The Emotional Calendar: Understanding Seasonal Influences and Milestones to Become Happier, More Fulfilled, and in Contr, (Paperback)

Publishers Weekly,Psychiatrist Sharp, professor at Harvard and UCLA medical school, combines insights from clinical and social psychology, neuroscience, anthropology, and medicine to explore how seasonal factors affect our psychological lives. He successfully describes such phenomena as seasonable adjustment disorder and offers many intriguing facts-for example, he notes that summer is the season when people feel most free, yet also the time of the most suicides. Unfortunately, Sharp attempts to cover too many topics, which often leads to meandering digressions-as in a section on "seasonal creep" in sports. Other times he states the obvious: regarding Valentine's Day, he writes, "for those in relationships, it can be a time of heightened expectations... while people without significant others face feelings of loneliness." Sharp also skimps on describing coping strategies, often offering little more than a paragraph on each of his recommendations. Sharp's book concludes with sections on medications and natural remedies for anxiety and depression, and a cheery chapter on "seasonal embrace." Readers may glean something helpful from the scientific and anecdotal material, but too much of this book is psych lite.���(Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.