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Rita Levi Montalcini
Praise of Imperfection New Edition
Rita Levi Montalcini's life has been entirely dedicated to scientific research. She grew up in a tightly knit Jewish family and studied medicine in Turin. Forced into inactivity by the racist laws of Fascist Italy, she set up a makeshift laboratory in her bedroom and began studying the development of the nervous system. Her research, which she completed in the United States after the war, led to the discovery of the nerve growth factor whose role is to stimulate the growth of nerve fibres. Her autobiography, written with warmth and simplicity, traces the progress of her life, including being awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine.
Rita Levi Montalcini
Against All the Odds
What do Primo Levi, the author of one of the most powerful accounts of life in a Nazi death camp, and Max Delbrück, one of the founding fathers of molecular biology, have in common? The answer is that they--as well as the others described in this book--were able to face the trials and tribulations of their lives with exceptional courage, and without losing their sense of humanity. Through a series of portraits, drawn with great warmth and restraint, Rita Levi Montalcini recounts the course of several exemplary lives. Rita Levi Montalcini taught neurobiology at Washington University for thirty years.
Tobie Nathan, Alain Blanchet, Serban Ionescu, Nathalie Zajde
Psychotherapies
This book is a rigorous presentation of what is now called the Nathan method, that is to say the therapeutic methods (using objects or discussion) which result in a cure through that influence. Using the differences between Western and African techniques as a starting point, he explains how following a psychotherapeutic treatment, or consulting an African healer constitutes an affiliation to a certain group. That is not to say, however, that all therapeutic methods are the same. On the contrary, this book tries to define some kind of criteria of evaluation which is conducive to an informed choice. The two main elements of psychotherapy, the therapy and the trauma, in other words the object and the motivation of the sick person for taking the step of getting treatment, are re-examined in this new context.
Peter Reichel
Germany and its Memories
How has Germany absorbed the heritage of National Socialism? What became of the Nazi buildings in Munich and Berlin? Have they been destroyed, rebuilt or abandoned? What is the significance of the present state of the concentration camps of Buchenwald, Dachau, and Ravensbrück? Does their condition signify an active desire to commemorate the past, or rather of a wish to make it commonplace? Peter Reichel draws on examples from one city after another, and sometimes in one neighbourhood after another, to highlight the hesitations and the contradictions of a nation confronted with a past that will not, or should not, go away.
Stanley Greenspan, Jacqueline Salmon
The Challenging Child (Coll. Opus) Understanding, Raising, and Enjoying the Five
There always comes a time when parents think that their child has become impossible. Hyper-sensitivity, withdrawal, systematic indiscipline, concentration difficulties, aggressiveness : through five cases of difficult children, Stanley Greenspan explains how to help by emphasising the sensory and motional differences of each of child. Importantly this book allows parents to identify for themselves the personality of their child, in order to find in the childs weaknesses the ingredients for future success. Stanley Greenspan is a doctor of medicine, and a teacher of psychiatry, behavioural psychology et paediatrics at the George Washington Faculty of Medicine in the United States. Jacqueline Salmon is a journalist at the Washington Post.
Jean Piaget
Of Education
What is the teacher's role and how important is it in a child's education? Should this role include the shaping in the child's mind of the tools with which to grasp and comprehend the world? How should activities be presented so as to be easily understood by children? What are the difficulties that children encounter when resolving mathematical problems? Pedagogical methodology, the role of the educator, and the child's autonomy : these are some of the subjects that Piaget reflected on throughout his life and which remain central to educational concerns today.
Jean-Pierre Changeux, Paul Ricœur
What Makes Us Think Nature and Rules
'The intention of this book was to put a scientist and a philosopher face to face and spark a dialogue between them on neuroscience, on their results and projects, and their ability to carry out a debate on ethics, its norms, and on peace. In France, ideas are rarely openly discussed. Serious debates are too often hindered by dogmatic statements, one-sided criticisms, incomprehensible discussions and glib mockery, with little or no thought for the solidity of the arguments, which aim only to appear plausible or worthy of being argued, rather than convincing. A totally free and open dialogue between a scientist and a philosopher is necessarily a highly unusual experience for both.' Paul Ricur and Jean-Pierre Changeux Paul Ricur is an honorary professor at the University of Paris-X and an emeritus professor at the University of Chicago. Jean-Pierre Changeux, a member of the French Academy of Science, teaches at the College of France and the Pasteur Institute.
Alain Braconnier, Daniel Marcelli
The Many Facets of Adolescence
How can parents avoid abusing their position of authority, without becoming too chummy? When should adolescent expressions of anxiety and depression warrant serious concern? What is a "problem adolescent"? What should be done in response to the dangers of drugs and of AIDS? First published by Editions Universitaires in 1988, The Many Facets of Adolescence has rapidly became a classic. It has been completely revised for the present edition, in particular the epidemiological data and the sections concerning adolescent depression and the relations between adolescents and their family. Alain Braconnier is a psychiatrist and director of the Centre Alfred Binet in Paris; he also teaches at the University of Paris-V. Daniel Marcelli is a psychiatrist specialising in childhood and adolescence.
