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.
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.
Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, Sandra Blakeslee
Phantoms in the Brain Human Nature and the Architecture of the Mind
How do we make decisions? Why do we deceive ourselves? Why do we dream? Why may we believe in God? Why do we laugh or become depressed? Few scientists have dared address these questions that inform our daily lives with so much acumen and audacity. V.S. Ramachandran is a brilliant Sherlock Holmes of neuroscience. He reveals the strangest case studies he has encountered of patients suffering from serious neurological disorders and the insights they yield about human nature and the workings of the mind. V.S. Ramachandran is professor and director of the Center for Brain and Cognition, at the University of California.
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.
Christian de Duve
Listening to the Living
Everything one should know about biology is explained here by a Nobel Prize winner, including the origin of life, its chemical production and reproduction, the history of life, its earliest forms and also human evolution, the brain, the genius of genetics, and extra-terrestrial life. Finally, the author shows that although biology has undermined arguments in favour of the existence of God, religion and faith are a necessary product of nature selection. Christian de Duve is the director of the Brussels-based International Institute on Cellular Pathology. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1974 for his findings concerning the structural and functional organisation of cells.
Jean-Claude Carrière, Thibault Damour
Reflections on the Mass of the World
Physicists are now faced with the disturbing certainty that the reality of the world is multiple. We do not exist in a single story, with a middle and an ending. Instead, we live in a multitude of superimposed stories although we see only our own because our perception is limited by the narrow beam of light in which we exist.
Marc Jeannerod
The Intimate Brain
Today, the brain has ceased to be regarded as existing in isolation in the human body. It is now considered in relation to its sensory, emotional and cultural environment. This book asks the question of what are the mechanisms and chemistry of the emotions? How do emotional states and the consciousness of those states permeate memory and thought? How does depression affect the emotions, and how can it be treated? How is the consciousness of self and of others constructed? Marc Jeannerod teaches physiology at the University Claude-Bernard-Lyon-I, and is the director of the Institute of Cognitive Sciences.
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
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.
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.
John Lukacs
Five Days in London: May 1940
The days from 24 to 28 May 1940 significantly altered the course of the history of the past century. When German troops reached the Atlantic coast, the British counterattack resulted in the disaster of Dunkirk. Europe was on its knees. Britain seemed powerless. For several critical days, at 10 Downing Street, the British cabinet debated whether to negotiate or to continue the war against Hitler. And if the war was to be continued, how would it be fought? What hope was left? Lukacs takes us into the crucial unfolding of these five days that changed history. The events described here provide a lesson in courage as much as in politics. John Lukacs is a former professor of history at Chestnut College in Philadelphia.
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.
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.
Dominique Lanzmann-Petithory
Nutrition for a Long Life
A long life is built gradually from early childhood. But regardless of ones age, it is never too late. Longevity is not only a question of genes: most of us are capable of living in good health for a long time. But how? The answer, according to Dominique Lanzmann-Petithory, is by eating healthily and following some basic health rules. This practical manual will allow each reader to find and maintain his or her maximum energy and, above all, to learn the arts of eating and living. Dominique Lanzmann-Petithory is a physician.
