Novelist and essayist Joan Didion writes about the refusal of Americans to openly discuss and debate the Bush administration's new unilateralism toward both domestic and international policies since 9/11. This provocative and persuasive essay was originally published in The New York Review of Books, and garnered a tremendous response from the magazine's readers. In a preface commissioned for this book edition, Frank Rich, the popular op-ed columnist for The New York Times, echoes her argument with his own passionate analysis. Fixed Ideas is an incisive, timely political commentary from an American virtuoso.

Most European countries are rather small, yet we know little about their monetary history. This book analyses for the first time the experience of seven small states (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland) during the last hundred years, starting with the restoration of the gold standard after World War I and ending with Sweden's rejection of the Euro in 2003. The comparative analysis shows that for the most part of the twentieth century the options of policy makers were seriously constrained by a distinct fear of floating exchange rates. Only with the crisis of the European Monetary System (EMS) in 1992–3 did the idea that a flexible exchange rate regime was suited for a small open economy gain currency. The book also analyses the differences among small states and concludes that economic structures or foreign policy orientations were far more important for the timing of regime changes than domestic institutions and policies.

Fixed Ideas is a restless and effective tale of desire, gender and longing, about fundamental loneliness and the constant, gnawing awareness that threatens our ability to encounter one another as the person we really are. The story of a young woman and a slightly older man, both working at a newspaper in Oslo, who have a one night stand. Fixed Ideas explores how their relationship and perception of each other develops in the aftermath.

Thuja Occidentalis, the so-called "white cedar", or Arbor Vitae is an evergreen conifer, not a true cedar. It is a smallish tree found growing in cool, damp regions of North America. The wood is very resistant to decay; hence its use for outside purposes such as fences, poles and roof tiles -- cedar shakes.

This book includes carefully selected papers presented at the 10th International Conference on Knowledge, Information and Creativity Support Systems (KICCS 2015), which was held in Phuket, Thailand, on November 12–14, 2015. Most of the papers are extended versions with the latest results added, representing virtually all topics covered by the conference. The KICCS 2015 focus theme, “Looking into the Future of Creativity and Decision Support Systems”, highlighted the field’s growing complexity and called for deeper, insightful discussions about the future, complemented with an exposition of current developments that have proven their value and usefulness. As such, the book addresses topics concerning future-oriented fields of research, such as anticipatory networks and systems; foresight support systems; and relevant newly emerging applications, exemplified by autonomous creative systems. It also focuses on cognitive and collaborative aspects of creativity.

Hysteria, a mysterious disease known since antiquity, is said to have ceased to exist. Challenging this commonly held view, this is the first cross-disciplinary study to examine the current functional neuroimaging research into hysteria and compare it to the nineteenth-century image-based research into the same disorder. Paula Muhr's central argument is that, both in the nineteenth-century and the current neurobiological research on hysteria, images have enabled researchers to generate new medical insights. Through detailed case studies, Muhr traces how different images, from photography to functional brain scans, have reshaped the historically situated medical understanding of this disorder that defies the mind-body dualism.

The first comprehensive theory of somatoform dissociation. Expanding the definition of dissociation in psychiatry, Nijenhuis presents a summary of the somatoform components of dissociation-how sensory and motor functions are affected by dissociative disorders. Founded in the current view of mind-body integration, this book is essential reading for all mental health professionals engaged in the diagnosis, treatment, and study of dissociative disorders, PTSD, and other trauma-related psychiatric disorders.