1969, a Jewish honor student in the Bronx is a school newspaper editor, the son of Holocaust survivors and the newest member of a Puerto Rican extortion gang. A strong inciting sequence puts a sixteen-year-old boy in a dilemma of possible violence. After angering the gang's leader Dave, at a neighborhood pizzeria, he reduces the bruise-planting consequences by sharp thinking and more importantly, by appearing to assimilate. It's a short leap from a call-out challenge to an affinity for Carlos Santana records, but the inward identity isn't altered. After the immediate crisis is managed, the cleanly demarcated goal is to quit the gang without repercussions. This is best done by brainwashing its tough but insecure leader. As a memoirist, Wolgroch is interested in phenomena of deception and manipulation. Situational ethics on the individual level get a look. "The distinction between caring for someone and exploiting them is precariously fragile." Having found in himself an ability to influence the actions and ideas of others, Wolgroch sets wheels to turning which will eventually lead to his vocation as a psychologist. The introduction demonstrates social discomfort comes with being introduced as a "shrink" at gatherings. There are unwanted mind-reading tests, cheesy jibes, a whole truckload of assumptions. There is not a fitting opportunity to mention the good old days of terrorizing shop owners out of "protection" money. This memoir of about novella length uses well-considered pacing decisions to help hold dramatic interest. The setting, an urban neighborhood in ethnic transition, and the reversed dynamic of an isolated white person operating within a minority group are partly leveraged, though readers may wish to have learned more about them from the memoirist's inside vantage. Shrink is fleshed out with brief passages which the reader may initially identify as digressions to irrelevant though interesting historical topics, but then find they tie back to the narrative, illustrating a principle in an original way. For example, the Vietnam War's birthdate-based draft shows the effects of arbitrary reallocation of life-chances on the psyches of military-age males. Teen readers are a natural target for this story of formation, but the writing offers grist for adult minds also. The world is brimming with armchair psychoanalysts. "Indeed we are all amateur scientists when faced with the challenge of understanding the curious behavior of others..."

A Companion for the Uncouched Based on a highly regarded article in Psychology Today that has been reprinted worldwide, Think Like a Shrink is a personality primer that refines years of psychiatric training into 100 principles. Here you will quickly learn to understand what motivates your boss, your spouse, your parents -- and yourself. Incorporating the most basic fundamentals that drive the human personality, these principles are short, clear, and simple, but not simplistic. They include enlightening observations and real eye-openers, such as: Some people never forgive a favor. In any marriage, there can only be one number one. Too much love may mean hate; too much hate may mean love. Successful neuroses help people fail. Electra and Oedipus keep psychiatrists in business.

Do your employees plan exit strategies around the water cooler? Are your office hallways filled with nasty gossip? Is your productivity shrinking and your profits dissolving? As a manager, every day you're faced with disgruntled employees. Now Peter Morris, host of the popular radio show "The Business Shrink," draws on his long experience to help you fix these problems. Gleaning tips from experts such as CNN commentator Lou Dobbs and job search guru Martin Yate, Morris shows you how to: Give workers strong, positive feedback Break the endless chain of blaming and backstabbing Abolish poor employee performance and boost productivity Nip cases of harassment and bullying in the bud Using sample scenarios, workplace quizzes, and actual examples from Morris's show, you'll learn how to create a harmonious workplace and how to turn disgruntled workers into productive, committed employees.

A worry-busting guide to help 7+-year-olds Encourage your child to listen to their feelings, practise positive thinking and overcome their fears with this sensitive and supportive book. Bursting with activities, handy tips and simple exercises, Shrink Your Worries is the self-care companion every stress-prone child needs.

The Upside-Down Magic kids are back in another topsy-turvy adventure in the next installment of this New York Times bestselling series, now a Disney Channel Original Movie! Marigold Ramos can magically make things small - sometimes very, very small. The only problem? She can't figure out how to make them big again. Maybe a new tutor can help Marigold manage her magic. And maybe her magic will come in handy as she and her friends in the Upside-Down Magic class band together to protest a new rule by their principal, a super unfair rule that bans them from bringing their amazing new toy dragons to school.But when Marigold starts shrinking her friends and the class bunny, it's a humongous problem! It's time to figure out how Marigold and her friends can make a big statement... without disappearing entirely!

Jordan Winston and her friend Sandra are small business owners from Ohio who are in Mexico for a much-needed vacation when a shrink-wrapped bale of what appears to be marijuana washes up at their feet on a private beach. The two women, thinking no one is watching, take itand set off a wave of events and consequences that they could never have imagined. Now Mexican drug runners are after themeven if they are accident-prone, bumbling, underachieving wannabes. Jordan and Sandra hire a sailboat and a captain to take themand their packagefrom Mexico to Key West, the drug runners attempt to kill them and sink the boat. After they are saved by their handsome captain, Tom who also happens to be a rogue DEA agenthe takes them to hide out in his secluded cabin. But when a drug cartel informant becomes a crocodiles lunch and Jordans cat is murdered back home, their sleuthing group suddenly grows as an Indian medicine man and a couple of senior citizens join up to help them battle the drug runners. Amid gun battles, jail breaks, and chicken attacks, love blooms. In this zany adventure, only time will tell if this strange group can triumph. One thing is certain, though: they wont go down without a fight.

From the author of the extraordinary memoir, Dancing with Demons DRUG LORDS. DEVIANTS. BLACK WIDOWS. HIT MEN. RIOT GIRLS. MASS MURDERERS. PSYCHOS. No one gets closer to Australia's craziest characters than 'Doc' Tim Watson-Munro, a criminal psychologist with 40 years' experience assessing the mad, bad and dangerous. In a riveting series of weird, funny and terrifying tales sure to thrill and chill true-crime readers, Tim reveals the warped minds behind crimes that shocked and intrigued Australia. Go with Tim to an underworld funeral of a master jewel thief who terrorised London. Meet 'Chooka' who was caught kissing the chicken of a shotgun-toting Mafia boss. Read a poem slipped to Tim by the Hoddle Street gunman after the massacre. Get up close with evil geniuses, terrorists, nuns on the run and natural born killers. Along the way Tim explains what triggers acts of madness in ordinary folks like you. Often confronting but always entertaining, A Shrink in the Clink is an extraordinary journey into the shadows and a brilliant insight into the shifting realities of the criminal mind.

This book is an empowering psych resource. If youve been in contact with doctors, including psychiatrists, or if you still are, and youve been treated for mental ill health, or still are, then its likely you have some pressing questions. If you havent, you should have. Now it can be hard to ask these questions, and sometimes its hard to know exactly what the questions are. The big ones, the fundamental ones, the ones you need to be asking are asked in this book, and answered. Your journey out of pain and dysfunction to joy, fulfillment and vitality may take you to a GP, psychiatrist or other mainstream, medically-oriented mental health professional. Youll get a lot more out of those consultations if you have a good idea where they fit in the scheme of thingswhat part if any could psychiatry play in your healing and growth. So, enjoy this little book. Its really a navigation guide to help you through, or around, the psychiatric industry. May you feel calmer, clearer and more confident as you view the path ahead.