Psychology All books

Serge Tisseron
The Benefits of the Image
Should sex and violence be banned on our television screens ? Is there a danger that their presence can lead to them becoming common-place, or to delinquency ? In light of this current debate, Serge Tisseron argues that as soon as we become accustomed to a type of image, and it ceases to upset us, we invent another type which will once more allow us to confuse image and reality, and thus to shiver again with fear and anxiety. In a society which is flooded with images, it is thus essential to use them as best we can, and to avoid the dangers that are inherent in them. This book aims to contribute to this end. Serge Tisseron is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, doctor of psychology and research fellow at the University of Paris-X. For the past fifteen years, he has worked on the relations that viewers have with different types of images.

Didier Pleux
From the King Child to the Tyrant Child
More and more parents are faced with what amounts to a power take-over by their children. The tyrannical child makes constant demands, uses his parents for his own ends and creates a climate of psychological violence. The solution lies in education coupled with authority. This is a lively, clear and polemical work which shows parents how to redefine their parental authority and should enable them to feel less anxious. Besides offering practical psychological advice, it also provides an examination of what living in society means. Didier Pleux is a clinical psychologist

Catherine Clément, Tobie Nathan
The Couch and the Grigri
This work is a fascinating discussion between a practising analyst who has not ceased to confront his discipline with other disciplines of the mind, and a philosopher with great psychoanalytic experience. It aims to show how cultural heritage a debt linking each generation to its ancestors shapes both how we represent reality and our emotional universe. The authors thoughts and conclusions are thoroughly backed up with a variety of specific examples and observations. Tobie Nathan is an ethno-psychologist and teaches clinical and pathological psychology at the University of Paris VIII. Catherine Clément is a writer and philosopher.

Bertrand Cramer, Christiane Robert-Tissot, Sandra Rusconi Serpa
From Baby to Preadolescent A Longitudinal Study
In 1991, 103 mother-and-infant pairs visited Genevas Guidance Infantile. The infants all displayed functional and behavioural disorders. Ten years later, the same mother-child pairs were re-evaluated by Professor Cramers team, who was thus able to make a number of prospective analyses. What became of the symptoms that the infants had first presented? Did any of the symptoms first displayed indicate a predisposition to other disorders? Can the characteristics that helped them to endure be identified? And what can be said of the role played by cognitive development and parental representations, as well as by protective factors? Professor Bertrand Cramer is a child psychiatrist.

Jeanne Siaud-Facchin
The Over-Gifted Child Helping them to grow up, helping them to succeed
It could almost be said that gifted children are in danger. They are emotional sponges who often ignore the insouciance of childhood, and their hyper-receptivity puts them in a state of heightened vigilance. For these reasons, gifted children are more often familiar with fear and anxiety. And yet, if parents and teachers understand the gifted child, he or she will blossom and make use of the great wealth of his or her personality and abilities. The goal of this practical manual is to guide parents and teachers in the discovery of gifted or exceptional children. Jean Siaud-Facchin is a clinical psychologist.

Raymond Cahn
The End of the Couch ?
Why do psychoanalysts refuse to review their methods, while simultaneously recognising that life-styles have evolved and that new pathologies have come into existence? Why, for example, do they remain devoted to the psychoanalysts couch, while realising that certain cures are at a dead-end? This is a controversial work on the challenges facing psychoanalysis a field that had its hour of glory in the 1960s but has since been somewhat discredited. Raymond Cahn is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.

Hubert Montagner
Child and Animal The Emotions Which Liberate Intelligence
What could be more commonplace than the emotional ties that some children develop with cats and dogs or other pets? And yet, nothing could be more surprising than the fact that such ties, which are sometimes very close and intense, can exist between members of very different species. The author traces the long history of this co-evolution, from the early domestication of animals for economic ends (such as warning or defence) to the keeping of animals as pets. Above all, he asks the question: What if animals contribute significantly to childrens psychological and emotional development? Professor Hubert Montagner heads a research unit of INSERM.

Françoise Millet-Bartoli
Mid-Life Crisis A Second Chance
In France, the notion of a mid-life crisis remains relatively little known. And yet, just like childhood and adolescence, mid-life is a specific age characterised by a distinctive psychology and, sometimes, psycho-pathology. This often-feared time of life, governed by major personal changes, can also be a period of true rebirth if the mid-lifer learns how to deal with the changes, by being informed and knowing how to react. This book focuses on what mid-lifers can do to live in greater harmony with themselves. Françoise Millet-Bartoli is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist and teaches at the medical faculty of Toulouse.

Hubert Montagner
The Child : The Real Question of Education
This ambitious work aims to provide a comprehensive view of the mechanisms, processes, influences, factors, and past and present events that may keep children from constructing, structuring or mobilising their abilities in an academic environment, and from acquiring new abilities and successfully constructing the required learning skills. In the struggle against academic failure, the main tool is understanding the child better. In order to do this, it is essential to base educational practice on the most recent knowledge.