Psychology

Do we have bigger brains than dolphins? Does your dog remember where it buried its bone? Why don't sheep laugh or gorillas lie? Why do we remember faces but not names?
In 21 short walks around the human brain, acclaimed psychologist Michael Corballis answers these and other questions by introducing us to what we've learned about the human mind in the last fifty years. Corballis leads us through behavioural experiments and neuroscience, cognitive theory and Darwinian evolution, puncturing a few hot-air balloons ("You only use... read more

In schools we are taught to meet problems head-on: what Edward de Bono calls 'vertical thinking'. This works well in simple situations - but we are at a loss when this approach fails. Lateral thinking is all about freeing up your imagination. Through a series of special techniques, in groups or working alone, Edward de Bono shows us how to look at problems from a variety of angles and in so doing offer up solutions that are as ingenious as they are effective. After reading this book you will become a much more productive and formidable thinker.

What if almost everything we believed about finding happiness turned out to be inaccurate, misleading, or false? And what if those very beliefs were making us miserable? A growing body of scientific research suggests that we are all caught in a vicious cycle whereby the more we strive for happiness, the more we suffer.
This book provides an escape from "the happiness trap", via a revolutionary new development in human psychology: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT helps people to create a rich, full and meaningful l... read more

All of us want to be fully accepted in our relationships, yet it can be difficult to fully accept our partners for who they are. This insightful guide for couples is based on a simple concept: Act out of kindness, love, and acceptance, and you will open your relationship for the creation of greater kindness, love, and acceptance. With strategies drawn from acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), a powerful therapeutic approach, this book will help you identify your core values and discover, as a couple, the beauty that is avai... read more

Viktor Frankl is known to millions as the author of "Man's Search for Meaning", his harrowing Holocaust memoir. In this book, he goes more deeply into the ways of thinking that enabled him to survive imprisonment in a concentration camp and to find meaning in life in spite of all the odds. Here, he expands upon his groundbreaking ideas and searches for answers about life, death, faith and suffering. Believing that there is much more to our existence than meets the eye, he says: 'No one will be able to make us believe that man is a ... read more

Psychology for a Better World is for people who believe it is worth trying to make a world in which both our species and the ecological systems we are part of can flourish.
The book is based on the latest research in psychology and is jam-packed with action strategies.It offers new ways to think about how people interact in social settings, why we are tempted to stick with what we know, and how the same characteristics that currently keep us hooked into unsustainable practices can be used to move us forward.
The final c... read more

Can we really ALL be the best? Is the idea of innate ability holding us back? Could the ability to fail - and then get over it - be fundamental to success? Matthew Syed, bestselling writer and international table-tennis champion (after many hours of practice) takes us on a revelatory exploration of being the best and the true nature of talent. In so doing he debunks many cherished myths - that we can be born brilliant (and that child prodigies prove it); that we are restricted by our genetic make-up; and that social backgr... read more

Every day we make decisions: About the things that we buy or the meals we eat; about the investments we make or our children's health and education; even the causes that we champion or the planet itself. Unfortunately, we often choose poorly. We are all susceptible to biases that can lead us to make bad decisions that make us poorer, less healthy and less happy. And, as Thaler and Sunstein show, no choice is ever presented to us in a neutral way. By knowing how people think, we can make it easier for them to choose what is best for... read more

Most of our everyday decision-making tends to be confrontational. Whether in large meetings, one-to-one or even in our own heads, opposite view points are pitted against each other. Ultimately, there must be a winner and a loser. In "I Am Right, You Are Wrong", lateral-thinking guru Edward de Bono challenges this 'rock logic' of rigid categories and point-scoring arguments which is both destructive and exhausting. By favouring 'water logic' over 'rock logic' Dr De Bono overturns conventional wisdom, and will help you to become a be... read more

Humans are, first and foremost, social creatures. And this, according to the authors of I'll Have What She's Having, shapes--and explains--most of our choices. We're not just blindly driven by hard-wired instincts to hunt or gather or reproduce; our decisions are based on more than "nudges" exploiting individual cognitive quirks.I'll Have What She's Having shows us how we use the brains of others to think for us and as storage space for knowledge about the world. The story zooms out from the individual to small groups to the comple... read more

This work is a personal testimony from Kay Redfield Jamison: the revelation of her struggle with manic depression since adolescence, and how it has shaped her life. The book follows her through college, a love affair, her battle with the illness, bouts of madness, violence and attempted suicide.

From the author of the groundbreaking, international bestseller "The Female Brain" comes the eagerly awaited follow-up which demystifies the intricacies of the male brain. Did you know that the male brain: is a lean, mean problem-solving machine that uses analytical brain structures, not emotional ones, to find solutions; thrives under competition, instinctively plays rough, and is obsessed with rank and hierarchy; has an area for sexual pursuit that is 2.5 times larger than that of the female brain, consuming him with sexual fanta... read more

Lockerbie, Hillsborough, the Iraq Wars, 9/11, the London bombings … Thousands died, and in their aftermath, many more became prisoners of their own devastated minds – their only hope: a small number of dedicated pioneers working to piece together the crumbled fragments of their lives. The Ancient Greeks called it ‘Trauma’. And yet almost three thousand years later what was identified as shellshock during the First World War was still mistaken for cowardice or lack of moral fibre. Only since Vietnam h... read more

Why do we talk as if we're rational, but act as if we're not? Why are some people such control freaks? What is the true role of religion? Why do we seek change, yet resist it? Why do we want more of the things that have already failed to satisfy us? Why are we so passionate about sport? Why do we need to communicate? Why do we fall out of love? Why do we exaggerate stories about what's happened to us? As a social researcher, Hugh Mackay has spent most of his working life exploring why we do the things we do, ranging from the televi... read more

We all want to be loved by our partners, and to have good relationships with friends and colleagues. What we don't always know is how to make that special sense of connection happen. In DARE TO CONNECT, Susan gives us the insights and tools we need to create a sense of belonging everywhere we go. We learn that this is a world where there are no strangers and we never need to feel alone. DARE TO CONNECT is for everyone who has ever asked: - Why do I feel so nervous when I walk into a room full of strangers? - Why do I feel lonely, e... read more

According to most relationship books, the key to a solid marriage is communication, communication and more communication. Phooey, says John Gottman, Ph.D., author of the much-praised Why Marriages Succeed or Fail and director of the Seattle Marital and Family Institute. Just as Masters and Johnson pioneered the study of human sexuality so Gottman has revolutionalized the study of marriage. Gottman has found, through questioning hundreds of couples in his 'love lab', that it only takes five minutes for him to predict - with 91 per c... read more

Hysteria as a disease no longer exists, but in the nineteenth century hysteria was thought to affect half of all women in one of its myriad forms. In 1862 the famous and infamous Salpetriere Hospital in Paris, under the reign of renowned neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot, became the focal point for study of the mysterious illness. Physicians could find no cause, which meant a cure was not possible, but Charcot concentrated on treating the symptoms; with hypnosis, gongs, tuning forks, piercing and the evocation of demons and saints. C... read more

This accessible guide locates ethical practice in the context of New Zealand's Treaty-based culture, law and legal systems, and the New Zealand Association of Counsellors' Code of Ethics. A wide range of practitioners discuss ethical dilemmas that challenge them in their daily work.

Unruly, unpredictable, love is a maddening deity. In this insightful and eloquent meditation on that many-splendored thing, Lisa Appignanesi draws on history, philosophy, psychology, literature, popular culture, and her own experience in order to tangle with love's paradoxes through the span of our lives. Beginning with the rose-tinted raptures of first love, she proceeds to love in marriage, the passions of triangulated love, jealousy and adultery, love in the family, and friendship, illuminating the expectations, the joys and dif... read more

The story of hysteria is a curious one, for it persists as an illness for centuries before disappearing. Andrew Scull gives a fascinating account of this socially constructed disease that came to be strongly associated with women, showing the shifts in social, cultural, and medical perceptions through history.