The Psychodynamics And Psychology Of Gambling

The Psychodynamics and Psychology of Gambling is the first volume in the four-volume The Gambling Theory and Research Series. Author Mikal Aasved felt a need to fill what he perceived to be a lack of background sources or reviews of literature pertaining to gambling theory and research. This series will present major findings of leading researchers as they study the causes and effects of gambling, both recreational and excessive. This first entry in the series reviews the most influential psychodynamic and psychological theories that explain why people gamble. Psychoanalytical theorists discussed include Freud, Von Hattingberg, Fenichel, Bergler, Simmel, Greenson, Stekel, and others. Aasved includes sections on behavioral (learning or reinforcement theory) psychological approaches to gambling with discussion of Skinner's ideas and research findings as well as Pavlov's principles. This book begins with the question 'Why do people gamble?' and offers many theories proposed by clinicians, laboratory and field researchers, and participants as they seek to explain the motivation behind gambling. The differences between gambling as entertainment and gambling compulsion is a focus of much research. Aasved addresses ideas set forth as to why some people are able to control their gambling and others cannot, even when it means sacrificing their jobs, family, and material possessions. This text provides a comprehensive background into theories of addiction research as studied by leaders in the field.

As gambling become ever more ubiquitous, more people are risking their finances, family lives, and health in their desire to be the winner that takes it all. This book brings together an international panel of experts to present a wide variety of perspectives on problem gambling, and test popular addiction and disease models in the field. Early chapters examine the psychology of gambling, before moving on to the pastime’s associated irrational ideas. The seven chapters in the second half are devoted to evidence-based interventions from a variety of clinical orientations. Case examples, Q&A sections, and a glossary add extra readability to the coverage.

This book critically examines the psychology of gambling in Hong Kong and Macao. Covering the history of gambling and its development in the two jurisdictions, it highlights the prevalence and status quo of problem gambling, the theoretical perspectives on the etiology of gambling disorder, and the treatment of problem gambling. The book also introduces a personality and pathways development model of Chinese problem gamblers and concludes with outlooks on the future of gambling in Hong Kong and Macao.

Money, like sex, has been essential to the rise and development of civilization. The first known writings were records of simple business transactions and later on money came to be used as a common denominator for all goods. Current dealings with money have become infinitely more complicated than at the beginning of recorded history but its basic meaning is the same, a medium underlying all goods and services, in which comparative values are measured and by which they are acquired. Certainly, money is a vital and essential part of our everyday life. It is hard, if not impossible, to conceive of any of us going through a single day's series of experiences without using it or one of its symbolic equivalents: checks, credit cards, letters of credit, IOU's, scrip, food stamps or what have you. Both of us have had a longstanding interest in money, in what it could and could not buy, in investing, spending and allocating. Our personal interest in money antedated our professional training and our career pathways for we were people first before we became people who were therapists.

The Individual in the Economy presents interesting analyses of important human behaviours.