From the sexcapades of Bill Clinton to the unbelievable story of Hugh Grant and the prostitute; from the 15-year-old who weighs only 82 pounds but believes she's obese, to the professor who screams profanities at other drivers in snarled traffic--we wonder out loud, "What are they thinking?!" What drives so many apparently normal, intelligent people to act irrationally, harming themselves and others? According to Sigmund Freud, such behavior may be caused by the "id," our built-in mental invitation to everything from dangerous fun to horrendous acts of irrationality. For popular psychology writer David Weiner, "id" stands for "Inner Dummy," the part of the brain that we must come to understand if we are ever to know why we do foolish, irrational, and compulsive things. Drawing on the groundbreaking theories of evolutionary psychology, Battling the Inner Dummy localizes the source of our irrationality in the limbic id-the most primitive part of our brain that endlessly thirsts for status, sex, territory, nurturance, and survival. "We become captured by these drives," Weiner says. "By understanding our Inner Dummy, we can avoid disasters in our own lives." Along with sound advice from clinical psychiatrist Dr. Gilbert Hefter on how to handle our own Inner Dummies with built-in rewards and punishments, Weiner brilliantly interweaves delightful, imagined conversations with Freud and staffers at a mythical advertising agency, who have been given the assignment of communicating the nature of the id's irrationalities to the general public (e.g., t-shirts that say, "Would someone please fix my Inner Dummy before I fall in love with another idiot?" and a bathroom scale that allows you to weigh eight pounds less each time you use it). This inviting, humorous romp with Inner Dummies who have made the news illustrates how we can apply "ID prevention" in our daily lives and includes all the major strategies science and medicine have developed over the years to counter Inner Dummies that threaten our well-being. See how well you're handling your own inner dummy by taking the quizzes at www.innerdummy.com.

With over 30 million copies sold since its original publication in 1960, Psycho-Cybernetics has been used by athletes, entrepreneurs, college students, and many others, to achieve life-changing goals--from losing weight to dramatically increasing their income--finding that success is not only possible but remarkably simple. Now updated to include present-day anecdotes and current personalities, The New Psycho-Cybernetics remains true to Dr. Maltz’s promise:“If you can remember, worry, or tie your shoe, you can succeed with Psycho-Cybernetics!”

In this insightful, well-researched book, an award-winning popular psychology writer takes readers on a fascinating tour of what researchers are now discovering about the brain, offering a refreshingly realistic perspective as a guide to living.

KNOWING, REALIZING AND UNLOCKING THE POTENTIAL OF EACH ONE OF US STEP BY STEP WITH FAITH IS THE JOURNEY YOU WOULD TRAVERSE IN THIS BOOK. AIMED AT SETTING ASIDE DEEP SEEDED NEGATIVE BELIEFS AND STARTING ON A CLEAN SLATE SO THAT THE DELIMITING FACTORS FOR REACHING EPITOME OF SUCCESS ARE ERASED ONCE AND FOR ALL. THE AUTHOR BELIEVES THAT EVERYONE INDIVIDUAL SHOULD BE MADE AWARE OF SMALL BUT IMPORTANT STEP BY STEP PROCESSES WHICH IF FOLLOWED DILIGENTLY AND PERSISTENTLY CAN MAKE A SEA OF DIFFERENCE IN THEIR LIVES. THESE PROCESSES WERE NEVER SUMMARIZED AND MADE AVAILABLE TO ALL IN AN INTERPRETEABLE FASHION. THE AUTHOR HAS TAKEN A LEAP OF FAITH TO ENSURE THAT THESE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES ARE SHARED FROM THE POSITION OF VULNERABILITY TO BECOME THE BEACON OF SUCCESS. THIS IS A POWERFUL BOOK TO BRING OUT THE EXTRAORDINARY IN YOU.

This text presents a novel approach to teaching and learning the fundamental skills and techniques of counseling and psychotherapy, based on a "non-linear" process of thinking that more accurately reflects the reality of mental health practice. At the core of this text lies the idea that to best prepare students for practice with real clients, they have to learn how to think in a new way, the way that research has shown the most effective practitioners think. The result is a paradigm shift in how to teach and learn basic counseling skills, which separates this text from the competition and brings training up to speed with current practice.