Delusions and the Madness of the Masses

Delusions and the Madness of the Masses PDF Author: Lawrie Reznek
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN: 1442206071
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
According to the author, there is an alarming inclination for people to succumb to delusional thinking. Contrary to popular opinion, such thought processes are not limited to the mentally ill. Instead, there is growing evidence to show that large segments of the public harbor a wide variety of delusions, none of which are innocent, and many of which are pushing our societies to the brink of war. This book aims to understand the nature of delusions and how they are generated. By providing a deeper understanding of delusions, the author challenges the assumption that a whole community cannot be deluded, concluding that even very large groups of people can be considered collectively mad. Reznek offers case studies of madness both in individuals and in society throughout the book, relieving the reader of requiring a first-hand experience of psychosis, and revealing the nature of delusions as they affect us all.

Delusions and the Madness of the Masses

Delusions and the Madness of the Masses PDF Author: Lawrie Reznek
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN: 1442206071
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
According to the author, there is an alarming inclination for people to succumb to delusional thinking. Contrary to popular opinion, such thought processes are not limited to the mentally ill. Instead, there is growing evidence to show that large segments of the public harbor a wide variety of delusions, none of which are innocent, and many of which are pushing our societies to the brink of war. This book aims to understand the nature of delusions and how they are generated. By providing a deeper understanding of delusions, the author challenges the assumption that a whole community cannot be deluded, concluding that even very large groups of people can be considered collectively mad. Reznek offers case studies of madness both in individuals and in society throughout the book, relieving the reader of requiring a first-hand experience of psychosis, and revealing the nature of delusions as they affect us all.

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.

Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds PDF Author: Charles Mackay
Publisher: IndyPublish.com
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
Excerpt from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions, Vol. 2 A forest huge of spears and thronging helms Appear'd, and serried shields, in thick array. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds PDF Author: Charles Mackay
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781088138489
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This is the full unabridged edition that includes all three volumes. In this book, Charles Mackay discusses the irrational behaviors of crowds in the economy, war and magic. He gives several different examples of market bubbles such as the Mississippi Scheme and the infamous Tulip Mania in the Netherlands. Ever since it was written, Investors have used it as a guide to help identify boom and bust cycles. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds has had an important influence on economists in understanding of crowd psychology and feedback loops.

Rumor, Fear and the Madness of Crowds

Rumor, Fear and the Madness of Crowds PDF Author: J.P. Chaplin
Publisher: Courier Dover Publications
ISBN: 0486795454
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
"Originally published by Ballantine Books, New York, in 1959."

Models of Madness

Models of Madness PDF Author: Dr John Read
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134055021
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 489

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Book Description
Are hallucinations and delusions really symptoms of an illness called ‘schizophrenia’? Are mental health problems really caused by chemical imbalances and genetic predispositions? Are psychiatric drugs as effective and safe as the drug companies claim? Is madness preventable? This second edition of Models of Madness challenges those who hold to simplistic, pessimistic and often damaging theories and treatments of madness. In particular it challenges beliefs that madness can be explained without reference to social causes and challenges the excessive preoccupation with chemical imbalances and genetic predispositions as causes of human misery, including the conditions that are given the name 'schizophrenia'. This edition updates the now extensive body of research showing that hallucinations, delusions etc. are best understood as reactions to adverse life events and that psychological and social approaches to helping are more effective and far safer than psychiatric drugs and electroshock treatment. A new final chapter discusses why such a damaging ideology has come to dominate mental health and, most importantly, how to change that. Models of Madness is divided into three sections: Section One provides a history of madness, including examples of violence against the ‘mentally ill’, before critiquing the theories and treatments of contemporary biological psychiatry and documenting the corrupting influence of drug companies. Section Two summarises the research showing that hallucinations, delusions etc. are primarily caused by adverse life events (eg. parental loss, bullying, abuse and neglect in childhood, poverty, etc) and can be understood using psychological models ranging from cognitive to psychodynamic. Section Three presents the evidence for a range of effective psychological and social approaches to treatment, from cognitive and family therapy to primary prevention. This book brings together thirty-seven contributors from ten countries and a wide range of scientific disciplines. It provides an evidence-based, optimistic antidote to the pessimism of biological psychiatry. Models of Madness will be essential reading for all involved in mental health, including service users, family members, service managers, policy makers, nurses, clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, psychotherapists, counsellors, psychoanalysts, social workers, occupational therapists, art therapists.

A Philosophy of Madness

A Philosophy of Madness PDF Author: Wouter Kusters
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262044285
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 769

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Book Description
The philosophy of psychosis and the psychosis of philosophy: a philosopher draws on his experience of madness. In this book, philosopher and linguist Wouter Kusters examines the philosophy of psychosis—and the psychosis of philosophy. By analyzing the experience of psychosis in philosophical terms, Kusters not only emancipates the experience of the psychotic from medical classification, he also emancipates the philosopher from the narrowness of textbooks and academia, allowing philosophers to engage in real-life praxis, philosophy in vivo. Philosophy and madness—Kusters's preferred, non-medicalized term—coexist, one mirroring the other. Kusters draws on his own experience of madness—two episodes of psychosis, twenty years apart—as well as other first-person narratives of psychosis. Speculating about the maddening effect of certain words and thought, he argues, and demonstrates, that the steady flow of philosophical deliberation may sweep one into a full-blown acute psychotic episode. Indeed, a certain kind of philosophizing may result in confusion, paradoxes, unworldly insights, and circular frozenness reminiscent of madness. Psychosis presents itself to the psychotic as an inescapable truth and reality. Kusters evokes the mad person's philosophical or existential amazement at reality, thinking, time, and space, drawing on classic autobiographical accounts of psychoses by Antonin Artaud, Daniel Schreber, and others, as well as the work of phenomenological psychiatrists and psychologists and such phenomenologists as Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. He considers the philosophical mystic and the mystical philosopher, tracing the mad undercurrent in the Husserlian philosophy of time; visits the cloud castles of mystical madness, encountering LSD devotees, philosophers, theologians, and nihilists; and, falling to earth, finds anxiety, emptiness, delusions, and hallucinations. Madness and philosophy proceed and converge toward a single vanishing point.

The Wisdom of Crowds

The Wisdom of Crowds PDF Author: James Surowiecki
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0307275051
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Book Description
In this fascinating book, New Yorker business columnist James Surowiecki explores a deceptively simple idea: Large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliant—better at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future. With boundless erudition and in delightfully clear prose, Surowiecki ranges across fields as diverse as popular culture, psychology, ant biology, behavioral economics, artificial intelligence, military history, and politics to show how this simple idea offers important lessons for how we live our lives, select our leaders, run our companies, and think about our world.

Models of Madness

Models of Madness PDF Author: John Read
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 1583919066
Category : Schizophrenia
Languages : en
Pages : 398

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Book Description
Models of Madnessshows that hallucinations and delusions are understandable reactions to life events and circumstances rather than symptoms of a supposed genetic predisposition or biological disturbance. International contributors: * critique the 'medical model' of madness * examine the dominance of the 'illness' approach to understanding madness from historical and economic perspectives * document the role of drug companies * outline the alternative to drug based solutions * identify the urgency and possibility of prevention of madness. Models of Madness promotes a more humane and effective response to treating severely distressed people that will prove essential reading for psychiatrists and clinical psychologists and of great interest to all those who work in the mental health service. This book forms part of the International Society for the Psychological Treatment of Psychoses series edited by Brian Martindale.

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
"The Truman Show delusion and other strange beliefs"--Cover.