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Beschrijving van bouw en functie van de menselijke hersenen, waarbij het geheugen, het bewustzijn, het zien, de taal, veroudering, psychiatrische aandoeningen en verslaving aan de orde komen.

Where is the seat of consciousness within the brain? How can we account for a continuum that begins with cells and neurochemicals and ends with such ethereal qualities as imagination, creativity, and that elusive being we call the "self"? In The Creative Loop, Erich Harth, a distinguished researcher in the physics of perception, offers a persuasive theory that explains in detailed fashion how the brain creates the conscious self, the "I" that we all experience as separate from the "It" of the rest of the world. The split known as the "mind-body problem" is, of course, one of the oldest questions of science and philosophy and is still among the most hotly debated today. The classical view held that there was some sort of spirit or homunculus hovering above the physical brain, looking down on the central stage of our perceptions. The prevailing scientific view today rejects not only spirit but also the very hope of there being any "central meaner" observing and making sense of experience, preferring to see unified consciousness itself as a delusion. Whereas Marvin Minsky offers us The Society of Mind and the philosopher Daniel Dennett even describes "an army of idiots" within our brains, Harth presents a view, based on long-known but generally overlooked features of brain structure, that flies in the face of orthodox materialism. Harth takes us out of the old Newtonian world of machine models of the brain and into the almost mystical realm of contemporary physics, focusing on specific structures - the relays within the sensory pathways linking the sense organs and the cerebral cortex - that send information back and forth. It is these relays that, in Harth's view, ultimately give rise toconsciousness and creativity. Each relay serves as a "sketch pad" where perceptions are received and modified before being passed along. Thus what reaches the cortex is not the unvarnished truth but a truth filtered and personalized through improvisation, much like a child talking to herself as she practices her language ability. There is, then, in Harth's view, a unified consciousness built up within the biology of the brain. It simply does not reside atop the system, but rather is deeply embedded within this "hall of mirrors" at the bottom. Unlike the orthodox view which finds no place for freedom of the will in its description of the brain, Harth's approach is a celebration of the messy, intuitive nature of human consciousness and the creativity it exhibits. The beauty of this theory, and of this often lyrical book, lies in its reconciliation of the cold facts of biology and physics with our most humanistic aspirations.

This second edition has been revised especially for Dutch readers. Bonaire is one of several Caribbean islands with a Dutch colonial past and homeland of author, Curvin George. The author shares his views on cultural mindsets and social issues which many may still consider too sensitive to discuss openly. He takes readers on his personal journey to discover inner truths and how people (ab)use the notion of truth. This debut work offers a fresh way of looking at the island's social bottlenecks and challenges people to renew their thinking. The content is bilingual for readers of Dutch and Papiamento, which are both spoken on Bonaire.

Nederland hoort tot de meest welvarende, vrije en gelukkige landen. Dat constateren wetenschappelijk onderzoekers van het geluk. Maar tegelijk zijn anti-depressiva de meest geslikte medicijnen. Talloos zijn de andere therapieën, de zelfhulpboeken en de internetpagina's over depressiviteit. En deskundigen stellen dat depressie nog grotendeels onderbehandeld is. Is depressie een biologisch bepaalde ziekte die nu pas goed herkend en behandeld wordt? Praten de hulpverlening en de farmaceutische industrie ons psychische stoornissen aan? Of bracht de verzorgingsstaat mentale kleinzerigheid op grote schaal?Trudy Dehue bespreekt de geschiedenis van neerslachtigheid. Ze bestudeert de claims van de biopsychiatrie, analyseert de commercialisering van het psychiatrisch onderzoek en de inhoud van de anti-depressivareclames. Ze betoogt dat gangbare verklaringen voor de toename van depressie niet houdbaar of niet volledig zijn. Het werk belicht het proces waarin het ideaal van de maakbare samenleving werd ingeruild voor dat van het maakbare individu. Benadrukten we voorheen omstandigheden als oorzaak van ellende, tegenwoordig gaat de aandacht naar het individuele brein. Daarbij werden we zelf verantwoordelijk voor wat ons vroeger gewoon overkwam. Want nu succes een keuze is geworden, geldt dat voor mislukking evenzeer.

During the neurologist Harold Klawan's lifetime, patients came to him from all over America, exhibiting a huge array of troubles, all of which boiled down to one complaint: something was wrong with their brains. As a sympathetic brain detective, Klawans deduced a great deal from his patients, not only about the immediate causes of their ailments but also about the evolutionary underpinnings of their behaviour.

Korte essays over bijzondere mentale toestanden en psychische aandoeningen.

Beschrijving van onderzoeken en experimenten betreffende dromen en slapen.

Veertien dagen later deden Kimberly en ik onze eerste communie. Samen met ons waren er nog vier andere kinderen die beloofden dat hun zieltje voor eeuwig aan God zou toebehoren. Ik droeg een witte jurk met rode bolletjes en mijn haar was lang en gekruld. Ik vond mezelf het mooist. De andere meisjes Kimberly inbegrepen droegen kleren van jute. Dat was toen volop in de mode. Ik vond het maar niks. Alsof ze een aardappelzak droegen. Mijn jurk was veruit het duurst en ik zag hoe de mensen mij bekeken met ogen van hoe-kunnen-ze-zo'n-dure-jurk-betalen? Ik was toen heel trots op mijn mama. Zij gaf me veel meer dan andere moeders hun kinderen gaven. Armoede zit in Vlaanderen vaak verborgen achter anonieme gevels. Toch is het een harde realiteit voor een op de tien gezinnen. Ik ben iemand/niemand vertelt het unieke verhaal van Emilie en haar gezin. Zij slaagt erin om alles, van bij haar geboorte tot vandaag, 31 jaar later, neer te laten schrijven in een roman over haar leven. Een leven in een generatie van armoede in onze welvaartsmaatschappij. In het nawoord wordt de inhoud in een breder kader geplaatst, want het boek staat model voor het leven van vele andere mensen die generatie-arm zijn.

Beschrijving van de mogelijkheden en de beperkingen van de moderne biologie.

‘The Master said, “If a man sets his heart on benevolence, he will be free from evil”’

The Analects are a collection of Confucius’s sayings brought together by his pupils shortly after his death in 497 BC. Together they express a philosophy, or a moral code, by which Confucius, one of the most humane thinkers of all time, believed everyone should live. Upholding the ideals of wisdom, self-knowledge, courage and love of one’s fellow man, he argued that the pursuit of virtue should be every individual’s supreme goal. And, while following the Way, or the truth, might not result in immediate or material gain, Confucius showed that it could nevertheless bring its own powerful and lasting spiritual rewards.

This edition contains a detailed introduction exploring the concepts of the original work, a bibliography and glossary and appendices on Confucius himself, The Analects and the disciples who compiled them.
 
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Luria looks back on his life and career in psychology, drawing attention to the Soviet scientific establishment and his struggle to formulate a new psychological theory concerning memory, language, and intelligence

Brian Keenan went to Beirut in 1985 for a change of scene from his native Belfast. He became headline news when he was kidnapped by fundamentalist Shi'ite militiamen and held in the suburbs of Beirut for the next four and a half years. For much of that time he was shut off from all news and contact with anyone other than his jailers and, later, his fellow hostages, amongst them John McCarthy.

This selection, which includes early love poems, songs from the novels, landscape poems from The Lay of the Last Minstrel and The Lady of the Lake, and the complete narrative poems "William and Helen" and "Marmion," reveals Sir Walter Scott as a poet speaking for a people.

This Modern Library edition contains all of John Donne's great metaphysical love poetry. Here are such well-known songs and sonnets as "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning," "The Extasie," and "A Nocturnall Upon S. Lucies Day," along with the love elegies "Jealosie," "His Parting From Her," and "To His Mistris Going to Bed." Presented as well are Donne's satires, epigrams, verse letters, and holy sonnets, along with his most ambitious and important poems, the Anniversaries. In addition, there is a generous sampling of Donne's prose, including many of his private letters; Ignatius His Conclave, a satiric onslaught on the Jesuits; excerpts from Biathanatos, his celebrated defense of suicide; and his most famous sermons, concluding with the final "Death's Duell." "We have only to read [Donne]," wrote Virginia Woolf, "to submit to the sound of that passionate and penetrating voice, and his figure rises again across the waste of the years more erect, more imperious, more inscrutable than any of his time."

To travel through these stories is to cross a landscape of stunning beauty and terrific cruelty, where expectations are subverted, where moral certainties are shattered, where gorgeously wrought surfaces beguile at the same time that acts of incredible brutality horrify.

It is no wonder that Yu Hua’s stories caused a sensation when they first appeared in the 1980s. His work represents a sophisticated and often disturbing revolution in the Chinese literary tradition, reminiscent of the fiction of modernists like Kafka, Kawabata, Borges, and Robbe-Grillet, but drawing inspiration from several strains of traditional Chinese narrative as well.

This is the first collection of short fiction by Yu Hua to appear in English. It takes us on a haunting and harrowing journey from classical China through the Cultural Revolution and into the new era of economic reform, exploding along the way our preconceived notions of what Chinese literature and culture are all about in the 1990s.

Any pain not transformed will be transferred. - The Wisdom Walk to Self-Mastery invites you to take a virtual and spiritual journey through your inner landscape - that invisible and most powerful part of who you are, to uncover, accept, transform and heal emotional pain. Traumatic and unwanted experiences teach fear. The Wisdom Walk to Self-Mastery teaches love, and how to choose love over fear. The information contained in this book is rooted in ancient wisdom from West Africa and can transport you away from the belief that the world is out to 'get' you, and into the truth that the world is out to 'gift' you. Created as a continuous learning tool for graduates of The Wisdom Walk to Self-Mastery program, this book can be of service to anyone committed to learning how to stop transferring pain and become the best version of themselves.

An influential seventeenth-century fable, by a pathbreaking woman writer, about the fall of a black prince.

The first woman in England to make her living by writing, Aphra Behn (1640-1689) combines memoir, exotic travel narrative, and romance to tell the story of the noble Oroonoko, a black man who begins life as a prince and ends it as a slave. The tale depicts the overthrow of a hero by a civilization that considers itself superior to him.

Taken up by reformers in the long battle against the slave trade, reprinted and imitated countless times, Oroonoko remains a popular tale that introduces powerful themes onto the literary stage.

Martin Buber - social activist, teacher and religious writer - was one of the 20th century's most important and passionate representatives of the human spirit. Two of his most influential works - The Way Of Man and Ten Rungs - resonate to this day. As enlightening and redemptive as they were more than 50 years ago, they are published here in a single volume for the first time. The tales and aphorisms retold by Buber in Ten Rungs are drawn from Hasidic lore, where the various ways in which individuals learn to perfect themselves are the "rungs" on a ladder leading up to a higher realm. The Way Of Man is a masterwork of economy in which Buber relates and interprets six traditional Hasidic stories that offer guidance and wisdom for any age. With a recognisable debt to the Hasidic emphasis on joyful worship, Buber's thoughts on spirituality are as inspirational and valid today as they were in the mid-20th century.

Are trees social beings? How do trees live? Do they feel pain or have awareness of their surroundings? In The Hidden Life of Trees Peter Wohlleben makes the case that the forest is a social network. He draws on groundbreaking scientific discoveries to describe how trees are like human families: tree parents live together with their children, communicate with them, support them as they grow, share nutrients with those who are sick or struggling, and even warn each other of impending dangers. Wohlleben also shares his deep love of woods and forests, explaining the amazing processes of life, death and regeneration he has observed in his woodland.

A walk in the woods will never be the same again.

When Michael Hofmann and James Lasdun's ground-breaking anthology After Ovid (also Faber) was published in 1995, Hughes's three contributions to the collective effort were nominated by most critics as outstanding. He had shown that rare translator's gift for providing not just an accurate account of the original, but one so thoroughly imbued with his own qualities that it was as if Latin and English poet were somehow the same person. Tales from Ovid, which went on to win the Whitbread Prize for Poetry, continued the project of recreation with 24 passages, including the stories of Phaeton, Actaeon, Echo and Narcissus, Procne, Midas and Pyramus and Thisbe. In them, Hughes's supreme narrative and poetic skills combine to produce a book that stands, alongside his Crow and Gaudete, as an inspired addition to the myth-making of our time.

The Mahabharata is some 3,500 years old and is the longest poem in any language. It is one of the founding epics of Indian culture and, with its mixture of cosmic drama and profound philosophy (one small section forms the BHAGHAVAD GITA) it holds aunique place in world literature. In this drastically shortened prose rendering, Narayan uses all his extraordinary talents to convey to a modern reader why this is such a great story. Filled with vivid characters, obsessed with the rise and fall of gods, empires and heroes, Narayan's MAHABHARATA is an enormously enjoyable experience and the perfect introduction to the otherwise bewildering Indian cosmology.

This text contains the first three volumes of Christopher Logue's recomposition of Homer's Iliad - Kings, The Husbands and War Music.