Catalog All books
Pierre Jaisson
The Ant and the Sociobiologist
What are the advantages of social organization? P. Jaisson, a sociobiologist, explains how among animals as various as ants, bees, tadpoles and rats, certain altruistic behavior is dependent on a recognized social order. The generalizations fostered by these findings and their application to the human speces are a source of violent debate and moral questioning. Jaisson provides an honest look at the ideological exploitation born of sociobiological study.
Claude Aron
Bisexuality and the Order of Nature
Our sex defines our identity before we are even named - "It's a boy" or "It's a girl" is the traditional welcome we receive in this world. Similarly, throughout our entire life, our gender defines our diverse social roles. Yet, this book shows how nature presents us with only one model, that of bisexuality. Endocrinian manipulations have shown that it is possible to change from one sexuality to another in a reversible manner. This book is key reading in the debate about the genetic character, or not, of homosexuality. Claude Aron, a specialist in in the physiology of reproduction, is also an honorary professor of the Louis-Pasteur University in Strasbourg.
Jean-Claude Cousseran, Philippe Hayez
Intelligence and Intelligence Gathering in Democracies
A thoroughly researched, pedagogical work for anyone interested in Intelligence
James B. Collins
The Republican Monarchy State and Society in France Under Louis XIV
A new approach to France under Louis XIV and to Ancien Régime society
Fareed Zakaria
The Future of Freedom
Is it really so that more democracy leads automatically to more freedom ? Why, in the four corners of the world, are we now seeing an increased capacity for religion to mobilise the people ? Why, in Europe as in the United States, do we have minorities and oligarchies reigning in the name of the people ? Why has there been an increase in the number of regimes which are born from the polling booth, yet which exalt fanaticism, repression and war ? A dazzling world tour of the geo-political horizon, and also a lesson in modern and contemporary history, which we lead us to reexamine our own prejudices. Fareed Zakaria is the editor of Newsweek International and was formerly the managing director of the review Foreign Affairs.
Colette Chiland, Jean-Philippe Raynaud
The Brain, the Psyche and Development
A fascinating work on the mental development and treatment of children, by eminent specialists in psychiatry and the neurosciences
Christian Stoffaës
Ends of Worlds
An economic pulse sustains life in the modern world. C. Stoffaës investigates the highs of economic boom and the lows of paralyzing depression. He presents an historical survey of our dominant technological and mental structures from Keynes to Schumpeter, from the steam engine to the microchip, from the American golden age to the new Pacific prosperity.
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.
John Cleese, Robin Skynner
Life and How to Survive It
In Life and How to Survive It, the authors have given us more than 400 pages of lively, tonic humour. Their subject is the joy of living and the conditions required to enjoy life to the full. Proceeding by ever-larger concentric circles, the authors successively discuss happy families (brilliant!), companies that allow their employees to fulfil themselves, and finally countries where life is pleasurable. This is British humour at its best, brilliantlyand hilariouslyillustrated. British comic actor John Cleese is famous for the cult television series Fawlty Towers, which he co-authored and starred in. Robin Skynner is a psychotherapist specialising in group therapies.
Alain Dupas
The New Spatial Conquest
The desire to explore our solar system, with robots and especially with men and women, has become a global one. A new page in the lengthy history of relations between humans and the cosmos is already being written.
Denis Knoepfler
Narcissus and the Greek City
In this remarkable, erudite and beautifully written investigation, a renowned expert in Ancient Greek history sets out to uncover the true historic origins of a familiar figure from Greek mythology — Narcissus.
Jacques Ninio
The Print of the Senses
What is perception? What is the world around us really like? These are the questions that Jacques Ninio examines here, in this completely revised new edition of his highly successful work.
Alain Bécoulet
Nuclear Fusion
The great hope in the realm of energy transition: fusion produces almost no radioactive waste, and doesn’t emit CO2. . .
Uta Frith
Autism: Explaining the Enigma
Why do certain children live walled in by silence, cut off from the world and others? For the first time, this book offers a general theory on autism, a profound disorder in cognitive development rather than one resulting from family conflict or an attention deficit. Uta Frith is a psychologist and member of a cognitive development study group at the Medical Research Council of Cambridge.
Antonio R. Damasio
Descartes' Error Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain
Being rational is not denying oneself emotions. The brain which thinks, calculates, and makes decisions is not a different entity to the one which laughs, cries, loves, and experiences pleasure and annoyance. The heart has reasons that reason itself is far from being ignorant of. In opposition to the old Cartesian dualism and to all those who wish to reduce the functioning of the human mind to detached calculations worthy of a supercomputer stands the results of the latest neurological research : the absence of emotions and sentiments prevents us from being really rational. Antonio R. Damasio heads the department of neurology at the University of Iowa, in the United States, and teaches at the Institute of Biological Studies of La Jolla.
Jean Guilaine
Protohistory The Awakening of the West (7000-2000 BCE)
An original, in-depth, richly-documented study of menhirs and dolmens, of the “religion” of the people of the Neolithic, of the origins of political power, and of the organization of social hierarchy