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This new edition of What Makes Us Tick takes us beneath the often overwhelming surface noise of politics, economics, new technology and social change to explore something that hasn't changed: the 10 desires that drive us all and, now in a new prologue, the seven characteristics that define us as a species. From our desire to be taken seriously, to be useful and to be loved, to the desire for more, the desire for control and the desire for something to believe in, these universal human motivations powerfully influence our behaviour towards each other.

Australia's leading social psychologist examines our society today and asks timely and urgent questions about its future. Life is messy. Relationships are complex. Outcomes are uncertain. Yet, none of our differences—whether based on ethnicity, politics, religion, cultural tastes and preferences, or gender—are nearly as significant as the humanity we share. Amidst our epidemics of loneliness, anxiety, depression, and the impacts of entrenched poverty and ubiquitous technology, The Way We Are examines the major trends that are shaking the foundations of the Australian way of life.

For Tom, a counsellor struggling to rebuild his emotional life after the breakdown of his marriage, the suburbs are his world. His neighbours in Winter Close are his 'people', a kind of twenty-first century tribe. Tom, however, has a weakness for jumping to dramatic conclusions about his neighbours' relationships with each other and with him. Although he's often wrong, the truth is even more engrossing than his fantasies.

In life there are few, if any, moral absolutes for us to rely on, and facing an increasing array of choices, we often lack the confidence of knowing we have made the right choice. In Right & Wrong, respected social commentator Hugh Mackay suggests some personal strategies that will make it easier to work out what is right and wrong for each of us in a particular situation.