book reviews
Book reviews by and for those seeking to understand the human mind for all its strengths, quirks and shortcomings.
Review of Janet Bloom's Book Co-Parenting Hell: Raising Healthy Kids With a Narcissistic Ex
The author of this book is a divorced mother of young children. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-Version 5 definition of narcissistic personality disorder provided by the American Psychiatric Association is presented at the beginning of the book (DSM-V). The author bases the book's description on her own experiences while also using academic articles from the American Psychiatric Association. The book is structured as a memoir and guide for other parents in a similar position. She speaks of finding emotional liberation and tranquility. However, she alludes to "my ex (the bastard)" a few pages later. Hmmm.
Rahau MihaiPublished 6 days ago in Psyche
Review: My Year of Rest and Relaxation
I loved this book from the first page. The voice, the unlikeable but addictive narrator, who takes you through the mundane and boring of her own life that could otherwise be interesting (I mean, she has the money). We meet vapid and uncaring people. We meet artists that only care to shock their audience (very Damien Hirst-esque in their art pieces). But mostly we meet someone who thinks they can fix their life after a year of sleep.
Zoe McGarrickPublished 3 months ago in Psyche
3 Books That Changed My Life Tremendously
1) Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk “Being able to feel safe with other people is probably the single most important aspect of mental health; safe connections are fundamental to meaningful and satisfying lives.”
A Good Reason To Go
I decided to post my entire poetry books here as a little exclusive for those who happen to find my profile. If you'd still like to support me, I'll link the Amazon link. Thank you for sharing space with me.
SouluminosityPublished 4 months ago in PsycheLiving With Christopher
Mark Haddon composed a radiant book that turned into a hit and won both the Whitbread Book of the Year and Whitbread Novel honors. It was said that Mark Haddon himself shouted, "Who on Earth would need to learn about a fifteen-year-old kid with a handicap?," while he was making this book. Much to his dismay that it was by and large the fifteen-year-old kid with a handicap that made his book stick out, win grants and become a success. The book is designated, "The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time and the kid is Christopher."
Am I Neurodivergent?
I recently posted a meme about neurodivergent people struggling with eye contact, as well as a second post about how a diagnosis is akin to learning that you're playing the game on hard mode; it doesn't reduce the difficulty, but it lets you strategize.
Zachary PhillipsPublished 5 months ago in PsycheTerry Pratchett: Made Me Believe In Magic
When Terry Pratchett died I felt like a family member had died. His books were an integral part of my early life, hell they still are. When I was younger I would have one of his books everywhere so I could read one wherever I was.
Sam FinlaysonPublished 7 months ago in Psyche
A Refreshing Perspective of Mental Illness
"Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead" is the debut book released by Emily Austin, following the life of Gilda, an anxious, death-obsessed hypochondriac.
Anxious People
Anxiety is the equivalent of a plague for our generation. There is not even a single person unaffected by it as far as I know. Some hide it under the façade of extreme pleasantness and for some, it may be rudeness. We suffer in the self-made prisons thinking we are all alone in our suffering. We imagine that we are all broken and somehow that brokenness we treat as something unmendable. Many of our life-threatening problems will disappear if we open up a bit to others. But in a highly connected world, who has the time to sit down and listen without flipping through the mobile phone even once?
chembarathiPublished 8 months ago in Psyche
Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience — Sixteen Years Later
Authors note: Portions of this are directly reposted from a response I had written to a Jack Preston King review/discussion of the book How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett. From the little I have read of her work (I have not read her current book, which is the subject of Jack’s discussion) Dr. Barrett writes and thinks very much in the tradition of Patricia Churchland Smith, a neuroscientist/philosopher of great renown. That said I view her positions as misguided and she is the queen of the mereological fallacy often using the brain and the person interchangeably as she views them as one and the same. She also believes that if we fully understood everything about how the brain works, we could recreate particular states of consciousness. She is the ultimate reductionist and views consciousness as nothing more than a particular series of electro-chemical reactions in the brain which, like particular states of consciousness, we could replicate artificially if we fully understood. No body would be required for this miraculous achievement. My guess is the AI crowd is a big fan of her work, myself, not so much. I do not know if Dr. Barrett would go so far but it seems she commits the mereological fallacy almost as frequently. In any event, neither would fare well at the hands of Bennet and Hacker. In fact Dr. Churchland-Smith is a frequent target of their logical breakdowns of various neuroscientific studies and claims about the brain and consciousness, which they dissect and show to be in error point by point.
Everyday JunglistPublished 9 months ago in PsycheWhen I Really Shouldn't Have Judged a Book By Its Cover
With how damaging anxiety can be to your health, some will try almost anything they can think of if it will make them feel better. From medications to meditation, endless hours of books, supplements, diets, and everything else in between, navigating self-help material is like wading in muddy water. What makes those conditions even worse is when someone who doesn't know about this topic at all, tries to contribute to it.
Grace LinnPublished 9 months ago in Psyche
Brain imaging, Consciousness, Jaynes and Wittgenstein
Author's preface: The first part of this piece relies very heavily on direct quotations from the piece referenced. Thank you author Colin Klein for a wonderful review and author/researcher Robert Shulman for one hell of a book.
Everyday JunglistPublished 9 months ago in Psyche
