General Psychology All books
Claudine Biland
Liar's Psychology
When people tell lies what are they really trying to do? The goal of liars is to convince others that an event that never occurred took place or that they have opinions and feelings that they do not. The function of liars is thus to simulate fictional states and to dissimulate real situations; their task is to convince others - and to avoid being found out. What is it that makes liars so unbearable? Lying has a negative connotation in every culture. Children are taught not to tell lies. As a little girl says in an advert, you mustn't cheat, “'cause if you do, you betray the trust that your parents have planted inside you”. Lying always implies deceiving trust or even manipulating another's naiveté - both highly unpleasant experiences for the liar's interlocutor. How can liars be detected? Lying is a delicate, complex art, and non-verbal communication is highly fugitive and difficult to read. Nevertheless, certain conversations leave us with strange, discordant feelings. Then there are those hastily formed opinions about someone or a situation that linger on in our memories. Almost imperceptibly, the impression of sincerity is communicated through words, a voice and gestures. The goal of this book is not to determine if and when lying is justifiable, but to explain to us the types of behaviour that liars do or do not adopt and to develop our ability to unmask them. Shunning a Manichaean approach, the author shows that truth cannot govern all our everyday relations with others - neither in our professional lives nor in our private dealings with friends and partners. If we told the truth all the time, life would become unbearable. Lying is an indispensable human activity, which everyone indulges in. In this work of social psychology, the author has made available to professionals and general readers alike the results of the most advanced research on the subject of lying. Claudine Biland is a psychologist specialising in non-verbal communication. She teaches in Paris.
Jacques Lecomte
Cured of Childhood
How does a child whom life has hurt become resilient? Jacques Lecomte examines every aspect of a child's environment that can help him or her overcome misfortune. He stresses the crucial need for markers in the reconstruction of the child's personality, and on the importance of finding meaning in suffering. This is a thorough study of resilience, its foundations and how it works. It is also a polemical work which questions the role played by psychotherapists in building resilience. Jacques Lecomte argues that they are not the only ones who can do this - and that sometimes psychotherapists can do more harm than good. The author suggests specific plans of action, for families and children, so that those who are suffering and in pain may learn to become resilient and happy. This book offers a powerful message of hope - happiness, says the author, lies in acquiring a better understanding of resilience. Jacques Lecomte is a doctor in psychology and a lecturer at the University of Paris-X. He specialises in training professionals who work with children and is secretary general of the International Observatory on Resilience, presided by Boris Cyrulnik.
Willy Pasini
Jealousy
The sexual revolution of the 1960s undermined fidelity as well as jealousy, both of which were regarded as out-dated bourgeois concepts. Since then, jealousy has become unacceptable - something that should be hidden because it is somehow shameful. But what if jealousy were intrinsic to human nature, asks Willy Pasini. What if it were an essential part of all of us - a disease that some of us develop while others remain healthy carriers? If jealousy concerns all of us, argues Pasini, we must accept its reality, learn not to be afraid of it and put an end to our feelings of shame and embarrassment. That is the first step. The second step consists in trying to educate our feelings of jealousy, instead of denying them. We can do this by playing with allusions and illusions, with the extraordinary - and forgotten - power of flirtation, with the lightness of being. Here is a book that should help turn jealousy into a positive factor - and even into an aphrodisiac. A psychiatrist and sexologist, Willy Pasini is the author of many best-selling books, including À quoi sert le couple? and Les Nouveau Comportements sexuels, both published by Editions Odile Jacob.
Aldo Naouri
Fathers and Mothers
The author's thesis is that in Western societies the father has been ejected from his central position in the family structure, while the mother's role has been heightened, and the child placed at the top of the family pyramid - a situation that is not good for the child.
