Catalog All books
Petr Skrabanek
The End of Humanitarian Medicine
Medicine is at a crossroads. Traditionally, practitioners helped patients who came to them looking for support, for something to alleviate their suffering. However, the progress which has been accomplished in the last few decades has changed everything. Doctors now claim to be fighting death itself, they believe medicine to have almost limitless powers, and they try to prevent illness by changing behaviour. From this point onwards, our entire existence becomes overmedicalized. In the name of health at any price, doctors now dictate, prescribe and legislate whilst forgetting the essential meaning of their job : to help and to care. A violent criticism of contemporary medicine.
Giulia Sissa
The Soul is a Feminine Being
Do women have a soul ? Philosophers have historically doubted this, refusing to accord women rationality. However, at the same time, they have been unable to imagine the soul without the help of feminine metaphors : the soul conceives, it is pregnant with knowledge, it gives birth in pain and distress but always with the help of someone. In reading classic texts such as Derrida, and deconstructing them while drawing comparisons with others and focusing on what may seem paradoxical, such as the many Freudian slips, Giulia Sissa leads us to interrogate ourselves on the exclusively feminine attributes of the Western soul. A radical questioning of the difference between the sexes which leads us to the most profound aspects of our culture.
Giulia Sissa
Sex and Sensuality in the Ancient World
This fascinating study of the “art of lovemaking” in Ancient Greece and Rome offers an essential lesson for today
Françoise Sironi
Torturers and Victims The Psychology of Torture
To fight against torture, a simple denunciation of violence is not enough. It is necessary to help the victims find a "normal life" again. According to Françoise Sironi, this supposes an penetration into the mind of the torturer. How is it possible to influence someone to the point of forcing them to confess, reveal information and betray others? Physical violence alone does not suffice. What psychological methods are used ? The mechanisms of torture can only be understood by an examination of how torturers are "created". Françoise Sironi is a lecturer in clinical psychology and psychopathology at the University of Paris-VIII and director of the Georges Devereux Centre for Ethnopsychiatry at the University of Paris-VIII. She is also the co-founder of the Centre Primo Levi, which specialises in the treatment of victims of torture and collective violence.
Jean-François Sirinelli
France in an Age of Major Upheaval 1962-2017
A look at France’s recent history by an historian attempting to define a consistent theme and perhaps also paint a picture of what the future may have in store.