Category: Book Reviews

Authored by John K. Kruschke

Academic Press / Elsevier, 2011

Reviewed by John Barry
City University, Northampton Square
EC1V 0HB, London, United Kingdom
E-mail: John.Barry.1@city.ac.uk

Bayesian reasoning is a blessed relief to those who have always struggled with the idea that the probability of heads coming up in a supposedly fair coin flip is always 50%, even after a long series of coin flips has come up tails each time. According to Bayes, if a coin keeps coming up tails we should adjust our prior belief that the probability is 50% in the light of the posterior belief that the coin appears to be biased towards tails. John Kruschke’s book is a 600 page development of this Bayesian theme. Continue reading →

Authored by Judith Warner

Penguin Group, 2010

Reviewed by Elin Weiss
University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland
E-mail: elinweiss@hotmail.com

Judith Warner’s We’ve Got Issues: Children and Parents in the Age of Medication started out as a book aimed at criticizing the overmedication of children that did not really suffer from mental health issues but were instead more or less silenced by their parents into submission. After interviewing parents of children suffering from mental health problems, Warner completely changed her mind and wrote We’ve Got Issues which helps defend parent’s choices of medicating their children. Continue reading →

Authored by Malcolm Hollick and Christine Connelly

Psychology O-Books, 2010

Reviewed by Cherie Armour
University of Southern Denmark

Hope for Humanity is an immensely detailed account which focuses on how trauma, both individually and collectively, affects the human psyche. Continue reading →

Richard A. Easterlin
Edited by H. Hinte and K.F. Zimmermann

Oxford University Press, 2010

Reviewed by Vlad Glăveanu
EJOP Editor

The human being in pursuit of happiness is an ancient philosophical theme, revealing perhaps a perennial truth about us as individuals, as a species, and also about our societies. Consumerism, capitalism, globalisation. Terms we use to define the economic order in today’s world, or at least a ‘Western model’ of it. Where does happiness fit into this money-based equation? Can wealth or growth make us happy, or, better said, are they sufficient to make us happy? These are all questions situated at the core of Richard Easterlin’s concerns and reflected in the volume ‘Happiness, Growth, and the Life Cycle’ (Oxford University Press, 2010; edited by H. Hinte and K.F. Zimmermann). Continue reading →

Authored by Annette M.B. de Groot

Psychology Press, Taylor and Francis Group 2011

Reviewed by Natalia Kucirkova
The Open University, UK

Within the current global and multicultural context, a monolingual orientation is no longer tenable in a comprehensive study of psycholinguistics. However, since its foundation in the 1950s, the majority of psycholinguistic research has been carried out in a monolingual framework. It is only in the last 15 years that studies in bilingualism have shown that many psycho-neurobiological factors shaping the acquisition and use of language may be altered and affected by bi- and multilingualism. In her newly published book, Annette M.B.de Groot challenges the view of monolingual psycholinguistics. Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of Amsterdam, De Groot provides a comprehensive discussion of the psychology of language from both the bilingual and multilingual perspective. Continue reading →

2nd edition
Authored by David L. Robinson
Pontoon Publications, 2009

Reviewed by Daljinder Virk
EJOP Associate Editor

Brain, Mind and Behaviour describes new discoveries concerning the relationship between brain-function and individual differences in human personality and intelligence. These new findings along with related theoretical developments provide new insights concerning the greatest mystery of all: human nature and the human mind.

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Authored by Liz Shaw, Erasmo Tacconelli, Robert Watson, and Claudia Herbert
Blue Stallion Publications, 2009

Reviewed by Daljinder Virk
EJOP Associate Editor

Living confidently with HIV: A Self-Help Book for People Living with HIV has been written by a team of clinical psychologists who have extensive experience in working with patients who have been diagnosed with and are coming to terms with their diagnosis of being HIV positive. Consultant Clinical psychologist Liz Shaw focuses on improving the lives of people with HIV and provides them with positive ways of coping and this certainly resonates throughout the entire book. Erasmo Tacconelli, a Chartered Clinical Psychologist, ensures that his patients feel empowered in coping with stigma and discrimination; this too is resonated throughout the book. Robert Watson is a Chartered Clinical Psychologist whose clinical techniques stem from cognitive behavioural therapy, systemic therapy and cognitive-analytic therapy. His focus is very similar to that of Erasmo but also ensures those who are affected have a good quality of life. Finally, Dr Claudia Herbert, a Chartered Consultant Clinical Psychologist, specialises in trauma psychology. Claudia Herbert ensures that she can help people adjust to their HIV diagnosis and live their lives well, confidently and enriched despite or possibly because of their chronic condition.

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Edited by Peter Sturmey
Wiley-Blackwell, 2009

Reviewed by Beatrice Popescu
EJOP Founding Editor

Clinical Case Formulation is an impressive collection of case studies gathered in a volume coordinated and edited by Peter Sturmey. The book provides an overview of the general features of case formulation and how it can drive treatment.

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Edited by:
Catherine Butler,
Amanda O’Donovan,
Elizabeth Shaw
Reviewed by Vlad Glăveanu
EJOP Editor
Sex and sexuality are undoubtedly fashionable topics in our post-modern (Western) culture. They are ubiquitous in mass-media communication, popular culture, and everyday life conversations. “Sex sells”. And yet, it might be that because of this intoxication with sexual stories and images that constantly tell us how sex is and should be we lose our own, personal sense, of what sex and sexuality are or should be for us. Not only because sex is such a fundamental part of our human nature, but also because we are faced with this “societal” avalanche of beliefs, norms, recommendations, impositions, and interdictions about sex and sexuality, that these topics tend to and need to occupy a central place in clinical and therapeutic practice. And it is in this context that manuals addressing sex and sexuality are a real necessity for therapists, health professionals and the general public at large. Continue reading →

By Kai Erikson
Reviewed by Korstanje Maximiliano
University of Moron Argentina
Current scholarship is based on the review of books no older than one or two years. No matter the contests or even the importance of the material, this kind of ill-fashioned dispositions impinge on the advance of Science; they don’t allow for a broader re-discovery of other relevant projects which have been ignored for a considerable lapse of time. This is the case of the book authored by Kai Erikson, lecturer at Yale University. His valuable but contradictory work focuses on the exploration of trauma and social pathologies after-disasters. In a moment in which mankind is fraught with natural or made-man disasters, a project of this nature is fundamental in order for readers to understand the convergence of uncertainty with fear. Continue reading →

By Karin Windt
Reviewed by Professor Jessica Hellings
Kansas University
Notable in the growing literature base on attentional difficulties, distractibility and impulsivity currently described and studied as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), is that studies focusing on the non-hyperactive subtype of the disorder or Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) are relatively lacking. While the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – Text – Revised, 4th edition includes the diagnostic category ADHD, Predominately Inattentive Type, much study is still needed of this disorder in terms of phenomenology, treatment and outcomes in individuals of all ages. In addition, nomenclature of this and other ADHD subtypes is likely to change in the next edition of this diagnostic manual, anticipated in 2012.
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By Peter Fisher and Adrian Wells
Routledge Taylor and Francis Group

Reviewed by Beatrice Popescu
EJOP Founding Editor
In Metacognitive therapy, the authors described the theoretical and practical features of MCT highlighting the distinctive features of this approach versus other forms of CBT. Although both approaches deal with cognition, they provide different accounts of how cognition maintains disorder and they focus on different aspects of thinking. Metacognitive therapy is based on the principle that worry and rumination are universal processes leading to emotional disorder. These processes are linked to erroneous beliefs about thinking and unhelpful self-regulation strategies.
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“Fears, Panics and Phobias, A Brief Therapy” by Giorgio Nardone

Review by Maximiliano E. Korstanje
University John F. Kennedy
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Knud S. Larsen
Reidar Ommundsen
Kees van der Veer

Review by Vlad Glăveanu
EJOP Editor
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Editors:

Susan Daniels

Michael Piechowski

Review by Vlad Glăveanu

EJOP Editor

Living as a gifted person, from childhood and youth to late adulthood. Living with gifted persons: children, adolescents, adults. In both cases, living with intensity. The book edited by Susan Daniels and Michael Piechowski takes on the huge challenge of making as all aware of how it is to actually live with intensity, to live with and near giftedness.
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“Moving on” is a straightforward, accessible and inspiring guide offered by Roz D’Ombraine Hewitt to the public providing information on the myths and misconceptions surrounding schizophrenia, the possible causes and how the illness is diagnosed, medication and other treatment options, sources of support, improving health and well-being, employment-paid and voluntary, complementary therapies, counseling and psychotherapy.
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“Much more than a primer … this is a superb practical introduction to Pre-Therapy and contact work that will be of value to all mental health professionals working with contact-impaired individuals”…..
Pre-Therapy as individual psychotherapy was born in the United Sates and contact work for institutional settings was developed in Europe. This book reflects the development of contact work with growing range of clients.
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Undoubtedly we are now witnessing the dawns of a new era in the theory and practice of Wundt’s “second psychology”, an era of re-discovery and re-assessment of all key issues that concern the maturation of a discipline. At such times proposing integrated and viable approaches to the study of mind and culture is both daring and praiseworthy. Michael Cole, Professor of Communication and Psychology at the University of California, San Diego, has successfully undertook such a task and by this offered us an exemplary textbook of “contemporary” cultural psychology.
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Denis Postle, the author of this book, is not the typical therapist or writer. He epitomizes the creative personality with a history of two decades as an accomplished documentary film-maker, who decided to use his talent and devotion to make psychotherapy a fit home for the human spirit.
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To cover an extensive topic such as research methods in organizational psychology is most definitely an ambitious goal. Nowadays more than ever researchers and practitioners are dealing with an overwhelming variety of methods and designs. With these new concerns arise, among them the problem of choosing the most adequate methodology, of increasing the validity of our instruments, of collecting and reporting data while respecting research ethics.
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Transactional analysis is a theory of personality that can be applied in virtually all fields of psychology: educational, counseling, organizational and psychotherapy. Besides the theory on personality, TA also provides us with a theory of communication, a theory of child development, and a theory of psychopathology.
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The nature of mind, its origins, evolution, and working principles, is an area besieged by psychologists, cognitive scientists, biologists, anthropologists, mathematicians, comp-uter modellers, and even physicists.
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The Therapy for the Sane
How Philosophy Can Change Your Life
by Lou Marinoff
Bloomsbury USA, 2003
Review by Ben Mulvey, Ph.D
In his Gorgias Plato has Socrates explain that his philosophical discussion concerns “a matter in which even a man of slight intelligence must take the profoundest of interest–namely, what course of life is best.” In the Apology Socrates justifies his mission by claiming “life without this sort of examination is not worth living.” Thus, there is little doubt that from its earliest recorded history the discipline of philosophy has been deeply concerned with how people are to best live their lives.
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Gina Clayton (gina@amidatrust.com) is a human rights lawyer who has recently published a textbook Immigration and Asylum Law (Oxford University Press, 2004). She has also trained as a Feldenkrais practitioner. Mike Fitter (mike@amidatrust.com) is a chartered psychologist who works as an organisation development consultant in the public sector. He has a particular interest in conflict facilitation and mediation.

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Book reviews are not subject to the standard editorial process of article reviewing; you are therefore invited to post a book review that you consider fit to the journal’s general purpose and main target groups. However, posting a book review … Continue reading →