Physicians recognize the importance of patients' emotions in healing yet believe their own emotional responses represent lapses in objectivity. Patients... complain that physicians are too detached. Halpern argues that by empathizing with patients, rather than detaching, physicians can best help them. Yet there is no consistent view of what, precisely, clinical empathy involves. This book challenges the traditional assumption that empathy is either purely intellectual or an expression of sympathy. Sympathy, according to many physicians, involves over-identifying with patients, threatening objectivity and respect for patient autonomy. How can doctors use empathy in diagnosing and treating patients rithout jeopardizing objectivity or projecting their values onto patients? Jodi Halpern, a psychiatrist, medical ethicist and philosopher, develops a groundbreaking account of emotional reasoning as the core of clinical empathy. She argues that empathy cannot be based on detached reasoning because it involves emotional skills, including associating with another person's images and spontaneously following another's mood shifts. Yet she argues that these emotional links need not lead to over-identifying with patients or other lapses in rationality but rather can inform medical judgement in ways that detached reasoning cannot. For reflective physicians and discerning patients, this book provides a road map for cultivating empathy in medical practice. For a more general audience, it addresses a basic human question: how can one person's emotions lead to an understanding of how another person is feeling? "Jodi Halpern presents a scholarly and cogent exposition of the philosophic underpinnings of the concept of empathy may be rightly viewed as a seminal work in developing a scholarly understanding of the subject of empathy and will assist in the development of sound training and evaluation methods for imparting this skill to physicians." - Sharon K. Hull, MD JAMA "I would recommend this book not as a manual, but as a vital reminder of how things should be, and as an insightful and philosophically educational analysis of how things probably are for the luckiest patients in our practice and hospitals." - Philip Berry, British Medical Journal"This is a beautifully written and beautifully reasoned book. Physician-ethicist Jodi Halpern crafts one of the finest descriptions available of psychiatry's advance toward empathic involvement with patients. Intertwining psychiatry and ethics is no easy task. However in Halpern's hands, a blend of formal research, philosophical modeling, and straight talk shows how neatly psychiatry and ethics work together." - Philip Candilis, M.D., Psychiatric Services"This is an important book. I recommend it to physicians and members of medical faculties for whom its subject matter is important. It is a serious essay on subjectivity, a topic about which we will be seeing more in the coming years. It repays the work of reading it." - Eric Cassell, M.D., The New England Journal of Medicine"This lovely volume fixes on a profound truth in medicine: to the degree we are moved by our patients suffering we are better able to help them. The age of proteomics and genomics is the age of 'objective reality', yet for the patient it is all about humane empathetic care. Halpern in this scholarly and wonderful readable volume shows us that empathy is just as critical for the physician and without it healing cannot begin. This book is a must read for all of us with an interest in medical practice." - Abraham Verghese MD, author of CUTTING FOR STONE, Professor of Medicine, Stanford University

Estate planning rules explained in one quick read! Estate Planning Basics provides concise, straightforward, and easy-to-read explanations of the major... components of estate planning, so that you don't have to spend hours wading through endless options (most of which apply to the wealthy). Learn about: choosing beneficiaries estate planning by parents with minor children wills living trusts other probate-avoidance methods, including using a retirement plan like an IRA or 401(k) as an estate planning device estate taxes and tax-reduction methods trusts for people in second marriages, or for those leaving property to a disabled person planning for the handling of medical and financial decisions if one becomes incompetent Attorney Denis Clifford gives you the reliable, plain-English answers you need, whether you're doling out the family heirlooms or trying to steer clear of estate taxes. The 5th edition has been fully updated to reflect your state's latest estate planning laws and information.

Estate Planning for Financial Planners is written for graduate and uuperdivision undergraduate level students interested in acquiring an understanding... of estate planning from a professional financial planning viewpoint.

This coursebook features a case-study and problems approach in which the principles of estate planning are first introduced and then demonstrated... through student analysis of short exercises and simulated client situations. A forms supplement on CD is an additional tool for giving students practice with drafting exercises. Features: Case studies in every chapter emphasize problems that arise in the actual estate planning process Exercises and case studies explore a broad variety of issues , and allow great flexibility in teaching Each chapter begins with an overview of topics covered, followed by a more detailed discussion of legal doctrines and principles An electronic forms supplement in CD conveniently supports a drafting component to the course The ordering of topics treats fundamental issues first, more complex issues later Flexible organization presents a life-cycle progression reflecting the changing needs of clients from youth through old age Coverage of federal tax issues supports those who wish to teach it and can be taught or omitted at the professor's discretion A bibliography at the end of each chapter provides extensive reference sources New to the Third Edition: Substantial revision to reflect the recently enacted Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 Expanded and/or updated coverage (including new cases) to reflect other changes and developments in the law, including: Same-sex marriage and planning Uniform Probate Code's 2008 changes dealing with definitions of children Durable powers of attorney and medical care directives (including ""persistent vegetative state"") Retirement asset tax planning material Trust ""decanting"" Family offices and private trust companies Pet Trusts Expanded and updated materials regarding Dealing with Clients Expanded discussion of values other than federal wealth transfer tax issues that clients find important and how that impacts the planning process Revised case studies and problems Substantially updated forms supplement on CD

This casebook presents a functional approach to Trusts and Estates. In addition to a focus on recent cases, the book uses questions and problems to... focus student attention on issues that face estate planners, litigators and policy makers. In each chapter, it integrates discussion of drafting and planning issues with its treatment of doctrine and policy.

<p> Companion Website: <a href="http://www.aspenlawschool.com/books/edwardsestates" target="_blank">... www.aspenlawschool.com/books/edwardsestates</a> </p> <p> This concise text offers a proven-effective method for teaching the complex terminology and relationships of estates and future interests. Through helpful pedagogy, clear presentation, and a building-block approach, <b>Edwards</b> simplifies—without oversimplifying—the process of analyzing the classifications and relational transactions of estates in land and future interests. </p> <p> <b>Updated and honed in its Third Edition, Estates in Land and Future Interests: A Step-by-Step Guide, features:</b> </p> <ul> <li> <b>graphics, text boxes, and dynamic pedagogy</b> to illustrate and clarify basic estates and future interests concepts and relationships </li> <li> <b>a central flow chart</b> on the inside back cover of the book that identifies the state of the title after a particular conveyance and which can be used throughout the book to link estates to the future interests that follow them </li> <li> <b>a building-block approach</b> that breaks analytical tasks into their constituent parts </li> <li> <b>lucid and succinct text</b> supported by a clean and uncluttered page design </li> <li> <b>problem sets with answers, study questions, and practice exercises</b> </li> <li> <b>a logical organization</b> that tracks the coverage in <i>Dukeminier/Krier</i> </li> <li> <b>Glossary of terms</b> clearly defined in the appendix </li> <li> <b>Teacher’s Manual</b> and <b>PowerPoint</b> slides </li> </ul> <p> Few supplemental texts offer as much teaching support as this step-by-step guide, which comes with its own <b>Teacher’s Manual</b> and <b> PowerPoint slides</b>. Your students will thank you for adopting the <b>Third Edition</b>. </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p>

“A magic curtain, woven of legends, hung before the world. Cervantes sent Don Quixote journeying and tore through the curtain. The world opened... before the knight-errant in all the comical nakedness of its prose.” In this thought-provoking, endlessly enlightening, and entertaining essay on the art of the novel, renowned author Milan Kundera suggests that “the curtain” represents a ready-made perception of the world that each of us has—a pre-interpreted world. The job of the novelist, he argues, is to rip through the curtain and reveal what it hides. Here an incomparable literary artist cleverly sketches out his personal view of the history and value of the novel in Western civilization. In doing so, he celebrates a prose form that possesses the unique ability to transcend national and language boundaries in order to reveal some previously unknown aspect of human existence.