New Books in Psychology

• Judith Weisenfeld, "Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race and Psychiatry in Slavery’s Wake" (NYU Press, 2025)

  In the decades after the end of slavery, African Americans were committed to southern state mental hospitals at higher rates as white psychiatrists listed “religious excitement” among the most frequent causes of insanity for Black patients. At the same time, American popular culture and political discourse framed African American modes of spiritual power as fetishism and superstition, cast embodied worship as excessive or fanatical, and labeled new religious movements “cults,” unworthy of respect. As Judith Weisenfeld argues in Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race and Psychiatry in Slavery’s Wake (NYU Press, 2025), psychiatrists’ notions of race and religion became inextricably intertwined in the decades after the end of slavery and into the twentieth century, and had profound impacts on the diagnosis, care, and treatment of Black patients. This book charts how racialized medical understandings of mental normalcy pathologized a range of Black religious beliefs, spiritual sensibilities, practices, and social organizations and framed them as manifestations of innate racial traits. Importantly, these characterizations were marshaled to help to limit the possibilities for Black self-determination, with white psychiatrists’ theories about African American religion and mental health being used to promote claims of Black people’s unfitness for freedom. Drawing on extensive archival research, Black Religion in the Madhouse is the first book to expose how racist views of Black religion in slavery’s wake shaped the rise of psychiatry as an established and powerful profession. Judith Weisenfeld is the Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion and associated faculty in the Department of African American Studies and the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies. This episode’s host, Jacob Barrett, is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Religion and Culture track. For more information, visit his website thereluctantamericanist.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

  --------  

  55:12

  --------

  55:12
• Jeremy Stolow, "Picturing Aura: A Visual Biography" (MIT Press, 2025)

  Picturing Aura: A Visual Biography (MIT Press, 2025) by Dr. Jeremy Stolow is the first book of its kind: an extended historical, anthropological, and philosophical study of modern efforts to visualize the hidden radiant force encompassing the living body known as our aura. This rich, interdisciplinary study by Dr. Stolow chronicles the rise and global spread of modern instruments and techniques of picturing aura, from the late nineteenth century to the present day, exploring how its images are put to work in the diverse realms of psychical research, esotericism, art photography, popular culture, and the New Age alternative medical and spiritual marketplace.At their core, pictures of auras are boundary objects that operate simultaneously in multiple conceptual and practical realms, serving varying goals of making art, healing bodies, and exploring the cosmos. Drawing on extensive archival as well as field research, Stolow reconstructs a global history of this boundary-crossing enterprise through its evolving media technologies, markets, and cultural arenas. It is a story shaped through exchanges among professionals and amateurs, scientists and occultists, countercultural artists and entrepreneurs, metropolitans and hinterland figures. With more than 60 full-color illustrations, Picturing Aura brings to light a remarkable, entangled history of picture-making that challenges settled assumptions about religion, art, and science. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

  --------  

  1:19:58

  --------

  1:19:58
• David P. Celani, "Ronald Fairbairn: A Contemporary Introduction" (Routledge, 2024)

  In this concise and introductory book, David Celani examines the work of Ronald Fairbairn, one of the pioneers of Object Relations Theory. Ronald Fairbairn: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge, 2025) adopts a unique approach to Fairbairn’s work and legacy. Organizing the book thematically, Celani makes connections between Fairbairn’s disparate and often convoluted papers, offering the reader a more accessible insight into the work of this eminent analyst. He looks in turn at Fairbairn’s field-defining work on Object Relations, split consciousness, repression and the impact of parental neglect on a child’s developing personality. Celani also explores Fairbairn’s assessment of infants’ dependency on their maternal figure and brings his ideas into the 21st century. Considering the work of Philip Bromberg in tandem with that of Fairbairn, Celani considers the practical, clinical and theoretical implications of Fairbairn’s model. This volume is essential reading for analysts in practice and training interested in the work of Fairbairn and the impact Object Relations have had on psychoanalysis as a whole. Celani conducts ongoing educational workshops on Fairbairn at the Object Relations Institute. David P. Celani is a retired psychologist and adjunct professor at the Object Relations Institute in New York City, USA. Akilesh Ayyar is a spiritual teacher and writer in New York. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

  --------  

  1:46:58

  --------

  1:46:58
• Michael Baldwin and Deborah Korn, "Every Memory Deserves Respect: EMDR, the Proven Trauma Therapy with the Power to Heal" (Workman Publishing Company, 2021)

  Every Memory Deserves Respect: EMDR, the Proven Trauma Therapy with the Power to Heal An introduction to EMDR, a proven trauma therapy with the power to heal, cowritten by a world-renowned therapist and a patient who experienced transformative relief through EMDR therapy.Trauma is a part of life.You or someone you care about has probably experienced trauma, whether “big-T” trauma, such as emotional, physical, or sexual abuse or the more common but no less significant “little-t” trauma that can result from divorce, job loss, painful childhood experiences, or any situation where you felt worthless, afraid, or powerless. Untreated trauma can lead to long lasting effects such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, and difficulties maintaining intimate relationships.But the good news is that we can heal—and it doesn’t have to take a lifetime. EMDR (which stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a unique type of psychotherapy proven to help people recover from trauma and improve the quality of their lives.Cowritten by a patient who experienced transformative relief from trauma through EMDR therapy, and a world-renowned psychologist who explains exactly how and why EMDR works, Every Memory Deserves Respect provides clear information while offering inspiration and hope.Through compelling science, personal stories, and powerful photographic images, we learn how trauma is stored in the brain and body, continuing to cause pain and suffering, and how EMDR frees us by repatterning our thinking and emotional reactions. It explains why talk therapy has only a limited impact on trauma recovery, describes what to expect from gentle and targeted EMDR therapy, and offers guidance on how to find a therapist who is just right for you. Dr. Deborah Korn, a clinical psychologist with a private practice in Cambridge,MA. She is on the faculties of the EMDR Institute in CA and the Trauma Research Foundation in Boston. She is also an EMDR International, Association-approved Consultant, and presents and consults internationally on the treatment of adult survivors of childhood abuse and neglect. Michael Baldwin is an accomplished leader in the communications industry with more than 35 years of award-winning work in advertising. He is the founder and principal of the branding and communication firm MICHAEL BALDWIN INC, located in New York. Michael is a trauma survivor actively engaged in the process of recovery. You can learn more about each of the authors and about the book by visiting their website everymemorydeservesrespect.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

  --------  

  1:13:14

  --------

  1:13:14
• Joshua Howe and Alexander Lemons "Warbody: A Marine Sniper and the Hidden Violence of Modern Warfare" (W. W. Norton & Company, 2025)

  A friendship between an environmental historian and a chronically ill US Marine yields a powerful exploration into the toxic effects of war on the human body. Alexander Lemons is a Marine Corps scout sniper who, after serving multiple tours during the Iraq War, returned home seriously and mysteriously ill. Joshua Howe is an environmental historian who met Lemons as a student in one of his classes. Together they have crafted a vital book that challenges us to think beyond warfare’s acute violence of bullets and bombs to the “slow violence” of toxic exposure and lasting trauma. In alternating chapters, Lemons vividly describes his time in Fallujah and elsewhere during the worst of the Iraq War, his descent into a decade-long battle with mysterious and severe sickness, and his return to health; Howe explains, with clarity and scientific insight, the many toxicities to which Lemons was exposed and their potential consequences. Together they cover the whirlwind of toxic exposures military personnel face from the things they touch and breathe in all the time, including lead from bullets, jet fuel, fire retardants, pesticides, mercury, dust, and the cocktail of toxicants emitted by the open-air “burn pits” used in military settings to burn waste products like paint, human waste, metal cans, oil, and plastics. They also consider PTSD and traumatic brain injury, which are endemic among the military and cause and exacerbate all kinds of physical and mental health problems. Finally, they explore how both mainstream and alternative medicine struggle to understand, accommodate, and address the vast array of health problems among military veterans. Warbody: A Marine Sniper and the Hidden Violence of Modern Warfare challenges us to rethink the violence we associate with war and the way we help veterans recover. It is a powerful book with an urgent message for the nearly twenty million Americans who are active military or veterans, as well as for their families, their loved ones, and all of us who depend on their service. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

  --------  

  1:10:24

  --------

  1:10:24

Más podcasts de Ciencias

Podcasts a la moda de Ciencias

Acerca de New Books in Psychology

New Books in Psychology: Podcasts del grupo