Books like The Brain That Changes Itself

01

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.

Shares brain science and perception with The Brain That Changes Itself.

02

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

Oliver Sacks · Psychology

Oliver Sacks was a neurologist who thought in stories.

Both dig into perception.

03

Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain

David Eagleman · Psychology

David Eagleman is a neuroscientist at Stanford who argues that the conscious self is a late, small, and largely uninformed participant in the brain's activity.

A kindred psychology read.

04

A Mind for Numbers

Barbara Oakley · Self-help

A Mind for Numbers is Barbara Oakley's guide to learning hard subjects effectively, written primarily for students struggling with mathematics and science but drawing on cognitive science principles that apply to any demanding field.

Shares brain science and learning with The Brain That Changes Itself.

05

Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind

V. S. Ramachandran and Sandra Blakeslee · Psychology

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Both dig into perception.

06

Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain

David Eagleman · Science

David Eagleman's argument is that "hardwired" is the wrong metaphor for the brain.

Shares neuroplasticity and perception with The Brain That Changes Itself.

07

The Brain's Way of Healing

Norman Doidge · Science

The Brain's Way of Healing is Norman Doidge's follow-up to The Brain That Changes Itself and extends its central argument: the brain retains significant capacity to reorganize itself throughout life, and this plasticity can be deliberately harnessed to treat conditions that conventional medicine has largely written off as permanent.

Shares neuroplasticity and recovery with The Brain That Changes Itself.

08

Adult Children of Alcoholics

Janet G. Woititz · Psychology

Adult Children of Alcoholics is Janet Woititz's clinical guide to the lasting psychological patterns that develop in children raised in alcoholic families.

Both dig into recovery.

09

Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence

Anna Lembke · Psychology

Dopamine Nation is psychiatrist Anna Lembke's account of how modern life has engineered an environment of endless easy pleasure — and what that does to the brain.

Both dig into recovery.

10

Emotional Intelligence

Daniel Goleman · Psychology

Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence, published in 1995, made a widely influential argument: that the cluster of abilities involved in managing emotions — self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and social skill — predicts life outcomes at least as well as IQ, and possibly better in many domains.

Both dig into brain science.

11

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

Carol S. Dweck · Psychology

Carol Dweck's central claim is simple but far-reaching: people hold one of two basic beliefs about their own abilities.

Both dig into learning.

12

Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain

Lisa Feldman Barrett · Psychology

Lisa Feldman Barrett wrote this short book — genuinely short at under thirty thousand words — as an accessible introduction to seven core findings of modern neuroscience, each presented as a lesson that overturns something most people believe.

Both dig into brain science.