This is pretty interesting stuff. Unfortunately, I know almost nothing about it. Anyone else interested in this kind of thing? Anyone know anything about it? Anyone want to recommend some good books to start with?

One of my best friends just finished his PhD at UNC on this stuff (specifically, behavioral neuroscience). Not sure whether they're all about cognitive psychology, but he always recommended books by Stephen Pinker, especially "The Blank Slate."

I can't read Steven Pinker for some reason (some writers are just like that) but he gets rave reviews and is highly respected.

I borrowed The Blank Slate from a roommate a few weeks before he moved out and managed to get about 3/4 of the way through it before I had to give it back. I enjoyed it a great deal, though I never did finish it. I saw a CSPAN BookTV interview with him once and was very impressed.

One of my best friends is finishing his MA at UTexas right now. He is doing it in developmental psychology because that's the program that's big there, but he is much more interested in cognitive (he doesn't like kids). I'll check out that book.

If you tell me more specifically what you're interested in I might be able to make a few recs.

One of my best friends...ehh nevermind...I don't have any friends.

Why don't you tell me what I'm interested in?

i consider gestalt therapy as my foundation, but cognitive/rational-emotive certainly has its strengths.

Still interested in this. I think that cognitive psychology will be/should be one of the biggest emerging pieces of political theory. I think as our understanding of this grows we will increasingly be able to say exactly what kind of political change is possible and how/if it can be facilitated.

oh, i wasn't considering it in that sense.

just b/c its on my mind, i recently read up on motivational interviewing (interviewing = a counseling session conversation) and it was pretty amazing to read somebody really analyzing the concept of ambivalence and how we as people utilize it as a defense mechanism. Not to mention, how i, as a counselor, can confront it.