Catalog All books
Bernard Diu
Do atoms really exist ?
Few scientific notions have aroused the speculative imagination like the thermodynamic entropy. All organised systems - societies, living creatures - are destined without exception to decline and eventual death. This book clearly exposes the historical and conceptual development of thermodynamics. Born from a desire to understand and master steam powered machines - the symbol of our industrialised societies - it became the science of the human body. However, it was suddenly passed over in favour of the theory of atoms. It was thus demolished by statistical mechanics which ceded to the imperatives dictated by the atomical structure of the body. After an epic struggle, sometimes quite ferocious, thermodynamics and statistical mechanics have been reconciled by adopting the base of the second with the techniques of the first. This book reads like a novel about contemporary physics. Bernard Diu, a graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieur, is a professor at the University of Paris VII.
Roger Vigouroux
Another day, another patient Memoirs of a Neuropsychiatrist
The author has chosen an unconventional tone and format to describe the experiences of a doctor specialized in mental illness, as well as those of his patients. Exceptional access to day-to-day psychiatric consultations, which is rarely possible to achieve.
Éric Vivier, Marc Daëron
Immunotherapy of cancers History of a medical revolution
This book tells the story of the research and ideas that led to this medical revolution.
Patrick Bellet
Hypnosis, or How to Make Healthcare More Humane
Using hypnosis to improve personal healthcare
Alain Prochiantz
A Monkey, Yourself
Based on recent data in the sequencing of genomes, an explanation of the genetic and cellular mechanisms at the origin of the unique position of our species in the animal world.
Jacques Hochmann
Arrangements of Memory Self-Portrait of a Deranged Psychiatrist
An original attempt to blend biographical and professional experiences, by a psychiatrist who promotes a humanist approach to psychiatric illness.
Geneviève Delaisi de Parseval, Pierre Verdier
Nobody's Child
Adoption and medically assisted procreations reflect the same suffering and ask the same questions. In both cases, the institution, in the name of a mistaken conception of filiation, weighs upon the children's head with an absolute secrecy as to its biological origins. The authors show in this book the consequences this secrecy has upon the psychology of children and parents.
Pierre Fédida
The Benefits of Depression An Appreciation of Psychotherapy
When we attempt to cure human suffering with a chemical pill, arent we denying the real issues that have given rise to depression? Must we resort to denying the psyche in order to come out of a depressive state? Isnt there another way? Pierre Fédida shows that the emergence of a depressive state can always be explained by the disappearance of the capacity to fight off depression : the goal of the psychotherapy of depressive states should be the recovery of this capacity in order to regain ones vital inner balance without the reliance on chemical solutions. Pierre Fédida is a psychoanalyst.
Jean-François Bensahel, Pierre d'Ornellas
Brothers, Apparently A serene and pacifist dialogue, at a time of great religious conflict
In a context of religious antagonism, a calm dialogue between Judaism and Christianity. An analysis of our time by two figures who do not minimize their differences but who seek, in a secular France, to establish common ground.
Michel Jouvet
The Sleep, Consciousness and Wakefulness
A major scientific work that offers a sweeping panorama of the state of consciousness, from Hippocrates to the latest findings in neurology.
Armand Laferrère
Political Reading of the Bible
The Bible is not just a spiritual treasure it is also a political manual for our times.
Anka Muhlstein
Pens and Brushes The influence of art on the 19th-century novel
A meticulous account which goes back to the source of the great classical authors' fascination for painting.