Catalog All books
François Roustang
The End of Complaining
What is the most common reason for going to a therapist? Most patients say it is wanting to change. By the same token, they complain about their present lives. According to François Roustang, all forms of complaining must be dropped; patients must forget their precious egos which serve only to nurture more complaining and whining. Once patients have let go of these trappings, they will be able to remould their lives. This book offers a powerful criticism of traditional therapy and of its failure to reach its avowed goal: to help us to change. It argues for a spiritual approach to inner development. François Roustang is a philosopher, psychoanalyst and unconventional practitioner.
Ilya Prigogine
The End of Certainties (Coll. Opus)
As we come to the end of the century, the question of the future of science is often posed. I believe we are just at the beginning of a new endeavour. We are witnessing the development of a science which is no longer limited to simplified, idealised situations, but makes us face the complexity of the real world. This new science will allow human creativity to be experienced as the unique expression of a fundamental trait common to all aspects of nature. Ive tried to present this conceptual transformation, which implies the beginning of a new chapter in the fruitful relations between physics and mathematics, in a manner that will be comprehensible and accessible to all readers interested in the evolution of our ideas of nature. We are but at the threshold of a new chapter in the history of our dialogue with nature, writes Ilya Prigogine. Ilya Prigogine, winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, teaches at the Free University of Brussels and at the University of Texas, in Austin.
Ilya Prigogine
The End of Certainties
As we come to the end of the century, the question of the future of science is often posed. I believe we are just at the beginning of a new endeavour. We are witnessing the development of a science which is no longer limited to simplified, idealised situations, but makes us face the complexity of the real world. This new science will allow human creativity to be experienced as the unique expression of a fundamental trait common to all aspects of nature. Ive tried to present this conceptual transformation, which implies the beginning of a new chapter in the fruitful relations between physics and mathematics, in a manner that will be comprehensible and accessible to all readers interested in the evolution of our ideas of nature. We are but at the threshold of a new chapter in the history of our dialogue with nature, writes Ilya Prigogine. Ilya Prigogine, winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, teaches at the Free University of Brussels and at the University of Texas, in Austin.
Pierre Boulez, Jean-Pierre Changeux, Philippe Manoury
The Enchanted Neurons The Brain and the Music
A unique event: two major intellectuals of our time discuss the links between the neurosciences and music
Alain Berthoz, Gérard Jorland
The Empathie
Empathy is the ability to put oneself in the position of others, and thus to understand and know them. Ever since Darwin, empathy has been regarded as the basis of all human social behaviour, and most notably of ethics. Some major psychological disorders - autism, for example - can be described as the inability to empathise. Certain types of perverse behaviour, such as the torture of defenceless victims, have been explained as distortions of empathy. This book offers an overview of studies on empathy for the past 250 years. It also describes the latest research on the subject in a variety of fields: cognitive psychology, philosophy, ethology and ethics. Alain Berthoz is a professor at the Collège de France and a member of the French Academy of Sciences. He is the author of Le Sens du mouvement and La Décison, both published by Editions Odile Jacob. Gérard Jorland is a director of studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and the author of Les Paradoxes du capital (Editions Odile Jacob) and La Science dans la philosophie.
Michel Delage
The Emotional Life and Attachment In the Family
The evolution of emotional ties and relations within the modern family
Stéphany Orain-Pélissolo
Embrace Your Pain, Eliminate Your Suffering Mindfulness Therapy
A method for everyone, regardless of the type of suffering: somatic illnesses, chronic pain, emotional disturbances… An eight-week program of audio exercises, focused on attention and emotions, which enables one to escape the vicious cycle of suffering in which one becomes trapped.
Commission Canberra
Eliminating Nuclear Arms
"Legally, politically and strategically nuclear arms have been reduced to a tiny number of marginal hypotheses and will soon be mere anachronisms. They have lost their justification, their reason for being. But they continue to represent a danger for humanity : they could be used by accident or by mistake due to the mistaken interpretation of another country's attitude. We must therefore do everything in opur power to eliminate them once and for all." Michel Rocard
Véronique Cortier, Pierrick Gaudry
Electronic Voting
Electronic voting cannot be left to experts alone; this book provides clear and precise answers to any questions citizens may have.
Jean-Pierre Hansen, Jacques Percebois
Electricity in Transition What Europe and the markets couldn’t tell you
The history of electricity as you’ve never heard it before. A genuine mini-guide to economic issues through the example of electricity: price formation, transmission costs, monopolies.
Yann Verdo
Einstein’s Violin Einstein, Niels Bohr, and Gödel
A very original initiation into the mysteries of science, for the “honest man” of the twenty-first century.
Yves-Alain Fontaine
Eels and Man
In this book, the author, an expert in his field, describes the most fascinating stages in the eels biological cycle, its migrations and the modifications it undergoes during its life. Eels interest us not only because of their life and breeding cycles, but also because of the questions they raise concerning our ideas about evolution. Does the notion of adaptation suffice to explain everything the eel has become? Doesnt a living creature maintain a certain amount of independence in relation to the world that surrounds it? Or is the relationship between a living creature and the environment which surrounds it more complex that we have generally realised ?
François Dalle, Jean Bounine
Education in Business Against the Unemployment of the Young
Each year in France, 250,000 young people come out of the education system without even a shred of a diploma. The German example and that of Japan shows that the work situation and economic performance are better when schools assure proper instruction and enterprise takes charge of paving the way to employment. François Dalle, President of l'Oréal from 1957 to 1984, and Jean Bounine, advisor to the general directors of this group, are the authors of a 1987 report on employment.
Maurice Tubiana
Education and Life
This book is a reflection on the alarming fact that France has the highest level of violent deaths (from suicide, drugs, and road accidents) in all Europe among young people between 18 and 22 years old. Tubiana analyses the pleasure principle which runs through our culture and our values, the Freudian principle that demands the immediate satisfaction of our impulses. This brings him to denounce postmodern individualism which does not make any room for the collective interest. Maurice Tubiana is a world-reknowned oncologist and member of the French Academy of Science and the Academy of Medicine.
Jacques Delors
Education The Hidden Value Within
In this book, Delors specifies the educational objectives we should strive for: competence is vital, but it is equally necessary to prepare people to master knowledge, to teach themselves, to live together and, most simply, to be. We must invent and instill an approach to education that truly prepares men and women to take their own futures in hand, and such a feat implies not only economic efficiency, but also an adequate preparation for everyday life. Shouldn't the mastery of education be the next challenge taken up by the global community?