Catalog All books
Robert Rochefort
A Disorientated France
This book argues that France is seeking an impossible model: on one hand, it wishes to hold fast to its exception, constituting a society which is unlike other western ones. Yet, on the other hand, France is not only obliged to accept neo-liberal globalisation, but it actively participates in doing so, through its large industrial and banking groups. Though constantly seeking to act rationally and to be the master of its fate, the future of Descartes country is probably as unpredictable as the trajectory of a billiard ball, no matter how talented the player wielding the cue may be.
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.
Marc D. Hauser
Wild Minds: What Animals Really Think
A slender loris comes up to a zoo keeper and hugs him. A dog lowers its head and whines when its master is unhappy. Is such behaviour a sign of affection and empathy or are other mechanisms at work, to explain the animals near-human behaviour? Why do chimps and dolphins form coalitions to defend themselves? How do lions determine, from far away, the number of gazelles calmly watering by a stream? How is it that a few species can recognise their own image in a mirror? Marc D. Hauser is a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Harvard University, where he is a fellow of the Mind, Brain and Behavior Program. Besides performing laboratory research, he has done extensive fieldwork in Kenya, Uganda and Puerto Rico.