DescriptionWho we are...how we think...what we do...Here are insight and inspiration from 50 key books, including works by Sigmund Freud, Malcolm Gladwell, Daniel Goleman, Karen Horney, Carl Jung, Alfred Kinsey, R.D. Laing, Jean Piaget, Martin Seligman, Oliver Sack…
DescriptionOn the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Sigmund Freud's birth, Scientific American Mind examines the lasting, controversial legacy of the Father of Psychoanalysis. This special report contains four articles. In "Freud Returns, " neuropsychologist Mark Solms writes that biological descriptions of the brain may fit together best when integrated by psychological theories that Freud sketched a century ago. Then, J. Allan Hobson of Harvard Medical School offers an opposing view in "Freud Returns? Like a Bad Dream." Next, in "Neurotic About Neurons, " Steve Ayan says Freud's theories sprang directly from neuroscience, until he began interrogating sexually-frustrated women. And in the final article, "Psychotherapy on Trial, " Hal Arkowitz of the University of Arizona and Scott Lilienfeld of Emory University discuss the current debate over empirically supported therapies.
DescriptionMany people have difficulty figuring out the difference between science, borderline science, and just plain nonsense. When is a theory a fact, and when is it just conjecture? Michael Shermer, a leading science author and skeptic, divides knowledge into three classes: science, based on factual evidence; borderline science, based on scientific conjecture; and nonsense, where anything goes (e.g., Bigfoot). He is especially zealous about separating science from borderline science; borderline science includes many modern grand explanatory hypotheses, such as superstring theory. Nonetheless, most attempts to create a Theory of Everything result in nonsense. Shermer explores the work of Darwin, Freud, and Carl Sagan, as well as the shameful episode of the Piltdown Man.
DescriptionFollowing his runaway best seller, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, Dai Sijie gives us a delightful new tale of East meets West: an adventure both wry and uplifting about a love of dreams and the dream of love, and the power of reading to…
