Introducing Evolutionary Psychology

AS FEATURED IN MATRIX REVOLUTIONS!   Read about the link between Introducing Evolutionary Psychology and the hugely successful Matrix films here How did the mind evolve? How does the human mind differ from the minds of our ancestors, and from the minds of our nearest relatives, the apes? What are the universal features of the human mind, and why are they designed the way they are? If our…

Introducing Freud

  'Zarate's artwork is outstanding and Appignanesi's texts are solidly researched and clearly presented.' Washington Post Freud revolutionized the way we think about ourselves. His psychoanalytic terms such as Id, Ego, libido, neurosis and Oedipus Complex have become a part of our everyday vocabulary. But do we know what they really mean? Introducing Freud successfully demystifies the fact…

Introducing Kierkegaard

  Søren Kierkegaard is now regarded as the founder of Existentialism and the first modern theologian. Philosophy, in Kierkegaard's radical view, was of no use unless it permanently changed people's lives. His distrust of grand abstract schemes, particularly Hegel's, and his insistence that philosophy is essentially writing, also identify him as a forerunner of postmodernist concerns. …

Introducing Mind and Brain

  How the biological tissue of the brain can give rise to those activities which our culture refers to as the 'Mind' confronts us with a profound and mysterious puzzle. Roughly speaking, the problem is this: why is it that having three pounds of electric sponge stowed in the top of your head enables you to discern the subtle gradations of colour on an evening landscape, to experience aw…

Introducing Mind and Brain (pocket-sized edition)

  INTRODUCING - cleverer by design Introducing Mind and Brain examines a profound and mysterious puzzle: How do the three pounds of electric sponge stowed in the top of your head allow you to experience enchantment in front of an evening landscape, and then make you remember the shopping, say 'Damn!' and head off to the supermarket? To put it another way, how does the biological tissue…

Introducing Psychoanalysis

  The ideas of psychoanalysis have permeated Western culture. It is the dominant paradigm through which we understand our emotional lives, and Freud still finds himself an iconic figure. Yet despite the constant stream of anti-Freud literature, little is known about contemporary psychoanalysis. Introducing Psychoanalysis redresses the balance. It introduces psychoanalysis as a unified 'theor…

Introducing Quantum Theory (pocket-sized edition)

  INTRODUCING - cleverer by design Quantum theory is one of science's most thrilling, challenging and even mysterious areas. Scientists such as Planck, Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg and Schrödinger uncovered bizarre paradoxes in the early 20th century that seemed to destroy the fundamental assumptions of 'classical physics' - the basic laws we are taught in school. At the sub-atomic leve…

Introducing Rousseau

  'I am like no one else in the whole world ...' Thus begins Jean-Jacques Rousseau's defiant Confessions - an autobiography of astounding psychological insight. Musician, poet, novelist and botanist, but above all, a philosopher who firmly denied being one, Rousseau was the first to ask: 'What is the value of civilization?' His answer - that civilization corrupts natural goodness and …

Introducing Stephen Hawking

  Stephen Hawking is the best-known theoretical physicist alive today. To the public he is a legendary but tragic figure - author of the phenomenally successful book on the origin and fate of the universe, A Brief History of Time, but confined to a wheelchair, unable to speak or write. Introducing Stephen Hawking is a brilliantly conceived introduction to Hawking's work, ranging from Eins…

Introducing Melanie Klein: A Graphic Guide (PAPERBACK)

INTRODUCING guide to the pioneering child psychoanalystBorn in Vienna in 1882, Melanie Klein became a pioneer in child psychoanalysis and developed several ground-breaking concepts about the nature and crucial importance of the early stages of infantile development. Although she was a devoted Freudian, many of her ideas were seen within the psychoanalytic movement as highly controversial, and this…

Introducing Psychoanalysis: A Graphic Guide (PAPERBACK)

INTRODUCING guide to the history and theory of still controversial ‘speaking cure’The ideas of psychoanalysis have permeated Western culture. It is the dominant paradigm through which we understand our emotional lives, and Freud still finds himself an iconic figure. Yet despite the constant stream of anti-Freud literature, little is known about contemporary psychoanalysis. Introducing …

Introducing Machiavelli: A Graphic Guide (PAPERBACK)

Illustrated guide to the crucial Italian philosopher and author of The Prince'Machiavellian' is a popular byword for treachery and opportunism. Machiavelli's classic book on statecraft, The Prince, published over 400 years ago, remains controversial to this day because of its electrifying frankness as a practical guide to power. Is it a how-to manual for dictators, a cynical philosophy of 'the end…

Introducing Rousseau: A Graphic Guide (PAPERBACK)

Illustrated guide to the crucial French philosopher who denied bring a philosopher at all‘I am like no one else in the whole world ...’ Thus begins Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s defiant Confessions – an autobiography of astounding psychological insight.Musician, poet, novelist and botanist, but above all, a philosopher who firmly denied being one, Rousseau was the first to ask: ?…

Introducing Evolutionary Psychology: A Graphic Guide

How did the mind evolve?Why can’t children under three tell lies?How is the mind a computer? Pulling together insights and data from fields as diverse as evolutionary biology, cognitive psychology and archeology, evolutionary psychologists are beginning to piece together the first truly scientific account of human nature. How has the human mind evolved from that of our ancestors? If our mi…

Introducing Stephen Hawking: A Graphic Guide

Stephen Hawking is the world-famous physicist with a cameo in The Simpsons on his CV, but outside his academic field his work is little understood. To the public he is a tragic figure – a brilliant scientist and author of the 9 million-copy-selling A Brief History of Time, and yet confined to a wheelchair and almost completely paralysed.   J.P. McEvoy and Oscar Zarate’s  br…