Simon McCarthy-Jones

How petty vengeance explains human thriving Spite seems utterly useless. You don't gain anything by hurting yourself just so you can hurt someone else. So why hasn't evolution weeded out all the spiteful people? As psychologist Simon McCarthy-Jones argues, spite seems pointless because we're looking at it wrong. Spite isn't just what we feel when a car cuts us off or when a partner cheats. It's what we feel when we want to punish a bad act simply because it was bad. Spite is our fairness instinct, an innate resistance to exploitation, and it is one of the building blocks of human civilization. As McCarthy-Jones explains, some of history's most important developments -- the rise of religions, governments, and even moral codes -- were actually redirections of spiteful impulses. A provocative, engaging read, Spite shows that if you really want to understand what makes us human, you can't just look at noble ideas like altruism and cooperation. You need to understand our darker impulses as well.

The Upside of Your Dark Side

Spite

Why do we cut off our noses to spite our faces? A leading expert in psychology shines a light on a universal emotion

And the Upside of Your Dark Side

Mark Hayward

Clara Strauss

This book draws on clinical research findings from the last three decades to offer a review of current psychological theories and therapeutic approaches to understanding and treating auditory hallucinations, addressing key methodological issues that need to be considered in evaluating interventions. Mark Hayward, Clara Strauss and Simon McCarthy-Jones present a historical narrative on lessons learnt, the evolution of evidence bases, and an agenda for the future. The text also provides a critique of varying therapeutic techniques, enabling practice and treatment decisions to be grounded in a balanced view of differing approaches. Chapters cover topics including: behavioural and coping approaches cognitive models of voice hearing the role of self-esteem and identity acceptance-based and mindfulness approaches interpersonal theory. Psychological Approaches to Understanding and Treating Auditory Hallucinations brings together and evaluates diffuse literature in an accessible and objective manner, making it a valuable resource for clinical researchers and postgraduate students. It will also be of significant interest to academic and clinical psychologists working within the field of psychotic experiences.

From theory to therapy

Psychological Approaches to Understanding and Treating Auditory Hallucinations

A comprehensive exploration of the history, phenomenology, meanings and causes of hearing voices that others cannot hear (auditory verbal hallucinations).

The Histories, Causes and Meanings of Auditory Verbal Hallucinations

Hearing Voices

The experience of 'hearing voices', once associated with lofty prophetic communications, has fallen low. Today, the experience is typically portrayed as an unambiguous harbinger of madness caused by a broken brain, an unbalanced mind, biology gone wild. Yet an alternative account, forged predominantly by people who hear voices themselves, argues that hearing voices is an understandable response to traumatic life-events. There is an urgent need to overcome the tensions between these two ways of understanding 'voice hearing'. Simon McCarthy-Jones considers neuroscience, genetics, religion, history, politics and not least the experiences of many voice hearers themselves. This enables him to challenge established and seemingly contradictory understandings and to create a joined-up explanation of voice hearing that is based on evidence rather than ideology.

Simon McCarthy-Jones

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