Catalog All books
Léo Bersani
Homos Reassessing the Identity
What does it mean to be homosexual today ? Is it necessary to form communities and if so, why ? Is the primary aim equality in society such as it is, or the challenging of society itself ? Up to what point do homosexuals distinguish themselves ? Must there be a link between sexual claims and political dispute ? The gay and lesbian communities necessarily ask themselves these questions. On a wider scale, they also encourage a redefinition of the human being in contemporary societies. Already considered a classic in the United States, Homos presents an innovative, critical reflection on identity and the dangers in the withdrawal of a community from society. An expert in French literature, Leo Bersani is a professor at the University of California. He has notably published Baudelaire and Freud, and Theory and Violence.
Jean Dausset
A Nod in the Direction of Life The Great HLA Adventure
Jean Daussets finding that white blood cells play an active role in immunization won him the Nobel Prize for Medicine and opened a new area of biological investigation, both in pure and in applied research. The HLA system harbours a unique peptide which may be regarded as the essence of the self in opposition to everything else much as the pineal gland was regarded as the seat of the soul by Descartes. The distinction between the self and the non-self is an essential one in immunology where an individuals defensive system must fight off foreign bodies while at the same time defending his or her own system. In his book, Jean Dausset recounts the story of his discovery and introduces the reader to other fascinating aspects of his life and work.
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.