A well-documented, profound reevaluation of mental health approaches in the developing world.
Chibanda, a medical doctor and practicing psychiatrist, shares his innovative approach to mental health care in sub-Saharan Africa.
When the author began the Friendship Bench project with 14 grandmothers in the early 2000s, there were only six practicing psychiatrists in Zimbabwe. (Today, the number remains less than 20.) Designed to address the limited access many Zimbabweans have to mental health professionals, the Friendship Bench project deploys a team of “lay psychotherapists” to provide a listening ear, sage wisdom, and guidance to those in need. The project also helps to break down cultural stigmas associated with mental health; Chibanda came to realize that wooden park benches located under trees and occupied by welcoming grandmothers provided a welcome “safe space” and alternative to the “crowded clinic” where specialists like himself only had a few minutes with each patient. Featuring the stories of individuals whom Friendship Benches have helped, the book highlights women like Farai, an HIV-positive mother riddled with self-doubt and shame whose life was turned around after just one conversation with a compassionate grandmother on a bench. While the author, a trained medical doctor and professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, is well versed in modern pharmacology, he highlights the power of indigenous African approaches to mental health and explicates concepts like the Shona notion of kufungisisa(“thinking too much”). Chibanda also tells the fascinating story of the Friendship Bench project’s growth, which exploded following a TED Talk delivered by the author that received millions of views. The project is now a “full-fledged NGO” with an administrative and training center; toolkits are offered to readers who want to “Join the Movement” and start Friendship Bench projects in their own communities. Chibanda’s writing style is empathetic and deeply personal—his text is accessible to readers both inside and outside of the psychiatric profession, and it’s accompanied by a wealth of photographs.
A well-documented, profound reevaluation of mental health approaches in the developing world.Pub Date: yesterday
ISBN: 9781955831024
Page Count: 208
Publisher: New World Library
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
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These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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