BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

Allen, Woody. Without Feathers. New York: Random House, 1972.

Anderson, Walter. The Confidence Course. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Andreasen, Nancy C. Brave New Brain. Conquering Mental Illness in the Era of the Genome. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Andreasen, Nancy C. The Creating Brain: The Neuroscience of Genius. New York: Dana Press, 2005.

Barkley, Russell. Taking Charge of ADHD. The Complete, Authoritative Guide for Parents. New York: The Guilford Press, Revised Edition, 2000.

Brown, Thomas E. Attention Deficit Disorder: The Unfocused Mind in Children and Adults. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005.
This is a welcome addition to the ADHD literature. I especially like Dr. Brown's discussion of the executive functions that are impaired in what he calls the ADD Syndrome: (1) Activation: organizing, prioritizing, and activating to work; (2) Focus: focusing, sustaining, and shifting attention to tasks; (3) Effort: regulating alertness, sustaining effort, and processing speed; (4) Emotion: managing frustration and modulating emotions; (5) Memory: utilizing working memory and accessing recall; (6) Action: monitoring and self-regulating action. The book is filled with many real-life examples.

Christenson, Andrew, and Jacobson, Neil S. Reconcilable Differences. New York: The Guilford Press, 2000.
Two experienced psychologists offer sound advice on healing marital ruptures and disharmony and improving marital communication and joy.

Dalrymple, Theodore. Life at the Bottom. The Worldview that Makes the Underclass. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2001.
British prison psychiatrist describes the destructive worldviews of his patients.

Dalrymple, Theodore. Our Culture, What's Left of It. The Mandarins and the Masses. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2005.
Theodore Dalrymple is a psychiatrist working in a British prison and hospital. His collection of essays are profoundly honest, penetrating your mind like conversations with a wise friend who pulls no punches.

Faraone, Stephen V. Straight Talk about Your Child's Mental Health. New York: The Guilford Press, 2003.
Dr. Faraone is a psychologist and researcher at Harvard University. He has published many articles in scientific journals on ADHD and associated topics. This book is addressed to parents and is filled with the latest scientific findings on child mental health. One of the best books in the field on the topic of getting psychological help for your child.

Frank, Jerome D., and Frank, Julia. Persuasion & Healing. A Comparative Study of Psychotherapy. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991. Third Edition.

Freud, Anna. The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense. New York: International Universities Press, 1966.

Ghaemi, S. Nassir. The Concepts of Psychiatry. A Pluralistic Approach to the Mind and Mental Illness. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 2003.

Hallowell, Edward J., and Ratey, John J. Delivered from Distraction: Getting the Most Out of Life with Attention Deficit Disorder. New York: Ballantine Books, 2005.
Drs. Hallowell and Ratey are both psychiatrists with Attention Deficit Disorder. This book is filled with practical information for adults with A.D.D. about diagnosis, the pros and cons of treatment approaches, information about medication therapies, and guidelines about coping with A.D.D. Their previous book published in 1994 - Driven to Distraction - is a classic in the field.

Havens, Leston. Approaches to the Mind. Movement of the Psychiatric Schools from Sects toward Science.  Cambridge:  Harvard University Press, 1987.

Havens, Leston. A Safe Place. Laying the Groundwork for Psychotherapy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989.

Harris, Judith Rich. The Nurture Assumption. Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do. New York: The Free Press, 1999.

Holt, Jim. Stop Me If You've Heard This. A History and Philosophy of Jokes. New York:  W.W. Norton & Company, 2008.

Hoffer, Eric. The True Believer. New York:  Harper & Row, 1951.

Jamison, Kay Redfield. The Unquiet Mind. A Memoir of Moods and Madness. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1995.
A classic autobiography on coping with Bipolar Disorder by a Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Medical School and a world authority on mood disorders. .
Konner, Melvin. The Tangled Wing. New York: Henry Holt and Company, L.L.C., 2002. Second Edition.

Koplewicz, Harold. More Than Moody: Recognizing and Treating Adolescent Depression. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2002.

Kramer, Peter D. Against Depression. New York: Viking, 2005.

Maughm, W. Somerset. The Summing Up. New York: Penguin Books, 1938.

McHugh, Paul R. The Mind Has Mountains. Reflections on Society and Psychiatry. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006.

"Paul McHugh is one of the best and most original writers in psychiatry or psychology. He is iconoclastic, idealistic, deeply informed, and is one of the most important influences on generations of psychiatric researchers and clinicians. The Mind Has Mountains is the essence of McHugh's ideas. No one will agree with everything he writes - I don't - but no one who reads this book will remain unaffected by the clarity and importance of his thinking. He is a teacher of the first rank." ---Kay Redfield Jamsison, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, The John Hoplkins University, Baltimore, Maryland

McHugh, Paul R., Slavney, P. The Perspectives of Psychiatry. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. Second Edition. This book teaches you how to think about psychiatric disorder.

Peterson, Christopher. A Primer in Positive Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Peterson writes:

"Positive psychology is the scientific study of what goes right in life, from birth to death and at all stops in between...(an) approach within psychology that takes seriously as a subject matter those things that make life most worth living...What is good about life is a genuine as what is bad and therefore deserves equal attention from psychologists...It is a study of what we are doing when we are not frittering life away."
Pinker, Steven. The Blank Slate. The Modern Denial of Human Nature. New York: Viking Press, 2002.

Ridley, Matt. Nature Via Nurture. Genes, Experience, and What Makes Us Human. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 2003.

Silver, Larry B. The Misunderstood Child. Understanding and Coping with Your Child's Learning Disabilities. New York: McGraw-Hill, Third Edition, 1998.

Storr, Anthony. The Art of Psychotherapy. New York: Capman and Hall Inc., 1990. Second Edition.

Seligman, Martin E.P. Authentic Happiness. New York: Free Press, 2002.
Martin Seligman blends a scientific understanding of the roots of happiness with solid recommendations to improve your moral, mental, and spiritual well-being. I had the good fortune of meeting Marty in 1997, when I invited him to speak to the Michigan Psychological Association where he announced his decision to run for President of the American Psychological Association - he was elected by the biggest margin ever. When Marty was APA President, I was the Michigan Psychological Association President, and with his help I brought in the Harvard philosopher Robert Nozick to speak on "Consciousness" at the APA Convention held in San Francisco.

Seligman, Martin E.P. What You Can Change and What You Can't: The Complete Guide to Successful Self-Improvement and Learning to Accept Who You Are. New York: Ballantine Books, 1995.

Wilens, Timothy E. Straight Talk about Psychiatric Medications for Kids. New York: The Guilford Press, Revised Edition, 2004.