Sensations of hunger, thirst, sexual attraction, and love can dominate our thoughts to the exclusion of almost everything else, but until the last 10 years or so, the precise reasons why these passions arise have not been understood very well. We now know that these, and other drives like the urge to sleep, are controlled by a small portion of the brain called the hypothalamus. This book presents the latest information about how the brain controls our most basic drives. In a series of fascinating anecdotes, Young tells the tale of how scientists have discovered the role of the hypothalamus in our basic drives and in medical conditions in which these drives are drastically altered. Covering our need for food, water, sex, sleep, and other life essentials, he reveals the brain s part in how we provide for each, and how in some cases, those needs can swing wildly out of control resulting in problems such as obesity, diabetes, insomnia, or narcolepsy. He shows how regulating body temperature can affect the lifespan, how the aging process affects sexual behavior, how empathy and love develop in relationships with family members or with love interests, and how all these functions and more can go awry. Like other science writers before him, Young illuminates even the complex inner workings of the brain in a way that anyone can understand, so that readers are treated to a tour of a tiny part of the brain that is responsible for so many fundamental aspects of life."

In this fascinating tour of the way our brains control our most basic drives, John Young takes a small part of the human anatomy and explains its role in the regulation of our basic needs and desires, including sex, sleep, thirst, hunger and more. Drawing on the latest research, he conveys even complex ideas in accessible and enjoyable fashion.

This is a unique set of multidisciplinary reflections on how the neurosciences shape our understanding of religious experience and religious institutions. Twelve scholars and scientists assess how advances in the neurosciences affect our traditional sense of mind, self, and soul.

Many texts attempt to bridge theory and research. They include one or two pages dealing with important theorists--Jung, Adler, Freud, et al.--inserted into chapters focused on academic studies. In most cases, the discussion fails to do justice to the theorists and the relationship between the ideas and the empirical work is often tenuous at best. This book takes a different approach. An alternative to Ewen's An Introduction to Theories of Personality, this book features a chapter on each major type of theory followed by a separate chapter reviewing the relevant research, controversies, and emerging findings. Although it incorporates material from the previous text, there are substantial differences. Personality: A Topical Approach devotes more attention to psychological research, and considerably less attention to the more minor and abstruse aspects of various theories. Chapters are devoted to the following theories: *pychoanalytically-oriented, *tait, *cgnitive, *self-humanistic, and *behaviorism. While the book emphasizes major research foci (the Big Five personality factors, self-efficacy, self-esteem, and more), it also includes a chapter on research methods and coverage of issues often omitted from other texts such as dream interpretation, cognitions and the Holocaust, scientific inquiry, and near-death experiences. The book also provides study questions, a "help" section, and a glossary.

In The Will and its Brain, Hans Helmut Kornhuber and Lüder Deecke present evidence that proves we can record activity from the human brain occurring prior to our volitional actions. They claim that we have free will, albeit not absolutely free, but realized in degrees of freedom.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1965.