Appalachian Odyssey: Historical Perspectives on the Great Migration

Book Description

One of the greatest internal migrations in American history has been the movement of the people of Appalachia to a variety of rural and urban destinations all over the country --- wherever economic opportunity beckoned, from the industrial Midwest to the timber empires of the Pacific Northwest. This movement (about five million in the 1950s alone) has taken place in several waves throughout the twentieth century, and continues to this day. Appalachian Odyssey provides an interdisciplinary exploration of the impact of this phenomenon on both the Appalachian region and the country as a whole. Scholars from a variety of social science disciplines bring their perspectives to this volume in an examination of the historical, political, social, economic, and cultural impact of a talented group often derided as "hillbillies". Appalachian Odyssey provides a much-needed corrective to this bias, and a deeper understanding of a people who have significantly influenced the American story.

Customer Reviews:

A Tour of the Imagination........2006-10-31

Morals & Ethics in Journalism., October 30, 2006
Reviewer: Betty Burks (Knoxville, TN) - See all my reviews

He claims to be a historian, but Jack Neely is a phony using all of his historical 'facts' based on the fiction book, Sutree. If he made this trip with his brother and "reported" their sights, take it as a grain of salt as he makes up imaginary things to sound erudite. Reporters need to strive for the professionalism of major newspapers in large cities to create "mainstream" or "conventional" points of view. This is what media power is really about. At a subsequent meeting to be told about the design for a proposed "passenger friendly" center to wait in out of the elements, only one member of the committee attended; but a city official told the television reporter that the bus station would be 'airport quality.' I have not been in McGhee Tyson but, if it's as primitive as this 'biased' design for the transit center, it's proof of the backwardness of this town -- and the gullibility of the press.

Neely's writings are all fiction and opinion, none of it fact in any of the anthologies of Knoxville writers. They are all creative and not historical in any way. He does not read old newspapers, doesn't know how. He is only a studge for Metro Pulse. He pretends to be a historical writer about this town, but there is nothing good or worthwhile in anything he writes now or has written in the past. It is all from his imagination and a book of fiction he calls his Bible.

Appalachian Odyssey: Historical Perspectives on the Great Migration

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Appalachian Odyssey: Historical Perspectives on the Great Migration
Phillip J.; Wagner, Thomas E.; Tucker, E. Bruce Obermiller
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ORMF6Q

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The Neurotic Organization
Manfred F. R. Kets De Vries , and Danny Miller
Manufacturer: Harpercollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Leaders, Fools and Impostors: Essays on the Psychology of Leadership

Life and Death in the Executive Fast Lane: Essays on Irrational Organizations and Their Leaders

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ASIN: 0887304885

Book Description

Is your organization obsessive-compulsive or passive-aggressive? Corporate neurosis expert Manfred Kets de Vries analyzes dysfunctional organizational behavior in terms of accepted psychoanalytic types and arrives at some genuine insights into why some companies are healthier than others.

New View of Self: How Genes and Neurotransmitters Shape Your Mind, Your Personality, and Your Mental Health

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NEW LABELS ON OLD WINE
authoritative and compassionate overview of mental illness

New View of Self: How Genes and Neurotransmitters Shape Your Mind, Your Personality, and Your Mental Health
Larry J. Siever , and William Frucht
Manufacturer: Stackpole Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0028615441

Customer Reviews:

NEW LABELS ON OLD WINE.......2005-09-27

The Authors, Siever & Frucht, found some new jargon to mediate the old battle between genetic and environmental factors in mental illness. All they managed to say is that genes don't exist in a vacuum. But they did manage a couple of good metaphors to show How Genes and Neurotransmitters Shape Your Mind. Their book reads like a textbook and is not for the lay reader.

One metaphor they used was the thermostat. Brain states are determined by whether neurons fire or don't fire. In other words, whether signals pass through the walls of the neuron's membrane. Neurons in various sections of the brain function as a thermostat to set their sensitivity to neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine and acetylcholine. The receptors for these neurotransmitters are embedded in the neuron's membranes. Thus, states of mind depend upon the ion flow of chloride, calcium and sodium through these receptors embedded in the membranes. The unseen hand setting the thermostat could be either brain made proteins or ingested drugs, all of which can either excite or inhibit neuron firing. To demonstrate how opaque this field is, the Authors included quantum physics in their discussion. Probabilities, depending on the 3-D heat fluctuations of proteins, can determine whether a protein fits a receptor and whether firing occurs.

The Authors made Herculean attempts to connect the flow of neurotransmitters to one's personality. But factors like one's impulsivity are far more abstract and not quite like high cholesterol as the Authors suggest. In other words the Authors were stretching their metaphors in a rather desperate attempt to put a new face on mental illness. Evidently we are still miles away from any concrete understanding of mental illness.

authoritative and compassionate overview of mental illness.......1997-08-09

This is a book for anyone who has ever been depressed and wondered about taking medication, for anyone who has ever worried about his own mental health or had concerns about friends and family. Dr. Siever gives us a comprehensive introduction to all the major psychiatric diseases and disorders, illustrated with numerous case studies--of the narcissistic or histrionic personality, of dpression, of obsessive compulsive disorder. His stories are illuminating and compassionate. The field of psychiatry is undergoing a "biological revolution." To discover the causes of mental illness, we can now look beyond inadequate parenting, sibling rivalry and the oedipus complex to the less well-trodden realm of neurotransmitters and receptors, of genetics and biology. In technical areas Siever offers helpful analogies and, for the uninitiated, is an authoritative and patient guide

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A Time for Action, Science.
Open your eyes on premises
Towards Scientific Freedom

Is Science Neurotic?
Nicholas Maxwell
Manufacturer: Imperial College Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1860945007

Book Description

Is Science Neurotic? sets out to show that science suffers from a damaging but rarely noticed methodological disease — "rationalistic neurosis." Assumptions concerning metaphysics, human value and politics, implicit in the aims of science, are repressed, and the malaise has spread to affect the whole academic enterprise, with the potential for extraordinarily damaging long-term consequences. The book begins with a discussion of the aims and methods of natural science, and moves on to discuss social science, philosophy, education, psychoanalytic theory and academic inquiry as a whole. It makes an original and compelling contribution to the current debate between those for and those against science, arguing that science would be of greater human value if it were more rigorous — we suffer not from too much scientific rationality, but too little. The author discusses the need for a revolution in the aims of science and academic inquiry in general and, in a lively and accessible style, spells out a thesis with profound importance for the long-term future of humanity.

Customer Reviews:

A Time for Action, Science........2007-07-12

Living in denial is bad for our health. A time for action, science.A review by Ian Glendinning of "Is Science Neurotic ?" by Nick Maxwell.

So, is science neurotic ? This is no cliff-hanging mystery story, we are reading; it's a disaster movie.

Like much human endeavour, we may already suspect a large part of science probably is neurotic, a point that doesn't escape Nick's argument; that almost all social enquiry and policy suffers the same rationalistic neurosis that he pins on science itself. As well as persuasive rhetoric Nick provides technical arguments and clear recommendations. Surely science of all things should be sufficiently open to investigation of the charge and to seeking treatment.

Nick has spent over 30 years of his professional life, since "What's Wrong with Science" in 1976, communicating his warning that science is missing its main aim, the pursuit of understanding, explanation and knowledge of the world; A fundamental flaw that also lets the rest of world down in a big way. Not simply in the everyday practical technologies that rely on scientific progress, but as the rational basis of most aspects of enquiry and justification for decisions of maximum import; global health, energy, environment, sustainable economic activity - you name it - misguided "science" could seriously damage our health.

Previously Nick's message - from knowledge to wisdom - has been to point out that the core scientific pursuit of knowledge overlooks the value of wisdom, the wisdom to realize what is of value. Of course that's something which on first encounter might seem too subjective and intangible for scientific considerations of basic empiricism - which is Nick's point - there is something wrong with a science that has no place for wisdom and values.

In "Is Science Neurotic" Nick nails the problem as a neurosis. Science is in denial.

Nick's work has moved from academic discourse and debate concerning the evolution from knowledge to wisdom, to one of active campaigning. The publication of "Is Science Neurotic" coincided with Nick's creation of the "Friends of Wisdom" as a vehicle to promote action, particularly, but not exclusively within academe.

Simply put, the neurosis is that the officially stated aim of science to pursue knowledge using "standard empiricism" - entirely objectively, with no assumptions immune from empirical considerations of observability and testability - is patently (and indeed fortunately) not the reality of scientific progress. Maintaining that official theory in the face of reality is however a hypocrisy, a neurosis. Nick's message is as much a plea for intellectual honesty as anything else, but it is something much more than that. It's fortunate that in practice much good science does not actually operate according to the theory it espouses. Clinging to the neurotic belief, is not just a drag, a source of inefficiency and missed opportunity, undervaluing what science can bring to the world, but it can and does drive scientific activity in counterproductive and damaging directions.

In "Is Science Neurotic", Nick defines the problem and proceeds to elaborate its consequences for science and for wider social enquiry before providing his remedial recommendations.

Perhaps one of the key imperatives of Nick's thesis is in the message he takes from Thomas Kuhn. His "paradigm shift" terminology has made its way into consciousness in many domains beyond that of the scientific revolutions he was originally describing. Defending and clinging onto a false theory, whilst much underlying activity taking place conflicts with it, such that evidence of the conflict needs to be suppressed in order to maintain the rationalizing argument, is a recipe for revolution and chaos - a catastrophic cusp at the tipping point between the suppressed and suppressing forces.

At a time when so many issues rationalized by science seem to be affecting the world on a truly global scale, could we survive a "revolution" of that magnitude ? Better a process of adjustment and evolution of the offending parts.

Nick's recommendations to save us from this disaster are essentially three-fold.

(1) The extension of basic empiricism to Aim-Oriented Empiricism (AOE) in science and Aim-Oriented Rationality (AOR) generally in wider areas of social enquiry; seven self-regulating, evolving levels of enquiry, including consideration of the methodologies and bases of assumptions of coherence and knowability - ie fundamental philosophical issues including metaphysics and epistemology, and

(2) The inclusion of VALUE in all levels of the AOE / AOR above the basic empiricism, so that the aims, directions, and purposes of AOE / AOR are constantly under review and

(3) The adoption of cooperative problem solving, over and above refutation and competitive criticism, whether considering questions of science specifically or wider social enquiry.

You can imagine the vehement knee-jerk reaction to those suggestions from a scientific community - a vehemence which Nick suggests belies the neurosis itself.

For science, yes empirical testing of conjectured science fact, but also evaluation of metaphysical and epistemological assumptions, methodological assumptions, and meta-methodologies for improving methodologies, not to mention extension into methodologies practices for scientific research policy and value.

Some of the simplest and easiest to implement recommendations arising from this scheme are to include philosophy subjects more generally and earlier in education, in parallel with basic science curricula, rather than suggesting any radical change to science teaching itself. After all as Nick reminds us, neurotic as it may be, science has been an immensely successful enterprise; good sense does tend to prevail despite the neurosis, so no reason to force a fix on what ain't necessarily broke. Encouraging change within education and academia is a primary main focus of the Friends of Wisdom campaign.

There is of course an important place for empiricism. The proof of the pudding may always be in the eating, the distinguishing aspect of science fact may always be the empirical test, a test that must include the possibility of failure (after Popper), but the imagined downside of a "social experiment" may be better not put to the real test. But even in science, progress towards improved knowledge, understanding and explanation depends on a lot more than this basic empiricism. The extension of refutation by experiment beyond science, is the refutation by criticism in an "open" society (also after Popper). But just as progress in society requires more than criticism, so does science require more than empirical testing alone.

The problem is that those things more than empirical test and criticism, are much harder to define and codify in quantifiable and objective ways than the simple binary concepts of survival or failure under test or criticism. They are as Nick says "problematic". It is however, not only intellectually dishonest, but pragmatically disastrous to ignore relevant considerations simply because they are problematic.

Nick has undoubtedly identified a real problem, one that is at root psychological, a denial, a neurosis, and one that with understanding and commitment can be treated. One reason there can be little doubt, is that the same neurosis has been in identified other fields of enquiry.

Closer to this reviewer's own agenda, organizational behaviour is part of management study of how groups of individuals interact in both cooperative and competitive ways to achieve their aims as groups and as individuals - typically in business organizations but in any organized institutions for that matter. It's effectively anthropology, or at least a subset of it according to the constituency of the organized group in question.

Chris Argyris initially and later together with Donald Schon created a management subject knows as "Action Science" (the irony) - the core of which is that people generally hold "espoused theories" (explicit, official, even politically-correct theories), yet clearly act according to quite different "theories in use". The point being that the way such people act is better understood in terms of what is pragmatically achieved and how. Nevertheless such people would still tend to rationalize (even post-rationalize) their actions, and attribute success or failure to achieve their aims, according to the official "espoused" theory.

Nils Brunsson developed parallel ideas under the name "Management Hypocrisy" after previously analyzing for many years what appeared as simply paradox expressed in management thought and action.

In the same way as Nick's prescription for science is to recognize the multi-leveled process by which progress is really achieved, and the processes themselves evolve, so has Argyris emphasized "deutero-learning", the meta-processes by which the processes of progress within organisations are themselves progressed.

Part of Nick's prescription is to emphasise the cooperative nature of progress in problem solving, as of course did Popper; it's not all simply a matter of trial by negating test and criticism, So, also in the field of management, Mary Parker-Follett, the giant on whose shoulders so many management gurus of the late 20th century, including Peter Drucker, stood emphasized the necessity of collaborative as well as competitive strategies in making progress - "Just so far as people think that the basis of working together is compromise or concession, just so far do they not understand the first principles."

Nick points out that the neurosis of denial has evolved some "intricate defense" mechanisms, Again at the risk of labouring the point, so in management circles are there recognized the skilled incompetencies, the fancy footwork of budgetary games, games of all kinds in fact. Read my lips; do as I do, not as I say. Rules are for the guidance or wise men and the enslavement of fools. It's all in the game. The reality is the science relies on wise men breaking the rules.

Possibly the weakest aspects of Nick's case are not to explicitly address game theory at all, and not to recognize the American pragmatist contribution to processes and action in the face of inconclusive problematic arguments. But then the book is brief and succinct summary of much of his previous work - less than a hundred pages if one subtracts the footnotes and the technical appendices.

That said it is probably not an overstatement to agree that Nick has identified "the problem" underlying all others of global significance, and probably little doubt that it is effectively a psychological problem, a neurosis. Like any such mental illness, effective treatment almost certainly depends on the patient facing up to the problem - acting on true intellectual honesty is perhaps our only hope.

From primary education right through academe and scientific research and all forms of social enquiry and levels of political decision-making; it's about realising what is of value to life, humanity and the cosmos in general, where as Popper had said before - all life is effectively a matter of problem solving. The ultimate outcome for Nick is a unified world government based on these liberal values. Nick wearing that heart on his sleeve throughout, can expect a knee-jerk (or ignorant denial) from political idealogues of the opposite persuasion.

But the basic message about what is wrong with "scientific" enquiry, if learned should ensure that the outcome which evolves naturally, is whatever is valued as "best". Any presumptions about the goals, other than that they are contingent and evolvable, are positively avoided. Above all this latest work from Nick is a campaigning call to action and, who knows, perhaps the recognition in other topical areas of the need for global cooperation to address global issues means that Nick's plea will fall on fertile ground.

So, have you stopped beating your wife yet, are you ready to stop being dishonest ? Join Nick Maxwell at Friends of Wisdom.

Open your eyes on premises.......2006-01-17

At least, one book that will open your eyes on what you've never heard at University. The academic world is stuck in its narrow-mindedness of ego-centered publication and career objectives, and pseudo-scientific goals that are pointless to the real world. It's good to read that what is given as what science is today has nothing objective in itself. Facts do not exist outside the mind of those willing to believe things can be grasped as they are. Understanding the subjectivity of facts is the best thing one can realize. Whatever your job may be, this book will open your eyes on what your education forgot to tell you: that everything you know is not for sure, but depends on premises that are too often forgotten.

Towards Scientific Freedom.......2005-11-05

Of course science is neurotic. Science is made up of people, and people in a strange business attempting to push the threshold of knowledge. You have to make certain assumptions that establish the base line. For instance you must believe that what you are seeking is knowable. You must be able to convince others (who have the money) that what you are seeking is more than knowable, but possible to discover.

You must also be politically correct. There are proscribed limits as to what people will fund, publish, even allow to be researched. There has long been money available for cancer. When AIDS got so heavily politicized, money went pouring into AIDS research. The cancer researchers re-wrote their grant proposals to show how what they had wanted to research for cancer should be researched for AIDS. Same research, different source of funds.

Or these days, look at the limits being placed on stem cell research in the United States. And there are the psuedo sciences that include creation science and out of body/world experiences, and who could forget UFO's. Then again, if science is neurotic, perhaps these are psychotic instead.

More seriously, this book is a look at what science could/should be. He brings a light to the subject seldom seen.

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

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Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Raymond B Cattell
Manufacturer: The Academy
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Anxiety Disorders | Mental Health | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0007GX8QK

Impasse and Interpretation: Therapeutic and Anti-Therapeutic Factors in the Psycho-Analytic Treatment of Psychotic, Borderline, and Neurotic Patients (Social Science Paperbacks)

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Impasse and Interpretation: Therapeutic and Anti-Therapeutic Factors in the Psycho-Analytic Treatment of Psychotic, Borderline, and Neurotic Patients (Social Science Paperbacks)
Herbert A. Rosenfeld
Manufacturer: Tavistock Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Neurotic Disorders in the Elderly
JAMES,ED. LINDESAY
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

Current psychiatric research is domintaed by taxonomies that emphasise the discontinuities and differences betweeen diseases rather than continuities and similarities. In thisd environment it may see rather 'heretical' to use words like 'Neurposis' in a professional psychiatric context. However, the authors of this booo posit the view that much more can be learned from taking a broad, dimentional view of neurotic disorders in elderly people rather than by adopting the narrow, categorical approach of, for example, the DSM classifications. To this end the book is organized by areas of interest: epidemiology; clinical assessment an diagnosis; the clinical relationship with physical ill-health; psychosocial factors, psychological treatment, both behavioural and dynamic; and physical treatments. In addition, there are chapters on personality, alcohol and drug abuse, eating disorders, sex, and sleep in the elderly. Disturbances and disorders in these areas frequently aggravate and complicate neurotic disorders in old age, and it is important that they are considered in this context. This book will help any psychiatrist improve their skills in this area and improve the quality of care they provide their elderly patients.

Psychoanalytic Roots of Patriarchy: The Neurotic Foundations of Social Order

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Psychoanalytic Roots of Patriarchy: The Neurotic Foundations of Social Order
J. C. Smith
Manufacturer: New York University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Maxwell, Nicholas. Is Science Neurotic?(Book review) : An article from: The Review of Metaphysics

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Maxwell, Nicholas. Is Science Neurotic?(Book review) : An article from: The Review of Metaphysics
Leemon B. McHenry
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Review of Metaphysics, published by Thomson Gale on March 1, 2006. The length of the article is 1196 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Maxwell, Nicholas. Is Science Neurotic?(Book review)
Author: Leemon B. McHenry
Publication: The Review of Metaphysics (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 59 Issue: 3 Page: 657(3)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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Is Science Neurotic
Nicholas Maxwell
Manufacturer: WORLD SCIENTIFIC+PUBLISHING
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000N66JI8

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Searching for the health part in organizations

The Neurotic Behavior of Organizations
Uri Merry , and George Isaac Brown
Manufacturer: Analytic Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0881632503

Customer Reviews:

Searching for the health part in organizations.......2002-01-19

As a Gestalt-consultant I like the gestalt-approach to organizations.
The book is clear in its examples and descriptions.
I like the very complete descriptions of the contactmechanismes.

But by focussing on the neurotic behaviour only as problematic behaviour, I missed the fact that in each neurotic behaviour there is also the quality of the organization.
The contactmechanismes were seen mainly as disturbances and too less as mechanismes.
By this way the book is quite justmental and not as phenomenological as I expected from a gestalt point of view.

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