Overview
Humans, unlike all other animals, are endowed with the capacity for hope and despair. This unique ability allows us to generate positive or negative expectations about the future, regardless of present circumstances, and engage in behaviors that shape our future. Although hope has been the engine of civilization, its evanescent nature has made it an elusive target for the behavioral sciences, which have largely ignored the topic. Hope has more often been the province of philosophy, religion, and poetry. For psychiatrist Anthony Reading, hope's power to shape human behavior is worthy of scientific investigation and provides a remarkable opportunity to understand the relationship between mind and brain. Hope and despair dramatically illustrate the capability of the human brain to construct imaginary representations of the universe, allowing us to disengage from the present, recall the past, and forecast the future independent of any current sensory input. Consciousness then enables us to choose among these past, present, and future scenarios and integrate them into coherent plans for action. Reading's wide-ranging work focuses on the way we process sensory information and its implications for our current understanding of memory, learning, and consciousness; how the brain's ability to transcend time affects our language, emotions, evolution, and individual development; and the light that hope and despair shed on important aspects of our function as individuals and as a species. Bridging many disciplines, Hope and Despair is a major contribution to our knowledge of human behavior.
Full Product Details
Author: Anthony Reading (Professor Emeritus, University of South Florida College of Medicine)
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Imprint: Johns Hopkins University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 2.10cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.544kg
ISBN: 9780801879487
ISBN 10: 0801879485
Pages: 248
Publication Date: 24 November 2004
Recommended Age: From 17
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Out of Print
Availability: In Print
Limited stock is available. It will be ordered for you and shipped pending supplier's limited stock.
Reviews
A lifetime of professional activity in research and practice, sparked by an early, intense interest in what makes people tick, has convinced Anthony Reading that the power of hope can change human behavior. Science & Theology News Wide-ranging book... Readers who are unfamiliar with these subjects... will find the book's ideas and arguments immediately accessible and Dr. Reading's world view comfortably humane. -- Allan Young, PhD Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease Manages to say quite a lot about the state of our understanding of how the brain perceives and organizes its response to its environment. -- Timothy B. Sullivan, M.D. Psychiatric Services
A lifetime of professional activity in research and practice, sparked by an early, intense interest in what makes people tick, has convinced Anthony Reading that the power of hope can change human behavior. Science & Theology News Wide-ranging book... Readers who are unfamiliar with these subjects... will find the book's ideas and arguments immediately accessible and Dr. Reading's world view comfortably humane. -- Allan Young, PhD Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 2005 Manages to say quite a lot about the state of our understanding of how the brain perceives and organizes its response to its environment. -- Timothy B. Sullivan, M.D. Psychiatric Services 2007
An intellectually stimulating book. It offers a rich and many-sided analysis regarding a key dimension of human experience - namely, the unique capacity of humans to form mental models of the world around them. - Johann Stoyva, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
Author Information
Author Website: http://hsc.usf.edu/PSYCH/Faculty/staff_reading.html
Anthony Reading, M.B., B.S., M.P.H., Sc.D., is a professor emeritus of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at the University of South Florida.
