Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2021 -

A New Psychology Based On Community, Equality, And Care Of The Earth : An Indigenous American Perspective
 ISBN: 9781440869259Price: 75.00  
Volume: Dewey: 155.8497Grade Min: Publication Date: 2020-04-14 
LCC: 2019-057073LCN: E98.P95B55 2020Grade Max: Version:  
Contributor: Blume, Arthur W.Series: Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USAExtent: 280 
Contributor: Reviewer: Kawika LiuAffiliation: John F Kennedy Memorial HospitalIssue Date: January 2021 
Contributor:     

In this important contribution to the literature of both general psychology and indigenous psychology, Blume is careful to emphasize that there is not a totalizing discourse of the "indigenous," but there are enough commonalities to construct a theory of indigenous psychology rooted in North American experiences, roughly generalizable to other traditions and peoples. Moreover, Dr. Blume successfully advocates for alternatives to colonial, Western psychology, particularly given the contemporary crises of health and social injustice/inequities. While indigenous peoples range from nations of the North American plains to the Inuit of the far North, including also Polynesians, Melanesians, Micronesians, and the Aboriginals of the Pacific, Dr. Blume's generalizations are broadly applicable, particularly in times when many indigenous peoples are threatened, not only by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic but also by climate change and the emergence of nationalistic leaders who subsume indigenous concerns to other agendas. Dr. Blume's theory of indigenous psychology clarifies that these peoples not only face vulnerabilities but also have multilayered resilience. While being group oriented and closely linked to the land made colonial encounters particularly traumatic for indigenous cosmologies, ontologies, and epistemologies (almost diametrically opposed to Western individualistic, capitalist discourses), the same constructs also have enabled indigenous peoples to survive, and sometimes begin to thrive, in a postcolonial world.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

Human-canine Collaboration In Care : Doing Diabetes
 ISBN: 9780367227777Price: 140.00  
Volume: Dewey: 616.462Grade Min: Publication Date: 2019-10-17 
LCC: 2019-025795LCN: RC660.E27 2020Grade Max: Version:  
Contributor: Eason, FenellaSeries: Multispecies Encounters Ser.Publisher: RoutledgeExtent: 194 
Contributor: Reviewer: Kawika LiuAffiliation: John F Kennedy Memorial HospitalIssue Date: February 2021 
Contributor:     

The usual care for type 1 diabetes, as for other chronic diseases, is a combination of medications (in this case, predominantly insulin) and lifestyle modifications. The standard method for the detection of hypoglycemia is the glucometer, which chemically detects the level of glucose in the blood. In this work, creating an ecofeminist ethnology of care, Eason undertakes a fascinating examination of the relationship between dogs and humans with type 1 diabetes, particularly the role of service dogs assisting in the care of persons with this disease through their natural ability to detect hypoglycemia. Posing the question of whether using dogs in biotherapy is justifiable or merely exploitative, Eason moves to a synthesis of the human-canine care relationship as one of mutual caring and responsibilities. Eason successfully deploys both social science theory and biology/pathophysiology to develop a construct of the human-canine relationship in the care of diabetes as one of "companionship, friendship, love ... and even community" and an alternative to more invasive treatments. She thus makes an important contribution to the literature not only in terms of the relationship between humans and canines in diabetes care but also more deeply as a model for the ethical relationship between humans and animals.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.