Links

“The Great Attention Heist:”  John Zada and John Bell’s review of “The Attention Merchants,” by Tim Wu, in the Los Angeles Review of Books:

Jay’s Music   I’ve been a musician pretty much all my life–certainly long before becoming a psychologist–and my musical and psychological careers are integrating in some ways, in the songs I write and programs I’ve given on psychology, religion and spirituality that include performing them.  My music website has more information:  www.elephantinthedark.com/

ISHK Book Service     Robert Ornstein is the psychologist from whose books I have probably learned more about psychology than from any other single author.  His pioneering Psychology of Consciousness, and Nature of Human Consciousness, back in the early 1970s, provided a foundation for understanding consciousness which has informed my own understanding of human nature in a way that enabled me to incorporate the value in emerging work in cognitive psychology, neurobiology and neuropsychology, and psychotherapy, over the years.  Ornstein’s Introduction to Psychology textbook is the one I used, back in the ’70s and ’80s, when teaching Introduction to Psychology college classes.  A study group of psychotherapists which I facilitate recently read his “Multimind,” written in the mid ’80s and reissued by Malor, and found it up-to-date in illuminating complex aspects of human nature.  Ornstein has written prolifically over the years, including more recent work with James Burke and Paul Ehrlich on how human nature has resulted in threats to human survival, and how we can, through knowing human nature, evolve our way out of those threats, via “conscious evolution.”  Ornstein is President of the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge (ISHK), which he provides together with his wife, artist Sally Mallam.  The ISHK website is chock full of valuable resources, including having the best selection in the U.S.A. of books by the Sufi exponent Idries Shah, the Malor collection reissuing important books in psychology, the All About Me series of books on human nature for children (solidly at middle school reading level, appropriate for bright upper elementary students and also useful for high school students), and the delightful Hoopoe Books for children, beautifully illustrated teaching stories, many in bilingual editions, which Sally has created, which I’ve used in projects for the Learning Resource Alliance (see below).

Arthur Deikman’s webpage Psychiatrist Arthur Deikman is one of our leading pioneers in consciousness studies and psychotherapy.  Trained in psychoanalysis, he became a student of Zen under D. T. Suzuki, and has written with wisdom and clarity about the relationship of Zen, Jewish, and Sufi mysticism and psychotherapy.  If I had to select just one therapist to exemplify the best of psychotherapy, it would be Arthur Deikman.

http://www.brainsciencepodcast.com Ginger Campbell’s (Virginia Campbell, M.D.) Brain Science Podcast is one of my favorite ways to stay up to date with the field.  She interviews  leading researchers and practitioners in brain science and the podcasts are available for free (donations are appreciated!).  Some of my favorite researchers and practitioners are here, including Norman Doidge on “The Brain That Changes Itself,” Elkhonnen Goldberg on “Executive Functions,” John Raty on “Exercise and the Brain,” and many more.

www.learningresourcealliance.com The Learning Resource Alliance is a not-for-profit educational organization of which I’m President.  LRA has co-sponsored study groups for therapists on Multicultural Therapy and Religion, Spirituality and Mental Health, donated books of teaching stories (Hoopoe) to reading programs, and recently completed a project called Parents and Children Reading Together, encouraging and training parents of Head Start children to read with and to their children.  We’re in the process of updating the website.

Nasrudin:  Idries Shah published three books of Nasrudin stories:  “The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mulla Nasrudin,” “The Subtleties of the Inimitable Mulla Nasrudin” and “The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin.”  Shah also included a chapter on the Nasrudin figure in his seminal “The Sufis.”  A posthumous collection, “The World of Nasrudin,” by Idries Shah, was published on through his estate.  Nasrudin books are available on Amazon, and are (or will be) available through the Idries Shah Foundation; http://www.idriesshahfoundation.org/.  The “Exploits” has been recorded and is available from Audible; http://www.audible.com/pd/Nonfiction/The-Exploits-of-the-Incomparable-Mulla-Nasrudin-Audiobook/B00WL122JS/ref=a_search_c4_1_1_srTtl?qid=1435508861&sr=1-1/

More links coming!