Robert Neville is the last living man on Earth... but he is not alone. Every other man, woman and child on the planet has succumbed to the vampire plague, and they are hungry for Neville's blood.By day he is the hunter, stalking the undead through the ruins of civilisation. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for the dawn.How long can one man survive like this?

For fans of Tina Fey and David Sedaris—Internet star Jenny Lawson, aka The Bloggess, makes her literary debut.   Jenny Lawson realized that the most mortifying moments of our lives—the ones we’d like to pretend never happened—are in fact the ones that define us. In the #1 New York Times bestseller, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Lawson takes readers on a hilarious journey recalling her bizarre upbringing in rural Texas, her devastatingly awkward high school years, and her relationship with her long-suffering husband, Victor. Chapters include: “Stanley the Magical, Talking Squirrel”; “A Series of Angry Post-It Notes to My Husband”; “My Vagina Is Fine. Thanks for Asking”; “And Then I Snuck a Dead Cuban Alligator on an Airplane.” Pictures with captions (no one would believe these things without proof) accompany the text.

I read this book and thought This is a good book.I read this book and thought I've learned from this book.I read this book and thought Kit Lasch is the bomb.I read this book and thought Man can be as slippery as Saturday's soap.I read this book and thought Man can be as silly as Bugsy Malone.I read this book and thought This is a serious book, with serious thoughts, and serious insights, and here I am chewing gum and popping bubbles.I read this book and thought I really like this book. It's aces.I read this book and thought This book mirrors a society a mile wide and an inch deep.I read this book and thought My mirror shows splintered eyes haunted by failure.I read this book and thought This looks to be another let's see year for the Nucks.I read this book and thought Thanks to —————, I haven't had a decent dump in six goddamn years.I read this book and thought Man is like me, severely constipated.I read this book and thought And when it comes out, it's hard and it hurts.I read this book and thought Why can't I accept finitude?I read this book and thought Ol' Kit fucking nailed it. He fucking nailed me.I read this book and thought Why does everybody talk about me?I read this book and thought And if they aren't, why?I read this book and thought Are my lungs expelling septic stink?I read this book and thought We've seen better days.I read this book and thought Better days can still be had.I read this book and thought Salad days and tart vinaigrette.I read this book and thought My daddy didn't cry, so neither do I.I read this book and thought Not even when he beat me.I read this book and thought I'm lying, he never actually beat me.I read this book and thought But if I was hypnotized, I might think that he did.I read this book and thought I've read most of Kit Lasch's books. They are smart but gloomy, tempestuous like my stomach.I read this book and thought My stomach after Harvey's at the airport.I read this book and thought I loved this book. Does the book love me?I read this book and thought Good stuff, Kit. Merci beaucoup.I read this book and thought In Vancouver the sun can hide itself away for months on end.I read this book and thought Despite this, the suicide rate in Vancouver hovers around the national mean.I read this book and thought I haven't yet erased my map.I read this book and thought I once saw a woman jump to her death.I read this book and thought Cracked me inside like a beat-up eggshell.I read this book and thought To a chicken, an eggbeater is a rooster accused of child abuse.I read this book and thought With that and Woody Woodpickle, I'm always armed.I read this book and thought But I've got lots and lots of books to go.I read this book and thought This is a solid four stars.I read this book and thought Everybody should read this book.I read this book and thought I did.

An absolutely amazing work. In the introduction, Becker sets out to answer the question "Why do people do what they do?" What follows, across 200 pages, is a remarkably well-constructed and well-written study on the development of selfhood and culture. Becker's work is truly interdisciplinary and draws on evolutionary biology, developmental psychology, anthropology, philosophy and literature. The book reveals the link between the organization of human societies and the vital, personal need for self-esteem: the feeling that one is valued, loved, and has a chance to be a hero in their narrative. The role of culture is to set up a system of rules for achieving this self-esteem and heroism. However, as Becker explores in the later chapters, problems arise these systems of self-esteem are frustrated, denied or no longer able to function. Overall, a very compelling study that should perhaps be read before "The Denial of Death."

Rear cover notes: "Soren Kierkegaard, the nineteenth-century Danish philosopher rediscovered in the twentieth century, is a major influence in contemporary philosophy, religion, and literature. He regarded Either/Or as the beginning of his authorship, although he had published two earlier works on Hans Christian Andersen and irony. The pseudonymous volumes of Either/Or are the writings of a young man (I) and of Judge William (II). The ironical young man's papers include a collection of sardonic aphorisms; essays on Mozart, modern drama, and boredom; and 'The Seducer's Diary.' The seeming miscellany is a reflective presentation of aspects of the 'either,' the esthetic view of life. Part II is an older friend's 'or,' the ethical life of integrated, authentic personhood, elaborated in discussions of personal becoming and of marriage. The resolution of the 'either/or' is left to the reader, for there is no Part III until the appearance of Stages on Life's Way. The poetic-reflective creations of a master stylist and imaginative impersonator, the two men write in distinctive ways appropriate to their respective positions."

If you're not familiar with how Hegel, Nietzsche and Marx are connected and how the ideological hegemony of the bourgeois era needs to be transcended before one can fully grasp the freedom of individual sovereignty and make the social revolution, you may not have a clue about what Bataille is working towards with INNER EXPERIENCE. My suggestion is to get a shaman to help you navigate a heavy psychedelic experience AFTER reading and fully grasping Marx's VALUE, PRICE AND PROFIT, Hegel's Introduction to THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY and Nietzsche's THUS SPOKE ZARATHUSTRA. Otherwise, you can take my shortcut: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNnkyt...Always keep in mind that Bataille was familiar with the Surrealist treatment and use of Freud's psychological insights and that he was living in Paris during heyday of the Popular Front, Stalinist domination of the ideological left.

Another one of my go-to books in addition to Jung's Lexicon by Daryl Sharp and Inner Work by Robert A. Johnson, which I've read two weeks ago.This book is an assortment of essays that elucidate and expand on Carl Jung's conception of the shadow, or the disowned self—repressed and therefore unconscious aspects of the psyche.The essays are extensive in scope, covering the personal shadow and its formation in the family, the archetypal Shadow (or simply, Evil), the shadow in literature and religion and spirituality, shadow eruptions in daily life (what the editors call Shadow-Boxing), psychosomatic implications of the shadow (where a favorite crossing of mine between Jung and Reich takes place), and methods to integrate and honor this Other/Sibling/Double in each of us. The book is probably the biggest (and maybe the best) collection on the shadow ever made.I've found my favorite contribution in James Hillman's "The Cure of the Shadow," in which he emphasizes the importance of loving and carrying our shadow outside the confines of the ego's ideals and ambitions—a useful addition to Jung's dictum that a strong differentiated ego is capable of relating with the shadow without being possessed by it."I use the term 'cure of the shadow' to emphasize the importance of love. If we approach ourselves to cure ourselves, putting 'me' in the center, it too often degenerates into the aim of curing the ego—getting stronger, better, growing in accord with the ego's goals, which are often mechanical copies of society's goals. But if we approach ourselves to cure those fixed intractable congenital weaknesses of stubbornness and blindness, of meanness and cruelty, of sham and pomp, we come up against the need for a new way of being altogether, in which the ego must serve and listen to and cooperate with a host of shadowy unpleasant figures and discover an ability to love even the least of these traits.Loving oneself is no easy matter just because it means loving all of oneself, including the shadow where one is inferior and socially so unacceptable. The care one gives this humiliating part is also the cure. More: as the cure depends on care, so does caring sometimes mean nothing more than carrying. The first essential in redemption of the shadow is the ability to carry it along with you ... Yet this carrying and caring cannot be programmatic, in order to develop, in order that the inferiority comply with the ego's goals, for this is hardly love."

When Carl Jung embarked on an extended self-exploration he called it his “confrontation with the unconscious,” the heart of it was The Red Book, a large, illuminated volume he created between 1914 and 1930. Here he developed his principle theories—of the archetypes, the collective unconscious, and the process of individuation—that transformed psychotherapy from a practice concerned with treatment of the sick into a means for higher development of the personality.  While Jung considered The Red Book to be his most important work, only a handful of people have ever seen it. Now, in a complete facsimile and translation, it is available to scholars and the general public. It is an astonishing example of calligraphy and art on a par with The Book of Kells and the illuminated manuscripts of William Blake. This publication of The Red Book is a watershed that will cast new light on the making of modern psychology.  212 color illustrations.

Psychopathology of Everyday Life, The Interpretation of Dreams, Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex, Wit and Its Relation to the Unconsious, Totem and Taboo and The History of the Psychoanalytic MovementThis classic edition of The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud includes complete texts of six works that have profoundly influenced our understanding of human behavior.Psychopathology of Everyday Life is perhaps the most accessible of Freud's books. An intriguing introduction to psychoanalysis, it shows how subconscious motives underlie even the most ordinary mistakes we make in talking, walking and remembering.The Interpretation of Dreams records Freud's revolutionary inquiry into the meaning of dreams and the power of the unconscious.Three Contributions of the Theory of Sex is the seminal work in which Freud traces the development of sexual instinct in humans from infancy to maturity.Wit and Its Relation to the Unconcious expands on the theories Freud set forth in The Interpretation of Dreams. It demonstrates how all forms of humor attest to the fundamental orderliness of the human mind.Totem and Taboo extends Freud's analysis of the individual psyche to society and culture.The History of the Psychoanalytic Movement makes clear the ultimate incompatibility of Freud's ideas with those of his onetime followers Adler and Jung.The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud is presented here in the translation by Dr. A. A. Brill, who for almost forty years was the standard bearer of Freudian theories in America.

The late Carl Rogers, founder of the humanistic psychology movement, revolutionized psychotherapy with his concept of "client-centered therapy." His influence has spanned decades, but that influence has become so much a part of mainstream psychology that the ingenious nature of his work has almost been forgotten. A new introduction by Peter Kramer sheds light on the significance of Dr. Rogers's work today. New discoveries in the field of psychopharmacology, especially that of the antidepressant Prozac, have spawned a quick-fix drug revolution that has obscured the psychotherapeutic relationship. As the pendulum slowly swings back toward an appreciation of the therapeutic encounter, Dr. Rogers's "client-centered therapy" becomes particularly timely and important.

The concept of the archetype is crucial to Jung's radical interpretation of the human mind. Jung believed that every person partakes of a universal or collective unconscious that persists through generations. The origins of the concept can be traced to his very first publication in 1902 and it remained central to his thought throughout his life. As well as explaining the theoretical background behind the idea, in Four Archetypes Jung describes the four archetypes that he considers fundamental to the psychological make-up of every individual: mother, rebirth, spirit and trickster. Exploring their role in myth, fairytale and scripture, Jung engages the reader in discoveries that challenge and enlighten the ways we perceive ourselves and others.

ملاحظة : استغرق انتقاد الترجمات السابقة للكتاب أكثر من ثلث الكتاب الذي لم يتبقى منه سوى مئة صفحة تقريبا.عندما يواجه المرء التناقضات فإن البعض قد يلجأ إلى الدين ليعطيه الإجابة أو بالأحرى للهروب من الشك الذي لا يطاق ، فاللجوء هنا هو بحث عن الأمان وليس بالضرورة رغبة للوصول إلى الحقيقة.العلاقة بين الدين وعلم النفس أكثر تعقيدا من جعل البحث في الروح مناطا بالدين فقط ، فالمسألة ليست هل يعود الإنسان إلى الدين ويؤمن بالله بل هي هل يعيش الحب ويفكر في الحقيقة ؟وضع فروم مقارنة دقيقة بين موقف فرويد وموقف "يانغ" إزاء الدين ، فالدين عند فرويد وليد ضعف الإنسان في مواجهة قوى الطبيعة خارجه، والقوى الغريزية في داخله ، وهو نشأ في مرحلة مبكرة من التطور البشري حين لم يكن الإنسان قادرا على استخدام عقله للتعامل مع هذه القوى ، وفي هذه السيرورة ينشأ الوهم الذي يستمد مادته من خبرته الفردية بوصفه طفلا ، فالدين المتمثل في الترغيب والترهيب هو تكرار لخبرة الأطفال ، وهو خطر لأنه يغلب عليه تقديس الأعراف البشرية الرديئة التي تحالف معها في كل تاريخه ، ويرفض الربط بين القيم الأخلاقية والدين ، والهدف الحقيقي للتطور البشري هو التغلب على التعلق الطفولي والاعتماد على السلطة التي نتخلص منها إذا كان لنا جرأة على التفكير.أما يانغ فينظر للدين - مثال الولادة البتولية للمسيح - على أنه حقيقة سايكولوجية لأنها موجودة وليس معنيا كعالم نفس بحقيقة أو بطلان هذه الفكرة ، ولقد انتقد فروم هذا المنطلق الذي يرفضه أتباع الديانات الذين يرى كل منهم أنه يحتكر الحقيقة المطلقة في العقيدة ، ويرى يانغ أن الخبرة الدينية تستولي عليها قدرة خارج أنفسنا ، فتأثير اللاشعور هو ظاهرة دينية أساسية ، فالعقيدة والحلم كلاهما ظاهرة دينية لأنهما يعبران عن قدرة مسيطرة خارج أنفسنا.اللاشعور عند فرويد هو السيء المكبوت فينا ، وعند يانغ هو مصدر الوحي الذي يعد ظاهرة دينية ، ولا يوافق فروم على كلا المفهومين لأن كليهما تحريف أحادي للحقيقة ، فاللاشعور يحتوي على الأسوء والأفضل فهو الجانب الآخر من أنفسنا الذي انحجب عن شعورنا.يعمم فروم مفهوم الدين ليكون نظاما من الفكر والعمل يتشارك فيه مجموعة من الأشخاص ، ويرى أن اهتمامات رجل الدين المخلص وعالم النفس هي ذاتها من حيث اهتمام الاثنين بنمو الإنسان.الإنسان بإمكانه أن ينكص بسهولة إلى أشد أشكال الدين بدائية كعبادة السلف والطوطمية التي مثل لها فروم بتقديس العَلَم ، ولا يوجد شي غير إنساني لا يمنح الراحة شريطة أن تشترك جماعة فيه ، فمتى ما ظفر مذهب مهما كان منافيا للعقل بالسلطة في مجتمع ما آمن به ملايين الناس بدلا من الإحساس بالانتفاء والانعزال ، لو نجح الدين التوحيدي في صوغ طبع الإنسان وفقا لمُثُله المنصوص عليه لنجح في إنقاذ الناس من عبادة السلف والطوطمية ، لكنه خضع للسلطة الدينيوية وتصالح معها مرة بعد مرة وربما شارك في انتهاكاتها .يفرق فروم بين الدين التسلطي الذي يمارس سلطة وسيطرة على الإنسان لها الحق في أن ترغم الإنسان على طاعتها وعدم عصيانها ، وبين الدين الإنساني الذي يتمحور حول الإنسان وقوته وعلاقته مع إخوته ويكون الله رمزا لقدرات الإنسان التي يحاول تحقيقها في حياته ، ويمثل هذا الدين البوذية الباكرة وتعاليم أشعيا ويسوع وسقراط وبعض الاتجاهات الصوفية في اليهودية والمسيحية ، أما العهد القديم فهو مكتوب بروح الدين التسلطي وصورة الله هي صورة الحاكم المطلق لعشيرة أبوية ، وكلما صار الله أشد كمالا صار الإنسان أشد نقصا ، والحد الذي يستخدم فيه الإنسان عقله لتبرير اللامعقول أو تسويغ أعمال جماعته يظهر كم هي كبيرة تلك المسافة التي يجب أن يقطعها الإنسان ليصبح إنسانا عاقلا.ليس الضمير في الدين الإنساني هو صوت السلطة كالأبوين والكنيسة بل هو صوت الإنسان الحارس لسلامتنا الذي يذكرنا بأنفسنا عندما نكون في خطر فقدان أنفسنا ، فليس الإثم بحق الله وإنما هو إثم بحق أنفسنا ، وردة الفعل في الموقف التسلطي على الآثام تكون مرعبة لأنه عصيان للسلطات القوية التي ستعاقب الآثم ، ويكون الإنسان هنا ميالا للإثم مرة أخرى عندما تنقضي عربدة جلد ذاته والثمن الذي يدفعه مقابل هذا التفريج هو الاتكال على الذين يتمتعون بامتياز الغفران.يقسم فروم الطقوس إلى عقلية كالترحيب بالناس وتوقير الموتى، ولا عقلية التي إذا لم تؤدى مرة واحدة فإن المكبوت يهدد بالاقتحام ويحصل قلق كبير ، وليست الطقوس الدينية لا عقلية دائما فطقس الاغتسال الديني يمكن أن يفهم على أنه تعبير عقلي عن الطهارة الداخلية وكذلك طقوس الصيام والزواج لها مدلولاتها الخاصة ، أما الطقوس الجماعية فيحبها قادة الأنظمة التسلطية فهي تعبيرات عن الحاجة إلى العمل المشترك.يرى فروم أنه قد آن الأوان للتوقف عن الجدال حول الله والاتحاد بدلا من ذلك في كشف القناع عن الأشكال المعاصرة للوثنية فليس ما يهددنا هو بعل وعشتار بل تأليه الدولة والسلطة في البلدان التسلطية ، إن مشكلة الدين ليست مشكلة الله بل هي مشكلة الإنسان فتمحور النقاش الديني حول قبول رمز الله أو رفضه يسد السبيل أمام فهم المشكلة الدينية التي هي في الأساس إنسانية.لفت انتباهي هو انعدام ذكر دين الإسلام في الكتاب مع كونه من أكبر الأديان العالمية ... فهل ذلك مقصود من الكاتب أم أنه صدفة بحتة ؟

Social psychologist Erich Fromm’s seminal exploration of the profound ills of modern society, and how best to overcome themOne of Fromm’s main interests was to analyze social systems and their impact on the mental health of the individual. In this study, he reaches further and asks: “Can a society be sick?” He finds that it can, arguing that Western culture is immersed in a “pathology of normalcy” that affects the mental health of individuals. In The Sane Society, Fromm examines the alienating effects of modern capitalism, and discusses historical and contemporary alternatives, particularly communitarian systems. Finally, he presents new ideas for a re-organization of economics, politics, and culture that would support the individual’s mental health and our profound human needs for love and freedom.

A profound and deeply personal collection of essays by renowned psychologist Carl RogersThe late Carl Rogers, founder of the humanistic psychology movement and father of client-centered therapy, based his life's work on his fundamental belief in the human potential for growth. A Way of Being was written in the early 1980s, near the end of Carl Rogers's career, and serves as a coda to his classic On Becoming a Person. More philosophical than his earlier writings, it traces his professional and personal development and ends with a prophetic call for a more humane future.

I would recommend anyone to read any of Fromm's work. This man to me, his contributions to psychology and to the understanding of the world and the human condition eclipse those of Freud and Jung. Just saying. This book gets to the questions of why things are so screwed up, why are people so violent and aggressive? I like his answers, it's a maladjusted attempt to deal with life, one way is the nihilistic (destroy that which I don't understand) or the sadistic (control that which I don't understand) but both a fear drive and destructive. Fromm knew what he was talking about and is able to share it in ordinary and compelling language. An important book.

Dora, Freud’s case study on Ida Bauer, is an account of the three months he spent treating a young woman said to be suffering from "hysteria" (hee hee). The case study, however, reads not like a dry account of therapeutic interactions between doctor and patient but rather more like a story full of foreshadowing and satisfactory (if not frustrating) connections drawn between disparate details. Even Freud admits that he wrote with hope of publication in mind and made alterations to “the order in which the explanations are given…for the sake of presenting the case in a more connected form” (Freud, 1905, p. 4). In other words, though Freud claimed he altered “nothing of any importance,” the impetus behind his alterations was to create a more readable, more accessible – but not necessarily more accurate – case history.A critical reader will likely walk away with the impression that Freud is less concerned with how well his methods work than he is that they seem to work -- a self-serving desire certainly not unique to Freud. Freud delights in drawing connections and making inferences based on seemingly insignificant details that later, based on his careful presentation, appear at least somewhat logical. Knowing Freud as most who would read him likely do, readers may occasionally laugh/grumble/curse at Freud’s predictable tendency to attribute everything seemingly pathological to unconscious drives of sex and aggression. Even Dora herself rolls her eyes at this consistent tendency when Freud attempts to analyze one of her dreams – when he draws an analogy between the jewelry box in Dora’s dream and female genitalia, Dora responds, “I knew you would say that” (p. 61).Freud is also quite careful, in that crafty analyst way, to cover his backside at every turn, criticizing the critics before they criticize him and reminding us that this treatment was cut short and would probably have been successful had it continued. Moreover, the very nature of Freudian analysis sometimes presents an unassailable façade of logistical traps such as Freud’s disappointing assertion that Dora’s “no” actually means “yes.” At another point, he actually writes, “I will pass over the details which showed how entirely correct all of this [earlier interpretation] was” (p. 35). Again and again, Freud attempts to silence both Dora and his readers by predicting and destroying her and our protestations before we have even had the opportunity to voice them. In theory, we as readers have already been primed by Freud to believe that Dora is virtually incapable of understanding her own motivations (hence the “no” means “yes” problem) and that when she disagrees with him she is merely cloaking the disturbing truth in more repression. After all, Dora is a woman suffering from life-long hysteria and so her opinion is therefore the unreliable one. Nicely played, Dr. Freud.When it comes to Freud and contemporary readers, however, everyone’s a critic. It’s my feeling that the often under-informed, hypercritical perspective with which many approach Freud’s work blinds them to the essential and lasting contributions he has made to the field of psychology. While one can reasonably consider many of Freud’s notions arrogant, insulting, sexist, bigoted, and wholly without merit, certain others, such as the unconscious, defense mechanisms, and some elements of his psychosexual stages (on which others have developed more palatable explanations of development) are Freud’s contributions as well. I mean, don't you think your hatred of Freud seems a little, well, hysterical? In your face, naysayers!

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