"When two personalities meet, an emotional storm is created." This provocative quote by renowned psychoanalyst W.R. Bion is the point of departure for Eigen's new work. In the tradition of Martin Buber, Eigen explores the broad spectrum of emotions we experience in our relatedness to others, from feelings of longing, plenitude, and fulfillment to starvation, suffocation, and blind rage. Unlike authors of "easy" self-help books, Eigen embraces the storms of life as a critical aspect of our human bond. For Eigen, the emotional storm is not pathological, but rather integral to our humanity and instrumental to our growth and development. For this reason, he looks critically at our attempts to blunt our emotional response to the world around us. Like Eigen's other work, Emotional Storm weaves case studies, literary references, and psychoanalytic theory into an integrated, complex understanding.

We are all sensitive beings, both physically and emotionally. What do we do with our sensitivity? How much of our sensitivity can we take? How do we become partners with our sensitivity in ways that make life worthwhile? In The Sensitive Self, renowned psychologist Michael Eigen explores the varied nuances of sensitivity as it threads its way through all facets of our lives. Individual case studies, often achingly honest, are woven together by Eigen's deeply felt meditations, bringing us into the heart of psychotherapy. We see how our sensitivity to self and others plays a crucial role in sustaining our sense of aliveness. Ultimately, Eigen argues, sensitivity is the basis for a humane ethics. Powerful and illuminating, The Sensitive Self follows up on the themes of Eigen's previous books, Rage and Ecstasy, with which Eigen has established himself as one of today's most creative thinkers in psychology.

" Was Hitler a moral aberration or a man of his people? This topic has been hotly argued in recent years, and now Jay Gonen brings new answers to the debate using a psychohistorical perspective, contending that Hitler reflected the psyche of many Germans of his time. Like any charismatic leader, Hitler was an expert scanner of the Zeitgeist. He possessed an uncanny ability to read the masses correctly and guide them with ""new"" ideas that were merely reflections of what the people already believed. Gonen argues that Hitler's notions grew from the general fabric of German culture in the years following World War I. Basing his work in the role of ideologies in group psychology, Gonen exposes the psychological underpinnings of Nazi Germany's desire to expand its living space and exterminate Jews. Hitler responded to the nation's group fantasy of renewing a Holy Roman Empire of the German nation. He presented the utopian ideal of one large state, where the nation represented one extended family. In reality, however, he desired the triumph of automatism and totalitarian practices that would preempt family autonomy and private action. Such a regimented state would become a war machine, designed to breed infantile soldiers brainwashed for sacrifice. To achieve that aim, he unleashed barbaric forces whose utopian features were the very aspects of the state that made it most cruel.

Rage permeates every aspect of our lives. In this thoughtful series of case studies, Michael Eigen shows the ways in which rage is integral to human existence. Along the way, he explores the role of rage in art, religion and contemporary culture; his far-reaching examples range from "the murderous art" of Shakespeare to road rage to the wrath of God in the Old Testament to a consideration of the events of September 11, 2001. Eigen writes that "rage more than most states affords a sense of totality, experiencing one's being with all one's might." Eigen's breadth of cultural knowledge, combined with his respect for and attention to the individuality of a person, come together in providing the reader with a complex account of rage - what it is, where it comes from and what we should do with it. This is a useful book for therapists and laypeople alike.

In this provocative and insightful new book, psychologist Michael Eigen presents a phenomenology of ecstatic states. Ecstasy is a force to be reckoned with -- sometimes creative, sometimes destructive. Eigen argues that there is an ecstasy that comes through the ever-necessary confrontation of our psychic cores with suffering and degradation, and he shows that when we can learn to be present with these feelings, they add to the tone and texture of our lives, and help us to feel real. The author draws heavily on autobiographical material, psychotherapy sessions, case studies and psychoanalytic thinking, along with literary and biblical sources, demonstrating his reputation as one of the leading creative thinkers among psychotherapists in America. The result is an extremely intelligent, lyrical work, which succeeds in being theoretically well-informed without being pedantic. Written as a subjective first-hand account, Ecstasy will appeal to psychotherapists as well as to readers and students interested in spirituality and philosophy.

We are a nation of gamblers: pari-mutuel wagering at horse tracks; blackjack in Las Vegas; the NCAA basketball office pool; even day trading on the internet. Gambling is both our national pastime and our predominant cultural metaphor -- play the field; beat the odds; take a chance on love. Yet gambling poses serious risks to individuals and to society as a whole. Neil Isaacs -- sports historian, licensed clinical social worker, English professor, and a gambler himself for more than fifty years -- seeks to shatter the myths interfering with our understanding of gambling addiction, its causes, and its treatment. He begins by systematically debunking several commonly held beliefs, demonstrating that there is no such thing as the law of averages, that gambling is not inherently sinful, immoral, or criminal, and that money is not always the prime motivator for gamblers.Isaacs shows how habitual gambling can lead to compulsive gambling, but avoids oversimplifying this condition. Arguing against a undifferentiated interpretation of pathological gambling as a simple impulse control disorder, he draws examples from fiction, film, and his own practice to demonstrate additional ways gambling can be abused. A radical departure from established views, You Bet Your Life identifies the costs -- in dollars, people, families, and credit ratings -- of society's failure to address adequately the burdens of gambling.

The problems and needs of rural substance abusers vary from those of abusers in urban areas. Accordingly, the means of treatment must acknowledge and address these differences. Despite this call for specialized care, no theoretically grounded therapy has yet been made available to rural patients. Behavioral Therapy for Rural Substance Abusers, developed and piloted over three years by University of Kentucky faculty and staff and substance abuse counselors in rural eastern Kentucky, provides a model for effective treatment for this segment of the population. A two-phase outpatient treatment, this approach combines group and individual sessions in an environment that is both comfortable and useful for the client.The success of this method lies in its regional approach to therapy. Rather than using role-playing techniques to examine old behaviors, therapy is designed around storytelling activities. Rural patients respond more positively to such time-honored traditions and thus become active participants in their own treatment.This manual offers a clear and well-constructed guide through the strategies of Structured Behavioral Outpatient Rural Therapy (SBORT). Supplemented with illustrations, sample exercises, and case studies, Behavioral Therapy for Rural Substance Abusers is a vital tool in meeting the treatment needs of an otherwise ignored rural population.

While countless memoirs have been written about depression and therapy, no one has examined how the "talking cure" of psychotherapy is presented in novels and other works of literature. Beginning with an overview of the principles of psychotherapy and its growing use as a treatment for mental and emotional disorders, Lilian Furst addresses the patient's view of the value of talk.Patients' portrayals of psychotherapy in literary works range from serious to satirical and from comic to ironic, with some descriptions verging on the grotesque. Furst identifies the overtalkers, undertalkers, and duet voices that shape the individual experiences of psychotherapy. While the voices of the overtalkers overwhelm those of their therapists, undertalkers are reluctant to express or acknowledge their feelings. Particularly revealing are the instances where patient and therapist provide separate but parallel renderings of the same therapy.Just Talk looks at a wide range of questions about psychotherapy. Furst considers the patient's first impressions of the therapist and how the patient is prompted to engage in talk. She looks for signs of self-deception or self-betrayal on the patient's part and asks how the therapist's behavior affects the patient's responses and the ultimate outcome of the therapy.Furst examines such well-known works as Roth's Portnoy's Complaint, Plath's The Bell Jar, and Lodge's Therapy, as well as lesser-known novels, to discuss how patients react to psychotherapy as a cure for mental and emotional disorders. Her analysis of these narratives adds significantly to our understanding of the dynamic relationship between patient and therapist and reveals much about the healing process that is not addressed in technical casebooks.

The Deepening Shade is an elegant synthesis of the psychology of life-threatening illness. The book\u2019s evocative power derives from the interweaving of clinical conceptualization with the words of patients and family members. Rather than focusing on death, Sourkes explores living with a life-threatening illness.

A man desperately tries to keep his pact with the Devil, a woman is imprisoned in an insane asylum by her husband because of religious differences, and, on the testimony of a mere stranger, \u201ca London citizen\u201d is sentenced to a private madhouse. This anthology of writings by mad and allegedly mad people is a comprehensive overview of the history of mental illness for the past five hundred years-from the viewpoint of the patients themselves.Dale Peterson has compiled twenty-seven selections dating from 1436 through 1976. He prefaces each excerpt with biographical information about the writer. Peterson's running commentary explains the national differences in mental health care and the historical changes that have take place in symptoms and treatment. He traces the development of the private madhouse system in England and the state-run asylum system in the United States. Included is the first comprehensive bibliography of writings by the mentally ill.

A handbook of standard techniques for observing children’s behavior in nursery school settings -- it is also applicable to children in club groups, elementary school classrooms, and hospitals.