Books like The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness

01

A History of God

Karen Armstrong · Religion & Spirituality

A History of God is Karen Armstrong's account of how the idea of God has changed over four thousand years across Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, with excursions into Hinduism and Buddhism.

A kindred memoir read.

02

The Case for God

Karen Armstrong · Religion & Spirituality

The Case for God is Karen Armstrong's argument that the new atheism misunderstands what sophisticated religious believers in most traditions have actually claimed about God.

A kindred memoir read.

03

Educated: A Memoir

Tara Westover · Memoir

Educated is Tara Westover's memoir about growing up in a survivalist family in rural Idaho and eventually earning a PhD in history from Cambridge University.

A kindred memoir read.

04

Man's Search for Meaning

Viktor E. Frankl · Psychology

Man's Search for Meaning is Viktor Frankl's account of his years as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz, and the psychological theory he developed from that experience.

A kindred memoir read.

05

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Robert Pirsig · Philosophy

Robert Pirsig's 1974 book is structured as a cross-country motorcycle journey from Minnesota to California, narrated by a father traveling with his young son Chris.

Shares mental illness and self-discovery with The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness.

06

Greenlights

Matthew McConaughey · Memoir

Greenlights is Matthew McConaughey's memoir-philosophy hybrid, built around decades of journals he kept starting in his teens.

Both dig into self-discovery.

07

The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath · Memoir

The Bell Jar is Sylvia Plath's only novel, published in January 1963 under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas, one month before Plath's death.

Both dig into mental illness.

08

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Cheryl Strayed · Memoir

Wild is Cheryl Strayed's account of hiking 1,100 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail alone in 1995 at twenty-six, with no prior backpacking experience and a pack so heavy she could barely lift it.

Both dig into self-discovery.

09

A Beautiful Mind

Sylvia Nasar · Biography

Sylvia Nasar's biography of the mathematician John Nash — Nobel laureate, game theory pioneer, and paranoid schizophrenic — is one of the finest accounts of genius and mental illness in biographical literature.

Both dig into mental illness.

10

Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion

Paul Bloom · Psychology

Paul Bloom's argument is not that we should care less about others.

Both dig into compassion.

11

Anatomy of an Epidemic

Robert Whitaker · Health

Anatomy of an Epidemic is Robert Whitaker's investigation into a paradox: as the use of psychiatric medication in the United States has increased dramatically over the past half-century, the number of people on disability due to mental illness has risen in parallel.

Both dig into mental illness.

12

Brain Energy

Christopher M. Palmer · Health

Brain Energy is Christopher Palmer's argument that mental illness is fundamentally a metabolic disorder — specifically, a disorder of mitochondrial function and brain energy regulation.

Both dig into mental illness.