Category Archives: Review – books movies series

介绍书：<善生>

Review - books movies series

问了几间大众书局分行才买到的这本书，售价RM28 （可凭书局会员获得10%折扣）。看过作者在脸书分享读者的读后感，外加朋友也介绍，所以想看看。

一直以来也觉得自己很缺乏这方面的助人经验（严格上来说，自己的亲身体验更是缺乏）。还记得回马后刚开始上班的三、四个月，就有一名我有份参与治疗的患者自杀过世，一年多后，也有一名电话追踪了几个月的抑郁患者放弃自己的生命（我曾两次以这个个案为例撰写文章**）。我一直没有很仔细去体验这些悲伤与失落，只是轻描淡写让它过去，继续生活，继续工作，继续吃喝，继续玩乐，偶尔想起，默默、轻轻地哀伤。

只是后来我也意识到自己对临终关怀、丧亲者陪伴方面的知识缺乏，去听了苏绚慧和冯以量的讲座，再看了他们的一些书，慢慢多了一些体会和理解。而这本书，文字不多，都是些真实的小故事，说些陪伴丧亲者、在生命的结束延续与亡者的关系、允许悲伤失落、悲而不痛的真实小故事。确实真实，细腻，却不做作。尤其对于不爱看满页文字的人更是适合。

作者冯以量
作者冯以量

 

**两篇关于这名已故病人的文章：

Depression & ECT

Can we allow a severely depressed patient to make the decision?

Introducing “David & Goliath” (2013)

Review - books movies series

“We would like to know who the person or persons [who killed our daughter] are, so we could share, hopefully, a love that seems to be missing in these people’s lives”

The full story about this quote is in the non-fiction, “David & Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants” by Malcolm Gladwell. This is the second time I’m reading his book (the first was “Outliers: The story of Success“), which was also a Christmas present from the UK.

Of course it’s not just about one true story, but this one mentioned above in particular strikes me a little more. His book is again, thought-provoking, counter-intuitive, entertaining, intriguing, based on scientific evidence and real stories. I can’t say better words for it. Do get a copy and read it. (I happen to have two copies as my friend sent it to me two years in a row, so if you’d like a free copy just get it from me).

By Malcolm Gladwell
By Malcolm Gladwell

Introducing “Outliers” (2008)

Basic & General, Review - books movies series
By Malcolm Gladwell
By Malcolm Gladwell

This book is a Christmas present from a friend in the UK. It’d been lying in my shelf for at least 2 or 3 years till i picked it up. And guess what, I’ve really enjoyed it. I don’t understand how i could have not heard about this author all these years. Malcolm Gladwell, one of the Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2005.

“OUTLIERS – the story of success”. There are a lot of interesting research findings in it, it doesn’t just tell you how to be successful, not at all (in fact in a lot of cases it’s telling you you can’t be the extraordinary one because of …). But he really helps to make sense of many things…

Now i know why in my class there are always more students born in the first half of the year, and what we might do to change this; how certain people become so successful not due to their “gifted talent” but they’ve worked more than 10,000 hours before they reached where they’re today; why certain airlines of certain social psychologists defined cultures are more likely to crash; why maths of children from certain regions of Asia are better than the rest of the world and it has nothing to do with their “IQ” or “inherited abilities”; how children are brought up matters a lot – parenting styles, what they do during summers, social classes too! Rich students learnt more in the summer term than throughout the whole school year! Etc etc.

I don’t want to spoil the book. But I’m going to read another of his book. It’s not so much clinical psychology, but psychology in general. Anyone can read, anyone! And I’d particularly recommend it to parents and parents-to-be.

“Outliers are those who have been given opportunities — and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them”

Introducing “The monk who sold his Ferrari”

Review - books movies series

This is my second Robin Sharma’s book, following “The Leader who had no title.”

monkferraribook

I bought it with RM 34.90 (before 10% membership discount) at Popular bookstore. And guess what, I just happened to find its pdf file here, for free?!

Firstly, I have to say this is a very well-titled book. It doesn’t just tell you what the book is about, it also attracts people to pick it up, wanting to read the content. I’ve taken quite some time to read it, though it’s such a small book. I wanted to slowly digest it, and practise what it says whenever possible.

So the book is written in the form of a story, saying to…

  • master your mind
  • follow your purpose
  • practice kaizen
  • live with discipline
  • respect your time
  • selflessly serve others
  • embrace present

It’s practical, it is practicable. I don’t like so much of theories and meaning and quotes, when they tell you this and that, without telling you how to do it, achieve it, without giving you the application tools. But Robin does tell you what to do. So the only problem is – whether you do it.

I think every house should have a copy of it. It might not help everyone all the time (though a friend told me Robin’s books have been with her through ups and downs), it should still be worthwhile to go back to it once in a while.

It’s not what you will get out of the books that’s so enriching – it’s what the books will get out of you that will ultimately change your life

-Robin Sharma

Introducing “Listening to Prozac”

Depression, Issues & Debates, Review - books movies series, Treatment Approaches
By Peter D. Kramer
By Peter D. Kramer MD

Last year I bought this book for RM5 from the Popular RM5 book fiesta (by now you probably have realized that I bought a lot of books there, and yes you’re right, I do spend time to go through those non-fictions and try to pick some treasure!). It is written by an American psychiatrist.

This is really a book that I’d strongly recommend, to … certain people, like me – who know quite a bit about psychopharmacology, but not enough, not much about their history – who have seen how all those drugs are used practically and in day to day life, but not read much about the facts and dark stories behind them. It is an old book I have to say, but I learnt so much about the older generation anti-depressants (tricyclic like Imipramine, Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors which is not so common these days) and those that I’m so familiar with, i.e. the SSRIs (e.g. Prozac (Fluoxetine)!).

It made me think a lot about how those so-called legal drugs are prescribed, used and misused, how it can change a person from the inside (personality! how they see themselves all their lives simply changed after they started the medicine!), how vague the definitions of psychiatric diagnosis are, how tiny the difference between well and unwell could be etc etc. It may not be a book for everyone, I’m sure some might fall asleep reading it, but it’s probably the first time I’m reading such old book (published in 1993 -before I attended elementary school :P, some updates in early 21st centuries at the back) but still get so astonished and learnt so much!

介紹書＜實用催眠自助手冊＞

Hypnosis & Hypnotherapy, Review - books movies series, Treatment Approaches

去年九月在台灣研究和了解當地的催眠時選下了這本書（作者是中國人，目前在上海作心理諮商），台幣300， 忘了有沒有折扣。當時只是抱著學習一些催眠術語和”看看別人怎麼用中文催眠”，才買下這本書。

作者蔡丹妮
作者蔡丹妮

寫的非常簡潔，主要是值得提倡的自我催眠（self-hypnosis），對外行來說應該不太難懂，可惜卻不能做入門的書，因為完成沒有最基本的解除催眠的謎思與誤解（myths and misconception），對我而言這是再基本不過的（比如應該要有類似這樣的東西，讓讀者進行自我催眠前多瞭解催眠）。另外，因為我買下這本書是為了學習中文術語，所以也特別注重作者對這些字詞的翻譯（作者執業前在美國深造），不難發現很多詞的翻譯不太准確，前後不一。最後就是作者可能和我一樣，”意見比較多”（哈哈），在這麼小的一本書，有些部份一大段的在分享個人的想法和意見，讀起來實在有失專業… 總結來說對外行和內行都不是太實用，市場上也會有更適合的相關書。