Adolescents Books

This is a wonderful book. I used it as a book study for my senior high Sunday School class at church and received great reviews. They were interested in discussion and dialoguing together, which is always a problem, but not with this book. It would also be a great graduation gift for those graduating from high school! I highly recommend this book. It is a simple read, but the content is as deep as you want it or need it to be.

"The Bi-personal Field" is the first book of Antonino Ferro available to the English-speaking psychoanalytic community. He is nevertheless already well known not only to the Italian public of psychoanalysts, but also to the international one thanks to his articles published in various years on the International Journal of Psychoanalysis. Formally, this book appears as a handbook on the technique of child psychoanalysis. In fact what makes it a particularly valuable text is rather that it soon becomes a book on how the mind of the analyst operates at work. Ferro's theory is located at a very interesting and original crossroad between the ideas of Bion and those of Willy and Madeleine Baranger. He holds the concept of bi-personal field - that is to say the clinical situation in the here and now of the session as it gets shaped by both participants to it, patient and psychoanalyst - as central for his theory. Ferro tends to move his interest away from external reality or considerations solely related to inner relations of the patient. This in order to follow the "fil rouge" of understanding what is going on in the bi-personal field. The development of the patient's tale is regarded as continuosly depicting the state of the art of the relationship between himself and his analyst. As Ferro puts it the characters of the tales become in this way an expression of the "quality which comes alive in the consulting room, probably generated by the patient and myself and which is my job to transform". A series of consequences derives: Ferro dislikes saturated interpretations, explicative, revealing or decoding ones, particularly those which emphasize the cleverness of the analyst and imply a blame on the patient. On the contrary -interestingly enough- he seems to prefer a style where discoveries are written together, in a duet. Ferro provides abundant clinical material which proves very useful to show his way of working. I find this richness of material is rather unusual in many contemporary psychoanalytic texts. Not only. Ferro - in addition to his theoretical positions - shows an amazing ability to creatively deal with his patients' material. His fresh clinical imagination conveys new thoughts to both the patient and to himself. And to the reader of his book as well.

Collaboratively compiled and deftly co-edited by Malcom Maclachlan and Caroline Smythe, Binge Drinking & Youth Culture: Alternative Perspectives is a scholarly discussion of binge drinking and its connection to serious social problems such as suicide, especially with regard to the youth culture in Ireland and the UK. Multiple perspectives draw heavily upon statistical research, painting a clear portrait of social ills and the individual, social, and cultural attitudes that contribute to them - in one writer's term, the old adage that there is little to do in Ireland except go to the pub is all too close to the truth. Binge Drinking & Youth Culture acknowledges that there are no easy answers but strives to present as many facts and as much sociological insight as possible to aid in addressing the problems to public health. A superb reference text for college-level students of addictive drugs and behavior.

The number of U.S. children diagnosed with bipolar disorder rose an astounding 4,000% in the past ten years. This startling fact drives home the urgency of this important new book edited by Sharna Olfman and bringing together some of the world's most distinguished experts in the field.

Each of the book's nine contributors offers a unique perspective on the issue, providing readers with a comprehensive view of a controversial and disturbing subject.

Among the most passionate voices are those of Dr. David Healy and Dr. Joanna Le Noury, who dissect the pharmaceutical industry's unscrupulous strategies to expand the psychiatric drug market, resulting in the unprecedented "tidal wave" of child drugging currently sweeping our nation.

Award-winning journalist Robert Whitaker writes a carefully documented chapter citing solid scientific evidence showing that the widespread practice of medicating young children with stimulants like Ritalin or antidepressants like Prozac has fueled an explosion of drug side effects including psychosis, mania and suicidal impulses. These drug reactions are then misinterpreted as symptoms of severe mental illness, resulting in a mis-diagnosis of bipolar disorder which leads to treatment with "mood stabilizers" often combined in drug cocktails including major tranquilizers like Risperdal or Seroquel.

We may be witnessing a drug-induced epidemic of mental and physical disabilities directly caused by the irresponsible and misguided medical mis-treatment of our nation's children. Psychology professor Daniel Burston looks at what is happening and calls it "the chemical colonization of childhood."

Regardless of who or what we choose to blame for causing this catastrophe -- Big Pharma, bad parenting, overcrowded schools, environmental toxins, television violence, etc. -- one thing is certain: nothing will change until DOCTORS stop making the diagnoses and DOCTORS stop writing the prescriptions. What will it take to bring about such a change?

Perhaps we should begin focusing less on the children who are diagnosed, and more on the doctors who do the diagnosing. Lawrence Diller writes, "Only economic factors, the threat of legal action, or very negative publicity (e.g., children's deaths while taking antidepressants) have widespread influence on doctors' prescribing practices and treatment."

In the book's final chapter, epidemiologist Philip Landrigan sounds the alarm over the growing number of neurotoxic chemicals including mercury that are poisoning our environment. Landrigan writes, "It is striking that the mental health community has virtually ignored the health risks to children growing up in a world that is awash with thousands of synthetic chemicals, hundreds of which are already known to be poisonous to the brain."

How ironic, then, if our society's response to the harm caused by environmental toxins is to give our children drugs -- chemical substances that are toxic to growing bodies and vulnerable brains!

Emotional disorders such as bipolar disorder are never the private inner conflict of one person - they affect the families of the bipolar individual a great deal as well. "Bipolar Disorder: A Family-Focused Treatment Approach" examines the disorder as a problem that the afflicted and his or her family must face together, touching on emotional resistance to treatment, distinguishing to the disorder from the person, and the importance of communication. The enhanced second edition includes a study on new treatments for the ailment, and new case studies. "Bipolar Disorder: A Family-Focused Treatment Approach" is highly recommended for community library health collections and for anyone afflicted or related to the afflicted.

A brilliantly readable book that is neither pop-psychology nor esoteric medical literature, but rather the clear-eyed insights of an experienced practitioner with sound and articulate advice to providers, teachers and parents. Shoudl be required reading for anyone dealing with adolescents who are cutting or engaging in non-suicidal self-harm.

In these times of touchy cultural boundaries, educating children is the best way to support the future. "Books about the Middle East: Selecting and Using them with Children and Adolescents" is a guide for libraries to help children learn about cultural diversity through their school and public libraries, discussing books that help teachers deal with the cultural differences that may arise when they speak with their students. Sure to fill in educators and librarians on everything they need to know to enhance their curriculum with tolerance and diversity, "Books about the Middle East: Selecting and Using them with Children and Adolescents" is highly recommended for community libraries.

A riveting insight into urban violence in Medellin, Columbia's second city. Alonso Salazar journeys into the jails, hospitals and shanty towns of Columbia's drug capital to interview teenage contract kilers, their families, priests and self-defence vigilantes. In the process, he brings alive the world of Medellin's youth gangs, those who, in their own words, are 'born to die' before they can have children or grow old.

An introduction by Colin Harding, The Independent's Latin America editor, describes Medellin's criminal culture, and the young killer's place in Columbian politics.

First published in Columbia in 1990, the book rapidly became a best seller as a graphic exploration of one of the most violent societies in the world.
--- from book's back cover

Finally, a well-thought-out and fantastically written book on how to deal with our Boy Crazy daughters. Giannetti and Sagarese, who both have elder daughters, write from experience and the experience of many frustrated parents in this how-to guide on teenage girls. Any parent with a daughter should absolutely purchase this book!

This book is truly amazing because it answers so many questions we have always been asking through life... questions like why men are more aggressive, why some people change sex, and why some girls behave like boys and vice-versa.

In a sense, this book is like a college reference book (after all, I picked it up at my college library) but it reads like a bestseller! I couldn't stop reading after starting on it. It has a great chronological order of how boys and girls develop into their roles, and it touches on the biological side as well.

One thing I greatly admire about this book is that you don't need to have a major in Biology to understand what it is about. There are many techinal aspects of course, but the author made it easy to understand. In addition, her views are often supported by evidence and she also counteract her views with other arguments. In the end, the product is a well-balanced book, with unbiased views and sometimes, even more unanswered questions that will always be in our minds....trying to understand why boys grow up to be boys and why girls grow up to be girls.

One word for you, Carole R. Beal - Excellent!