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Self-help

Here you will find exciting books about Self-help. Below is a selection of over 142.226 books on the subject.
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  • Save 19%
    by Adam Phillips
    £12.99

    Volumes have been dedicated to madness, but sanity is rarely mentioned. We can define the mad, but how do we classify the sane? In Going Sane, psychoanalyst and writer Adam Phillips delves deep into history, philosophy, literature and his own experiences to address questions that we rarely ask about ourselves, taking us on an engrossing journey in which we learn many things - including some of what it takes to be happy in the modern world.

  • Save 15%
    by Sigmund Freud
    £10.99

    Building on the crucial insight that jokes use many of the same mechanisms he had already discovered in dreams, Freud developed one of the richest and most comprehensive theories of humour that has ever been produced.Jokes, he argues, provide immense pleasure by allowing us to express many of our deepest sexual, aggressive and cynical thoughts and feelings which would otherwise remain repressed. In elaborating this central thesis, he brings together a dazzling set of puns, anecdotes, snappyone-liners, spoonerisms and beloved stories of Jewish beggars and marriage-brokers. Many remain highly amusing, while others throw a vivid light on the lost world of early twentieth-century Vienna.

  • Save 14%
    by Sigmund Freud
    £9.49

    This collection of writings is famous for giving us the phrase 'Freudian slip'. It also builds up a strong social history of Vienna and the middle-class social milieu of Freud and his patients. Through a series of case histories, some no longer than a few lines long, Freud explores how it is that normal people make slips of speech, writing, reading and remembering in their everyday life, and reveals what it is that they betray about the existence of a sub-text or subliminal motive to our conscious actions. As he explains, most of these slips tend of be of a relatively anodyne nature, but some are a little more sinister, particularly those where pride or thwarted love are concerned...

  • Save 14%
    by Stendhal
    £9.49

    In 1818, when he was in his mid-thirties, Stendhal met and fell passionately in love with the beautiful Mathilde Dembowski. She, however, was quick to make it clear that she did not return his affections, and in his despair he turned to the written word to exorcise his love and explain his feelings. The result is an intensely personal dissection of the process of falling - and being - in love: a unique blend of poetry, anecdote, philosophy, psychology and social observation. Bringing together the conflicting sides of his nature, the deeply emotional and the coolly analytical, Stendhal created a work that is both acutely personal and universally applicable.

  • Save 14%
    - An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood
    by Michael Lewis
    £9.49

    Here, with his remorseless eye for the truth, the bestselling author of Liar's Poker turns his sights on his own domestic world. The result is a wickedly enjoyable cautionary tale.Lewis reveals his own unique take on fatherhood, dealing with the big issues and challenges of new-found paternity: from discovering your three-year-old loves to swear to the ethics of taking your offspring gambling at the races, from the carnage of clothing and feeding to the inevitable tantrums - of both parent and child - and the gradual realization that, despite everything, he's becoming hooked.Home Game is probably the most brazenly honest and entertaining book about parenting ever written.

  • Save 10%
    by The School of Life & Susan Quilliam
    £8.99

    Choosing a romantic partner is one of contemporary life's biggest adventures. But other aspects of modern living - being globally more mobile, a fall in religious belief, social liberalization and more job opportunities (but longer working hours) - mean meeting a mate has rarely been so challenging, and rarely so important.In How to Choose a Partner, Susan Quilliam guides us through the process of finding the right partner for us as individuals. The real challenge is that we grow. Drawing upon rich cultural material, psychology and her background in relationship therapy, Susan presents partner choice as a self-development journey, driving us to learn more about ourselves, about other people, about life and the way we want to live.

  • Save 10%
    by Oliver James & The School of Life
    £8.99

    Happiness is a loaded term that means different things to different people. To some, it might mean life satisfaction, to others, a fleeting moment of joy. Rather than seeking to be happy, Oliver James encourages us to cultivate our emotional health. Outlining the five elements of good emotional health - insightfulness, a strong sense of self, fluid relationships, authenticity and playfulness in our approach to life - he offers strategies for optimizing each characteristic to live more fulfilling lives. Helping us to understand the impact our emotional baggage has on our daily interactions, he reveals how to overcome unhelpful patterns and become more self-aware - revitalizing our approach to life. One in the new series of books from The School of Life, launched January 2014: How to Age by Anne Karpf How to Develop Emotional Health by Oliver James How to Be Alone by Sara Maitland How to Deal with Adversity by Christopher Hamilton How to Think About Exercise by Damon Young How to Connect with Nature by Tristan Gooley

  • Save 10%
    - The True Story of a Mother and the Son She Had to Give Away (Film Tie-in Edition)
    by Martin Sixsmith
    £8.99

    Inspiring the film starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan, and directed by Stephen Frears, Philomena is the tale of a mother and a son whose lives were scarred by the forces of hypocrisy on both sides of the Atlantic and of the secrets they were forced to keep. With a foreword by Judi Dench, Martin Sixsmith's book is a compelling and deeply moving narrative of human love and loss, both heartbreaking yet ultimately redemptive.When she fell pregnant as a teenager in Ireland in 1952, Philomena Lee was sent to the convent at Roscrea in Co. Tipperary to be looked after as a fallen woman. She cared for her baby for three years until the Church took him from her and sold him, like countless others, to America for adoption. Coerced into signing a document promising never to attempt to see her child again, she nonetheless spent the next fifty years secretly searching for him, unaware that he was searching for her from across the Atlantic. Philomena's son, renamed Michael Hess, grew up to be a top Washington lawyer and a leading Republican official in the Reagan and Bush administrations. But he was a gay man in a homophobic party where he had to conceal not only his sexuality but, eventually, the fact that he had AIDS. With little time left, he returned to Ireland and the convent where he was born: his desperate quest to find his mother before he died left a legacy that was to unfold with unexpected consequences for all involved.

  • Save 14%
    by Jenny Lawson
    £9.49

    For fans of David Sedaris, Tina Fey and Caitlin Moran comes the new book from Jenny Lawson, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Let's Pretend This Never Happened...In Let's Pretend This Never Happened, Jenny Lawson regaled readers with uproarious stories of her bizarre childhood. In her new book, Furiously Happy, she explores her lifelong battle with mental illness. A hysterical, ridiculous book about crippling depression and anxiety? That sounds like a terrible idea. And terrible ideas are what Jenny does best.As Jenny says: 'You can't experience pain without also experiencing the baffling and ridiculous moments of being fiercely, unapologetically, intensely and (above all) furiously happy.' It's a philosophy that has - quite literally - saved her life.Jenny's first book, Let's Pretend This Never Happened, was ostensibly about family, but deep down it was about celebrating your own weirdness. Furiously Happy is a book about mental illness, but under the surface it's about embracing joy in fantastic and outrageous ways. And who doesn't need a bit more of that?

  • Save 18%
    - A Beginner's Guide
    by Lionel Bailly
    £8.99

    Lacan without the jargon!Jacques Lacan was one of the most important psychoanalysts ever to have lived. Building upon the work of Sigmund Freud, he sought to refine Freudian insights with the use of linguistics, arguing that ';the structure of unconscious is like a language'. Controversial throughout his lifetime both for adopting mathematical concepts in his psychoanalytic framework and for advocating therapy sessions of varying length, he is widely misunderstood and often unfairly dismissed as impenetrable. In this clear, wide-ranging primer, Lionel Bailly demonstrates how Lacan's ideas are still vitally relevant to contemporary issues of mental health treatment. Defending Lacan from his numerous detractors, past and present, Bailly guides the reader through Lacan's canon, from ';l'objet petit a' to ';The Mirror Stage' and beyond. Including coverage of developments in Lacanian psychoanalysis since his death, this is the perfect introduction to the great modern theorist.

  • Save 19%
    - Using breakthrough brain science to turn stress and anxiety into confidence and happiness
    by Martin Rossman
    £12.99

    Our brains are hardwired to worry, but we can learn to worry less. Modern stresses have as much to do with what we think about as what happens to us. Yet in a world of information overload and numerous demands on our time, it can be hard to keep our anxious thoughts in check.The Worry Solution teaches you how to relieve stress and anxiety by training your imagination. Using the very latest findings from neuroscience combined with simple techniques, this acclaimed guide will help you re-programme the conversation between the thinking and feeling parts of your brain. Discover how to significantly reduce worry and anxiety, and enhance your confidence and happiness for the rest of your life.

  • Save 10%
    - Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex but Were Too Tired to Ask
    by Ian Baker
    £8.99

    What is the Kama Sutra? Is it a spiritual text written by a visionary man of wisdom in India almost two millennia ago? Or is it the world's first mucky book? Well, it's the former - it's a spiritual text written by a visionary man of wisdom in India almost two millennia ago. Though shocking for its time, the Kama Sutra has gone on to become the world's most respected guide book on all matters sexual, and is now on top of the wardrobes or under the beds of over sixty percent of the world's teenage boys.It is a common and misconceived belief among the younger generations that sex is something not only void in the minds of our senior citizens, but is most likely physically impossible for those who are at or beyond retirement age. The glorious truth may come as a bit of a shock to the youth of today - it may even conjure up images in their minds best left 'till after lunch! The world's oldies are sexually active. New and exciting research has uncovered startling new evidence that oldies are still 'at it', and still 'do it' whenever they don't have a bad back. Can it be true? Are our most senior citizens getting their wrinkly legs over? If you are an older person, take heart - there's a lot of dusty action out there. Sex in the twilight years, though similar in mechanics to the couplings of youth, is in fact vastly different. This book exposes the secret world of grey love and covers every aspect of senior congress - from geriatric anatomy and attraction, through to mating rituals, sex positions, post-sex heart condition medication and proper service and care of pace makers.

  • Save 21%
    - Using Compassion-focused Therapy
    by Russell Kolts
    £13.49

    We can all get angry from time to time but when it gets out of hand it can have a serious impact on many aspects of our lives. As well as having an impact on our physical and mental health and our ability to engage in healthy relationships, it can also potentially have an enormous impact on society. The media is rife with stories of domestic violence, tragic stories of shaken babies, road-rage incidents and bullying.Mounting evidence suggests that all this anger can be harmful to us in a number of different ways. As well as the enormously damaging impact chronic anger can have on our relationships with other people, it is being linked to health problems such as cardiovascular disease and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and mental illnesses such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This invaluable self-help guide will enable the reader to recognise their personal anger problems, gain an understanding of what lies behind their anger, and use techniques based on Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) to deal with their anger more effectively. CFT was initially developed by Professor Paul Gilbert, author of The Compassionate Mind, to treat those with high levels of self-criticism. It uses the proven, research-based techniques of CBT and other therapies with a special focus on the importance of developing inner compassion, in order to alleviate feelings of shame, develop a more balanced outlook and promote resilience. It incorporates elements of mindfulness and Tibetan Buddhism with recent research on human development and studies of the brain. It is increasingly used to treat a wide range of emotional and psychological problems including depression, overeating, shyness, trauma, anxiety and anger.

  • - The Origins of Genocide and Other Group Violence
    by Ervin Staub
    £44.49

    How can human beings kill or brutalise multitudes of other human beings? Focusing particularly on genocide, Erwin Staub explores the psychology of group aggression. He sketches a conceptual framework for the many influences on one group's desire to harm another and within this framework, considers four historical examples of genocide.

  • Save 14%
    - Taming the Mind
    by Ruby Wax
    £9.49

    The mental health and mindfulness bestseller from A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled and How to be Human author Ruby Wax, who shows us why and how our minds can send us mad and how we can rewire our thinking to calm ourselves in a frenetic world.'Finally - a map for the troubled human mind. And it's funny.' -Caitlin MoranRuby Wax - comedian, writer and mental health campaigner - shows us how our minds can jeopardize our sanity.With her own periods of depression and now a Masters from Oxford in Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy to draw from, she explains how our busy, chattering, self-critical thoughts drive us to anxiety and stress. If we are to break the cycle, we need to understand how our brains work, rewire our thinking and find calm in a frenetic world.Helping you become the master, not the slave, of your mind, here is the manual to saner living.

  • Save 14%
    by Daniel Tammet
    £9.49

    'I was born on 31 January 1979 - a Wednesday. I know it was a Wednesday, because the date is blue in my mind and Wednesdays are always blue, like the number nine or the sound of loud voices arguing.' Like the character Hoffman portrayed, he can perform extraordinary maths in his head, sees numbers as shapes, colours, textures and motions, and can learn to speak a language fluently from scratch in three days. He also has a compulsive need for order and routine. He eats exactly 45 grams of porridge for breakfast and cannot leave the house without counting the number of items of clothing he's wearing. If he gets stressed or unhappy he closes his eyes and counts. But in some ways Daniel is not all like the Rain Man. He is virtually unique amongst people who have severe autisitic disorders in being capable of living a fully-functioning, independent life. It is this incredible self-awareness and ability to communicate what it feels like to live in a totally extraordinary way that makes BORN ON A BLUE DAY so powerful.

  • - A Psychological Approach
    by Nick Neave
    £41.99 - 95.99

    Recent advances in non-invasive sampling techniques have led to an increase in the study of hormones and behaviour. Behaviour is complex but can be explained to a large degree by interactions between various psychological and physiological components, such as the interplay between hormonal and psychological systems. This new textbook from Nick Neave offers a detailed introduction to the fascinating science of behavioural endocrinology from a psychological perspective, examining the relationships between hormones and behaviour in both humans and animals. Neave explains the endocrine system and the ways in which hormones can influence brain structure and function, and presents a series of examples to demonstrate how hormones can influence specific behaviours, including sexual determination and differentiation, neurological differentiation, parental behaviours, aggressive behaviours and cognition. This introductory textbook will appeal to second and third year social science undergraduate students in psychology and biomedicine.

  • Save 14%
    - Raise Your EQ In Seven Simple Steps
    by Jill Dann
    £9.49

    Developing your emotional intelligence just got easierExperts are beginning to agree that types of intelligence other than IQ (Intelligence Quotient) have evolved as human capacities over the last two million years. Low Emotional Intelligence Quotient or EQ can be perceived as the absence of control over the outcome of a situation. Do you ever feel like this is the case - you keep getting 'poor luck' or cannot influence better results? When you have a high EQ, you are adept at interpreting the emotional roots of your thinking and behaviours and choosing your actions for beneficial outcomes. You may also be capable of making good insights into the behaviours and reactions of others through empathy and rapport.These topics are explored, step by step in Emotional Intelligence In A Week. You will gain an understanding of EI through finding out about:- Pessimism and optimism- Key milestones in the development of EI-related concepts- Measurement of EQ - a list of assessments - Identifying the benefits of 'emotional fitness'- How EI is learnable- When you get emotionally hijacked- How it will change you- How and why to keep a journal.Over this week-long course, you will cover:- Sunday: Learn how emotional intelligence is relevant to you and how and why there are benefits to developing higher levels.- Monday: Learn how heightened your self-awareness is and the implications on your life currently, for your personal life and as a leader of others.- Tuesday: Learn about the mechanisms of self-control, emotional memory and consciousness to take control of behavioural patterns.- Wednesday: Learn about stress identification and beneficial management strategies.- Thursday: Diagnose and explore change in your organization to create change, manage uncertainty and gain momentum.- Friday: Design and create a new emotionally literate culture, learning environment and a coaching ethos.- Saturday: Learn how to design and tailor successful personal development.

  • Save 14%
    by Gregg Allman
    £9.49 - 21.49

    For the first time, rock music icon Gregg Allman, one of the founding members of The Allman Brothers Band, tells the full story of his life and career in My Cross to Bear. No subject is taboo, as one of the true giants of rock n roll opens up about his Georgia youth, his long struggle with substance abuse, his string of bad marriages (including his brief union with superstar Cher), the tragic death of brother Duane Allman, and life on the road in one of rocks most legendary bands.

  • - What We Really Want from Sex--and How to Get It
    by Marty Klein
    £13.99

    This is not your standard sex book. Sex therapist, sociologist, and Psychology Today contributor Dr. Marty Klein goes beyond the sex manuals to reveal how our mindsets during sex are more important than any tricks or techniquesand that the way to a healthier, more exciting, more fulfilling sex life lies in first developing our sexual intelligence. This book is the antidote to the many gimmick-oriented sex guides and manuals; Dr. Klein shows us how to reorient how we think about sex in order to experience a truly different way of being sexual.Marty Klein is the Steve Jobs of sex advice.... Sexual Intelligence is a work of enormous wisdom and expansiveness, and will inspire readers, regardless of age, to realize their full sexual potential. Ian Kerner, best-selling author of She Comes First

  • Save 13%
    - Evolution and the Modular Mind
    by Robert Kurzban
    £17.49

    We're all hypocrites. Why? Hypocrisy is the natural state of the human mind. Robert Kurzban shows us that the key to understanding our behavioral inconsistencies lies in understanding the mind's design. The human mind consists of many specialized units designed by the process of evolution by natural selection. While these modules sometimes work together seamlessly, they don't always, resulting in impossibly contradictory beliefs, vacillations between patience and impulsiveness, violations of our supposed moral principles, and overinflated views of ourselves. This modular, evolutionary psychological view of the mind undermines deeply held intuitions about ourselves, as well as a range of scientific theories that require a "e;self"e; with consistent beliefs and preferences. Modularity suggests that there is no "e;I."e; Instead, each of us is a contentious "e;we"e;--a collection of discrete but interacting systems whose constant conflicts shape our interactions with one another and our experience of the world. In clear language, full of wit and rich in examples, Kurzban explains the roots and implications of our inconsistent minds, and why it is perfectly natural to believe that everyone else is a hypocrite.

  • Save 17%
    - The New Brain Sciences and the Management of the Mind
    by Joelle M. Abi-Rached & Nikolas Rose
    £24.99

    How the new brain sciences are transforming our understanding of what it means to be humanThe brain sciences are influencing our understanding of human behavior as never before, from neuropsychiatry and neuroeconomics to neurotheology and neuroaesthetics. Many now believe that the brain is what makes us human, and it seems that neuroscientists are poised to become the new experts in the management of human conduct. Neuro describes the key developments-theoretical, technological, economic, and biopolitical-that have enabled the neurosciences to gain such traction outside the laboratory. It explores the ways neurobiological conceptions of personhood are influencing everything from child rearing to criminal justice, and are transforming the ways we "e;know ourselves"e; as human beings. In this emerging neuro-ontology, we are not "e;determined"e; by our neurobiology: on the contrary, it appears that we can and should seek to improve ourselves by understanding and acting on our brains.Neuro examines the implications of this emerging trend, weighing the promises against the perils, and evaluating some widely held concerns about a neurobiological "e;colonization"e; of the social and human sciences. Despite identifying many exaggerated claims and premature promises, Neuro argues that the openness provided by the new styles of thought taking shape in neuroscience, with its contemporary conceptions of the neuromolecular, plastic, and social brain, could make possible a new and productive engagement between the social and brain sciences.Copyright note: Reproduction, including downloading of Joan Miro works is prohibited by copyright laws and international conventions without the express written permission of Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

  • Save 18%
    - A Phenomenological Study
    by Edward S. Casey
    £56.99

    RememberingA Phenomenological StudySecond EditionEdward S. CaseyA pioneering investigation of the multiple ways of remembering and the difference that memory makes in our daily lives.A Choice Outstanding Academic BookAn excellent book that provides an in-depth phenomenological and philosophical study of memory."e; -Choice... a stunning revelation of the pervasiveness of memory in our lives."e; -Contemporary Psychology[Remembering] presents a study of remembering that is fondly attentive to its rich diversity, its intricacy of structure and detail, and its wide-ranging efficacy in our everyday, life-world experience.... genuinely pioneering, it ranges far beyond what established traditions in philosophy and psychology have generally taken the functions and especially the limits of memory to be."e; -The Humanistic PsychologistEdward S. Casey provides a thorough description of the varieties of human memory, including recognizing and reminding, reminiscing and commemorating, body memory and place memory. The preface to the new edition extends the scope of the original text to include issues of collective memory, forgetting, and traumatic memory, and aligns this book with Casey's newest work on place and space. This ambitious study demonstrates that nothing in our lives is unaffected by remembering.Studies in Continental Thought-John Sallis, general editorContentsPreface to the Second EditionIntroduction Remembering Forgotten: The Amnesia of AnamnesisPart One: Keeping Memory in MindFirst ForaysEidetic FeaturesRemembering as Intentional: Act PhaseRemembering as Intentional: Object PhasePart Two: Mnemonic ModesPrologueRemindingReminiscingRecognizingCodaPart Three: Pursuing Memory beyond MindPrologueBody MemoryPlace MemoryCommemorationCodaPart Four: Remembering Re-memberedThe Thick Autonomy of MemoryFreedom in Remembering</

  • Save 10%
    by Darian Leader
    £8.99

    Strictly Bipolar is Darian Leader's treatise on the psychological disorder of our times. If the post-war period was called the 'Age of Anxiety' and the 1980s and '90s the 'Antidepressant Era', we now live in Bipolar times. Mood-stabilising medication is routinely prescribed to adults and children alike, with child prescriptions this decade increasing by 400% and overall diagnoses by 4000%.What could explain this explosion of bipolarity? Is it a legitimate diagnosis or the result of Big Pharma marketing? Exploring these questions, Darian Leader challenges the rise of 'bipolar' as a catch-all solution to complex problems, and argues that we need to rethink the highs and lows of mania and depression.What, he asks, do these experiences have to do with love, guilt and rage? Why the spending sprees and the intense feeling of connection with the world? Why the confidence, the self-esteem and the sense of a bright future that can so swiftly turn into despair and dejection?Only by looking at these questions in a new way will we be able to understand and help the person caught between feelings that can be so terrifying and so exhilarating, so life-affirming yet also so lethal.Strictly Bipolar is essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary views of the self, bipolarity and a deeper understanding of manic-depression.Praise for Strictly Bipolar: 'A beautifully thoughtful understanding not just of highs and lows,mania and depression, but of why and how these mechanisms work in our mindsand bodies and how the human subject is coerced todayto embrace a culture of 'bipolarity'' Susie Orbach'A timely book. Darian Leader's thoughts are more fixated strong-arm interesting, more humane and more persuasive than the profit coercion of the madness industry. Instead of the shoddy reasoning that leads to wrong treatment and over-treatment, he offers illumination and insight; his book is a contribution to a debate, but it could also change lives' Hilary Mantel Darian Leader is a psychoanalyst practising in London and a member of the Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research and of the College of Psychoanalysts - UK. He is the author of What is Madness?, The New Black, Why do women write more letters than they post?, Promises lovers make when it gets late, Freud's Footnotes and Stealing the Mona Lisa, and co-author, with David Corfield, of Why Do People Get Ill? He is Honorary Visiting Professor in the School of Human and Life Sciences, Roehampton University.

  • Save 15%
    - New and Selected Essays
    by Adam Phillips
    £10.99

    A selection of the most popular and relevant essays from Adam Phillips, the man New Yorker called 'Britain's foremost psychoanalytic writer''Phillips's prose is poetic in the best sense: it is muscular, resonant, and thrums with a dark music that is all its own' John BanvilleIn the twenty essays gathered here, ranging across his entire oeuvre, psychoanalyst Adam Phillips offers a vivid introduction to his discipline as well as his own unique thinking. Investigating subjects as diverse as desire, family, happiness, tickling, forgetting and even boredom, Phillips proves himself to be not only one of our most engaging writers but also a fascinating and provocative guide to our obsessions as human beings.

  • Save 14%
    - Lessons from a New Science (Second Edition)
    by Richard Layard
    £9.49

    In this new edition of his landmark book, Richard Layard shows that there is a paradox at the heart of our lives. Most people want more income. Yet as societies become richer, they do not become happier. This is not just anecdotally true, it is the story told by countless pieces of scientific research. We now have sophisticated ways of measuring how happy people are, and all the evidence shows that on average people have grown no happier in the last fifty years, even as average incomes have more than doubled. In fact, the First World has more depression, more alcoholism and more crime than fifty years ago. This paradox is true of Britain, the United States, continental Europe, and Japan. What is going on? Now fully revised and updated to include developments since first publication, Layard answers his critics in what is still the key book in 'happiness studies'.

  • Save 14%
    - An Investigation
    by Aziz Ansari
    £9.49

    A hilarious, thoughtful, and in-depth exploration of the pleasures and perils of modern romance from one of this generation's most popular and sharpest comedic voicesAt some point, every one of us embarks on a journey to find love. We meet people, date, get into and out of relationships, all with the hope of finding someone with whom we share a deep connection. This seems standard now, but it's wildly different from what people did even just decades ago. Single people today have more romantic options than at any point in human history. With technology, our abilities to connect with and sort through these options are staggering. So why are so many people frustrated?Some of our problems are unique to our time. "e;Why did this guy just text me an emoji of a pizza?"e; "e;Should I go out with this girl even though she listed Combos as one of her favorite snack foods? Combos?!"e; "e;My girlfriend just got a message from some dude named Nathan. Who's Nathan? Did he just send her a photo of his penis? Should I check just to be sure?"e; But the transformation of our romantic lives can't be explained by technology alone. In a short period of time, the whole culture of finding love has changed dramatically. A few decades ago, people would find a decent person who lived in their neighbourhood. Their families would meet and, after deciding neither party seemed like a murderer, they would get married and soon have a kid, all by the time they were twenty-four. Today, people marry later than ever and spend years of their lives on a quest to find the perfect person, a soul mate.For years, Aziz Ansari has been aiming his comic insight at modern romance, but forModern Romance, the book, he decided he needed to take things to another level. He teamed up with NYU sociologist Eric Klinenberg and designed a massive research project, including hundreds of interviews and focus groups conducted everywhere from Tokyo to Buenos Aires to Wichita. They analysed behavioural data and surveys and created their own online research forum on Reddit, which drew thousands of messages. They enlisted the world's leading social scientists, including Eli Finkel, Helen Fisher, Sheena Iyengar, Barry Schwartz, Sherry Turkle, and Robb Willer. The result is unlike any social science or humour book we've seen before.In Modern Romance, Ansari combines his irreverent humour with cutting-edge social science to give us an unforgettable tour of our new romantic world.

  • - A Guide for Keyholders
    by Lucy Fairbourne
    £12.49

    MALE CHASTITY: The practice of securing a consenting adult male by means of a lockable chastity device such that the chastened male's sexual release can be achieved only with the keyholder's involvement and consent. KEYHOLDER: The one who holds the above male's key.

  • Save 17%
    - Intersecting Lives
    by Francois Dosse
    £24.99

    In May 1968, Gilles Deleuze was an established philosopher teaching at the innovative Vincennes University, just outside of Paris. Felix Guattari was a political militant and the director of an unusual psychiatric clinic at La Borde. Their meeting was quite unlikely, yet the two were introduced in an arranged encounter of epic consequence. From that moment on, Deleuze and Guattari engaged in a surprising, productive partnership, collaborating on several groundbreaking works, including Anti-Oedipus, What Is Philosophy? and A Thousand Plateaus.Francois Dosse, a prominent French intellectual known for his work on the Annales School, structuralism, and biographies of the pivotal intellectuals Paul Ricoeur, Pierre Chaunu, and Michel de Certeau, examines the prolific if improbable relationship between two men of distinct and differing sensibilities. Drawing on unpublished archives and hundreds of personal interviews, Dosse elucidates a collaboration that lasted more than two decades, underscoring the role that family and history particularly the turbulent time of May 1968 play in their monumental work. He also takes the measure of Deleuze and Guattari's posthumous fortunes and the impact of their thought on intellectual, academic, and professional circles.

  • Save 12%
    by Julia Kristeva
    £14.99 - 20.99

    Julia Kristeva refracts the impulse to hate (and our attempts to subvert, sublimate, and otherwise process it) through psychoanalysis and text, exploring worlds, women, religion, portraits, and the act of writing. Her inquiry spans themes, topics, and figures central to her writing, and her paths of discovery advance the theoretical innovations that are so characteristic of her thought.Kristeva rearticulates and extends her analysis of language, abjection, idealization, female sexuality, love, and forgiveness. She examines the "e;maladies of the soul,"e; utilizing examples from her practice and the ailments of her patients, such as fatigue, irritability, and general malaise. She sources the Bible and texts by Marguerite Duras, St. Teresa of Avila, Roland Barthes, Simone de Beauvoir, and Georgia O'Keefe. Balancing political calamity and individual pathology, she addresses internal and external catastrophes and global and personal injuries, confronting the nature of depression, obliviousness, fear, and the agony of being and nothingness. Throughout Kristeva develops the notion that psychoanalysis is the key to serenity, with its processes of turning back, looking back, investigating the self, and refashioning psychical damage into something useful and beautiful. Constant questioning, Kristeva contends, is essential to achieving the coming to terms we all seek at the core of forgiveness.

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