Psychology – Page 4 – Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

By Scott J. Pearson | December 13, 2022December 13, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

Today’s world is an increasingly complex place. Many of us feel like we live disintegrated lives and are pulled in many directions. Yet people who have the highest societal impact tend to have the ability to focus, and throughout the centuries, writers like Henry David Thoreau have reminded us to simplify instead of complicate. In this book, McKeown seeks to convey these timeless philosophical lessons in a more contemporary format, geared around modern business lives…

Belonging: The Science of Creating Connection & Bridging Divides

By Scott J. Pearson | November 2, 2022November 2, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

In recent decades, American society has collectively forgotten the virtue of fostering belonging in others. There seem to be many causes contributing to this central effect – political partisanship, technology, police injustices, lingering racism, the capitalistic thrust of media, and more. Cohen, a Stanford psychology professor, takes aim at this rich topic by presenting a comprehensive theory driven by research and then drawing out several practical applications. He does so to help modern social problems…

Psychology

Chained to the Desk: A Guidebook for Workaholics, Their Parents & Children, & the Clinicians who Treat Them

By Scott J. Pearson | June 8, 2022June 8, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

Connotations of the term “workaholic” often involves two countervailing nuances: a positive one that appreciates the value of hard work and a negative one that points out a neglect of personal issues. Many of us in the United States, with all our appreciation of a Protestant work ethic, can suffer from this disease – yes, disease. It can cause pain in the worker along with pain and loneliness in their immediate family (partners and children).…

Biography-Memoir Mentoring Psychology

Mentors: How to Help & Be Helped

By Scott J. Pearson | May 23, 2022July 24, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

The well-known Russell Brand advocates for mental health in the United Kingdom. He has been open about his recovery from numerous addictions in his best-selling memoir Recovery. He follows up that book with this look at mentoring, which helped him out of his hard spot. He is not focused as much on professional or career mentoring, but instead personal and life development. By remembering healthy relationships he’s had in the past, he teaches how to…

Psychology

Aspire Higher: How to Find the Love, Positivity, & Purpose to Elevate Your Life & the World!

By Scott J. Pearson | April 30, 2022May 2, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

Self-help books, at their best, empower readers to become a better version of their self. In other words, they can raise readers’ self-esteem. This book – written by a Harvard-educated athlete turned lawyer turned career coach – aspires to do just that. He helps readers identify their “heart-of-hearts” and then to act out of it. He does so while remaining religiously and politically neutrally. Lindner uses positivity as a method to bring forth one’s true…

Healthcare HIV/AIDS Psychology Society

My Nerves are Bad: Puerto Rican Women Managing Mental Illness & HIV Risk

By Scott J. Pearson | April 27, 2022May 7, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

This sociological work examines a niche group with a lot of social factors going on that impacts their health. First, there is gender as these are women. Regionally and racially, these women are from Puerto Rico but now live in the mainland US. They are impoverished, like many who come from the island. They have to deal with very real health issues like mental illnesses and the looming risk of HIV. They have risk factors,…

Psychology

Why We Argue & How to Stop

By Scott J. Pearson | April 3, 2022April 3, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

Many people pridefully take the stance that they don’t need self-help books. “It’s all easy and common sense,” they claim. Often, those people are the very people whose personal relationships are most disordered. In truth, we all can use a little help sometimes, and I often am more receptive when reading it in a book at my own leisure rather than sitting on a therapist’s couch. In this book, Manney brings us to his therapist’s…

Biography-Memoir Psychology

Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger’s

By Scott J. Pearson | March 24, 2022March 24, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

In the last twenty years, autism has risen to the forefront in the American consciousness. High-functioning autism (otherwise known as Asperger’s) is of particular interest because these people can and do function positively (even excellently) in society. Still, they face unique challenges in socially interacting with colleagues, family, and friends. Robison’s memoir shows how such an adaptation can happen and how happiness can ultimately be found. Robison was raised without a formal understanding of his…

Biography-Memoir Psychology

An Impossible Wife: Why He Stayed: A True Story of Love, Marriage, & Mental Illness

By Scott J. Pearson | March 10, 2022March 10, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

A century ago, people with mental illness was handled through a sanitarium. Since the advent of helpful but imperfect medications in the latter twentieth century, however, many with mental illness now live in the community. As a result, they have to deal with stigma around their illness – both others’ and their own. Siddoway (simply Rachael in the tale) tells a true story of her parents and her family. She shows how hard their lives…

Fiction-Stories History Psychology

The Lobotomist’s Wife: A Novel

By Scott J. Pearson | January 3, 2022August 13, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

For a period of time, lobotomy was the go-to treatment for psychiatry. It involved disabling the frontal lobes of the brain with the hopes of averting psychiatric symptoms. If “disabling the frontal lobes of the brain” sounds scary to you, it is to me, too. Over time, bad outcomes were chronicled, and lobotomy was eventually relegated to the historical record (much like other equally scary psychological treatments). However, in this book, Greene Woodruff brings frighteningly…