Staying Sane

'A radical new approach to keeping ourselves mentally healthy' Independent

'He can do what most consultants can't - translate medspeak into plain English'

'A radical new approach to keeping ourselves mentally healthy'

'He is the most eminent psychiatrist of the age...the guru of common sense'

Raj Persaud is a consultant psychiatrist working in the British National Health Service at the world-famous Maudsley Hospital in south London, and an honorary senior lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, University of London. Uniquely for a doctor, he also holds a first-class honours degree in psychology from University College London, which recently awarded him the title of Fellow in recognition of his ground-breaking work in psychiatry. Other medical awards and honours include the prestigious Royal College of Psychiatrists' Research Prize and Medal, the Denis Hill Prize and the Osler Medal. As well as medicine, psychology and psychiatry, he holds university-level qualifications in statistics, history and philosophy. 
Raj Persaud is the author of Staying Sane, The Motivated Mind and From the Edge of the Couch and his work has been published in academic medical journals, including the British Medical Journal, the Lancet and the British Journal of Psychiatry. He writes regularly for the national press and hosts BBC Radio 4's All in the Mind - the only broadcast series dedicated specifically to reporting on academic psychology and psychiatry. He also appears regularly on television programmes such as Question Time, Newsnight and Tomorrow's World. In a recent poll of members of the Royal College of Psychiatrists published in the Independent on Sunday newspaper, he was voted one of the top ten psychiatrists in the UK. 
He is married to an eye surgeon, has a son and a daughter, and lives in London.

How often do we hear ourselves say, 'I can't cope', 'I'm going mad', 'I'm losing my mind'? Despite the wall-to-wall advice on offer to us today, how often do we struggle to maintain a healthy mental attitude in the face of seemingly endless pressure? 
 
Now, in this groundbreaking work, the eminent psychiatrist and broadcaster, Dr Raj Persaud, confronts crucial issues - such as emotional intelligence and the meaning of happiness - and offers proven strategies for achieving and maintaining a healthy, positive mental attitude, regardless of the stresses and strains of daily life. Packed with case histories, questionnaires and fascinating scientific research, this is an invaluable, twenty-first century survival handbook - the ultimate self-help guide to staying sane. 
 
'He is the most eminent psychiatrist of the age...the guru of common sense' Spectator 
 
'He can do what most consultants can't - translate medspeak into plain English' 
Dr Phil Hammond, Independent

The Psychology Of Seduction - How To Catch And Keep Your Perfect Partner

Simply Irresistible

Professor Raj Persaud used the latest research into the science of attraction and seduction to explain how to become absolutely irresistible to anyone!

Some of the most fascinating relationship tips you'll discover this year

Revealed: the lost art of seduction. Today's wannabe lotharios have a host of advice on how to lure the object of their desire, but the real answers are timeless according to Simply Irresistible

Simply Irresistible explores the laws of seduction by examining how best to behave on a date and the ways in which we can physically improve our chances of finding a partner.

Professor Persaud is a consultant psychiatrist working in the British National Health Service at the world-famous Maudsley Hospital in south London, and an honorary senior lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, University of London. Uniquely for a doctor, he also holds a first-class honours degree in psychology from University College London, which recently awarded him the title of Fellow in recognition of his ground-breaking work in psychiatry. Other medical awards and honours include the prestigious Royal College of Psychiatrists' Research Prize and Medal, the Denis Hill Prize and the Osler Medal. 
 
Professor Persaud is the author of Staying Sane, From the Edge of the Couch, and The Motivated Mind, and his work has been published in academic medical journals, including the British Medical Journal. He writes regularly for the national press and hosts BBC Radio 4's All in the Mind - the only broadcast series dedicated specifically to reporting on academic psychology and psychiatry. He also appears regularly on television programmes such as Question Time, Newsnight and Tomorrow's World. In a recent poll of members of the Royal College of Psychiatrists published in the Independent on Sunday newspaper, he was voted one of the top ten psychiatrists in the UK. He is married to an eye surgeon, has a son and a daughter, and lives in London.

As psychology advances its understanding of the mind and brain, perhaps the last remaining bastion of mystery about why we do what we do relates to love and attraction. However, recent research suggests that even the mysteries of attraction are being revealed - which is great news for those amongst us who would rather not leave seduction to chance. 
 
In this illuminating follow-up to his acclaimed bestseller, The Motivated Mind, Dr Raj Persaud draws on the very latest research to show not only how to increase your attractiveness generally, but how to become absolutely irresistible to anyone. For example, do you know... that experiments on dating can predict with over 80% accuracy who will be attracted to who by whether just a few simple conversational strategies are used on a date? why abnormally low lighting is strongly associated with romance, why women wear blusher on their cheeks, or lipstick to enhance their pouting lips? Or that seeking to be agreeable on a date is not actually the most attractive or successful strategy to use. And for anyone out there who is looking for that rare combination of brains and beauty, there is reassuring news: current research reveals that it is indeed perfectly possible to guess a person's IQ from the way they look. Frank, witty and packed with useful questionnaires and invaluable advice, Simply Irresistible is the essential guide on how to catch - and keep - your perfect partner.

How to get what you want from life

The Motivated Mind

A fresh and inspiring approach to understanding motivation and the key to realizing your dreams.

'Not where you want to be in life but frustrated by fluffy self-help books? The Motivated Mind could be the read you need...Dr Raj Persaud has produced a fascinating, intellectual essay on the secrets behind success and fulfillment. This book helps you gain real understanding of how your mind works and how, unwittingly, you may be sabotaging your happiness'

The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and Raj's direct application of his motivational theories to three case-studies on our programme was an unqualified success. The plan works!

Dr Raj Persaud is a consultant psychiatrist working at London's Maudsley Hospital, the author of the critically acclaimed books Staying Sane and From the Edge of the Couch, and the presenter of Radio 4's All in the Mind. Unusually for a psychiatrist he also holds a degree in psychology which he obtained with First Class Honours. He has received numerous academic awards and prizes for the innovative nature of his research, including the prestigious Royal College of Psychiatrists Research Medal and Prize and The Maudsley Hospital's own Denis Hill Prize, as well as the exclusive medical award for the Osler Medal. In 2004 he was appointed Gresham Professor for Public Understanding of Psychiatry. In 2002 the Independent on Sunday conducted a poll amongst members of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Institute of Psychiatry to discover who were the top ten psychiatrists in the UK as rated by fellow clinicians. Dr Raj Persaud was the youngest doctor to make it into this esteemed list. He lives in London.

- Do you make New Year resolutions? Almost everyone does, because we want to achieve positive personal change. But did you know that most resolutions are repeated five years in a row, and that the vast majority are broken by June. 
- Have you ever dieted? Yet if diets work, why do we need so many, and new ones all the time? The evidence shows that we persist in buying diet books and following fitness fads because we want to believe the new approach will be the one that works... Today, we seem to be obsessed with advantage and disadvantage, fairness and the level playing field, without realizing that in life, the ability to overcome obstacles is a key part of any success strategy - as is our inner drive and motivation. In The Motivated Mind, award-winning author and psychiatrist Dr Raj Persaud investigates the latest research on this fascinating subject - and he comes to some surprising conclusions. Complete with fascinating case studies, The Motivated Mind offers fresh &amp; inspiring insights into understanding the key to success - the key to fulfilling your dream.

Raj Persaud

You may think that vampires and werewolves were merely the stuff of bad Hollywood films and mysterious legends, but as Consultant Psychiatrist Dr Raj Persaud reveals, there are real people out there who believe they are werewolves and vampires. As a result, they behave in ways beyond our most disturbing dreams and the wildest fantasies of imaginative film producers. 
 
In the tradition of Oliver Sacks' bestselling book, THE MAN WHO MISTOOK HIS WIFE FOR A HAT, Dr Persaud uses authentic case studies to explain current thinking on brain function and emotional disorders - such as that of the man who could only get his sexual kicks by being crushed in garbage trucks, the film fan who embedded dozens of needles into his body in order to become a robot, and those who take dieting to the ultimate limit by obsessively giving blood or eating nothing but toilet paper. 
 
Through these and other conditions, such as Alien Hand Syndrome - where suffers believe that one of their own hands is out to harm them - Multiple Personality Disorder, Erotomania and the cases of some women in Turkey whose tears are actually filled with blood, Dr Persaud also suggests that we may not have as much free will and control over our bodies as we would like to believe and provides startling new evidence that these conditions might be more common than sceptical psychiatrists realize.

From The Edge Of The Couch

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