An insightful approach to the far-reaching effects of climate shifts and their impact on the human psyche; likely to become...
A book explores the psychological implications of climate change.
With all of the literature surrounding climate shifts, it is a rare work that addresses their often profound emotional impact on humans. Medical practitioner and educator Davenport (Transformative Imagery, 2016, etc.) views weather cycles through a different lens, offering both an overview of climate change psychology and pertinent tactics for clinicians to apply in caring for their clients. The first part of the book examines specific “clinical themes.” “The Psychology of Climate Change Denial,” for example, touches on current beliefs and explains how the typical stress responses, “fight, flight, and freeze,” relate to the global disruptions. “Mindful Disaster Response,” a chapter that moves out of the clinician’s office into the field, discusses how to deal on-site with individuals going through the three stages of climate catastrophe recovery. These two chapters and the other four in Part I provide a solid overview of climate change’s impact, accompanied by additional resources and a worksheet tailored to each chapter’s content. The text and worksheets deliver specific “practices” the therapist can employ with clients, including thorough, step-by-step instructions. Part II is a uniquely structured resource comprised of 12 practices geared toward developing an “ecoharmonious life.” Every practice includes three sections—“Body Wise,” “Heart/Mind Wise,” and “World Wise”—each designed to sensitize a client to different transformative areas. The practices themselves are simple yet compelling: “Garden State,” for example, is designed to create an appreciation of one’s natural environment, particularly flora and the physical earth, so the client can become “an active steward of life.” An appendix features an exercise for “progressive relaxation,” and extensive references are included. Davenport demonstrates a deep knowledge of clinical practices but, more important, relates these directly to ecological issues and outcomes. Consistently positive and encouraging, she writes with an understanding of a therapist’s challenges and a sense of empathy for clients.
An insightful approach to the far-reaching effects of climate shifts and their impact on the human psyche; likely to become a valuable, targeted resource facilitating clinicians’ treatment in this specialized area.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-78592-719-5
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A scientist with the knack of transforming the complex and abstract into the simple and concrete engagingly explains what science now knows about memory. Rupp, who has a doctorate in cell biology and biochemistry, is also no stranger to world literature. She draws on anyone who suits her purposes, spiking her text with quotes from Cervantes and George Carlin, Machiavelli and Agatha Christie. And she has a creative touch with chapter titles, too. Who can resist such provocative ones as ``Isaac Newton's Dinner and 15,000 Chinese Telephone Numbers'' or ``Monsters in the Lime Tea''? Rupp is clearly thoroughly at home with her subject, and she seems to delight in making the reader share her interest. First she tackles what memory is and the various kinds of memory, taking the reader on a quick tour of the brain to show where memory resides and how it is processed. She deftly summarizes the work of numerous researchers on both animal and human subjects and touches briefly on that most controversial of subjects, recovered memories. Here the good news is that objective analysis with PET scans may one day be able to separate false memory from the true. Rupp's consideration of the intriguing flip side of memory— forgetting—leads her naturally to a discussion of ways to counteract forgetfulness. Memory strategies can be learned, she notes, and her final chapters offer techniques for remembering numbers, facts, and peoples' names. Some of the mnemonic devices she describes seem more work than the subject matter warrants (to recall the names of the Seven Dwarfs, recite the sentence ``Big Dogs Dine Greedily on Ham Sandwiches and Soup''), but the entertainment level remains high throughout. A veritable textbook thoroughly disguised as a diversion. (8 b&w illustrations, not seen)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-517-70321-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1997
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A memoir stunning in its unflinching directness and in the precision and deftness of the rememberer's descriptive voice. Ramsey, now an award-winning poet (Blood Stories, not reviewed), was raped when she was 13 years old. She heartbreakingly evokes the day it happened—how sexy she felt riding her bike, wearing her favorite red dress, which fit just right, how she imagined someone looking at her and admiring her as she rode past, and how grown-up she had felt riding alone to visit her teacher, who lived far away. She does not shrink from the rape itself either; she describes it, and her later rememberings of it, with careful exactness and simplicity. She thoughtfully chronicles the rape's effect on her adult sexual and emotional life, including her struggle to write about it. The parts of the book that deal with her family may be the most wrenching. Both of her parents were alcoholics—a situation Ramsey describes with painful specificity, without taking refuge in the clichÇs of contemporary recovery jargon. She considers how her parents were unable to help her at the time, unable to comfort and protect her, and reflects on her anger and on the possibility that rape made her isolation from them inevitable. With a depth that is rare in stories of childhood sexual trauma, Ramsey explores the girl she was before the attack, what her life was like, and how that life affected her experience of rape—as well as the ways rape irrevocably changed it. Ramsey interviews others who remember her trauma, including her drunk and aging father, who has flashes of touching lucidity; these memories fascinatingly complicate Ramsey's own assumptions about the past. Rejecting the lost innocent, the victim, the heroic survivor, and other tired archetypes, Ramsey tells her story in her own way, with subtle, shattering power.
Pub Date: Jan. 3, 1996
ISBN: 0-399-14107-3
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1995
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