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Mental Health and the Brain: Books

Mental Health and the Brain:
A Discussion
Fall, 2008

 

Suggested Books for Commentary

An evolving list. Additional suggestions welcome in on-line forum below.

  • Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions. Jaak Panksepp. NY: Oxford University Press. 2004.
  • A Mind Apart: Travels in a Neurodiverse World. Susanne Antonetta. NY: Tarcher. 2007. (Silverman)
  • An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness. Kay Redfield Jamison. NY: Vintage, 1997.
  • Brain and the Inner World: An Introduction to the Neuroscience of the Subjective Experience. Mark Solms. NY: Other Press. 2003.
  • Divided Minds: Twin Sisters and Their Journey Through Schizophrenia. Pamela Spiro Wagner and Carolyn Spiro. NY: St. Martin's Press. 2005.
  • Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious. Gerd Gigerenzer. NY: Penguin. 2008
  • Healing the Soul in the Age of the Brain: Why Medication Isn't Enough. Elio Frattaroli. NY: Penguin. 2002
  • Listening to Prozac. Peter Kramer. NY: Viking. 1993
  • Love's Executioner, and Other Tales of Psychotherapy. Irwin Yalom. NY: Harper. 2000. (Safyer)
  • Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. Michel Foucault. 1988.
  • Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life. Steven Johnson. NY: Scribner. 2005
  • Muses, Madmen, and Prophets: Hearing Voices and the Borders of Sanity. Daniel B. Smith. NY: Penguin Books. 2007.
  • My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey. Jill Bolte Taylor. NY: Viking, 2008.
  • Neurobiology for Clinical Social Work: Theory and Practice. Jeffrey S. Applegate and Janet R. Shapiro. NY: WW Norton, 2005.
  • Of Two Minds: An Anthropologist Looks at American Psychiatry. T.M. Luhrmann. NY: Vintage, 2000.
  • Open-Minded: Working Out the Logic of the Soul. Jonathan Lear. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1998.
  • Religion, Culture, and Mental Health. Kate Loewenthal. NY: Cambridge University Press. 2007.
  • Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and the New Biology of Mind. Eric Kandel. NY: American Psychiatric Publishing Co. 2005.
  • Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are. Joseph LeDoux. NY: Penguin. 2003.
  • The Culture of Our Discontent: Beyond the Medical Models of Mental Illness. Meredith Small. Washington: National Academies Press. 2006.
  • The Cure Within: A History of Mind-Body Medicine. Anne Harrington. NY: W.W. Norton. 2008.
  • The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness. Antonio Damasio. NY: Harvest. 2000.
  • The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and Other Clinical Tales. Oliver Sacks. NY: Touchstone. 1998.
  • The Mindful Brain: Reflection and Attunment in the Cultivation of Well-Being. Daniel Siegel. NY: WW Norton. 2007.
  • The Myth of Empowerment: Women and the Therapeutic Culture in America. Dana Becker. NY: NYU Press. 2005
  • The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy: Building and Rebuilding the Human Brain. Louis Cozolino. NY: WW Norton. 2002.
  • Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism. Temple Grandin. NY: Vintage. 2006.
  • Trauma and the Body: A Sensorimotor Approach to Psychotherapy. Pat Ogden, Kekuni Minton, and Claire Pain. NY: WW Norton. 2006.

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novel reading?

Submitted by Anne Dalke on Thu, 08/28/2008 - 2:50pm.
Three of the best novels I read this summer described a search for mental health; many of the scenes in each were set in therapist's offices, each was told @ least in part by therapists, and each also functions, @ least in part, as a critique of current ways of doing therapy. Occurs to me that looking @ novels/narratives about the search for mental health--that find a way to shape and so manage trauma (by crafting a story that accounts for it?)--might add a nice dimension to this course/conversation.

The novels are
Elliot Perlman, Seven Types of Ambiguity,
Siri Hustvedt, The Sorrows of An American &
Carol Gilligan, Kyra.
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psychotherapy in literature

Submitted by Paul Grobstein on Fri, 08/29/2008 - 10:05am.

Nice thought. Thanks. Along these lines, another novel that comes to mind is

Irvin Yalom, Lying on the Couch (Kerle)

 


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Miscellaneous

Submitted by LauraC on Sun, 08/31/2008 - 5:56pm.

Haven't read/finished any of these but possibly relevant...

 

Consciousness at the Crossroads: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on Brainscience and Buddhism

Visions of Compassion: Western Scientists and Tibetan Buddhists Examine Human Nature

Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind, VS Ramachandran, MD and Sandra Blakeslee

Unstuck: Your Guide to the Seven-Stage Journey Out of Depression, James S. Gordon, MD

The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom, Jonathan Haidt

The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression, Andrew Solomon

Proust Was A Neuroscientist, Jonah Lehrer

The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science, Norman Doidge

Borderline Dilemma The Way It Was For Me, A.J. Mahari (e-books)

The Island of the Colorblind, Oliver Sacks

Making up the Mind: How the Brain Creates Our Mental World, Chris Frith


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I've read Oliver Sacks' An

Submitted by Ljones on Sat, 09/06/2008 - 4:32pm.

I've read Oliver Sacks' An Anthropologist on Mars and Daniel Tammet, who is an autistic savant's Born on a Blue Day. Both seem relevant and were really enjoyable to read.

Another book I've heard of is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon, which is a novel with an autistic protagonist although the author is not himself autistic. 


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Mental Health: Foucault

Submitted by Paul Grobstein on Thu, 09/11/2008 - 10:41am.
Yep, as per first class discussion, we need a wider historical perspective on "mental health". Have added Foucault to the suggested reading list. Am a little bemused by my not having thought of it earlier.
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Mental Health: Books

Submitted by merry2e on Fri, 09/12/2008 - 5:07pm.

Hello all,

Just thought that I would share part of an extensive list I started last semester...thanks for all of the other books on the list!

Trauma related: 

The Gift of Fear - Gavin DeBecker

The Body Remebers: Psychophysiology of Trauma ( I feel very strongly that anyone working with trauma survivors should read this!) - Babette Rothschild

Traumatic Dissociation: Neurobiology and Treatment - Edited by Vermetten, Dorahy, Spiegel (technical but suggest for psych majors with nbs concentration or anyone interested in trauma!)

 

Growing Up Girl: An Anthropology of Voices from Marginalized Spaces - Edited by Michele Sewell

Insecure At Last:Losing IT In Our Security Obsessed World - Eve Ensler

A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant, and a Prayer - Eve Ensler ( I suggest this especially for anyone working with survivors of war)

Traumatic or Acquired Brain Injuries:

Head Cases - Michael Paul Mason (short stories of his experiences with clients)

Anything by Oliver Sacks!

Ethics/Spirituality/Philosophy:

The Tacit Dimension - Michael Polanyi (I think a must read for everyone!)

Experiments in Ethics - Kwame Anthony Appiah

The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality - Dalai Lama

Self Help and Alterrnative Therapy:

Getting the Love You Want - Harville Hendrix, PhD

( Imago Therapy-this is great type of therapy and a great way to learn how to talk with others in general)

 

Enjoy reading and I look forward to adding some of the others on Serendip to my list...

Meredith

 

 

 


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