Introduction to Triangle of Sadness


Book Description

Introduction to Triangle of Sadness is a novel by Austrian author Christoph Ransmayr. The story takes place on a luxurious cruise ship called the World Adventurer, where we follow the lives of three main characters: Romana, a wealthy businesswoman; Ingrid, a famous actress; and Kamal, a doctor who is also a terrorist. Despite their differing backgrounds, the three characters are united by a sense of disillusionment and existential despair. As they navigate the opulent and decadent world of the ship, they are forced to confront their own mortality and the emptiness of their lives. The novel is a poignant commentary on the contemporary human condition, exploring themes of beauty, aging, death, and the search for meaning in life. Ransmayr's writing is highly descriptive, emphasizing the sensory and sensory detail of the luxurious surroundings of the ship, while also weaving in philosophical reflections and critiques of modern society. The characters in Introduction to Triangle of Sadness are complex and flawed, and their interactions with one another are often fraught with tension and misunderstandings. Ultimately, the novel offers a compelling and thought-provoking reflection on the human experience in the 21st century. Overall, Introduction to Triangle of Sadness is a haunting and powerful novel that offers a glimpse into the complexities and anxieties of modern life. Through its vivid imagery, introspective characters, and philosophical reflections, the book challenges readers to reflect on their own mortality and the meaning of life. Ransmayr's writing is both poetic and provocative, drawing the reader into a world that is at once beautiful and oppressive. Whether one is drawn to the novel for its rich descriptions of luxury and excess or its existential musings on the human condition, Introduction to Triangle of Sadness is a book that is sure to leave a lasting impression.




It's Not Always Depression


Book Description

Fascinating patient stories and dynamic exercises help you connect to healing emotions, ease anxiety and depression, and discover your authentic self. Sara suffered a debilitating fear of asserting herself. Spencer experienced crippling social anxiety. Bonnie was shut down, disconnected from her feelings. These patients all came to psychotherapist Hilary Jacobs Hendel seeking treatment for depression, but in fact none of them were chemically depressed. Rather, Jacobs Hendel found that they’d all experienced traumas in their youth that caused them to put up emotional defenses that masqueraded as symptoms of depression. Jacobs Hendel led these patients and others toward lives newly capable of joy and fulfillment through an empathic and effective therapeutic approach that draws on the latest science about the healing power of our emotions. Whereas conventional therapy encourages patients to talk through past events that may trigger anxiety and depression, accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy (AEDP), the method practiced by Jacobs Hendel and pioneered by Diana Fosha, PhD, teaches us to identify the defenses and inhibitory emotions (shame, guilt, and anxiety) that block core emotions (anger, sadness, fear, disgust, joy, excitement, and sexual excitement). Fully experiencing core emotions allows us to enter an openhearted state where we are calm, curious, connected, compassionate, confident, courageous, and clear. In It’s Not Always Depression, Jacobs Hendel shares a unique and pragmatic tool called the Change Triangle—a guide to carry you from a place of disconnection back to your true self. In these pages, she teaches lay readers and helping professionals alike • why all emotions—even the most painful—have value. • how to identify emotions and the defenses we put up against them. • how to get to the root of anxiety—the most common mental illness of our time. • how to have compassion for the child you were and the adult you are. Jacobs Hendel provides navigational tools, body and thought exercises, candid personal anecdotes, and profound insights gleaned from her patients’ remarkable breakthroughs. She shows us how to work the Change Triangle in our everyday lives and chart a deeply personal, powerful, and hopeful course to psychological well-being and emotional engagement.




Sadness Is a White Bird


Book Description

**A Dayton Literary Peace Prize Finalist** **A National Jewish Book Award Finalist for Debut Fiction** In this “nuanced, sharp, and beautifully written” (Michael Chabon) debut novel, a young man prepares to serve in the Israeli army while also trying to reconcile his close relationship to two Palestinian siblings with his deeply ingrained loyalties to family and country. The story begins in an Israeli military jail, where—four days after his nineteenth birthday—Jonathan stares up at the fluorescent lights of his cell and recalls the series of events that led him there. Two years earlier: Moving back to Israel after several years in Pennsylvania, Jonathan is ready to fight to preserve and defend the Jewish state. But he is also conflicted about the possibility of having to monitor the occupied Palestinian territories, a concern that grows deeper and more urgent when he meets Nimreen and Laith—the twin daughter and son of his mother’s friend. From that morning on, the three become inseparable: wandering the streets on weekends, piling onto buses toward new discoveries, laughing uncontrollably. They share joints on the beach, trading snippets of poems, intimate secrets, family histories, resentments, and dreams. But with his draft date rapidly approaching, Jonathan wrestles with the question of what it means to be proud of your heritage, while also feeling love for those outside of your own family. And then that fateful day arrives, the one that lands Jonathan in prison and changes his relationship with the twins forever. “Unflinching in its honesty, unyielding in its moral complexity” (Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize–winning author), Sadness Is a White Bird explores one man’s attempts to find a place for himself, discovering in the process a beautiful, against-the-odds love that flickers like a candle in the darkness of a never-ending conflict.




The Sense of an Ending


Book Description

BOOKER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A novel that follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he never much thought about—until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance: one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single setting, The Sense of an Ending has the psychological and emotional depth and sophistication of Henry James at his best, and is a stunning achievement in Julian Barnes's oeuvre. Tony Webster thought he left his past behind as he built a life for himself, and his career has provided him with a secure retirement and an amicable relationship with his ex-wife and daughter, who now has a family of her own. But when he is presented with a mysterious legacy, he is forced to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.




Shylock Is My Name


Book Description

Man Booker Prize-winner Howard Jacobson brings his singular brilliance to this modern re-imagining of one of Shakespeare’s most unforgettable characters: Shylock Winter, a cemetery, Shylock. In this provocative and profound interpretation of The Merchant of Venice, Shylock is juxtaposed against his present-day counterpart in the character of art dealer and conflicted father Simon Strulovitch. With characteristic irony, Jacobson presents Shylock as a man of incisive wit and passion, concerned still with questions of identity, parenthood, anti-Semitism and revenge. While Strulovich struggles to reconcile himself to his daughter Beatrice's “betrayal” of her family and heritage—as she is carried away by the excitement of Manchester high society, and into the arms of a footballer notorious for giving a Nazi salute on the field—Shylock alternates grief for his beloved wife with rage against his own daughter's rejection of her Jewish upbringing. Culminating in a shocking twist on Shylock’s demand for the infamous pound of flesh, Jacobson’s insightful retelling examines contemporary, acutely relevant questions of Jewish identity while maintaining a poignant sympathy for its characters and a genuine spiritual kinship with its antecedent—a drama which Jacobson himself considers to be “the most troubling of Shakespeare’s plays for anyone, but, for an English novelist who happens to be Jewish, also the most challenging.”




An Introduction to Transactional Analysis


Book Description

This thoroughly revised edition of Transactional Analysis Counselling introduces the theory and practice of TA - which integrates cognitive behavioural and psychodynamic theories within a humanistic philosophy - from a unique relational perspective. While most TA books focus on one field, this approach demonstrates the benefits of TA across a wide variety of helping settings, business and management, education and coaching as well as counselling. Case studies from a variety of contexts bring TA to life for trainees in any of these disciplines, and the accessible, engaging writing style makes difficult concepts understandable for undergraduates and postgraduates alike. Bringing their book into the twenty-first century, expert authors Phil Lapworth and Charlotte Sills provide a brief history of TA followed by individual chapters on the concepts and techniques used. Each chapter is devoted to one concept and includes a detailed definition and description, and suggestions for application in practice. Exercises for student, practitioner and client, boxed summaries, diagrams, checklists and sources of further reading make this the ideal text for use in training. This book is an essential companion for those embarking on specialist TA courses or studying TA as part of wider training, while those who want simply to integrate TA into their work with people can dip into it as suits their needs.




Japanese Flower Culture – An Introduction


Book Description

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to ikebana and other forms of Japanese flower culture. Unlike other books on the subject which focus on practice, the book provides both an academic discussion of the subject and an introduction to practice. It examines ikebana and flower culture from anthropological and sociological perspectives, analyses Japanese aesthetics, customs and rituals related to flower arrangements, and outlines ikebana history and the Grand Master Iemoto system. It considers how the traditional arts are taught in Japan, and links traditional arts to current issues in today’s society, such as gender and class. This book also covers how to prepare ikebana utensils, preserve flowers and branches, and how to appreciate arrangements, placing an emphasis on acknowledging our five senses throughout each stage of the process. The book will be of interest to a wide range of people interested in Japanese flower culture – university professors and students, tourists and people interested in traditional Japanese arts.




How the COVID-19 Pandemic Transformed the Mental Health Landscape


Book Description

This book is a valuable historical record of how counselling psychologists responded to the COVID-19 pandemic around the globe. Volume I includes 14 chapters that address topics associated with transferring counselling practice online. Several chapters focus on transitioning to online therapy from face-to-face contact, including the effect of such a transition on the therapeutic relationship, and working with clients’ emotional processes online. Written by prominent researchers and clinicians in the field of counselling and psychotherapy, both the volumes together cover a wide range of perspectives and offer useful clinical recommendations related to effective telepsychotherapy practice. The chapters in these volumes were originally published as a special issue of Counselling Psychology Quarterly.




Sad by Design


Book Description

We live in a time of engineered intimacy, toxic memes and online addiction. Can we ever break free?