Lifestyle Books

You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.”
Christopher Columbus

Why Do I Do That?: Psychological Defense Mechanisms and the Hidden Ways They Shape Our Lives by Joseph Burgo, PhD adapts the basic strategies of psychodynamic psychotherapy to a guided course in self-exploration, highlighting the universal role of defence mechanisms in warding off emotional pain.

With easy-to-understand explanations, the first part teaches you about the unconscious mind and the role of psychological defences in excluding difficult feelings from awareness. Individual chapters in the longer middle section explore the primary defence mechanisms one by one, with exercises to help you identify your own defences at work. The final part offers guidance for how to “disarm” your defences and cope more effectively with the unconscious feelings behind them.

Psychological defence mechanisms are an inevitable and necessary part of the human experience; but when they become too pervasive or deeply entrenched, they may damage our personal relationships, restrict or distort our emotional lives and prevent us from behaving in ways that promote lasting self-esteem.

In this book, Ian Stewart and Vann Joines introduce you to the power of Transactional Analysis. They present the ideas of current TA in straightforward, readable language, with a wealth of illustrative examples.

T A Today: A New Introduction to Transactional Analysis is equally suitable for self-directed learning or as background reading for college courses. It gives full coverage of the syllabus for the ITAA official “101” basic examination.

Throughout the book, exercises for individual and group use are integrated in the text. The authors say: “When you have completed these exercises, you will certainly know more about yourself than you did when you started. And you will learn TA in the most effective way possible – by using it for yourself.”

We all play games. In every encounter with other people we are doing so. The nature of these games depends both on the situation and on who we meet.

Eric Berne’s classic Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships
 is the most accessible and insightful book ever written about the games we play: those patterns of behaviour that reveal hidden feelings and emotions. Wise and witty, it shows the underlying motivations behind our relationships and explores the roles that we try to play – and are forced to play.

The Chimp Paradox: The Mind Management Programme to Help You Achieve Success, Confidence and Happiness is an incredibly powerful mind management model that can help you become a happy, confident, healthier and more successful person. Prof Steve Peters explains the struggle that takes place within your mind and then shows how to apply this understanding to every area of your life so you can:

  • Recognise how your mind is working
  • Understand and manage your emotions and thoughts
  • Manage yourself and become the person you would like to be

The Chimp Mind Management Model is based on scientific facts and principles, which have been simplified into a workable model for easy use. It will help you to develop yourself and give you the skills, for example, to remove anxiety, have confidence and choose your emotions. The book will do this by giving you an understanding of the way in which your mind works and how you can manage it. It will also help you to identify what is holding you back or preventing you from having a happier and more successful life.

Brilliantly entertaining, enlightening and inspiring, Robin Skynner and John Cleese take on the big issue: life, and the challenge of living, in all its myriad forms. This book is an essential guide to surviving life’s ups and downs – at home or in the workplace, as a member of a family or society.

Presented in the same lively style as the best-selling Families and How to Survive Them, Life And How To Survive It extends Skynner’s and Cleese’s study beyond the family to relationships and group interaction in life outside it.

According to the author Paul McGee, we don′t have to raise our self–confidence to the roof; just increasing our confidence by a small amount can dramatically change our lives. He explains exactly what confidence is, why it′s so important and just how to develop it in ourselves and others.

Self-confidence: The Remarkable Truth of Why a Small Change Can Make a Big Difference covers confidence in business; being more confident in your love life; confidence in social situations; confidence in job interviews and presentations, with a brand new chapter on handling conflict confidently.

Do fear and doubt hinder your progress in life? Are you paralyzed at key moments by your insecurities?

Millions of smart people are held back from achieving their potential by a fear of failure. Many of them don’t even realize that this recognized condition is limiting their progress. What’s Stopping You?: Why Smart People Don’t Always Reach Their Potential and How You Can offers no quick-fix solution. Why? Because the key to unlocking you potential for success lies in understanding the root causes of the fears and insecurities that hold you back and in accepting who you are, rather than trying to become someone you are not.

Based on extensive research, recognized science and stark reality, Robert Kelsey’s book will help you navigate the barriers that hold you back: at work, with people and in life.

If you want to have more control over your life, work more efficiently, and love others happily, Born to Win: Transactional Analysis with Gestalt Experiments will help bring out the insight and confidence of a born winner.

This bestselling classic by Muriel James and Dorothy Jongeward uses the well-known psychological method called transactional analysis (TA) to uncover the roles we unconsciously act out day after day. Its fifty gestalt exercises have helped a generation realize how they communicate with others and think about themselves.