A Fractured Mind


Book Description

In 1989, Robert B. Oxnam, the successful China scholar and president of the Asia Society, faced up to what he thought was his biggest personal challenge: alcoholism. But this dependency masked a problem far more serious: Multiple Personality Disorder. At the peak of his professional career, after having led the Asia Society for nearly a decade, Oxnam was haunted by periodic blackouts and episodic rages. After his family and friends intervened, Oxnam received help from a psychiatrist, Dr. Jeffrey Smith, and entered a rehab center. It wasn't until 1990 during a session with Dr. Smith that the first of Oxnam's eleven alternate personalities--an angry young boy named Tommy--suddenly emerged. With Dr. Smith's help, Oxnam began the exhausting and fascinating process of uncovering his many personalities and the childhood trauma that caused his condition. This is the powerful and moving story of one person's struggle with this terrifying illness. The book includes an epilogue by Dr. Smith in which he describes Robert's case, the treatment, and the nature of multiple personality disorder. Robert's courage in facing his situation and overcoming his painful past makes for a dramatic and inspiring book.




Fractured Minds


Book Description

Fractured Minds introduces the reader to clinical neuropsychology through vivid case descriptions of adults who have suffered brain damage. At one level, this is a book about the courage, humor, and determination to triumph over illness and disability that many "ordinary people" demonstrate when coping with the extraordinary stress of a brain disorder. On another level, it is a well-referenced and up-to-date textbook that provides a holistic view of the practice of clinical neuropsychology. Included are reader-friendly descriptions and explanations of a wide range of neurological disorders and neuroscientific concepts. Two introductory chapters are followed by 17 chapters that each focus on a specific disorder and include research, clinical assessment, rehabilitation, and a detailed case study. Disorders range across the full spectrum from common ones such as traumatic brain injury and dementia, to rare disorders such as autotopagnosia. Each of the 16 chapters retained from the first edition has been revised to reflect current research and clinical advances. Three new chapters on multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, and Huntington's disease incorporate discussion of important current topics such as genetically-transmitted diseases, genetic counseling, gene transplantation, functional neurosurgery, and the complex ethical issues that go hand-in-hand with these new techniques. This informative and engaging book will be of interest to students of clinical psychology, neuropsychology, and neurology, health professionals who work with neurological patients, neurological patients and their families, and lay readers who are simply fascinated by the mind and brain.




Full Gospel, Fractured Minds?


Book Description

Do you sometimes feel you have to check your intellect at the church door, leaving reason behind to embrace the Christian faith? Do you hunger for a “full gospel” that includes the mind as well as heart and Spirit? Full Gospel, Fractured Minds? challenges charismatic and Pentecostal believers to discover the power of a well-maintained mind—a mind on fire—to match a heart on fire and to create a life that operates within the full counsel of God . Nañez shows how human reason helps us understand and interpret God’s Word as well as defend the gospel. He shows what the Bible teaches about the mind, and explores the backgrounds of nineteenth-century and modern culture, anti-intellectualism, Pentecostal history and beliefs, and popular misconceptions about human intellect in relation to the Christian faith. Full Gospel, Fractured Minds? helps men and women practice a Christian faith that reflects the whole person and the full gospel. “Rick Nañez calls Pentecostals and charismatics to seek a balance between mind and Spirit. This book will stir you to seek all that God has for you.” —From the Foreword by Stanley M. Horton, PhD




Fractured Mind


Book Description

Winner of the 2016 eLit Awards: Silver in Psychology/Mental Health. Fractured Mind: The Healing of a Person with Dissociative Identity Disorder chronicles the healing process of a person suffering from DID. The disorder happened due to a long sustained period of traumatic violence during childhood. The book depicts the working of the subconscious and how it reveals itself layer upon layer from the surface of the subconscious to its depth. With hope and the support of amazing people, and at times the teaching and intervention of God, angels, and the Holy Spirit, a reformation of the psyche takes place. This book is a witness of the living Christ. The story tells of a journey of healing. Warning: this book is for adults only due to explanations of sexual and physical violence causing dissociation at an early age. Helped by intensive psychological therapy, Debra's subconscious peels away layer by layer, revealing horrific trauma caused by her parents at a very young age. Due to the trauma, Debra has been unable to overcome serious fears and beliefs about herself and her world. Her damage was so severe, the foundation of her psyche had to be remade. Because of the nature of DID having been formed during the violence, she has been "stuck in the trauma" and unable to process and change without professional help. But process she did through a great deal of emotional pain and physical discomfort. "Fractured Mind: The Healing of a Person with Dissociative Identity Disorder" also describes an unusually close relationship with God and what Debra calls the "Other Realm." The story witnesses the love and comfort of God, but it also tells of God's wisdom and justice. Debra brings her relationship with her God to life in the book and that relationship seems as real as any relationship with a loving, guiding, parent. Debra writes a narrative throughout the book, but the main writing style is an email dialogue between her, her "parts," and Bruce. Bruce's wisdom and spiritual understanding lend an amazing perspective on the struggles of healing from violence. Bruce's writing is a testimony of unconditional love, kindness, and dedication to the health of a person. He exemplifies a true friend. Dissociative Identity Disorder is not a mental illness, but a disorder. Because her mind fractured, she has been able to live in society very successfully. Many people with DID are successful professionals, and Debra is no exception. But the healing has released her of her trauma. She is no longer bound by trauma. This printed edition is a shorter version than the ebook.




Trouble in Mind


Book Description

In Trouble in Mind, neuropsychologist Jenni Ogden, author of Fractured Minds, transports the reader into the world of some of her most memorable neurological patients as she explores with compassion, insight, and vivid description the human side of brain damage. These are tales of patients who, as the result of stroke, brain tumor, car crash, or neurological disease, begin thinking and behaving strangely, and with their loved ones' support embark on the long journey to recovery, acceptance of disability and sometimes, death. There is Luke, the gang member who loses his speech but finds he can still sing his favorite blues number "Trouble in Mind," and HM, who teaches the world about memory and becomes the most studied single case in medical history. You will meet Julian, who misplaces his internal map of the human body, and Melody, a singer who risks losing her song when she undergoes brain surgery to cure her epilepsy. Then there is Kim with a severe head injury, and Sophie who has just enough time to put her house in order before Alzheimer's dementia steals her insight. For these and the many other patients whose stories are told in this book, the struggle to understand their disordered minds and disobedient bodies takes extraordinary courage, determination, and patience. For health professionals and researchers working with these patients, the ethical and emotional challenges can be as demanding as the intellectual and treatment decisions they make daily. Trouble In Mind is written in an accessible narrative style that is both accurate and intimate. It will be enjoyed by readers -- whether students, researchers, or professionals in mental health and neuroscience, patients with neurological disorders and their families, or general readers -- who want to learn more about brain disorders and the doctors who care for those who suffer them.




Age of Fracture


Book Description

In the last quarter of the twentieth century, the ideas that most Americans lived by started to fragment. Mid-century concepts of national consensus, managed markets, gender and racial identities, citizen obligation, and historical memory became more fluid. Flexible markets pushed aside Keynesian macroeconomic structures. Racial and gender solidarity divided into multiple identities; community responsibility shrank to smaller circles. In this wide-ranging narrative, Daniel Rodgers shows how the collective purposes and meanings that had framed social debate became unhinged and uncertain. Age of Fracture offers a powerful reinterpretation of the ways in which the decades surrounding the 1980s changed America. Through a contagion of visions and metaphors, on both the intellectual right and the intellectual left, earlier notions of history and society that stressed solidity, collective institutions, and social circumstances gave way to a more individualized human nature that emphasized choice, agency, performance, and desire. On a broad canvas that includes Michel Foucault, Ronald Reagan, Judith Butler, Charles Murray, Jeffrey Sachs, and many more, Rodgers explains how structures of power came to seem less important than market choice and fluid selves. Cutting across the social and political arenas of late-twentieth-century life and thought, from economic theory and the culture wars to disputes over poverty, color-blindness, and sisterhood, Rodgers reveals how our categories of social reality have been fractured and destabilized. As we survey the intellectual wreckage of this war of ideas, we better understand the emergence of our present age of uncertainty.




Murder in Mind


Book Description




Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors


Book Description

Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors integrates a neurobiologically informed understanding of trauma, dissociation, and attachment with a practical approach to treatment, all communicated in straightforward language accessible to both client and therapist. Readers will be exposed to a model that emphasizes "resolution"—a transformation in the relationship to one’s self, replacing shame, self-loathing, and assumptions of guilt with compassionate acceptance. Its unique interventions have been adapted from a number of cutting-edge therapeutic approaches, including Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Internal Family Systems, mindfulness-based therapies, and clinical hypnosis. Readers will close the pages of Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors with a solid grasp of therapeutic approaches to traumatic attachment, working with undiagnosed dissociative symptoms and disorders, integrating "right brain-to-right brain" treatment methods, and much more. Most of all, they will come away with tools for helping clients create an internal sense of safety and compassionate connection to even their most dis-owned selves.




Fractured


Book Description

I'm not crazy.I'm the product of a schizophrenic mother who seemed more evil than human, and a bipolar father who didn't love me enough to stay. But I'm not crazy. Now I'm struggling with life and question myself and my decisions every single day. Are these signs? Red flags? I won't let myself look too close. I refuse to be crazy. Then four men swoop in just when I need them. They're protective, supportive, and everything I never had even though we're unconventional. I want to be the person they need me to be. I need it. But I'm afraid...that I'm crazy.




Fault Lines


Book Description

Real solutions to a hidden epidemic: family estrangement. Estrangement from a family member is one of the most painful life experiences. It is devastating not only to the individuals directly involved--collateral damage can extend upward, downward, and across generations, More than 65 million Americans suffer such rifts, yet little guidance exists on how to cope with and overcome them. In this book, Karl Pillemer combines the advice of people who have successfully reconciled with powerful insights from social science research. The result is a unique guide to mending fractured families. Fault Lines shares for the first time findings from Dr. Pillemer's ten-year groundbreaking Cornell Reconciliation Project, based on the first national survey on estrangement; rich, in-depth interviews with hundreds of people who have experienced it; and insights from leading family researchers and therapists. He assures people who are estranged, and those who care about them, that they are not alone and that fissures can be bridged. Through the wisdom of people who have "been there," Fault Lines shows how healing is possible through clear steps that people can use right away in their own families. It addresses such questions as: How do rifts begin? What makes estrangement so painful? Why is it so often triggered by a single event? Are you ready to reconcile? How can you overcome past hurts to build a new future with a relative? Tackling a subject that is achingly familiar to almost everyone, especially in an era when powerful outside forces such as technology and mobility are lessening family cohesion, Dr. Pillemer combines dramatic stories, science-based guidance, and practical repair tools to help people find the path to reconciliation.