Catalog All books
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.
Philippe Jurgensen
The Euro For All
How much is one Euro worth? How should an invoice for 327.53 French francs be converted? How should amounts be rounded off and new prices established? When will taxes and the rent have to be paid in the new European currency?How can managers prepare their companies so that the transition will be made smoothly? What is the best way of protecting one's savings? How will the changeover to the new monetary system affect employment and economic growth? This book will provide readers with the necessary information to enable them to calmly face the upheavals of monetary union. Philippe Jurgensen is a senior official of the French Treasury
Pierre Deniker, Jean-Pierre Olié
Crazy, Me ? Psychiatry Today and Yesterday
An increasing number of mental patients are being treated outside the stereotypical confines of mental institutions. This trend is often financially motivated, since the cost of institutional care is high. But the psychological advantage to the patients is often contested. Should its demise be encouraged? Need mental institutions necessarily be places of repression and exclusion? What is the position of mental illness in our society--given contemporary therapeutic progress and advances in medication? Jean-Pierre Olié and Pierre Deniker are psychiatrists.
Patrick Lemoine
Right of Sanctuaries
This book is a detailed reconstruction of daily life at the Asile du Vinatier, a psychiatric institution near Lyon, from 1937 to 1945, a period marked by the earliest institutional attempts to treat mental illness. It was also the time when the blindness of administrative rules, the meanness of politicians, and the indifference of society at large resulted in a collective drama: the gradual extermination of mental patients. Patrick Lemoine is a psychiatrist and department head at the Hôpital du Vinatier in Lyon.
Charles Millon
Internal Peace
With regard to those who deny the fundamental and cardinal principals of law, which are the absolute respect of the dignity of the human person, the respect of each man whatever his race, class or religion and the eminent and equal dignity of each person; with regard to those who adopt a mindset of hatred, of cynicism and contempt, it is not only out of the question to collude with these people in any way, it is also necessary to fight against them and have the courage to exclude them. Charles Millon, a former Defence Minister and currently deputy mayor of Belley, gives us in this book an insight into his analysis of politics, his personal agenda, his strategy, and his proposals for the law, and for France, so that each one of us can make a judgement with full knowledge of the facts.
Pierre Buser
The Brain : Yours and Others
This book is both a careful review of the numerous debates that have stirred--and continue to stir--the cognitive sciences, and a personal essay. The author has tried to elaborate an original theory of psychic activity, based, on the one hand, on the cognitive conscious and the cognitive unconscious, and, on the other, on the cognitive unconscious and the affective unconscious. Pierre Buser, a former director of the Institut des neurosciences at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique, is Professor Emeritus at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, and a member of the Académie des Sciences.
Lucy-Anna Kukstas
Shape and Show The Powers and Limitations of Diets and Exercise
Were we really meant to spend our lives depriving ourselves of what we want to eat while forcing ourselves to do painful physical exercises ? In this lively, humorous book, mixing common-sense with the latest findings in medical research, Lucy-Anna Kukstas exposes the folly of the ideology of suffering and deprivation. She urges the reader to follow a new life-style for the third millennium based on a new golden rule - that of pleasure.
