books : mental health.......... .Talent Development Resources --..home page...site map

sections on this page :

> general ........> creativity & madness........> emotion / mood

> reel therapy........> self-counseling

~ ~ ~

> index: more mental health book pages...

~ ~ ~ ~

....

~ ~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~ ~

The Price of Greatness: Resolving the Creativity and Madness Controversy - by Arnold M. Ludwig, MD. Explores the lives of over 1,000 extraordinary achievers through statistical analysis and illuminating stories. Topics include paths to fame and greatness; the impact of factors such as early parental death and education; why some professions are more likely to have members with emotional problems; and the toll of exceptional achievements on those from socially disadvantaged groups. [Book News]

~ ~ ~ ~

Creating Mental Illness - by Allan V. Horwitz Horwitz begins by stating boldly that many so-called mental disorders according to our current symptom-based system of classification, are not really mental disorders at all, but normal responses to social stress, relationship problems, work or other problems in living, or social deviance that may be in some cases, culturally supported. He carefully defines "mental disorder" using Wakefield’s (1992; 1993) definition: "a mental disorder exists when some internal psychological system is unable to function as it is designed to function, and when this dysfunction is defined as inappropriate in a particular social context". /// Many of the problems we treat, Horwitz defines as problems in living, as non-pathological responses to life stresses such as divorce, loss of job, illness in the family, aging parents, children with difficulties in school etc.

To classify these kinds of problems as mental disorders is indeed turning the concept into one that is basically a social construction... For example, he discusses how "social phobia" has taken a naturally occurring temperament different, namely shyness, and transformed it into a mental disorder that is claimed to be common and pervasive, and treatable with SSRIs, with a huge profit for the drug companies. Horwitz has a good point. > from human-nature.com review by Lynn E. O’Connor, The Wright Institute, Berkeley, CA

~ ~ ~ ~

> general titles

Mary Ballou, Laura S. Brown. Rethinking Mental Health and Disorder: Feminist Perspectives
Shedding new light on such conditions as depression, PTSD, psychosis, somatoform disorders, and premenstrual syndrome, chapters address critical questions about how disorders are diagnosed, who gets labeled as "sick," and how treatment is conceptualized and delivered.

Mary Ballou, Laura S. Brown. Personality and Psychopathology: Feminist Reappraisals

Dana Becker. The Myth Of Empowerment: Women And The Therapeutic Culture In America
The Myth of Empowerment surveys the ways in which women have been represented and influenced by the rapidly growing therapeutic culture -- both popular and professional -- from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. ... From mesmerism to psychotherapy to the Oprah Winfrey Show, women have gleaned ideas about who they are as psychological beings. Becker questions what women have had to gain from these ideas as she recounts the story of where they have been led and where the therapeutic culture is taking them.
> Dana Becker is assistant professor, Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research. She is a psychotherapist and author of Through the Looking Glass: Women and Borderline Personality Disorder.

Tara Bennett-Goleman  Emotional Alchemy : How the Mind Can Heal the Heart 
[excerpt from book:] "If we sustain our gaze within, sometimes our probe may detect pain behind the masks we wear. But if we continue to look, we can see how the patterns of pain hold that very mask in place, and as we investigate further we see even these patterns shift and rearrange themselves. We see how our reactions to our emotions can keep us at a distance from ourselves. And if we sustain our focus, allowing ourselves to open more honestly, our awareness penetrates further, unraveling and dissolving, peeling away the layers as we look still further. We begin to connect with more genuine parts of ourselves, at first in glimpses. Then, as we sustain our gaze, we connect with a source that breathes awareness into every layer of our being. This book is about seeing ourselves as we genuinely are ... we can reach beyond the limiting ways we see ourselves." [Bennett-Goleman leads national workshops with her husband, Daniel Goleman (author: Emotional Intelligence)]

Joan Borysenko  Fire in the Soul : A New Psychology of Spiritual Optimism   "Psychological courage entails a cleansing of the doors of perception, allowing us to see things as they really are rather than through the distorted lens of the past. The more we are cleansed of expectations, the more we see what is and the more we can respond to it creatively." Joan Borysenko

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.  The Evolving Self : A Psychology for the Third Millenium
"To contribute to greater harmony, a person's consciousness has to become complex... aware of and in control of one's unique potentials.. able to create harmony between goals and desires, sensations and experiences, both for oneself and for others. People who achieve this are not only going to have a more fulfilling life, but they are almost certainly more likely to contribute to a better future."

Ed Diener, Eunkook M. Suh. Culture and Subjective Well-Being  "The question of what constitutes the good life has been pondered for millennia. Yet only in the last decades has the study of well-being become a scientific endeavor. This book is based on the idea that we can empirically study quality of life and make cross-society comparisons of subjective well-being (SWB)... The contributors analyze SWB in relation to money, age, gender, democracy, and other factors. Among the interesting findings is that although wealthy nations are on average happier than poor ones, people do not get happier as a wealthy nation grows wealthier... Ed Diener is Professor of Psychology and head of the Subjective Well-Being Laboratory at the University of Illinois. Eunkook M. Suh is Assistant Professor of Psychology and Social Behavior at the University of California, Irvine."

George Graham, G. Lynn Stephens. Philosophical Psychopathology
Psychopathology holds considerable promise for clarifying a host of philosophical issues. This collection of essays focuses on issues in applied philosophy of mind (personal identity and self- consciousness, voluntary action and self-control, cognition and practical reasoning), in the science of mind (the medical model of mental disorders, philosophy of science and psychiatry, psychopathology and folk psychology), and in the ethical and experiential dimensions of psychopathology. [Book News, Inc. review]

Dianne R. Hales  Caring for the Mind : The Comprehensive Guide to Mental Health
[Amazon.com summary:] "More than 27 million adults and 7.5 million children in the United States have a diagnosable mental disorder--more than the combined total of people with cancer, heart disease, and lung disorders. This book is the indispensable guide to mental health and mental disorders that they and their families need. It offers lucid presentations of these conditions in systematic form: what each is, signs and symptoms, causes, diagnosis, treatment (therapy, medications, self-help), risks and complications..."

Cliff Havener  Meaning: The Secret of Being Alive  "Purpose, Meaning, Creativity, Spirit are the things that make us feel alive. Living without them is a mechanical imitation of life. .. the social systems we live in teach us to be "normal". "Normal" means to conform to rules, forms and processes without ever asking "Why?". It separates us from our deepest authenticity."

Robert A. Johnson and Jerry M. Ruhl Contentment: A Way to True Happiness 
'In Western society we expect everything and, when things don't go as we wish, we are terribly unhappy. In order to shed more light on this contemporary malaise, Johnson and Ruhl dissect Shakespeare's "King Lear." They discuss the importance of reclaiming our shadow, reeling in our projections upon others, heeding the inner fool, letting go of "your way," and walking -- as the Buddhists do -- the razor's edge. Contentment means being who you are -- no more and no less. It also involves the acceptance of imperfections... [from review: Frederic Brussat, Values & Visions Reviews www.spiritualrx.com]

Diane Klein.  In The Name of Help : A Novel Exposing Psychiatric Abuse  
[excerpt:] "More medication was administered immediately to calm her down. More consultations with doctors were held, to sort out the differing opinions. These were followed by a diagnosis of terms: paranoid schizophrenia, dementia praecox, -- words, meaningless words.... More questions, more observation, more discussion, more theories. Then, still more medication, and a marked degeneration of both her level of awareness and her self-determined will .... Less sanity .... But, they always told Cathryn that they were going to help her..."

Alice Miller. The Drama of the Gifted Child : The Search for the True Self   [Publisher:] "Far too many of us had to learn as children to hide our own feelings, needs, and memories skillfully in order to meet our parents' expectations and win their "love." Alice Miller writes, "When I used the word 'gifted' in the title, I had in mind neither children who receive high grades in school nor children talented in a special way. I simply meant all of us who have survived an abusive childhood thanks to an ability to adapt even to unspeakable cruelty by becoming numb...Without this 'gift' offered us by nature, we would not have survived." But merely surviving is not enough... [this book] helps us to reclaim our life by discovering our own crucial needs and our own truth."

Alice Miller.  The Untouched Key: Tracing Childhood Trauma in Creativity and Destructiveness   "The author examines the childhood experiences of such people as Pablo Picasso, Kathe Kollwitz, Chaim Soutine, Buster Keaton and Friedrich Nietzsche. She seeks to "draw links between childhood traumas that lead . . . {her subjects} to lives that were either creative or destructive."

Gary Null. Food-Mood-Body Connection
Many conditions that are generally believed to be purely mental disorders are actually caused by vitamin deficiencies, food allergies, hormonal imbalances, and environmental factors. In this book, Gary Null presents nutrition-based treatments for the underlying biochemical imbalances that cause many of today's mental problems.

Otto Rank, et al.  Art and Artist: Creative Urge and Personality Development

Jeffrey M. Schwartz, MD. The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force

Al Siebert, PhD; Bernie S. Siegel The Survivor Personality: Why Some People Are Stronger, Smarter, and More Skillful at Handling Life's Difficulties...and How You Can Be, Too  "A few, however, reach within themselves and find ways to cope with the adversity. They eventually make things turn out well. These are life's best survivors, those people with an amazing capacity for surviving crises and extreme difficulties. They are resilient and durable in distressing situations. They regain emotional balance quickly, adapt, and cope well. They thrive by gaining strength from adversity and often convert misfortune into a gift."

Christina Hoff Sommers, Sally Satel. One Nation Under Therapy : How the Helping Culture is Eroding Self-Reliance
Philosopher-turned-controversialist Sommers and psychiatrist Satel argue as forcibly against contemporary psychotherapeutic notions and nostrums as Sommers did against radical feminism in Who Stole Feminism? (1994) and The War against Boys (2000). The American Enterprise Institute colleagues question five pet doctrines of contemporary therapy by presenting the research evidence for and against them.

Anthony Storr  The Dynamics of Creation  "What drives the artist to create masterpieces and the scientist to forge breakthrough theories? This is the fundamental question that British psychiatrist Anthony Storr sets out to answer in The Dynamics of Creation. Storr begins by debunking the popular notion that creative people are necessarily motivated by neurosis. Although creativity can spring from a desire for power, wealth, prestige, or sexual conquest, at its deepest level it is an integrative impulse that both nourishes and consoles the human soul. In probing the origins and the consequences of creativity, Storr paints brief, stunningly insightful portraits of an astonishing range of gifted individuals, including Leonardo da Vinci, Darwin, Mozart, Einstein, Kafka, Newton, Balzac, and Wagner."

Susan C. Vaughan, MD.  Half Empty, Half Full: Understanding the Psychological Roots of Optimism   "Columbia University research scientist and psychoanalyst Susan Vaughan argues that our fundamental view of life as half empty or half full is determined by our capacity for emotional self-modulation. Based on her years of experience as a therapist and researcher, Dr. Vaughan shows how a sense of control over feelings like anger, anxiety, sadness, and even elation promotes optimism and well being."

David L. Weiner, Gilbert Hefter. Battling the Inner Dummy : The Craziness of Apparently Normal People 
"Weiner explores why it is that people do irrational and compulsive things, sometimes against their better judgment. He intersperses his text with an imaginary conversation with Sigmund Freud, engaged in an advertising campaign to market his concept of the id, or Inner Dummy. The Freud device is meant to simplify the psychiatric concepts of id, ego, and superego, but Weiner does a fine job of that himself. The book is meant to explore the "underlying causes and nature of irrational, neurotic outlooks in a way that would be comprehensible to most of us." Weiner examines a range of irrational behavior, from that of President Clinton in the Monica Lewinski affair to the murderous activities of Slobodan Milosevic and Adolf Hitler. We all have some sort of personality disorder, some better managed or concealed than others, according to Weiner. He also examines treatments for personality disorders. Coauthor Hefter, a clinical psychiatrist, offers commentary at the end of each chapter.  [Booklist review by Vanessa Bush]

Ken Wilber  Integral Psychology : Conciousness, Spirit, Psychology, Therapy   "While attempting to include the best of modern scientific research on psychology, consciousness, and therapy, [this book] also takes its inspiration from that integral period of psychology's own genesis (marked by such as Fechner, James, and Baldwin, along with many others..). ... includes a discussion of around two hundred theorists, East and West, ancient and modern, all working, in their own way, toward a more integral view."

Carla Wills-Brandon, PhD. Natural Mental Health: How to Take Control of Your Own Emotional Well-Being
holistic methods of resolution to mental health issues

~ ~ ~

---

> creativity & madness

Gerald Alper.  Portrait of the Artist As a Young Patient: Psychodynamic Studies of the Creative Personality

Paula Caplan  They Say You're Crazy: How the World's Most Powerful Psychiatrists Decide Who's Normal  [interview]

Richard D. Chessick. Emotional Illness and Creativity: A Psychoanalytic and Phenomenologic Study
[Book News:] Chessick (psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Northwestern U.) explores the relationship between mental illness and creativity, taking a phenomenological approach informed by Sartre's notion of each individual's "project," and a psychological approach influenced by Freudian psychoanalysis, object relations theory, and self psychology. Chapters alternate between theoretical discussions, and case studies of Ezra Pound and of "Barry," a composite patient with artistic leanings.

Gordon Claridge et al.  Sounds from the Bell Jar: Ten Psychotic Authors
"..a unique collaboration between an Oxford psychologist and two literary critics. It explores the lives and works of ten authors, among them Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath, who embody both serious mental illness and great originality of thought. Drawing upon personal diaries, historical archives, clinical records and literary productions, this book examines modes of thinking which psychosis and creativity share."

John Gedo  The Artist and the Emotional: Creativity and Personality  "Articulates the role of personality in creative pursuits, defining personality a set of enduring qualities that effect such behavior as a general preference for autonomous or interdependent activity. Examines the psychology of creativity, the challenge and opportunity of developing a creative gift, the struggles of a creative life, and the fit between talent and opportunity. Illustrates the principles with case studies .."

Jeanine Grobe  Beyond Bedlam : Contemporary Women Psychiatric Survivors Speak Out
"Twenty-five voices loud with anger. . . . They belong to artists, writers, musicians, academics, blacks, whites, Native Americans, Hispanics, Christians, Jews, the poor, the middle-class, lesbians, heterosexuals, survivors of incest. They belong to women who have lived through being committed to psychiatric institutions, often against their will, medicated, put in seclusion, put in physical restraints! , given electroshock treatments, even raped by staff in the institutions. . . . The essays, memoirs, and poems collected here can bring home the pain of being mentally ill." -The Women's Review of Books
"It is very encouraging to read about the powerful spirit of women who have been trampled by the system, yet survive to write so eloquently and pass on wisdom to help others." -Counterpoint

Lois Holzman  Performing Psychology : A Postmodern Culture of the Mind "essays and stage plays by and about Fred Newman, the controversial American philosopher, psychotherapist, playwright and political activist for whom psychology, social action, human development and performance are one. The reader is invited into dialogues currently taking place among psychologists, philosophers, artists, and community activists on such topics as: the nature of human subjectivity; the relationship of theater to human development; the status of traditional science in a postmodern world; the process of therapy and diagnosis; and the re-initiation of creativity and growth."

Susan Kavaler-Adler  The Creative Mystique : From Red Shoes Frenzy to Love and Creativity   [Booklist review:] 'Object-relations psychotherapy is the theoretical basis for Kavaler-Adler's approach to how women may develop healthy creative selves. Expanding on ideas examined in The Compulsion to Create, Kavaler-Adler highlights the lives of such outstanding artists as Camille Claudel, Virginia Woolf, and, more recently, Diane Arbus. Suzanne Farrell and the ballerina's relationship with George Balanchine is cited as a successful "fantasy of union with a muse," in contrast to the destructive tendencies of others in the study who were never able to overcome "an unstable sense of self . . . from early trauma." From an analytical viewpoint, perhaps most fascinating is a critique of Anne Sexton's therapy with various doctors; Kavaler-Adler speculates on care that might have helped rather than hindered the poet, who eventually capitulated to the suicidal demands of her darker self. Compelling reading for all who remain curious as to why gifted artists often suffer the worst despair."

Susanna Kaysen.  Girl, Interrupted   (basis of film starring Winona Ryder; Angelina Jolie; Whoopi Goldberg; etc) // from the book: "The more I thought about it, the more absurd it became. I couldn't take all those rules seriously... I was the one person who had trouble with the rules. Everybody else accepted them. Was this a mark of my madness?... Was I crazy or was I right? In 1967, this was a hard question to answer. Even twenty-five years later, it's a hard question to answer."

Susan Kolodny  The Captive Muse : On Creativity and Its Inhibition [Publisher:] "Challenging the view that making art is typically linked to psychopathology, she demonstrates how our internal conflicts interfere with rather than foster creative work. She explains the resistances that crop up along he way and the inner voices by which artists and writers are encouraged or beset. She shows how who we are helps to determine what happens when we revise and how the stages of psychological development contribute to an eventual ability or inability to do creative work. She quotes from interviews with six productive artists and writers who speak candidly about their work, then points out instructive differences between the unimpeded and those who become blocked or stalled."

Arnold M. Ludwig, MD. The Price of Greatness: Resolving the Creativity and Madness Controversy

Sylvia Nasar  A Beautiful Mind: A Biography of John Forbes Nash, Jr., Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, 1994 "In 1950, 21-year-old Princeton graduate student John Nash formulated a theorem that enabled the arcane field of game theory to become an important influence in modern economics and political science. He seemed poised for even greater success, but colleagues had already noticed a spooky disjunction between Nash's brilliant intellect and the emotions he could barely acknowledge; in 1959 he was institutionalized and diagnosed as schizophrenic. Journalist Sylvia Nasar perceptively chronicles Nash's disordered personal life... his years suffering from mental illness... his astonishing recovery and the belated recognition of a Nobel Prize."

Daniel Nettle.  Strong Imagination : Madness, Creativity and Human Nature
[publisher: Oxford Univ Press:] "Rates of mental illness are hugely elevated in the families of poets, writers and artists, suggesting that the same genes, the same temperaments, and the same imaginative capacities are at work in insanity and in creative ability. Thus the reason madness continues to exist is that the traits behind it have psychological benefits as well as psychological costs. In Strong Imagination, Daniel Nettle explores the nature of mental illness, the biological mechanisms that underlie it, and its link to creative genius. He goes on to consider the place of both madness and creative imagination in the evolution of our species... Daniel Nettle studied psychology at Oxford, before completing his PhD in Anthropology at University College London. .. He has lectured in London, Oxford, Cambridge and Nigeria, and written widely across many areas of the human sciences. He is also active in the theatre."

Barry Panter, M.D. Creativity and Madness: Psychological Studies of Art and Artists

Sylvia Plath  The Bell Jar  "Plath was an excellent poet but is known to many for this largely autobiographical novel. The Bell Jar tells the story of a gifted young woman's mental breakdown beginning during a summer internship as a junior editor at a magazine in New York City in the early 1950s. The real Plath committed suicide in 1963 and left behind this scathingly sad, honest and perfectly-written book, which remains one of the best-told tales of a woman's descent into insanity."

Sylvia Plath  Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams : Short Stories, Prose, and Diary Excerpts

Albert Rothenberg  Creativity and Madness : New Findings and Old Stereotypes    [reader:] "Rothenberg looks at creativity from the perspective of a scientist. He examines psychological ideas... personality characteristics.. and relates them all to his search for answers to why some can create .. works of art. He dispells myths about creativity being some mystical birth-right that only the chosen few possess, and implies the conclusion that creativity is more the product of an aware mind and feeling human being than tormented genius."

Louis A. Sass  Madness and Modernism : Insanity in the Light of Modern Art, Literature, and Thought     "Sass, a clinical psychologist, explores the bizarre experiences of schizophrenia (and related conditions) through a comparison with the works of various artists and writers, including Franz Kafka, Paul Valery, Samuel Beckett, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Giorgio de Chirico, and Marcel Duchamp, and by considering the ideas of philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche, William James, Martin Heidegger, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Derrida."

Rebecca Shannonhouse. Out of Her Mind: Women Writing on Madness
Editor Rebecca Shannonhouse writes in her introduction:
Like Zelda Fitzgerald, generations of other gifted, unconventional, and tormented women have seen their lives eclipsed by mental illness. They have suffered from depression, schizophrenia, manic depression and other disorders. Their life's ambitions have been derailed by illnesses that bring sadness, delusions, and fears...

~ ~ ~

---

> emotion / mood

Daniel Goleman  Emotional Intelligence  "One source of a positive or negative outlook may well be inborn temperament...Developing a competency of any kind strengthens the sense of self-efficacy; making a person more willing to take risks and seek out more demanding challenges. And surmounting those challenges in turn increases the sense of self-efficacy. This attitude makes people more likely to make the best use of whatever skills they may have -- or to do what it takes to develop them."

Dennis Greenberger, Christine Padesky. Mind Over Mood: Change How You Feel by Changing the Way You Think

Mira Kirshenbaum. The Emotional Energy Factor : The Secrets High-Energy People Use to Beat Emotional Fatigue
Publishers Weekly summary: When we feel grouchy and lethargic, when we drag our heels through life and avoid treating ourselves to things we enjoy, then, writes psychotherapist Kirshenbaum, we’re likely suffering from emotional fatigue. And we’re hardly alone: according to the National Institutes of Health, one individual in eight becomes saddled with a stubborn case of the blahs. By sharing real-life anecdotes and posing pointed questions - "Do you live in fear of other people’s judgments?"; "Do you frequently compare yourself to others and feel resentful?" - Kirshenbaum helps readers identify the roots of their lethargy, and implement the appropriate strategies for regaining their spunk.

Jerilyn Ross  Triumph over Fear: A Book of Help and Hope for People With Anxiety, Panic Attacks, and Phobias

Sandra Walker Russ  Affect, Creative Experience, and Psychological Adjustment
Contents: chapters: On the Relationship Between Affect and Creative Problem Solving; Mood and Creativity Research: The View from a Conceptual Organizing Perspective; The Emotional Resonance Model of Creativity: Theoretical and Practical Extensions; Play, Affect, and Creativity: Theory and Research, etc.

Melvin Shaw.  Creativity and Affect

~ ~ ~

---

> reel therapy

"Gary Solomon... a professor of psychology.. says a person can "identify a film,
watch it, and try to feel and look for the key points that affect their life. Hopefully,
it brings their emotions to the surface so they can begin to deal with them.

"In films, we suspend disbelief. In therapy, we're coming out of denial. The two
are similar."...   Karl E. Scheibe, a professor of psychology at Wesleyan University
who has written on drama and psychology... says the idea behind it is not new.

"The Greeks believed in catharsis, discharging tensions indirectly through the medium
of a spectacle of some kind," he says.

    [from Institute for Psychological Study of the Arts newsletter Apr 2001] 

~ ~ ~ 

John W. Hesley, Jan G. Hesley Rent Two Films and Let's Talk in the Morning : Using Popular Movies in Psychotherapy

Mary Ann Horenstein et al. Reel Life/Real Life : A Video Guide for Personal Discovery

Robert K. Johnston.  Reel Spirituality : Theology and Film in Dialogue

Gary Solomon.  The Motion Picture Prescription: Watch This Movie and Call Me in the Morning  [review]

Gary Solomon  Reel Therapy : How Movies Inspire You to Overcome Life's Problems

Raymond Teague.  Reel Spirit : A Guide to Movies That Inspire, Explore and Empower

Danny Wedding, M. Boyd Movies & Mental Illness : Using Films to Understand Psychopathology

Mary Ann Horenstein  Reel Life\Real Life: A Video Guide for Personal Discovery    This guide reviews classic and contemporary films in terms of one or more of the 17 issue categories, such as "Coming of Age", Prejudice", "Love and Sex". The chapter "Personal Fulfillment", for example, has a typically eclectic mix of examples, including "Amadeus","It's A Wonderful Life", My Brilliant Career" and "Norma Rae". Covering some 700 films in less than 500 pages, the short reviews are terse mixtures of story summaries, plus descriptions of life issues the films illuminate. [review by Douglas Eby]

Gary Solomon.  The Motion Picture Prescription: Watch This Movie and Call Me in the Morning  [review]

~ ~ ~

---

> self-counseling

Harold H. Bloomfield, MD. Making Peace with Your Past: The Six Essential Steps to Enjoying a Great Future

Paul Brenner, Donna Martin. Seeing Your Life Through New Eyes: Insights to Freedom from Your Past
Brenner and Martin.. present a process to help us examine the roots of our thinking, feeling, and automatic behaviors which can bind and paralyze us. ... This is a great tool for those who shy away from "metaphysical" or "higher power" based tools of self -knowledge. However, for others, it will beautifully compliment investigations into self -imposed limitations that deny realization of grace.
Pauline and Kristen Arneberg - Mother/Daughter Team using this process. [Amazon.com review]

David Burns The Feeling Good Handbook
[amazon.com review:] "Dr. David Burns is one of the prime developers of cognitive therapy, a fast-acting, drug-free treatment for designed to help the clinically depressed. In The Feeling Good Handbook, he adapts cognitive therapy to deal with the wide range of everyday problems that plague so many (chronic nervousness, panic attacks, phobias, and feelings of stress, guilt, or inferiority)... Filled with charts, quizzes, weekly self-assessment tests, and a daily mood log, The Feeling Good Handbook actively engages its readers in their own recovery."

Elizabeth Claman. Writing Our Way Out of the Dark: An Anthology by Child Abuse Survivors

Alyce Faye Cleese, Brian Bates How to Manage Your Mother: Understanding the Most Difficult, Complicated, and Fascinating Relationship in Your Life       [reader:] "Through the stories of the lives of famous public figures and unknowns alike, the writing of Alyce Faye Cleese and Brian Bates evokes painfully poignant as well as hilariously funny memories of childhood - you will shed tears of nostalgia and of joy. Whether you loved your mother or hated her, this book is for you. For me, it made sense of not only my relationship with my mother, but put my relationship with my own children in perspective too."

Alice D. Domar, Henry Dreher Self-Nurture : Learning to Care for Yourself As Effectively As You Care for Everyone Else   "This is a wonderful book about living with integrity, not just toward others but toward ourselves as well. Too often we allow ourselves to be last in line where nurturing is concerned. But unless we honor ourselves, sooner or later we shall pay a heavy price - a dead-end strategy that benefits no one. Self-Nurture contains wisdom on every page. Highly recommended." - Larry Dossey, MD, author: Reinventing Medicine etc

Michael R. Edelstein. Three Minute Therapy: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life
> Martin Blinder, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry etc,, Univ of Calif, San Francisco:
"With a series of incisive insights Michael Edelstein cuts through the psychological jargon and makes clear how all of us can effect powerful changes in our psyches, in our lives and in the lives of our loved ones."
> Albert Ellis, Ph.D. President, Albert Ellis Institute for Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy:
"Of all the books that explain [Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy] in simple, clear, and highly usable form, this is one of the very best."
[Albert Ellis is author of a number of books including A Guide to Rational Living]

Albert Ellis, PhD.  How to Control Your Anger Before It Controls You

Albert Ellis, PhD.  How to Stubbornly Refuse to Make Yourself Miserable About Anything

Robert Epstein, PhD.  Self-Help Without the Hype
[reader:] "In the tradition of the One Minute Manager, this book is delivered as a short story of a younger man learning from an older man. The content is simple. And it is extremely practical. I wrote the book, Self-Help Stuff That Works, and I have to say I was a little jealous at what Epstein had done. It is clear, simple, and one hundred percent practical. Epstein says his real-life model for the older man in the book is none other than B. F. Skinner, who Epstein knew personally."

Robert W. Firestone, Ph.D. et al.  Conquer Your Critical Inner Voice
"Freeing yourself of your early programming -- separating out negative ways of thinking from a more realistic, compassionate view -- becomes an important ongoing pursuit. When you can see the world through your own eyes instead of through the distorted filter of the critical inner voice, your perspective of yourself, of others, and of the world will be transformed. You will become very much like an explorer, a discoverer of your own inner world.."

Robert Firestone, et al. Creating a Life of Meaning and Compassion: The Wisdom of Psychotherapy
"This book offers a compilation of mature therapeutic insights that are valuable in achieving a better way of living. It describes a unique experiment in applied psychology whereby a group of individuals overcame a wide range of defensive behaviors and transformed their lives.... offers corrective suggestions based on their experiences...  [from publisher summary]

Barbara Held, Ph.D.  Stop Smiling, Start Kvetching : A 5 Step Guide to Creative Complaining  "I'm worried that we're not making space for people to feel bad," says Dr. Held, a clinical psychologist at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Me... "Life is very hard. If you're having a hard time with something, it can make it harder to cope if you feel pressure to act O.K. when you're not."

Susan J. Jeffers  Feel the Fear...and Beyond: Mastering the Techniques for Doing It Anyway

Kevin J. Kelly, PhD, Becoming Your Own Therapist Practical Effective Strategies For Managing Your Moods and Behavior 
[link to book site: instant pdf download] F> contents include Feelings; Thoughts; The Cognitive Model; reducing anxiety and taking effective action; Why We Worry; Making Better Decisions /etc

Marc F. Kern, PhD. Take Control Now....>> free download of Chapter 1

By practicing unhealthy lifestyle management habits either you or someone you love has gotten into a difficult and unpleasant place in life. This could center around one bad habit or a series of bad habits which include: smoking tobacco or marijuana, poor stress reduction skills, overeating, compulsive shopping, addictive depression, being a workaholic, constant self doubting, free-floating fear and anxiety, drinking too much on a regular basis, not following your doctor's advice, procrastination, misuse of prescription medication, lack of exercise, use of street drugs, poor work habits, hypochondria, poor study habits, consistent laziness, addiction to television, being a couch potato, gambling too much, sexual harassment, the compulsive use of pornography, and on and on.

There are two types of unhealthy habits: the "YES" bad habits and the "NOT" bad habits. Both types are motivated by avoidance of uncomfortable feelings. -- excerpt from Chapter One

Marc F. Kern, PhD is Founder and Director of Addiction Alternatives, a specialized program dedicated solely to assisting individuals self-manage destructive habits such as problem drinking, drug abuse and other excessive behaviors.

Adam Khan.  Self-Help Stuff That Works
[excerpt:] "When you're in the habit of making faulty (irrational, unreasonable, unjustifiable) assumptions in response to certain kinds of events, you're likely to feel a lot of anger, anxiety or sadness in that area of your life. Cognitive science says, "Rather than trying to think positively, find out what's wrong with your negative thinking. If you've got strong negative feelings, your thinking is inevitably distorted, unsubstantiated and overgeneralized."

Laurel Mellin.  The Pathway: Follow the Road to Health and Happiness

Joseph Murphy. The Power of Your Subconscious Mind: One of the Most Powerful Self-Help Guides Ever Written!
"Within your subconscious depths lie infinite wisdom, infinite power, an infinite supply of all that is necessary. It is waiting there for you to give it development and expression. If you begin now to recognize these potentialities of your deeper mind, they will take form in the world without."

Nancy J. Napier. Getting Through the Day: Strategies for Adults Hurt As Children

Fred Newman and Lois Holzman The End of Knowing: A New Developmental Way of Learning 'Fred Newman and Lois Holzman offer the alternative of "performed activity"--a non-academic way forward to develop and add meaning to our lives. The authors believe that it is through participation in cultural, educational and psychological projects that one can achieve personal enrichment. These projects and ideas have been formulated from 25 years of practice in the authors' own "anti-institution," a development community free of political and academic affiliations... Fred Newman and Lois Holzman are both Directors at the East Side Institute for Short Term Psychotherapy, New York City.'

John C. Norcross, PhD  Authoritative Guide to Self-Help Resources in Mental Health

Deborah Norville  Back on Track : How to Straighten Out Your Life When It Throws You a Curve  (audio)
"Have you ever shoved food in your face when you were hurt or angry and hated yourself at the time for doing it? Have you ever felt severely depressed? Have you ever had the sense that life is just a series of days strung together? You just plod through them and at some point it all ends? You were having a crisis. Just like me. When I left my job as co-anchor on NBC's Today show, I went through a major tailspin. I was paralyzed by depression. There were weeks I never left my apartment or even got dressed. And yet.. I looked inside ... and found within the way to get 'back on track.' The steps may seem simple, but taking them is not. What I hope to do with this book, by sharing my story and that of many other courageous women who put crisis behind them, is to encourage you to try walking." Deborah Norville

Dennis Palumbo  Writing from the Inside Out  "The traditional stereotypcial view is, 'Oh, my neuroses cause my writing, so if I cure my neuroses, I won't write anymore.' But my experience is: There is no cure. It's a mistake to think that there is some perfectable you in the future freed of conflict and problems. And if that happens, you won't write anymore. The conflicts and sensitivities that drive a person to write are with us forever. They're what make us who we are, and they're what make us writers."

Judith Simon Prager, Ph.D. Journey to Alternity - Transformational Healing Through Stories and Metaphors
[from book:] What if you could change your life, your health, your world in the wink of an eye? Like an optical illusion, a picture hidden in a picture that suddenly reveals itself with a change of focus, so, in that way, alternate realities -- "alternities"-- await your discovery. Through true and astounding stories of healings, exercises to experience the mysteries for yourself, and detailed explanations of the quantum science beyond them, you will discover how it is possible to change your health and your world with your imagination. The book uses the metaphor to explode the prison of limits that has characterized three-dimensional life. It uses the illusion of allusion to melt hard forms and make them malleable. It offers you alternity -- the domain of endless possibilities -- and invites you to move in.

Hugh Prather  The Little Book of Letting Go   'Many self-help writers have pinpointed these obstacles to our experience of wholeness but Prather also presents a very concrete 30-day program filled with exercises, down-to-earth suggestions, and spiritual practices. "A mind that learns to let go gradually returns to its inherent wholeness, happiness, and simplicity." .. [review: Frederic Brussat, Values & Visions Reviews www.spiritualrx.com]

Cheryl Richardson  Take Time for Your Life
"Making a daily or weekly practice of finding stillness in order to experience the power of silence is a key way to support your overall mental and physical health. We need noiselessness to return to our center. Stillness and solitude are curative .. to support a more spiritually oriented, authentic life." [from Cheryl Richardson's newsletter: April 24, 2000 -- from her site]

Mary Rocamora.  The Personal Journey Workbook: A Guide to an Extraordinary Life   Mary Rocamora, founder and director of The Rocamora School, Inc., has been counseling gifted adults for more than 24 years, plus researching how beliefs and patterns of thinking impact self-actualization and creativity.   [from school:]  "This new self-paced workbook, based on the coursework of the Rocamora School, is a carefully designed exploration of awareness and beliefs using accessible, non-dogmatic information and precisely crafted sequences of inductive exercises... The best attitude to have or to cultivate for this work is one of curiosity, interest, and fascination. Set aside labels ('neurotic', 'co-dependent', 'inadequate', etc.), judgments, theories, archetypes, beliefs and meditation practices. The Personal Journey is to be explored with a fresh mind that is completely present, to seek a precise description of your own inner -- and unique -- experience."

Anne Wilson Schaef  Living in Process : Basic Truths for Living the Path of the Soul

books by Martin E. Seligman:
"We can control our thoughts as we can our muscles... One of the most significant findings in psychology
in the last twenty years is that individuals can choose the way they think."

Learned Optimism : How to Change Your Mind & Your Life*******The Optimistic Child

What You Can Change... and What You Can't********The Science of Optimism and Hope

Idries Shah  Learning How to Learn : Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way

Judith Sills, PhD. If the Horse Is Dead, Get Off: Creating Change When You're Stuck in Your Comfort Zone

"With warmth, wisdom, a gentle push, and lots of good advice, Dr. Sills invites and inspires us to step into a larger, more gratifying life." - Harriet Lerner, Ph.D., author of The Dance of Anger

"Judith Sills is the voice of clarity, wisdom and common sense that yells 'Enough already' in a way that we can hear and act on her sage advice." - Joan Borysenko, Ph.D., author of Inner Peace for Busy Women

"This book is wise and funny and full of hope. Creative, practical, imaginative and sane, Dr. Sills really knows how to help people get unstuck. She is brilliant, and her book is a sparkling gem." - Edward Hallowell, M.D., author of The Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness

"A delightful read and a very effective recipe for helping you push through your fears and change what isn't working in your life." - Susan Jeffers, Ph.D., author of Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway and Embracing Uncertainty

Hal Stone, Ph.D. and Sidra Stone, Ph.D.  Embracing Our Selves: The Voice Dialogue Manual
[The authors:] 'Meet your Pusher, Critic, Pleaser, Protector/Controller, Vulnerable Child, and all the other members of your inner family. With humor and trememdous insight, this book introduces you to your subpersonalities -- the many "selves" within -- and helps you discover what each needs and what each has to offer, providing a foundation for understanding, self-acceptance, and a genuinely fulfilling life experience.'

Pauline Wallin, Ph.D. Taming Your Inner Brat: A Guide for Transforming Self-Defeating Behavior
Taming Your Inner Brat takes you on an exploration of the "inner brat" in all of us. It explains the psychological sources of the inner brat, rooted in early childhood, and why bratty thoughts, feelings and behaviors persist. The book also addresses social and cultural conditions that encourage the self-centeredness and sense of entitlement upon which the inner brat thrives. The inner brat takes on many forms or "personae." The inner brat is not always recognizable. But its destructive effects are immediately apparent: bad habits, short fuses, poor impulse control, and chronic procrastination are just a few of the products of the inner brat. You will learn how to recognize the inner brat, and acquire specific strategies and skills to bring it under control. [from author site]

David Wexler. The Adolescent Self: Strategies for Self-Management, Self-Soothing, and Self-Esteem in Adolescents
[Ingram:]  Dr. David Wexler describes an innovative treatment program for troubled adolescents that addresses central problems of the "self." The problems of substance abuse, anxiety, aggression, self-destructive behavior, eating disorders, and mood swings can usually be traced to fundamental deficits, particularly in the ability to self-soothe. This book models a range of carefully designed strategies to address these central problems of the adolescent self.

David Wexler. The Prism Workbook: A Program for Innovative Self-Management

~ ~ ~ ~

> more mental health book pages: books : positive psychology....books: addiction / dependency.....abuse resources : articles  sites  books...... alcohol resources : articles sites books.......books: anxiety relief.....books: depression.... counseling / therapy : articles / sites / books... cutting / self-injury : articles / sites / books......depth psychology 2 : sites articles books..... dysfunction / disorder : articles books sites....eating disorders.articles books sites..... emotion: resources : articles books sites....emotional intelligence : books articles sites.... fear 2 : quotes  articles  books......mental fitness.sites articles books...... self-esteem / self concept : sites articles books....the shadow self : sites articles books..... stress resources : articles books programs.....supplements : products / books

~ ~ ~ ~

 

  << related pages: *-mental health*--book pages main index

****home page  :: Talent Development Resources......*site contents*****books etc

*********sections---Women & Talent ------Teen / Young Adult talent