effect

Goudie's book covers both past and present human impacts on every conceivable component of the Earth -- on vegetation, animals, landforms, soil, water, climate, and the atmosphere. One of the strengths of this book is, of course, the great breadth of the topics it covers. Another strength is the use of clear concrete examples, with plenty of maps, graphs, and other visual presentations of relevant information. And finally, and most importantly, this book stands out because of the clarity of the writing, which is straight-forward and devoid of both technical jargon and judgmental phrasing.

This would make a great textbook for a college course, and yet would also make a wonderful reference or pleasure reading book for the curious. Not many books can make such a claim!

'There are many things in western culture that are admirable. But a culture that alienates itself from the very ground of its own being - from the wilderness outside (that is to say wild nature, the wild, self-contained, self-informing ecosystems) and from that other wilderness, the wilderness within - is doomed to a very destructive behavior'.

This quotation from poet Gary Snyder sets the agenda for Max Oelschlaeger's important study of the idea of wilderness. His aim is to demonstrate the importance of the Darwinian idea of nature 'as the source of human existence, rather than a mere re-source to fuel the economy' (p.1) He approves strongly of a reaffirmation of the wilderness in the American consciousness, and along with Snyder he 'announces the opening of the frontier again and attempts to push it eastwards, to reverse America's historical process, to urge the wilderness to grow back into civilization, to release the stored energy from layers below us.' (L. Folson, quoted on p. 275).

This is more than a history of ecological ideas and more than a primer on 'wilderness philosophy'. It is a significant contribution to the question of civilisation and its purpose - in many respects a philosophical, ethical and religious challenge to the twenty-first century.

it's a wonderful book just i want to read it agai

This compilation of articles dealing with the assault upon the overall integrity of psychological/psychodynamic treatments across therapeutic modalities is an outstanding work. Sands and Barron, reknowned clinicians in their own right, have collected a sterling cast of authors who clearly articulate the issues that continue to daunt (and damage) clinician's ability to offer quality care to individuals seeking psychotherapeutic remedies for a sweeping range of complaints.

One author in particular describes the debilitating effects of managed care upon a regional hospital based children's psychiatric treatment service. The author, while vividly describing the crippling effects of "managed cost" works to also describe coping skills for the clinician to better assure at least a minium level of integrity in the provision of services.

Lest anyone suggest that managed care has been but a "tempest in a teapot" one has only to read recent accountings in the popular press regarding the paucity of psychological services now available. Our nation's burgeoning crisis in mental health has been compounded by the recent devastating terrorist acts in our nation. The effect of managed care in the inhibition and destruction of psychological care has been elevated to a more pressing level of concern -

This book can help to serve as a roadmap in road to undoing the devastation wrought by the ill conceived and poorly applied forces of managed care.

I read this book back in the eighties when it came out. Since then, I've probably read it three more times. Janov has written many books on primal therapy and early childhood trauma. Obviously, this book is more specific to birth and its life-long effects. We owe Janov a lot of thanks for his research into early trauma.

Most people are skeptical. After all - if we can't remember something - how could it affect us?

But it does. Most people go through life never understanding their symptoms. Their symptoms always seem to be some mysterious "it" they can never explain. That mysterious "it" is early trauma that has yet to be resolved. Too bad mainstream psychology has never accepted what Janov has discovered, even though it is well documented.

That being said, there are a couple of mistakes Janov has made in his conclusions about the resolution of early trauam. (1) Only a trained therapist (read expensive) is capable of safely helping people access & resolve their earliest traumas. (2) You must eventually be able to feel the full emotional intensity of the original trauma.

This has been proven wrong with Redirecting Self-Therapy (RST) as discovered by retired neuroscientist Ellie Van Winkle. Her therapy is producing the same results as Primal Therapy - but as a free self-therapy. Ellie has proven that anger - and only anger - must be discharged to completely resolve past traumas. Ellie's therapy offers a unique way of doing this. One does NOT have to experience/feel the other emotions of the original trauma - like fear or catastrophic loneliness. It is only suppressed anger that need be expressed. RST has been called "primaling made easy" by some. It is much faster and easier than Primal Therapy. Can't provide a link here, but you can do your own search later for Redirecting Self-Therapy.

A story that for some might be hard to believe but for others, who have suffered at the hands of an abuser very believable! This book offers incredible hope, would make an awesome movie! Some love 'dirty laundry' others have lived like lives. Would be a great match to a nineties Daddy dearest...in this world where we life every day hearing stories of things that happen to 'other peoples kids' well what would it be like to be the 'other person's kid?' Man, what a thought, did anyone ever take the time to think what that would be like? Maybe it's because of stories like these that our jails are so full, or perhaps could be empty? What a concept, to let abusers read this, survivors... perhaps it would make that difference, lower that jail supporting almighty tax dollar perhaps? Heavy story really heavy but encouraging too! a must read, a must give to friend and foe alike! written by a survivor, transcender...

Inequality : A Reassessment of the Effect of Family and Schooling in America by Christopher Jencks 1972

Leon Todd (leontodd@execpc.com from Milwaukee, WI usa , October 24, 1998

Christopher Jencks, Inequality (1972), noted that it is probably wiser to define a "good" school in terms of student body characteristics than in terms of its budget or school resources. According to Jencks, once a good school starts taking in "undesirable" students (the definition of desirable sometimes pertains to academic, social, or economic attributes), its academic standing automatically declines. He concluded that while an elementary schools' social composition had only a moderate effect on student's cognitive achievement, secondary or high school social composition had a significant effect on achievement. Jencks also concluded that school racial composition had only a small effect on black students' later occupational status. This evidence on racial composition and occupational status is far more convincing than any evidence offered to date supporting the position that expenditures or school resources influence academic achievement.

The type of friends students are likely to make, the values they are exposed to, and satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the school, are all dependent upon the character of the student body. Jencks reanalyzed Coleman's EEOS data, Equality of Educational Opportunity (1966) and also concluded that the achievement of lower class students, both black and white, was fairly strongly related to the socioeconomic level of their classmates as long as the poverty class students were in a significant minority of the school student body. This usually meant that a student's achievement was also related to the race, or more accurately the class, of his classmates, since black classmates tended to be poorer or of a lower SES classmates, and vice versa. Jencks also concluded that when the socioeconomic level of a lower class child's classmates was held constant, however, their race had no relationship to achievement.

This conclusion is consistent with Coleman's argument (1966) that school social class has an effect on academic achievement independent of the individual student's family background. Jencks reported that when race and the economic status of students within schools were controlled for, differences in school policies and resources did Not significantly affect verbal achievement. Black student achievement was found to be even less related to schools' policies and resources than white student achievement. This conclusion was inconsistent with Coleman's findings.

"Family background, "social class," and "economic status" are often used interchangeably by social scientists. This interpretation or confounding of these complex concepts often poses serious problems in terms of the comparability and interpretation of research findings. The term "social class" has been defined in a variety of ways. Disputes about the legitimacy of these term have been many and heated and in the ensuing discourse confounding and confusing.

Some scholars deny the existence of social classes in America. Jencks (1972) stated that: The term family background can itself be somewhat misleading, since differences between families derive not just from differences between neighborhoods, regions, schools, and all other experiences that are the same for children in the same family socioeconomic status. Also, the term family background has various interpretations.

By "family background," Jencks (1972) referred to all the environmental factors that make brothers and sisters more alike than random individuals. "Some of these factors are economic, while some are not." Jencks further stated that there can be great variation in "family background" among children who come from the same social or economic class.

Jencks (1972) estimated that a family's economic status probably correlates about 0.35 with children's test scores. What this means is that the test scores of children whose fathers rank in the top fifth of the occupational hierarchy will on the average be 13 to 15 points higher than children whose fathers rank in the bottom fifth. If family income is used as a measure of SES, the disparity between these two groups will be less than 13 points. Jencks further stated that class differences appear to be greatest for verbal ability and general information. Test of mathematical skills, reading comprehension, and non-verbal ability are less influenced by economic background.

This is an excellent reference book for applied researchers who use advanced structural equation modeling (SEM) in social, psychological, and biomedical studies. The authors are well-known experienced experts in SEM, and the contents of this book are practical. Researcher who use different software in SEM can find their practical examples and related theoretical bases.

"This is an excellent resource for health-care professionals. As consumers purchase more and more products over the counter containing natural medicines, providers need to be aware of the potential interactions that these products can create when taken with certain prescription medications. This easy-to-use reference is indexed aphabetically by drug, herb or nutrient name, by drug categories and by food item or category. Medical references are sited for each interaction when available and applicable. The information is concise, easy to use and easy to find. Items are cross-referenced when more information is available in another section. Published in [December] 1999, it contains most of the newly released medications on the market. This reference is extremely comprehensive and complete." --International Journal of Pharmaceutical Compounding, July/August 2000

The author was a retired IDF officer and former military ruler of the West Bank, so he definitely knows his subject matter very well. Hired by the Israeli government to produce a factual analysis of the causes of the first Intifada and the ways it can be stopped. The document produced is thorough and factual and quite matter-of-factly in its presentation.

It comes to the conclusion that the disturbances of the Intifada are caused primarily by the desire of the Palestinians to divest themselves from Israeli rule. This, according to Shalev, the Intifada cannot be stopped by military means alone and needs to be addressed by a political process. Though technical and full of notes and appendices, this factula study is easily readable and accessible to the general reader. I highly recommend it as I found it quite informative and useful for understanding the situation in the Middle East.