Catalog All books

Hubert Montagner
Child and Animal The Emotions Which Liberate Intelligence
What could be more commonplace than the emotional ties that some children develop with cats and dogs or other pets? And yet, nothing could be more surprising than the fact that such ties, which are sometimes very close and intense, can exist between members of very different species. The author traces the long history of this co-evolution, from the early domestication of animals for economic ends (such as warning or defence) to the keeping of animals as pets. Above all, he asks the question: What if animals contribute significantly to childrens psychological and emotional development? Professor Hubert Montagner heads a research unit of INSERM.

Alain Braconnier
How to Be a Parent love and common sense
The new art of parenting, or how to reconcile love and common sense from infancy to adolescence

Anka Muhlstein
Balzac at Table
A luminous essay of “literary gastronomy” for food lovers as well as for anyone interested in the nineteenth-century novel

Sylvie Cadolle
Being a Step-parent The Recomposition of the Family
More than one million children in France live permanently or occasionally with a step-parent. What place does a step-parent hold in the family of a child whose parents are divorced or separated? What role does he or she play? Is it sufficient to know how to love in order to succeed in reconstructing a family? This is the first French investigation into the relations between step-parents and step-children that allows both the adults and the children to freely express themselves. Sylvie Cadolle teaches philosophy and educational sociology.

Jean-Paul Betbèze
French people's economic fear
France has economic possibilities, but it remains blocked in several areas. Although the country's leaders are aware of this, they seem unable to make the necessary reforms to move forward. France seems to be the prey of fears that paralyse it, but which have benefited a new class of economic as well as social rentiers who constitute a powerful economic, ideological and political group. These new rentiers are fully cognisant that the defence of their acquired privileges is not a practical long-term solution - as has been shown by rising deficits, decreased competitiveness and job losses. The author argues that it is necessary to make changes and implement reforms - and to do so it is essential to understand and overcome existing fears. It cannot be expected that everything will be changed at once, but some initial efforts must be made. The single reform that will fix everything does not exist, he says, but this is hardly an excuse for refusing to make a start. In other countries, programmes for economic reform are being implemented. Yet France is only beginning to consider such reforms. The object of this book is to provide a greater understanding of the present situation, in the form of a how-to manual. A ruthless analysis of some of France's psychological blocks, apprehensions and economic fears, this book can be regarded as a sort of economic psychotherapy. In addition, the author provides a critique of the false solutions that hinder modernisation and proposes his own solutions for change and reform. Jean-Paul Betbèze is a professor of economics at the University of Paris Panthéon-Assas and a member of the French prime minister's Council for Economic Analysis. He is a consultant to the president and the C.E.O. of a major bank and the author of Les Dix Commandements de la finance, which was awarded the Risques-Les Echos Prize in 2004.

Michel Raymond
Why I Didn’t Invent the Wheel
Between nature and culture, a fascinating, widely accessible book about human evolution

Lionel Naccache
On Being a Subject in Oneself The Talmudic Experience of Spirituality
What does it mean to be oneself? What does it mean to believe? An exploration of the neuroscience and philosophy of subjectivity

Élisa Brune
A Heavy Heart Reflections on Cioran
This moving text on existential suffering is an invitation to read or reread Cioran

Jean-Marie Bourre
Chrono-dietetics
For an optimum absorption of the nutrients our bodies require we must pay close attention to our biorhythms

Olivier Spinnler
Living Happily With Others A New Approach Of Human Relations
An analytical, thought-out, conscious and active approach to human relations.

François Ansermet, Pierre Magistretti
The Enigmas of Pleasure Between Psychoanalysis and Neurosciences
A fascinating exploration of some contemporary forms of malaise, individual and collective: destructiveness, fanaticism, violence, as well as boredom, depression, dependence on gadgets, hyperactivity and addictions

Yves Pouliquen
The Action and the Mind
What does it signify for a surgeon to run the numerous risks, present in every slightest move, in accepting to operate on an eye ? What does it mean for the patient undergoing the operation to place themselves in the hands of strangers, inevitably with a degree of mistrust, in order to be able to see again ? The surgeon and the patient are in fact the protagonists of a human adventure, a scientific conquest and a forgotten medical revolution, which deserve to be related. This is especially since the surgery of the 21st century will also demand creativity, ingenuity, faith and discipline all the forms of engagement that one calls human intelligence Yves Pouliquen An internationally known specialist in ocular surgery, Professor Yves Pouliquen is the author of several books published with Odile Jacob, such as The Transparency of the Eye.

Frank Dangeard
Crisis Decision-Making in Businesses 12 Tales of Governance
Based on his extensive experience as a manager and administrator, and illustrated with numerous examples from recent business history...

Arielle Adda, Hélène Catroux
The Gifted Child Reconciling Intelligence
Exceptionally gifted, gifted and intellectually precocious children make up as much as 5 % of any given age group. Yet they often seek failure, both at school and in their personal lives, because they suffer from being different from other children. This book is addressed to the parents and teachers of gifted children. Besides reviewing the current state of knowledge on the subject, it explains how such children can be taught to manage their potential and to overcome their excessive sensitivity and weaknesses. Arielle Adda is a psychologist. Hélène Catroux is an educational psychologist.

Christophe Paradas
The Mysteries of creativity Psychoanalysis and aesthetic
A reflection on the mystery of creativity and on why art can be so disturbing