A History of Delusions

A History of Delusions PDF Author: Victoria Shepherd
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0861540921
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
‘Fascinating and compassionate’ Horatio Clare The King of France – thinking he was made of glass – was terrified he might shatter…and he wasn’t alone. After the Emperor met his end at Waterloo, an epidemic of Napoleons piled into France’s asylums. Throughout the nineteenth century, dozens of middle-aged women tried to convince their physicians that they were, in fact, dead. For centuries we’ve dismissed delusions as something for doctors to sort out behind locked doors. But delusions are more than just bizarre quirks – they hold the key to collective anxieties and traumas. In this groundbreaking history, Victoria Shepherd uncovers stories of delusions from medieval times to the present day and implores us to identify reason in apparent madness.

A History of Delusions

A History of Delusions PDF Author: Victoria Shepherd
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0861540921
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Get Book

Book Description
‘Fascinating and compassionate’ Horatio Clare The King of France – thinking he was made of glass – was terrified he might shatter…and he wasn’t alone. After the Emperor met his end at Waterloo, an epidemic of Napoleons piled into France’s asylums. Throughout the nineteenth century, dozens of middle-aged women tried to convince their physicians that they were, in fact, dead. For centuries we’ve dismissed delusions as something for doctors to sort out behind locked doors. But delusions are more than just bizarre quirks – they hold the key to collective anxieties and traumas. In this groundbreaking history, Victoria Shepherd uncovers stories of delusions from medieval times to the present day and implores us to identify reason in apparent madness.

The Delusions of Crowds

The Delusions of Crowds PDF Author: William J. Bernstein
Publisher: Grove Press
ISBN: 0802157114
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 491

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Book Description
This “disturbing yet fascinating” exploration of mass mania through the ages explains the biological and psychological roots of irrationality (Kirkus Reviews). From time immemorial, contagious narratives have spread through susceptible groups—with enormous, often disastrous, consequences. Inspired by Charles Mackay’s nineteenth-century classic Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, neurologist and author William Bernstein examines mass delusion through the lens of current scientific research in The Delusions of Crowds. Bernstein tells the stories of dramatic religious and financial mania in western society over the last five hundred years—from the Anabaptist Madness of the 1530s to the dangerous End-Times beliefs that pervade today’s polarized America; and from the South Sea Bubble to the Enron scandal and dot com bubbles. Through Bernstein’s supple prose, the participants are as colorful as their “desire to improve one’s well-being in this life or the next.” Bernstein’s chronicles reveal the huge cost and alarming implications of mass mania. He observes that if we can absorb the history and biology of this all-too-human phenomenon, we can recognize it more readily in our own time, and avoid its frequently dire impact.

A Colorful History of Popular Delusions

A Colorful History of Popular Delusions PDF Author: Robert E. Bartholomew
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1633881229
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
This eclectic history of unusual crowd behavior describes a rich assortment of mass phenomena ranging from the amusing and quirky to the shocking and deplorable. What do fads, crazes, manias, urban legends, moral panics, riots, stampedes, and other mass expressions of emotion have in common? By creating a typology of such behavior, past and present, the authors show how common extraordinary group reactions to fear or excitement are. And they offer insights into how these sometimes dangerous mob responses can be avoided. We may not be surprised to read about the peculiarities of the European Middle Ages, when superstition was commonplace: like the meowing nuns of France, "tarantism" (a dancing mania) in Italy, or the malicious anti-Semitic poison-well scares. But similar phenomena show up in our own era. Examples include the social-networking hysteria of 2012, which resulted in uncontrollable twitching by teenage girls in Leroy, NY; the "phantom bus terrorist" of 2004 in Vancouver, Canada; and the itching outbreak of 2000 in South Africa. Vivid, detailed, and thoroughly researched, this is a fascinating overview of collective human behavior in its many unusual forms.

Night of Delusions

Night of Delusions PDF Author: Keith Laumer
Publisher: Gateway
ISBN: 1473215838
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 77

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Book Description
It starts out as a weird but seemingly understandable assignment, bodyguarding a mad politician whose keepers have decided to let him "escape" as a sort of reality therapy. But to understand the Senator, Florin must enter the Machine, an reality will never be the same. From now on he's a Knight of Delusions.

Dreams and Delusions

Dreams and Delusions PDF Author: Fritz Richard Stern
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300076226
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
This collection of essays by historian Fritz Stern ponders the promise and catastrophe of twentieth-century German history. It is now reissued with a new introduction by the author.

Delusion in Death

Delusion in Death PDF Author: J. D. Robb
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101600209
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
Lieutenant Eve Dallas must foil a terrorist plot in this explosive thriller in the #1 New York Times bestselling In Death series. It was just another after-work happy hour at a bar downtown—until the madness descended. And after twelve minutes of chaos and violence, more than eighty people lay dead. Lieutenant Eve Dallas is trying to sort out the inexplicable events. Surviving witnesses talk about seeing things—monsters and swarms of bees. They describe sudden, overwhelming feelings of fear and rage and paranoia. When forensics makes its report, the mass delusions make more sense: it appears the bar patrons were exposed to a cocktail of chemicals and illegal drugs that could drive anyone into temporary insanity—if not kill them outright. But that doesn’t explain who would unleash such horror—or why. Eve’s husband, Roarke, happens to own the bar, but he’s convinced the attack wasn’t directed at him. It’s bigger than that. And if Eve can’t figure it out fast, it could happen again, anytime, anywhere. Because it’s airborne…

Delusions of Everyday Life

Delusions of Everyday Life PDF Author: Leonard Shengold
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300062687
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
We are all more primitive and irrational than we care to acknowledge, says Dr. Leonard Shengold in this profound and eloquent book. We all suffer to some degree from delusions--vestiges of infantile mental functioning that continue into adult life and that at times of crisis manifest themselves in narcissistic thoughts of omnipotence, immortality, or perfection. Dr. Shengold argues that we can never eliminate these delusions of everyday life, but we can lessen their effect if we acknowledge, or "own", them. He asserts that insight into what we are and what has happened to us is a prerequisite for caring about others and for accepting the transient conditions of life--both necessary to attain happiness. Dr. Shengold discusses delusions we all experience as well as delusions associated with paranoia, perversions, being in love, and identification with delusional parents. He illustrates his ideas by referring to the lives and works of such literary figures as Shakespeare, Swift, Tolstoy, Pascal, Rilke, Randall Jarrell, Dickens, Hardy, and, especially, Samuel Butler. Dr. Shengold also brings in relevant clinical material because, as he points out, delusions of everyday life are at the heart of misunderstanding and conflict in life and of resistance to change in psychological treatment. These delusions must be attenuated if therapy is to be successful.

Suspicious Minds

Suspicious Minds PDF Author: Joel Gold
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 143918156X
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
Combines true case stories with the latest research in a tour of the delusion-afflicted human mind to explore how it reflects neuroscience, biology and culture, tracing the sources of paranoia and psychosis to faulty interactions between the brain and the social world. 35,000 first printing.

Lessons from the History of Medical Delusions

Lessons from the History of Medical Delusions PDF Author: Worthington Hooker
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Delirium
Languages : en
Pages : 122

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Book Description


Imperial Delusions

Imperial Delusions PDF Author: Carl Boggs
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780742527720
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
In this hard-hitting critique, Carl Boggs argues that the United States is dominated by a new militarism, one that has become more potent and menacing since 9/11. He skillfully explores the origins and development of this new militarism and show its devastating effects on American society.