Health History

When Edward M. Hallowell was 11, a voice out of nowhere told him he should become a psychiatrist. A mental health professional of the time would have called this psychosis. But young Edward (Ned) took it in stride, despite not quite knowing what "psychiatrist" meant. With a psychotic father, an alcoholic mother, an abusive stepfather, and two so-called learning disabilities of his own, Ned was accustomed to unpredictable behaviour from those around him and to a mind he felt he couldn't always control.

"One of America's most courageous young journalists" and the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling memoir Brain on Fire investigates the shocking mystery behind the dramatic experiment that revolutionized modern medicine (NPR). Doctors have struggled for centuries to define insanity--how...

A new recording for the 10th anniversary of this parenting staple, on how parents can control their own behavior instead of unsuccessfully attempting to control their kids. Now with new information on keeping your cool in the digital age, examining the new wave of calm parenting, and dealing...

From New York Times bestselling author and former Navy SEAL Brandon Webb comes a simple yet powerful five-step guide to transforming your life by making your fears work for you instead of against you. Brandon Webb has run life-threatening missions in the world's worst trouble spots, whether that...

Adults with scoliosis are often overlooked and forgotten by our healthcare system. After treating many adults and hearing their questions, frustrations, and needs, Dr. Strauss was compelled to write this follow-up book specifically addressing scoliosis in adults. In it he offers adults with scoliosis the fundamentals about scoliosis, treatment options, hope, and reassurance

A physicist explains daily phenomena from the mundane to the magisterial. Take a look up at the stars on a clear night and you get a sense that the universe is vast and untouchable, full of mysteries beyond comprehension. But did you know that the key to unveiling the secrets of the cosmos is as...

The birth of psychiatry in the early nineteenth-century fundamentally changed how madness was categorized and understood. A century on, their conceptions of mental illness continue to influence our views today. Beliefs and behavior were divided up into the pathological and the healthy. The influence of religion and the supernatural became significant measures of insanity in individuals, countries, and cultures. Troubled by Faith explores these ideas about the supernatural across society through the prism of medical history.

On the eve of his fortieth birthday, a professor of no discernible musical talent learns to play the guitar and investigates how anyone of any age might master a new skill. Just about every human being knows how to listen to music, but what does it take to make music? Is musicality something we...

For centuries, the human heart seemed beyond our understanding: an inscrutable shuddering mass that was somehow the driver of emotion and the seat of the soul. As cardiologist and best-selling author Sandeep Jauhar tells in The Heart, it was only recently that we demolished age-old taboos and devised the transformative procedures that changed the way we live. Deftly alternating between historical episodes and his own work, Jauhar tells the colorful and little known story of the doctors who risked their careers and the patients who risked their lives to know and heal our most vital organ.

“The most important book about schizophrenia in decades, and perhaps ever…a total game-changer.” —Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind A comprehensive, deeply researched, and highly readable portrait of schizophrenia—its history, its various manifestations, and how today’s...

Iain Lawrence is the best-selling author of such heralded books for young readers as Lord of the Nutcracker Men, which broached the complicated subject of human experience in war. His novels have been chosen as Best Book of the Year by

Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal on more than one occasion. Lawrence again contemplates war in this novel, set in 1943, England. Sixteen-year-old Kak escaped his abusive family in Canada to join the Canadian Air Force. Now a crewman aboard a night-flying bomber bound for Germany, Kak learns of the terror and violence of war firsthand.

Fast Food Nation - the groundbreaking work of investigation and cultural history that has changed the way America thinks about the way it eats - and spent nearly four months on the New York Times bestseller list - now available on cassette! Are we what we eat? To a degree both engrossing and...

Public speaker, transformative teacher, and CEO of Peak Potentials, Adam Markel has been inspiring people to find their best work for years. Now, for the first time, he presents his practical program for people who are looking to reinvent themselves. Here’s how to “get in touch with your...

Explore real women’s tales of healthcare trauma and medical misogyny with this “masterfully written” (Sophia A. Nelson, bestselling author of The Woman Code and Black Woman Redefined), meticulously researched, in-depth examination of the women’s health crisis in America—and what we can...

Taking a thematic rather than strictly chronological approach, W. F. Bynum, explores the key turning points in the history of Western medicine - such as the first surgical procedures, the advent of hospitals, the introduction of anesthesia, X-Rays, vaccinations, and many other innovations, as well as the rise of experimental medicine. The book also explores Western medicine's encounters with Chinese and Indian medicine, as well as nontraditional treatments such as homeopathy, chiropractic, and other alternative medicines.

Why do some families thrive in adversity while others fragment? How can families weather difficult transitions together? Why do our families so often exasperate us? And how can even small changes greatly improve our relationships? In Every Family Has a Story, bestselling psychotherapist Julia...

Popular recovery speaker Mary Pearl T talks about relationships and relates them, often humorously, to the traditions. Lots of great stories. Great fun.

On this fascinating, inspirational, and often humorous audio program-recorded live-the incomparable Sylvia Browne explains how you can heal your body, mind, and soul by reprogramming your cell memory, virtually eliminating your physical, emotional, and spiritual challenges. Sylvia talks about...

In the tradition of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, this New York Times bestseller is a page-turning account of one of the nation’s last segregated asylums..."a book that left me breathless" (Clint Smith). For centuries, Black patients have been absent from our history books. Madness...

Are art and science separated by an unbridgeable divide? Can they find common ground? In this book, neuroscientist Eric R. Kandel, whose remarkable scientific career and deep interest in art give him a unique perspective, demonstrates how science can inform the way we experience a work of art and seek to understand its meaning. Kandel illustrates how reductionism - the distillation of larger scientific or aesthetic concepts into smaller, more tractable components - has been used by scientists and artists alike to pursue their respective truths.