Fantastic Thought: All about Dreams, Daydreams, Hallucinations, and Hypnosis

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Starker, Steven

Psychology & Counseling

PRENTICE/HALL

Where do ordinary people turn for wisdom and personal advice? In modern-day America, the search for practical knowledge frequently begins and ends at the local bookstore or supermarket bookrack. The resident oracle is the self-help book, where paperback guidance is at hand on all aspects of life and death. Readers can learn why and how they must diet, exercise, manage stress, reduce pain, find God, enhance orgasm, mourn, achieve excellence, acquire wealth, and generally self-actualize. Often they find step-by-step instructions. Although self-help books are dispensing medical, psychological, financial, and spiritual advice to millions every year, little is known about them or their authors. The academic community treats the massive self-help literature as "pop culture," a phenomenon to scorn rather than study. Many express passionate opinions about such books, but few have a basis for informed judgment. Steven Starker makes a convincing case that self-help books have come to occupy an important niche in American culture and may no longer responsibly be ignored by health care practitioners or social scientists. Oracle at the Supermarket examines the self-help book from historical, cultural, and psychological perspectives. It traces the character of self-help works from colonial America to the present day, with an emphasis upon developments in the twentieth century. Topics include the discovery of "mind-cure," the impact of scientific psychology and psychoanalysis upon the self-help literature of the 1920s, and the role of self-help books in the sexual revolution of the twentieth century. The wave of self interested literature in the 1960s and 1970s, and recent outpouring of diet/exercise/success books are examined. Starker explores problems in evaluating published self-help programs, and the ethics of their creation. He includes survey date from lay readers and selected groups of health care practititoners regarding their experiences with self-help books. The book is distinguished by its care in evaluating the relative merits and dangers of self-help literature.

Oracle at the Supermarket: The American Preoccupation with Self-help

Beauty, Grooming, & Style

Routledge

Thoroughly researched and thoughtfully analyzed, F-STATES describes the creative process and the importance of fantasy in that process.

F-States: The Power of Fantasy in Human Creativity

Borgo Pr

Recognizes types of destructive thinking in normal people, describes how these thoughts can affect personal and business relationships, and suggests constructive alternatives

Parathink: The Paranoia of Everyday Life

New Horizon Pr

Where do ordinary people turn for wisdom and personal advice? In modern-day America, the search for practical knowledge frequently begins and ends at the local bookstore or supermarket bookrack. The resident oracle is the self-help book, where paperback guidance is at hand on all aspects of life and death. Readers can learn why and how they must diet, exercise, manage stress, reduce pain, find God, enhance orgasm, mourn, achieve excellence, acquire wealth, and generally self-actualize. Often they find step-by-step instructions.  Although self-help books are dispensing medical, psychological, financial, and spiritual advice to millions every year, little is known about them or their authors. The academic community treats the massive self-help literature as "pop culture," a phenomenon to scorn rather than study. Many express passionate opinions about such books, but few have a basis for informed judgment. Steven Starker makes a convincing case that self-help books have come to occupy an important niche in American culture and may no longer responsibly be ignored by health care practitioners or social scientists.  Oracle at the Supermarket examines the self-help book from historical, cultural, and psychological perspectives. It traces the character of self-help works from colonial America to the present day, with an emphasis upon developments in the twentieth century. Topics include the discovery of "mind-cure," the impact of scientific psychology and psychoanalysis upon the self-help literature of the 1920s, and the role of self-help books in the sexual revolution of the twentieth century. The wave of self interested literature in the 1960s and 1970s, and recent outpouring of diet/exercise/success books are examined. Starker explores problems in evaluating published self-help programs, and the ethics of their creation. He includes survey date from lay readers and selected groups of health care practititoners regarding their experiences with self-help books. The book is distinguished by its care in evaluating the relative merits and dangers of self-help literature.

Oracle at the Supermarket: The American Preoccupation With Self-Help

Each new development in the mass media has elicited highly charged criticism from alarmed observers. Comics, romance novels, music videos, and even movies, radio, and television have all been denounced as threats to children, teenagers, adults, and even the stability of civilization itself. Organized into community groups, citizens have repeatedly taken militant action against the media, ranging from book burnings to blacklisting and from harassment of individual publishers to attempts to regulate entire industries. Investigative committees and commissions are not uncommon. What is it about the media that generates such attacks? Evil Influences examines the historical, sociological, and psychological background of current controversies regarding the media. Starker finds that even though it is couched in logic or scientific theory, such hostility is almost always a byproduct of fear—fear of imagination and fantasy, fear of change, fear of human aggression and sensuality. Successive media developments have challenged traditional perceptions and habits by introducing powerful visual and emotional elements into mass communication. Because they frighten and threaten a part of the audience, new forms of mass media engender public outrage and become easy scapegoats, accused of everything from stimulation of violence to promotion of conformity. This book is addressed to those who inevitably participate in media debates—social scientists, educators, communications professionals, the clergy, and educated parents. Its intention is to prepare us for the arrival of new media forms and their associated threats.

Evil Influences: Crusades Against the Mass Media

Business & Money

Industries

Transaction Pub

Each new development in the mass media has elicited highly charged criticism from alarmed observers. Comics, romance novels, music videos, and even movies, radio, and television have all been denounced as threats to children, teenagers, adults, and even the stability of civilization itself. Organized into community groups, citizens have repeatedly taken militant action against the media, ranging from book burnings to blacklisting and from harassment of individual publishers to attempts to regulate entire industries. Investigative committees and commissions are not uncommon. What is it about the media that generates such attacks? 'Evil Influences' examines the historical, sociological, and psychological background of current controversies regarding the media. Starker finds that even though it is couched in logic or scientific theory, such hostility is almost always a byproduct of fear--fear of imagination and fantasy, fear of change, fear of human aggression and sensuality. Successive media developments have challenged traditional perceptions and habits by introducing powerful visual and emotional elements into mass communication. Because they frighten and threaten a part of the audience, new forms of mass media engender public outrage and become easy scapegoats, accused of everything from stimulation of violence to promotion of conformity. This book is addressed to those who inevitably participate in media debates--social scientists, educators, communications professionals, the clergy, and educated parents. Its intention is to prepare us for the arrival of new media forms and their associated threats.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Starker, Steven. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Starker, Steven

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Starker, Steven. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Fantastic Thought: All about Dreams, Daydreams, Hallucinations, and Hypnosis

Oracle at the Supermarket: The American Preoccupation with Self-help

F-States: The Power of Fantasy in Human Creativity

Parathink: The Paranoia of Everyday Life

Parathink: The Paranoia of Everyday Life

Oracle at the Supermarket: The American Preoccupation With Self-Help

Evil Influences: Crusades Against the Mass Media

Evil Influences: Crusades Against the Mass Media

Evil Influences: Crusades Against the Mass Media