Insight Books

The number of U.S. children diagnosed with bipolar disorder rose an astounding 4,000% in the past ten years. This startling fact drives home the urgency of this important new book edited by Sharna Olfman and bringing together some of the world's most distinguished experts in the field.

Each of the book's nine contributors offers a unique perspective on the issue, providing readers with a comprehensive view of a controversial and disturbing subject.

Among the most passionate voices are those of Dr. David Healy and Dr. Joanna Le Noury, who dissect the pharmaceutical industry's unscrupulous strategies to expand the psychiatric drug market, resulting in the unprecedented "tidal wave" of child drugging currently sweeping our nation.

Award-winning journalist Robert Whitaker writes a carefully documented chapter citing solid scientific evidence showing that the widespread practice of medicating young children with stimulants like Ritalin or antidepressants like Prozac has fueled an explosion of drug side effects including psychosis, mania and suicidal impulses. These drug reactions are then misinterpreted as symptoms of severe mental illness, resulting in a mis-diagnosis of bipolar disorder which leads to treatment with "mood stabilizers" often combined in drug cocktails including major tranquilizers like Risperdal or Seroquel.

We may be witnessing a drug-induced epidemic of mental and physical disabilities directly caused by the irresponsible and misguided medical mis-treatment of our nation's children. Psychology professor Daniel Burston looks at what is happening and calls it "the chemical colonization of childhood."

Regardless of who or what we choose to blame for causing this catastrophe -- Big Pharma, bad parenting, overcrowded schools, environmental toxins, television violence, etc. -- one thing is certain: nothing will change until DOCTORS stop making the diagnoses and DOCTORS stop writing the prescriptions. What will it take to bring about such a change?

Perhaps we should begin focusing less on the children who are diagnosed, and more on the doctors who do the diagnosing. Lawrence Diller writes, "Only economic factors, the threat of legal action, or very negative publicity (e.g., children's deaths while taking antidepressants) have widespread influence on doctors' prescribing practices and treatment."

In the book's final chapter, epidemiologist Philip Landrigan sounds the alarm over the growing number of neurotoxic chemicals including mercury that are poisoning our environment. Landrigan writes, "It is striking that the mental health community has virtually ignored the health risks to children growing up in a world that is awash with thousands of synthetic chemicals, hundreds of which are already known to be poisonous to the brain."

How ironic, then, if our society's response to the harm caused by environmental toxins is to give our children drugs -- chemical substances that are toxic to growing bodies and vulnerable brains!

I started Writing Haiku about 3 years ago. I was interested in writing structured poetry, and was told that writing Haiku would help my overall writing skills. As I wrote more and more haiku I saw growth in my writing as a whole, and I was interested in learning to write better haiku, in the hopes of becoming a well rounded poet. I bought Bishiki, and the tips, and advise inside were invaluable. I saw a brand new way to look at haiku, and poetry as a whole. After reading and incorporating Bikishi into my poetry skill set, I was able to win the Head to Head Haiku competition at the Individual World Poetry Slam in Charlotte, NC in 2006. Bashiki....gotta get it!!!!!!

This book was worth the price just to find what I, now, consider to be the supreme DUH! of all times. Hint: it's about pumpkins. What a smack in the head I gave myself after that one. Now, the author may be the self-confessed "Queen of DUH," but let's face it, we have all had our moments. The wonderful thing about Charlene is she not only laughs at herself, but through her delightfully witty writing, she helps the reader do the same for themselves and enjoy it. Personally, I admit to referring to my DUHS as X&#*X# moments. Thanks to this book, I shall refer to them as painfully obvious moments of stupidity with a funny twist.

Awesome book! It is a very interesting book filled with many great quotes from many different people.

After reading a number "yo-yo trick" books with illustrations of trick after endless trick it was nice to read a book that had absolutley nothing to offer in the form of a trick! No tricks here; not even instruction as to attaching the string. Nothing in there about that at all. And that's where this book grabbed my attention.

The Book of Yo is written to present "Yo Tzu's" thoughts in such a way as to help the reader understand how something as simple as the yo-yo can demonstrate daily principles that are important for living. In this book you'll see the yo-yo used to demonstrate how things can work together in harmony. You'll see the yo-yo used to teach you about yourself. Faith and Trust are also illustrated. These are just a very few of the wonderful thoughts in this book!

If you enjoy philosphy, poetry, and humor - buy this book.

Excellent guide to Boston for the first timer or the native who wants details for great day trip. Filled with clear and informative maps, fun photos and wonderful descriptions of different areas of Boston and the many surrounding attractions. It contains a terrific history section, practical tips on planning your trip, accomodations, restaurants, shopping and sports info and more and even a list of good books about Boston. The book is scattered with helpful tips and recommendations to enhance your visit. A very attractive book, it's size (about 5 1/2 X 8 1/2 and about 3/4 inch think) makes it easy to carry around and substantial enough to save as a great souvenir of your trip. I work at a Global Training Center and we use this book consistently to help our visitors plan their sightseeing. I highly recommeded this guide.

I got this book because I need it for a class, but I actually started reading it before the class started. It's a great book to give you the basic info about a lot of popular and historic places in Boston. Each site has about 4 pages of info, including websites, phone numbers, and other tourist info. I wish I had known about this before my senior year of college in Boston.

This is a great review of the methods and impact of brain imaging in schizophrenia. Good for residents, fellows and researchers, the book provides a solid background on the pinicples of brain imaging, the various methods (fMRI, SPECT, and many others), and the findings of numerous studies.

One and a while a book will come along that will change the perception you have for yourself. In this case, my own case, a child of sexual abuse-I was fortunate enough to find several books that have helped me to understand,learn and grow past the abuse. Those books are: Breaking Free: Help for Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse, Nightmares Echo and Courage To Heal.
If you want your life to change, even if you have not been abused but suspect of someone that may have been-It's time to read these books!

Josiah Royce (1855 - 1916) was a great American philosopher in the idealist tradition whose work has been overshadowed by that of his colleague and dear friend at Harvard, William James. I recently had the good fortune to attend an academic conference at the Harvard Divinity School with the theme "Pragmatism and Idealism in Dialogue: James and Royce 100 years later" which explored the close relationship of the work of these two thinkers. Royce was raised in frontier California as an evangelical Christian and, although he abandoned this particular creed in adult life, he remained preoccupied with religious questions and with the Christian heritage of his youth. Royce's "The Sources of Religious Insight" (1912) consists of seven lectures delivered at Lake Forest College, Illinois. Royce said that the "Sources" "contains the whole sense of me in a brief compass". And the Roycean scholar, Frank Oppenheim S.J. has written in his book "Reverence for the Relations of Life" (2005 at p. 265) that the "Sources" "constitutes one of the most valuable yet tragically neglected works of the twentieth century."

The Sources is written in an accessible, non-technical style that tends to mask the complexity of its thought. Royce makes use of stories and anecdotes, historical figures, homely examples, poetry, and the popular literature of his day. Royce characterizes religious life as concerned with the salvation of man. The idea of salvation means, for Royce, that there is some end or aim of human life that is far more important and fundamental than other aims and that people live in great danger of missing this goal by devoting themselves to trivialities. (p. 12) Royce endeavors to study "insight into the way of salvation and into those objects whereof the knowledge conduces to salvation." (p. 9). The "Sources" is much less based upon a Christian approach to religion than is Royce's subsequent book, "The Problem of Christianity." Royce disclaims any doctrinal teaching. This gives the "Sources" a much broader scope than the "Problem" even though it does not show the influence of the thought of Charles Peirce and the possible curtailment of Royce's idealistic tendencies that are apparent in the latter work.

Much of the "Sources" can be viewed as amplification and modification of the project William James began in his "The Varieties of Religious Experience" (1902). In the "Varieties" James identified individual private experience, the experience of a person "alone with the divine" as the fundamental religious attitude. In accordance with his pragmatism, James believed the value of this experience could be measured in terms of its fruits for life, rather than by abstract considerations of truth and falsity.

In the "Sources", Royce agrees with James about the experiential, personal character of religion. He also agrees, to a point, with James's emphasis on pragmatism and the individual will. But Royce finds James's approach insufficient. He proceeds in the "Sources" to identify seven sources of religious insight: 1. the individual in his solitude, as identified by James, 2 social community, 3. reason, 4. will, 5. loyalty, 6. responses to certain forms of evil and sorrow in human life, 7. the unity of spirit and the individual church. (Oppenheim discusses these factors at p. 258 of "Reinventing Pragmatism".)

Royce has much to say about each of these factors. The most striking difficulty for the modern reader, and the point of greatest divergence from James, lies in Royce's consideration of reason and in his attempt to construct a source of religion through an argument for the philosophy of absolute idealism. Royce's philosophy culminates in what he calls the "Religion of Loyalty" which combines individualism and communalism, ethics and religion to the service of "the spiritual unity of all the worlds of reasonable beings." (p. 205) Individuals may be devoted to different causes, in terms of their countries, families, and work and to different religions - or to no formal religion at all. But through loyalty to the good and a willingness to respect the facially diverging goods of others, individuals may reach an understanding of the bases of the religious search.

In his final chapter, Royce distinguishes the visible church - the community of believers in an established religious tradition - from the invisible church which he describes as the `spiritual brotherhood of the loyal." (p. 282) Membership in the invisible church requires tolerance for the individual loyalties of others which we do not share and an attempt to further their just loyalties as well as one's own. There is an ultimate unity among all believers in the good, regardless of their superficial differences. Loyalty, for Royce, "implies genuine faith in the abiding and supreme unity of the spirit." (p. 297)

There is a great deal to be learned about religion from this wonderful book as it shows a fallible humanity in quest of the transcendent. Royce does not attempt to foist a creed upon his readers but rather to help provide a basis in which people may come to specifically religious conclusions of their own. As Royce exhorts at the end of the "Sources", "seek insight where it is to be found."

Robin Friedman