Books
Peter Pan and the Mind of J. M. Barrie, by RM Ridley (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016)
Peter Pan and the Mind of J. M. Barrie, by RM Ridley (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016)
What is Peter Pan all about? Many of us realise that there is a bit more to the stories than a simple fantasy about flying away to a wonderful place in which to play, and that there is something psychologically rather dark about the events in the stories. But J. M. Barrie’s work has not previously been considered from the perspective of either the science of his time, or the insights of modern cognitive psychology. This book explores the texts of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906) and Peter and Wendy (1911), and argues that Barrie describes the limited mental abilities of infants and animals in order to illuminate the structure of human adult cognition. Barrie had a well-informed, post-Darwinian perspective on the biological origins of human behaviour. The idea that human consciousness, cognition, culture and sense of moral responsibility could have origins in animal behaviour was deeply shocking to the nineteenth century intelligentsia, and remains controversial in some sections of academia even today. Barrie’s work contains many insights into what is now referred to as mental representation and theory of mind, areas of cognitive psychology that have been examined scientifically only in the last few decades. Barrie also reflects on the nature of consciousness in a way that parallels modern interests. As books with a complex scientific undercurrent, Barrie’s Peter Pan stories rank alongside Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Alice through the Looking Glass, which engage with complex issues of mathematics and logic, and Charles Kingsley’s The Water-Babies, which explores the implications of evolution for human society.
What is Peter Pan all about? Many of us realise that there is a bit more to the stories than a simple fantasy about flying away to a wonderful place in which to play, and that there is something psychologically rather dark about the events in the stories. But J. M. Barrie’s work has not previously been considered from the perspective of either the science of his time, or the insights of modern cognitive psychology. This book explores the texts of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906) and Peter and Wendy (1911), and argues that Barrie describes the limited mental abilities of infants and animals in order to illuminate the structure of human adult cognition. Barrie had a well-informed, post-Darwinian perspective on the biological origins of human behaviour. The idea that human consciousness, cognition, culture and sense of moral responsibility could have origins in animal behaviour was deeply shocking to the nineteenth century intelligentsia, and remains controversial in some sections of academia even today. Barrie’s work contains many insights into what is now referred to as mental representation and theory of mind, areas of cognitive psychology that have been examined scientifically only in the last few decades. Barrie also reflects on the nature of consciousness in a way that parallels modern interests. As books with a complex scientific undercurrent, Barrie’s Peter Pan stories rank alongside Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Alice through the Looking Glass, which engage with complex issues of mathematics and logic, and Charles Kingsley’s The Water-Babies, which explores the implications of evolution for human society.
Fatal Protein; the story of CJD, BSE and Other Prion Diseases, by RM Ridley and HF Baker (Oxford University Press, 1998)
Fatal Protein; the story of CJD, BSE and Other Prion Diseases, by RM Ridley and HF Baker (Oxford University Press, 1998)
This book was written with the general reader in mind. It presents a historical account of research in the spongiform encephalopathies, including our own contribution to the discovery of the gene mutations which cause the inherited forms of spongiform encephalopathy in humans, Gerstmann-Sträussler syndrome and atypical prion disease. It covers the kuru epidemic in Papua New Guinea in the early to middle part of the 20th century, the arguments about the nature of the agent which causes scrapie in sheep and whether or not scrapie is a genetic disease, and BSE, the worst disaster ever to have befallen British farming.
This book was written with the general reader in mind. It presents a historical account of research in the spongiform encephalopathies, including our own contribution to the discovery of the gene mutations which cause the inherited forms of spongiform encephalopathy in humans, Gerstmann-Sträussler syndrome and atypical prion disease. It covers the kuru epidemic in Papua New Guinea in the early to middle part of the 20th century, the arguments about the nature of the agent which causes scrapie in sheep and whether or not scrapie is a genetic disease, and BSE, the worst disaster ever to have befallen British farming.
Prion Diseases, edited by HF Baker and RM Ridley (Humana Press Inc., Totowa, New Jersey, 1996)
Prion Diseases, edited by HF Baker and RM Ridley (Humana Press Inc., Totowa, New Jersey, 1996)
This volume contains chapters by leading researchers in the field of the spongiform encephalopathies, including members of the National CJD Surveillance Unit (Edinburgh, UK), members of the Neuropathogenesis Unit (Edinburgh, UK) and researchers in the United States and Europe. It covers the diagnosis and epidemiology of CJD and BSE, transgenic approaches to the 'species barrier', studies of amyloid formation, and the cell-free conversion of PrPc to PrPSc. There are comprehensive chapters on 'handling the BSE epidemic' and on the special problems of genetic counselling in adult onset disorders.
This volume contains chapters by leading researchers in the field of the spongiform encephalopathies, including members of the National CJD Surveillance Unit (Edinburgh, UK), members of the Neuropathogenesis Unit (Edinburgh, UK) and researchers in the United States and Europe. It covers the diagnosis and epidemiology of CJD and BSE, transgenic approaches to the 'species barrier', studies of amyloid formation, and the cell-free conversion of PrPc to PrPSc. There are comprehensive chapters on 'handling the BSE epidemic' and on the special problems of genetic counselling in adult onset disorders.
