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Author: Ciaran Regan Publisher: Columbia University Press ISBN: 023153311X Category : Medical Languages : en Pages : 207
Book Description
Why do smokers claim that the first cigarette of the day is the best? What is the biological basis behind some heavy drinkers' belief that the "hair-of-the-dog" method alleviates the effects of a hangover? Why does marijuana seem to affect ones problem-solving capacity? Intoxicating Minds is, in the author's words, "a grand excavation of drug myth." Neither extolling nor condemning drug use, it is a story of scientific and artistic achievement, war and greed, empires and religions, and lessons for the future. Ciaran Regan looks at each class of drugs, describing the historical evolution of their use, explaining how they work within the brain's neurophysiology, and outlining the basic pharmacology of those substances. From a consideration of the effect of stimulants, such as caffeine and nicotine, and the reasons and consequences of their sudden popularity in the seventeenth century, the book moves to a discussion of more modern stimulants, such as cocaine and ecstasy. In addition, Regan explains how we process memory, the nature of thought disorders, and therapies for treating depression and schizophrenia. Regan then considers psychedelic drugs and their perceived mystical properties and traces the history of placebos to ancient civilizations. Finally, Intoxicating Minds considers the physical consequences of our co-evolution with drugs—how they have altered our very being—and offers a glimpse of the brave new world of drug therapies.
Author: Ciaran Regan Publisher: Columbia University Press ISBN: 023153311X Category : Medical Languages : en Pages : 207
Book Description
Why do smokers claim that the first cigarette of the day is the best? What is the biological basis behind some heavy drinkers' belief that the "hair-of-the-dog" method alleviates the effects of a hangover? Why does marijuana seem to affect ones problem-solving capacity? Intoxicating Minds is, in the author's words, "a grand excavation of drug myth." Neither extolling nor condemning drug use, it is a story of scientific and artistic achievement, war and greed, empires and religions, and lessons for the future. Ciaran Regan looks at each class of drugs, describing the historical evolution of their use, explaining how they work within the brain's neurophysiology, and outlining the basic pharmacology of those substances. From a consideration of the effect of stimulants, such as caffeine and nicotine, and the reasons and consequences of their sudden popularity in the seventeenth century, the book moves to a discussion of more modern stimulants, such as cocaine and ecstasy. In addition, Regan explains how we process memory, the nature of thought disorders, and therapies for treating depression and schizophrenia. Regan then considers psychedelic drugs and their perceived mystical properties and traces the history of placebos to ancient civilizations. Finally, Intoxicating Minds considers the physical consequences of our co-evolution with drugs—how they have altered our very being—and offers a glimpse of the brave new world of drug therapies.
Author: Ronald K. Siegel Publisher: Inner Traditions / Bear & Co ISBN: 9781594770692 Category : Nature Languages : en Pages : 390
Book Description
Psychopharmacologist Ronald K. Siegel draws on 20 years of groundbreaking research to provide countless examples of the intoxication urge in humans and animals. Presenting his conclusions on the biological and cultural reasons for the pursuit of intoxication, Siegel offers recommendations for curbing the negative effects of drug use in Western culture by designing safe intoxicants.
Author: Lesley Blanch Publisher: New York Review of Books ISBN: 1681371936 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 401
Book Description
A stunning tale set in England, Paris, and Moscow, chronicling Blanch's love for an older Russian man and the passionate obsession that takes her to Siberia and beyond. “My book is not altogether autobiography, nor altogether travel or history either. You will just have to invent a new category,” Lesley Blanch wrote about Journey into the Mind’s Eye, a book that remains as singularly adventurous and intoxicating now as when it first came out in 1968. Russia seized Lesley Blanch when she was still a child. A mysterious traveler—swathed in Siberian furs, bearing Fabergé eggs and icons as gifts along with Russian fairy tales and fairy tales of Russia—came to visit her parents and left her starry-eyed. Years later the same man returned to sweep her off her feet. Her love affair with the Traveller, as she calls him, transformed her life and fueled an abiding fascination with Russia and Russian culture, one that would lead her to dingy apartments reeking of cabbage soup and piroshki on the outskirts of Paris in the 1960s, and to Siberia and beyond.
Author: Benjamin Breen Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press ISBN: 0812296621 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 288
Book Description
Eating the flesh of an Egyptian mummy prevents the plague. Distilled poppies reduce melancholy. A Turkish drink called coffee increases alertness. Tobacco cures cancer. Such beliefs circulated in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, an era when the term "drug" encompassed everything from herbs and spices—like nutmeg, cinnamon, and chamomile—to such deadly poisons as lead, mercury, and arsenic. In The Age of Intoxication, Benjamin Breen offers a window into a time when drugs were not yet separated into categories—illicit and licit, recreational and medicinal, modern and traditional—and there was no barrier between the drug dealer and the pharmacist. Focusing on the Portuguese colonies in Brazil and Angola and on the imperial capital of Lisbon, Breen examines the process by which novel drugs were located, commodified, and consumed. He then turns his attention to the British Empire, arguing that it owed much of its success in this period to its usurpation of the Portuguese drug networks. From the sickly sweet tobacco that helped finance the Atlantic slave trade to the cannabis that an East Indies merchant sold to the natural philosopher Robert Hooke in one of the earliest European coffeehouses, Breen shows how drugs have been entangled with science and empire from the very beginning. Featuring numerous illuminating anecdotes and a cast of characters that includes merchants, slaves, shamans, prophets, inquisitors, and alchemists, The Age of Intoxication rethinks a history of drugs and the early drug trade that has too often been framed as opposites—between medicinal and recreational, legal and illegal, good and evil. Breen argues that, in order to guide drug policy toward a fairer and more informed course, we first need to understand who and what set the global drug trade in motion.
Author: Patrick Wall Publisher: Columbia University Press ISBN: 0231529406 Category : Medical Languages : en Pages : 248
Book Description
Pain is one of medicine's greatest mysteries. When farmer John Mitson caught his hand in a baler, he cut off his trapped hand and carried it to a neighbor. "Sheer survival and logic" was how he described it. "And strangely, I didn't feel any pain." How can this be? We're taught that pain is a warning message to be heeded at all costs, yet it can switch off in the most agonizing circumstances or switch on for no apparent reason. Many scientists, philosophers, and laypeople imagine pain to operate like a rigid, simple signaling system, as if a particular injury generates a fixed amount of pain that simply gets transmitted to the brain; yet this mechanistic model is woefully lacking in the face of the surprising facts about what people and animals do and experience when their bodies are damaged. Patrick Wall looks at these questions and sets his scientific account in a broad context, interweaving it with a wealth of fascinating and sometimes disturbing historical detail, such as famous characters who derived pleasure from pain, the unexpected reactions of injured people, the role of endorphins, and the power of placebo. He covers cures of pain, ranging from drugs and surgery, through relaxation techniques and exercise, to acupuncture, electrical nerve stimulation, and herbalism. Pain involves our state of mind, our social mores and beliefs, and our personal experiences and expectations. Stepping beyond the famous neurologic gate-control theory for which he is known, Wall shows that pain is a matter of behavior and its manifestation differs among individuals, situations, and cultures. "The way we deal with pain is an expression of individuality."
Author: One R. Pagan Publisher: BenBella Books ISBN: 1950665607 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 245
Book Description
From the cup of coffee that jumpstarts the day to dangerously addictive drugs, the recreational use of plants with psychoactive properties has a long history among humans. But, as with many things, it turns out that other animals got there first. From parrots to primates, consuming medicinal chemicals is an instinctive behavior that helps countless organisms fight infection and treat disease. But the similarities don't end there: Like us, many creatures also consume substances that have no apparent benefit . . . except for inducing intoxication. In fact, animals have been using drugs for recreational purposes since prehistoric times. We may even have animals to thank for the idea—legend says that coffee was discovered by observing the behavior of goats that had eaten it. In his previous book, Strange Survivors, author and biologist Oné R. Pagán introduced readers to some of the truly bizarre strategies animals use to survive in the cutthroat world of natural selection. Now, in Drunk Flies and Stoned Dolphins, he sheds light on the surprising cravings they indulge when it's time to unwind. In this book, you'll get an eye-opening glimpse into the mind-altering behavior of the non-human members of the animal kingdom, spanning insects to elephants—including the dolphin species that apparently likes to pass around an intoxicating pufferfish as if they were sharing a joint. Combining fascinating science with humor and enthusiasm, Pagán's latest is full of the kind of unforgettable stories and odd facts that you'll find yourself repeating to everyone you meet. From fruit fly happy hour to the evolutionary reasons behind nature's drugs, Drunk Flies and Stoned Dolphins takes you on a trip through the colorful world of animal intoxication—and along the way, explores what this science reveals about the surprising connections between all the world's creatures.
Author: James L. McGaugh Publisher: Columbia University Press ISBN: 9780231120227 Category : Medical Languages : en Pages : 188
Book Description
Memories come in many different forms and vary substantially in strength; some, such as where you put your car keys, can be brief, while others remain in the mind forever. James McGaugh, a leading neurobiologist, provides an accessible and thought-provoking look at how we remember and why we forget. Beginning with the first scientific studies of learning and ending with the latest cutting-edge research, he explores how memories are made and preserved; why some experiences fade and disappear with time; how stress hormones effect the consolidation of memory; whether drugs would improve our ability to learn; and what studies of extraordinary memories and disorders tell us about the workings of the brain systems involved in memory formation.
Author: Julian P. Leff Publisher: Columbia University Press ISBN: 9780231120265 Category : Medical Languages : en Pages : 188
Book Description
Do defective genes give rise to defective thought? The revolution in molecular genetics has given rise to the increasing optimism that advancements in biotechnology will soon uncover the causes of all disturbances of mind and behavior. In this book Leff, a leading psychiatrist, emphasizes what is known about the psychological, social, and cultural factors underlying mental illness.
Author: Ciaran Regan
Author: Ciaran Regan
Author: Ronald K. Siegel
Author: Lesley Blanch
Author: Ronald K. Siegel
Author: Benjamin Breen
Author: Patrick Wall
Author: One R. Pagan
Author: James L. McGaugh
Author: Julian P. Leff
Author: William Howitt