New Releases by Peter D. Kramer

In diesem Werk untersucht der Psychiater Peter D. Kramer die umstrittene Rolle von Antidepressiva. Mit langjähriger klinischer Erfahrung und wissenschaftlicher Expertise hinterfragt er die wachsende Skepsis gegenüber diesen Medikamenten. Kramer weist auf Schwachstellen in der Forschung hin, analysiert die Macht der Pharmaindustrie und wägt zwischen klinischen Studien und Patientenerfahrungen ab. Dabei bleibt er empathisch und zeigt, dass Antidepressiva zwar keine Wundermittel sind, aber vielen Menschen helfen können, ein normales Leben zu führen. Sein Buch verbindet wissenschaftliche Analyse mit persönlichen Fallgeschichten und plädiert für eine fundierte, aber pragmatische Anwendung von Antidepressiva in der psychiatrischen Praxis.

When Peter D. Kramer wrote about his work with psychiatric patients in books like Listening to Prozac and Should You Leave?, Joyce Carol Oates said, “To read his prose on virtually any subject is to be provoked, enthralled, illuminated.” When Kramer switched to fiction, Publishers Weekly wrote, “The depth, quality, and ambition of Kramer’s prose will surprise those expecting a superficial crossover effort.” In his new novel, Death of the Great Man, Kramer uses those literary skills to introduce readers to an unforgettable character, Henry Farber, a well-meaning psychiatrist forced into hiding when the nation’s chief executive—a narcissistic autocrat in his disastrous second term—is found dead on the consulting room couch. From an isolated bungalow, Farber sets out to clear his name while offering an intimate view of a flawed populist leader. What begins as comic mystery and political satire matures into a moving journey of self-exploration and a commentary on the fate of truth-telling in an era when lying has become a norm in public life.

"Ambitious, persuasive, and important . . . [Kramer] doesn't just make a case for antidepressants. He makes a case for psychiatry itself." —Jonathan Rosen, The Atlantic Do antidepressants work, or are they glorified placebos? In Ordinarily Well, the celebrated psychiatrist Peter D. Kramer examines the growing controversy about the popular medications. A practicing doctor who trained as a psychotherapist and worked with pioneers in psychopharmacology, Kramer combines moving accounts of his patients' dilemmas with an eye-opening history of drug research to cast antidepressants in a new light. Kramer homes in on the moment of clinical decision making: Prescribe or not? What evidence should doctors bring to bear? Using the wide range of reference, he traces and critiques the growth of skepticism toward antidepressants. He examines industry-sponsored research, highlighting its shortcomings. He unpacks statistics and shows how findings can be skewed toward desired conclusions. Kramer never loses sight of patients. He writes with empathy about his clinical encounters over decades as he weighed treatments, analyzed trial results, and observed medications' influence on his patients' symptoms, behavior, careers, families, and quality of life. Crucially, he shows how antidepressants act in practice: less often as miracle cures than as useful, and welcome, tools for helping troubled people achieve an underrated goal—becoming ordinarily well. A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice "Dr. Kramer . . . has done something very valuable: . . . his dissections of the most incendiary studies are careful, and his conclusions . . . will invite a reckoning." — The New York Times "Offers a carefully argued and convincing case that antidepressants not only work but also are an essential tool in the treatment of depression." — The Associated Press "Moving." — The Washington Post

In his phenomenal bestseller Listening to Prozac, Peter Kramer explored the makeup of the modern self. Now, in his superbly written new book, he focuses his intelligent, compassionate eye on the complexities of partnerships and why intimacy is so difficult for us. With the art of a novelist and the skill of a brilliant psychiatrist, Kramer addresses advice seekers struggling with such complex questions as: How do we choose our partners? How well do we know them? How do mood states affect our assessment of them and theirs of us? What does “working on a relationship” truly entail? When should we try to improve a relationship, and when should we leave? Equally at home with Shakespeare, Emerson, and Kierkegaard as it is with Freud and Jung, Should You Leave? is a literary tour de force from a uniquely insightful observer and a profoundly resonant and helpful approach to resolving dilemmas of the heart.

"Kramer succeeds in reconciling the two Freuds—the inventor of the modern mind and the false saint—and that is a considerable achievement." — Washington Post Referred to as "the father of psychoanalysis," Sigmund Freud is credited with championing the "talking cure" and charting the human unconscious. Both revered and reviled, he was a brilliant innovator but also a man of troubling contradictions—sometimes tyrannical, often misrepresenting the course and outcome of his treatments to make the "facts" match his theories. Peter D. Kramer—acclaimed author, practicing psychiatrist, and a leading national authority on mental health—offers a stunning new take on this controversial figure. Kramer is at once critical and sympathetic, presenting Freud the mythmaker, the storyteller, the writer whose books will survive among the classics of our literature, and the genius who transformed the way we see ourselves. "A refreshing and thorough work that readers of all levels of familiarity with Freud's work can appreciate." — Publishers Weekly "Excellent." — Booklist "A clear and sometimes eloquent introduction to the life and thought of the world's first shrink." — Kirkus Reviews

Kritische inleiding op Freud (1856-1939) en de psychoanalyse in de vorm van een bespreking van zijn belangrijkste geschriften.

No hay nada de romántico en el sufrimiento de la depresión. Daña las neuronas y el corazón, altera el funcionamiento del cerebro, trastorna la perspectiva y el juicio personales, e interfiere con la vida familiar. Reúne todos los requisitos para ser combatida como «la enfermedad más devastadora conocida por la humanidad», y, sin embargo, cotidianamente la abordamos, como mucho, con cierta condescendencia. La depresión, vinculada en nuestra cultura a una larga tradición de «melancolía heroica», es a menudo entendida como una fuente de creatividad o incluso de atractiva sensualidad. Peter D. Kramer reconstruye esta idílica perspectiva y la refuta con una contundente e innovadora visión de la ciencia que estudia los trastornos anímicos, un campo en el que se han efectuado grandes avances en el pasado decenio. Autor de Escuchando al Prozac, el libro que conmocionó a millones de lectores en el mundo, Peter D. Kramer comparte su experiencia con personas enfermas en una lectura tan entretenida como estimulante. Y ofrece una excelente ayuda para que todo individuo o entorno familiar afectado pueda enfrentarse a la depresión y cambie su perspectiva de lo que es una vida plena.

"Depression, linked in our culture to a long tradition of "heroic melancholy," is often understood as ennobling - a source of creativity, integrity, insight, and even sensuality. Tracing these beliefs from Aristotle to the Romantics to Picasso, and to present-day memoirs of mood disorder, Kramer suggests that the pervasiveness of the illness has distorted our impression of what it is to be human. He shows how a head-on look at depression as we now know it will change our sense of self, our tastes in art and in love, and our account of what it is to live a good life."--BOOK JACKET.

Finding himself the idealized center of a media circus, a terrorist who is also an English professor recounts his exploits in a letter to his estranged son. In this fictional debut, the author of "Listening to Prozac" brilliantly illuminates contemporary sensibilities and their often astonishing effects on the way lives unfold.

Through fascinating case histories and revealing encounters with patients, Dr. Peter Kramer, author of the international bestseller Listening to Prozac, provides a compassionate, immensely eloquent view of how psychiatry really works. Dr. Kramer was recently asked to guest host The Infinite Mind, a weekly public radio show focusing on the art and science of the human mind and spirit, behavior, and mental health. Listen to the show now.

The therapeutic encounter is at the core of counselling and psychotherapy training and practice, regardless of therapeutic modality. This book introduces a cross-modality approach to the client-therapist encounter, drawing from humanistic, psychoanalytic, systemic, and integrative approaches. Chapters introduce a range of client themes - the refusal to join in, the battle for control, the emotionally unavailable etc - and shows how these are enacted in the relationship. The authors invite you, as therapist, to interact creatively with the client, engaging directly in the drama. In this way, they provide a coherent framework within which to understand both the therapeutic relationship and the principles of their approach. This book is highly recommended for any counselling and psychotherapy trainee, regardless of modality. It is a must-read, with each chapter directly addressing essential teaching and trainee concerns. David Bott is the Director of Studies of Counselling and Psychotherapy at the University of Brighton and a UKCP registered Systemic Psychotherapist. Pam Howard is Course Leader of the MA Psychotherapeutic Counselling at the University of Brighton and a UKCP registered Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist