Extra Credit

1. Extra Credit You have the opportunity to read and report on any one book in the following list.

2. Extra Credit Psychology 1 • Extra Credit: • • An extra 20 points can be earned in the class for reading an assigned book, and writing a critique of the topic of the book. • • It critique is an analysis of the book from the student’s perspective. Do not write about, or repeat the book’s content, it is not important in this assignment. What is important is your reaction to the book. What is your inner emotional experience with the book, the author’s statements, and how the book may have affected or not affected your thinking about the topic. • • The critique should not be less than 3 pages in length, and must demonstrate that you actually read the book. The due date is the last regularly scheduled class.

3. Extra Credit Psychology 1 • TOPIC: EATING DISORDERS • Wasted Updated Edition: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia, MaryaHornbacher, ISBN-13: 978-0060187392, 2014 • Read the re-issued edition from 2014. This book is a memoir that chronicles the author’s battle with anorexia and bulimia. This book describes the issues involved in eating disorders, including the embracing of hunger, drugs, sex, and death. At least until the romance of wasting away becomes reality.

4. Extra Credit Psychology 1 • TOPIC: MEN'S PSYCHOLOGY • Under Saturn's Shadow, The Wounding and Healing of Men James Hollis isbn 0-919123-64-3 • An interesting read of how boys become imprisoned in roles from which they cannot physically, nor emotionally escape. “Greatest burden a child must bear is the unlived life of the parent (Jung). “So each man must examine, without the motive to judge, where his father's wounds were passed on to him. Either he finds himself repeating his father's patterns or living in reaction to them - in both cases a prisoner …. ” (Hollis)

5. Extra Credit Psychology 1 • TOPIC: DEVELOPMENTAL AND FAMILY PSYCHOLOGY • Gentle Roads to Survival, Andre Auw, ISBN-13: 978-0944031186 • DrAuw, a priest and a psychotherapist, points out the characteristics that distinguish people who are born survivors from those who might give up. The book is a guide to help us past our limitations, and to find a place of safety through internal courage.

6. Extra Credit Psychology 1 • TOPIC: PSYCHOPATHIC PERSONALITY AND SOCIETY • Without Conscience, Robert Hare,0-671-53606-0 • The disturbing world of psychopaths among us. The book explores how psychopaths may be more common that what is usually perceived. It also explores how the psychopathic personality shapes society in ways that are many times unseen by the individuals they are around.

7. Extra Credit Psychology 1 • TOPIC: IDENTITY AND DEVELOPMENT OF SELF • A Child Called "It", Dave Pelzer, ISBN-13: 978-1558743663 • This book recounts a severe child abuse case in California. It is the story of a child who was severely beaten abused by an emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother: a mother who’s parenting nearly left the author dead. The larger questions of this treatise, should we as a society consider who becomes parents, what does substance abuse really cost society in terms of poor parenting, and how do we as a society, accept such abusive behavior

8. Extra Credit Psychology 1 • TOPIC: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MEANING THROUGH EXISTENTIAL THOUGHT • Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl, ISBN-10: 080701429X ISBN-13: 978-0807014295 • Based on his own experience and the experiences, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl's theory holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.

9. Extra Credit Psychology 1 • TOPIC: ANIMAL “LANGUAGE”, COGNITION, AND EMOTION • Alex & Me:, Irene M. Pepperberg, ISBN-10: 0061673986 ISBN-13: 978-0061673986 • Alex & Me is the story of a relationship between psychologist Irene M. Pepperberg, and Alex, an African Grey parrot who proved scientists and accepted wisdom wrong by demonstrating an astonishing ability to communicate and understand complex ideas. What makes us human? What separates are thoughts of who we are in any given social circumstance is perhaps one the larger concepts of this work.

10. Extra Credit Psychology 1 • TOPIC: JUNGIAN PSYCHOLOGY OF ARCHETYPES • The Hero Within, Carol S. Pearson, ISBN 978-0-06-251555-1 • This book draws from literature, anthropology, and psychology. The author clearly defines six heroic archetypes—the Innocent, the Orphan, the Wanderer, the Warrior, the Altruist, and the Magician—and shows how we can use these powerful Jungian Archetypes to discover our own hidden gifts, and solve difficult problems. When we encounter others, various archetypes are unconsciously at play, and how we act and react in our own society, family, and culture are driven by these processes.

11. Extra Credit Psychology 1 • TOPIC: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY • Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, Dan Ariely ISBN-10: 9780061353246 • The premise of this book is to repudiate the common assumption that we behave in fundamentally rational ways. From drinking coffee to losing weight, from buying a car to choosing a romantic partner, we consistently overpay, underestimate, and procrastinate. Yet these misguided behaviors are neither random nor senseless. They're systematic and predictable—making us predictably irrational. An interesting statement as to cultural identity, and personal responsibility

12. Extra Credit Psychology 1 • TOPIC: MUSIC THERAPY AND PSYCHOLOGY • Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, Oliver Sacks ISBN-10: 1400033535 • This book explores the place music occupies in the brain and how it affects the human condition, and how we view culture. It is a psychological and neurological view of how we enjoy and may be obsessed with music. The book is filled with vignettes to illustrate the author’s points.

13. Extra Credit Psychology 1 • Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving: A GUIDE AND MAP FOR RECOVERING FROM CHILDHOOD TRAUMA Pete Walker ISBN-13: 978-1492871842 • The author wrote the book from the perspective of someone who has experienced Cptsd • The author explores the causes of Cptsd, that range from severe neglect to monstrous abuse in childhood. Many survivors grow up in houses that are not homes – in families that are as loveless as orphanages and sometimes as dangerous. The book elaborates on all the recovery concepts explained on my website, and many more. Key concepts of the book include managing emotional flashbacks, understanding the four different types of trauma survivors, differentiating the outer critic from the inner critic, healing the abandonment depression that come from emotional abandonment and self-abandonment.

14. Extra Credit Psychology 1 • TOPIC: SURVIVING FAMILY OF ORIGIN AS AN ADULT • Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving: A GUIDE AND MAP FOR RECOVERING FROM CHILDHOOD TRAUMA Pete Walker ISBN-13: 978-1492871842 • The author wrote the book from the perspective of someone who has experienced Cptsd • The author explores the causes of Cptsd, that range from severe neglect to monstrous abuse in childhood. Many survivors grow up in houses that are not homes – in families that are as loveless as orphanages and sometimes as dangerous. The book elaborates on all the recovery concepts explained on my website, and many more. Key concepts of the book include managing emotional flashbacks, understanding the four different types of trauma survivors, differentiating the outer critic from the inner critic, healing the abandonment depression that come from emotional abandonment and self-abandonment.