The Divine Madness of Philip K. Dick


Book Description

The Divine Madness of Philip K. Dick, written by a psychologist, investigates the inner world of the science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. In 1974, Dick was beset by religious visions, and warned police he was an android. The book explores whether Dick's experience was a spiritual awakening or caused by mental illness.




Madness


Book Description

Madness: History, Concepts and Controversies provides a comprehensive and critical analysis of current perspectives on mental illness and how they have been shaped by historical trends and dominant sociocultural paradigms. From its representation among world religions and wider folkloric myth, to early attempts to rationalize and treat symptoms of mental disorder, this book outlines the principle contemporary models of understanding mental health and situates them within a wider historical and social context. The authors consider a variety of current controversies within the mental health arena and provide numerous pedagogical features to allow students the opportunity to understand and engage in current issues and debates relating to psychological disorders. By discussing key issues such as the social construction of mental illness, this text provides an essential overview of how societies and science has understood mental illness, and will appeal to students, researchers and general readers alike.




Madness and Crime


Book Description

This book provides an authoritative and highly readable review of the relationship between madness and crime by one of the leading authorities in the field. The book is divided into four parts, each essay focusing on selected features of madness which have relevance to contemporary society. Part 1 is about madness itself, exploring three main models − cognitive, statistical, and emotional. Part 2 is a short discussion on madness, genius and creativity. Part 3 is about the much neglected area of compulsion, an issue that has largely disappeared from public debate. The mad may have moved from victim to violator, yet fundamental questions remain − in particular how to justify compulsory detention, and who should undertake the process? The answers to these questions have sociological, ethical and jurisprudential elements, and cannot just re resolved by reference to medical authorities. Part 4 is about the links between madness and crime − focusing less on the question and nature of criminal responsibility and the various defences that go with this, more on the links between madness and crime and which particular crimes are linked with which types of disorder.




The Madness of Philip


Book Description




The Madness of Crowds


Book Description

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER Updated with a new afterword "An excellent take on the lunacy affecting much of the world today. Douglas is one of the bright lights that could lead us out of the darkness." – Joe Rogan "Douglas Murray fights the good fight for freedom of speech ... A truthful look at today's most divisive issues" – Jordan B. Peterson Are we living through the great derangement of our times? In The Madness of Crowds Douglas Murray investigates the dangers of 'woke' culture and the rise of identity politics. In lively, razor-sharp prose he examines the most controversial issues of our moment: sexuality, gender, technology and race, with interludes on the Marxist foundations of 'wokeness', the impact of tech and how, in an increasingly online culture, we must relearn the ability to forgive. One of the few writers who dares to counter the prevailing view and question the dramatic changes in our society – from gender reassignment for children to the impact of transgender rights on women – Murray's penetrating book, now published with a new afterword taking account of the book's reception and responding to the worldwide Black Lives Matter protests, clears a path of sanity through the fog of our modern predicament.




Unholy Madness


Book Description

For nearly four decades social critics such as Philip Rieff and Christopher Lasch have bemoaned the "triumph of the therapeutic" in our "culture of narcissism." But whatever their level of uneasiness about the psychologizing of reality, most Christians have made some degree of peace with the reigning power of psychotherapy and psychotherapeutic outlooks. Seth Farber is not one of those Christians. In his estimation psychotherapy has become "a replacement for involvement in the spiritual life of the church," with pastors and other Christian leaders too quickly deferring to psychiatrists and other mental health professionals. Unholy Madness is prompted by Farber's passionate insistence that Christianity and psychiatry are nothing less than competing faiths. Farber's radical argument cuts to the root of the mental health system and challenges the church to consider how much it may have constricted its own vision and neglected its unique responsibilities in its accomodation to that system. Taking on giants from Augustine to Freud, wide-ranging and never boring, Unholy Madness is not likely to persuade all its readers. But none will be able to see these issues in the same way again. -- Publisher.




A Gentle Madness


Book Description

A Gentle Madness continues to astound and delight readers about the passion and expense a collector is willing to make in pursuit of the book. The book captures that last moment in time when collectors pursued their passions in dusty bookshops and street stalls, high stakes auctions, and the subterfuge worthy of a true bibliomaniac. An adventure among the afflicted, A Gentle Madness is vividly anecdotal and thoroughly researched. Nicholas Basbanes brings an investigative reporter's heart to illuminate collectors past and present in their pursuit of bibliomania. A New York Times Notable Book of the Year.




We Can Build You


Book Description

Louis Rosen and his partners sell people--ingeniously designed, historically authentic simulacra of personages such as Edwin M. Stanton and Abraham Lincoln. The problem is that the only prospective buyer is a rapacious billionaire whose plans for the simulacra could land Louis in jail. Then there's the added complication that someone--or something--like Abraham Lincoln may not want to be sold. Is an electronic Lincoln any less alive than his creators? Is a machine that cares and suffers inferior to the woman Louis loves--a borderline psychopath who does neither? With irresistible momentum, intelligence, and wit, Philip K. Dick creates an arresting techno-thriller that suggests a marriage of Bladerunner and Barbarians at the Gate.




Divine Madness


Book Description

A teenage special agent risks being brainwashed when he heads to the Outback to infiltrate a cult in this suspenseful CHERUB novel, featuring a striking new look! CHERUB agents are highly trained, extremely talented—and all under the age of seventeen. For official purposes, these agents do not exist. They are sent out on missions to spy on terrorists, hack into crucial documents, and gather intel on global threats—all without gadgets or weapons. It is an extremely dangerous job, but these agents have one crucial advantage: Adults never suspect that teens are spying on them. In Divine Madness, CHERUB uncovers a link between ecoterrorist group Help Earth and a wealthy religious cult known as The Survivors. James is sent to their isolated outback headquarters on an infiltration mission. It’s a thousand kilometers to the closest town, and James is under massive pressure form the cult’s brainwashing techniques. This time he’s not just fighting terrorists. He has to battle for his own mind.




The Madness of Alexander the Great


Book Description

Over the years, some 20,000 books and articles have been written about Alexander the Great, the vast majority hailing him as possibly the greatest general that ever lived. Richard A. Gabriel, however, argues that, while Alexander was clearly a succesful soldier-adventurer, the evidence of real greatness is simply not there. ?The author presents Alexander as a misfit within his own warrior society, attempting to overcompensate. Thoroughly insecure and unstable, he was given to episodes of uncontrollable rage and committed brutal atrocities that would today have him vilified as a monstrous psychopath. The author believes some of his worst excesses may have been due to what we now call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, of which he displays many of the classic symptoms, brought on by extended exposure to violence and danger. Above all the author thinks that Alexander's military ability has been flattered by History. Alexander was tactically competent but contributed nothing truly original, while his strategy was often flawed and distorted by his obsession with personal glory. This radical reappraisal is certain to provoke debate.