Books like Good Reasons for Bad Feelings: Insights from the Frontier of Evolutionary Psychiatry

01

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman · Psychology

Thinking, Fast and Slow is Daniel Kahneman's account of the two cognitive systems that govern human thought.

A kindred psychology read.

02

Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

Robert M. Sapolsky · Science

Behave is Robert Sapolsky's attempt to explain why humans do what they do — the violence, the altruism, the tribalism, the heroism — by working through every layer of biology that contributes to a single act.

A kindred psychology read.

03

The Body Keeps the Score

Bessel van der Kolk · Psychology

The Body Keeps the Score is Bessel van der Kolk's account of four decades spent studying and treating trauma, from Vietnam veterans at the VA in the 1970s to survivors of childhood abuse, accidents, and domestic violence.

A kindred psychology read.

04

Stumbling on Happiness

Daniel Gilbert · Psychology

Daniel Gilbert is a Harvard psychologist whose central finding, after decades of studying affective forecasting, is that humans are systematically wrong about what will make them happy.

A kindred psychology read.

05

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

Oliver Sacks · Psychology

Oliver Sacks was a neurologist who thought in stories.

A kindred psychology read.

06

The Compassionate Mind

Paul Gilbert · Psychology

The Compassionate Mind is Paul Gilbert's comprehensive account of Compassion Focused Therapy, the approach he developed over decades of clinical work with people whose suffering was heavily compounded by shame, self-criticism, and an inability to feel comforted or to comfort themselves.

Shares evolutionary psychology and mental health with Good Reasons for Bad Feelings: Insights from the Frontier of Evolutionary Psychiatry.

07

The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct

Thomas Szasz · Psychology

Thomas Szasz's thesis, first published in 1961, is that mental illness is a category error.

Shares mental health and psychiatry with Good Reasons for Bad Feelings: Insights from the Frontier of Evolutionary Psychiatry.

08

The Noonday Demon

Andrew Solomon · Health

The Noonday Demon is Andrew Solomon's exhaustive, literary account of depression — his own experience of it, its science and treatment history, its cultural and political dimensions, and the lives of people living with it across the world.

Shares mental health and psychiatry with Good Reasons for Bad Feelings: Insights from the Frontier of Evolutionary Psychiatry.

09

An Unquiet Mind

Kay Redfield Jamison · Psychology

Kay Redfield Jamison is a psychiatrist and professor who has manic-depressive illness.

Both dig into mental health.

10

Atlas of the Heart

Brené Brown · Psychology

Atlas of the Heart is Brené Brown's attempt to map eighty-seven distinct human emotions and experiences — not as a clinical taxonomy but as a practical vocabulary for people who want to communicate more precisely about what they feel.

Both dig into emotions.

11

How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain

Lisa Feldman Barrett · Psychology

Lisa Feldman Barrett is a neuroscientist and psychologist at Northeastern University who has spent thirty years studying emotion, and her conclusion challenges the most widely held view of what emotions are.

Both dig into emotions.

12

Solving the Procrastination Puzzle

Timothy A. Pychyl · Psychology

Solving the Procrastination Puzzle is Timothy Pychyl's short, research-grounded guide to understanding and overcoming procrastination.

Both dig into emotions.