today is full of anger. Everywhere we look, we see values clashing and tempers rising, in ways that seem frenzied, aimless, and cruel. At the same time, we witness political leaders and others who lack any sense of shame, even as they display carelessness with the truth and the common good. In How to Do Things with Emotions, Owen Flanagan explains that emotions are things we do, and he reminds us that those like anger and shame involve cultural norms and scripts. The ways we do these emotions offer no guarantee of emotionally or ethically balanced lives—but still we can control and change how such emotions are done. Flanagan makes a passionate case for tuning down anger and tuning up shame, and he observes how cultures around the world can show us how to perform these emotions better. Through comparative insights from anthropology, psychology, and cross-cultural philosophy, Flanagan reveals an incredible range in the expression of anger and shame across societies. He establishes that certain types of anger—such as those that lead to revenge or passing hurt on to others—are more destructive than we imagine. Certain forms of shame, on the other hand, can protect positive values, including courage, kindness, and honesty. Flanagan proposes that we should embrace shame as a uniquely socializing emotion, one that can promote moral progress where undisciplined anger cannot. How to Do Things with Emotions celebrates the plasticity of our emotional responses—and our freedom to recalibrate them in the pursuit of more fulfilling lives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

Today I talked to Karen Joy Hardwick about her book The Connected Leader: 7 Strategies to Empower Your True Self and Inspire Others (Post Hill Press, 2021).We are not leaders having a leadership crisis. We are leaders having a human being crisis. Connection is the antidote to this crisis—yet, many of us do not know how to connect to ourselves in a rigorously honest, self-compassionate way that enhances self-discovery and leads to creating healthy relationships with others. Without this self-connection, we cannot connect—in a meaningful way—to a higher purpose or engage with others in ways that help them step into their gifts. With the help of Karen Hardwick’s connection architecture, we can create the kind of relationships that are transforming and inspiring. By learning how to show up with her seven attributes of connection, we can empower workplaces and relationships through the grace and grit, resilience and empathy, honesty and authenticity that occurs when our connection-wiring is activated in healthy ways. Hardwick’s willingness to share her own stories of struggle and triumph—along with anecdotes from the boardroom to the family room—draws us into the pages of this book and helps us to awaken and courageously lead. She uniquely synthesizes the emotional, spiritual, and relational, giving us permission to look at the ways we do damage to ourselves and others while inviting us to live and lead from a place of true well-being, tapped into our purpose, and lifting up others.Karen Joy Hardwick, M.Div, MSW is a global leadership consultant, coach, and clinically-spiritually trained psychotherapist with Masters Degrees from both Princeton Theological Seminary and Rutgers. She works with Fortune 1,000 leaders, teams, and entrepreneurs around the world on how to become Connected Leaders™.She hosts the Saving You a Seat podcast and speaks to many audiences on how the power of connection transforms the leadership landscape and elevates our wellbeing, engagement, and empowerment. She lives in Atlanta with her son and is surrounded by her connection-warriors.Elizabeth Cronin, Psy.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist and mindfulness meditation teacher with offices in Brookline and Norwood, MA. You can follow her on Instagram or visit her website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

Today, we will be speaking with Debashish Banerji, chair of the East-West Psychology department. We will discuss the history and mission of The California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), of the East-West Psychology Department, and the nature and value of Integral Education. In the conversation, Debashish develops ideas regarding Sri Aurobindo's vision of an Integral consciousness and how that can be approached through an Integral and immanent hermeneutic based on existential goals of becoming.Debashish Banerji is the Haridas Chaudhuri Professor of Indian Philosophies and Cultures and the Doshi Professor of Asian Art at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He is also the Program Chair for the East-West Psychology department. Prior to CIIS, he served as Professor of Indian Studies and Dean of Academics at the University of Philosophical Research, Los Angeles. He has taught as adjunct faculty at the Pasadena City College, University of California, Los Angeles and University of California, Irvine. His interests lie in postmodern, postcolonial and cross-cultural approaches to Indian philosophy, psychology and culture. Banerji has curated close to fifteen exhibitions of Indian and Japanese art. He has authored and edited around ten books and art catalogs on major figures of "the Bengal Renaissance" such as the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, the artist Abanindranath Tagore and the spiritual thinker Sri Aurobindo; on Critical Posthumanism, Yoga Psychology and on a variety of creative and art-related projects. His most recent books are Integral Yoga Psychology: Metaphysics and Transformation as Taught by Sri Aurobindo (Lotus Press, 2020) and Meditations on the Isha Upanishad: Tracing the Philosophical Vision of Sri Aurobindo (Sri Aurobindo Samity and Maha Bodhi Publishers, 2019).Debashish Banerji: WebsiteConnect with EWP: Website • Youtube • FacebookHosted by Stephen Julich (EWP adjunct faculty, program manager) and Jonathan Kay (PhD student, EWP assistant) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

Nita Sweeney’s struggle with bipolar disorder and grief had overtaken her life when she decided to take her beloved dog and try running, even though she doubted she could make it around the block. Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink (Mango Publishing, 2019) reveals Sweeney’s moving and inspiring story of how every mile she ran brought her closer to wholeness and shares her hard-won wisdom on how you can get up off the couch and take back your own life. Our conversation follows her story from “it just feels good to be moving” to training for a full marathon, how running and meditation impacted her writing and mood, and all the support from her community, husband, and dog along the journey.Sarah Kearns (@annotated_sci) reads about scholarship, the sciences, and philosophy, and is likely drinking mushroom tea. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology