9 Psychology Books Worth a Read
In bookstores around the world, the psychology genre is one of the most popular among readers today. Managing our emotions and understanding how we operate internally is essential to leading a full life, which is why psychology books are excellent tools for knowledge and personal growth.
There are many areas and branches of psychology, and what might be useful to you depends on the time in which you find yourself and what difficulty, or conversely, what area of your life you want to develop or deal with.
Today we bring you nine psychology books that we at Exploring Your Mind recommend and consider to be the most influential.
“Irrational beliefs (…) are a psychologist’s worst enemies; we face them like hunters and we do not get tired of fighting and eliminating them, day after day. And there are so many! “
-The Art of Not Making Yourself Miserable, Rafael Santandreu–
1. The Art of Making Yourself Miserable by Paul Watzlawick
It is a short psychology book, written in simple language and is full of anecdotes that tell us about the wrong attitudes we have every day which prevent us from being happy. Definitely one of the most recommended psychology books for all ages.
In addition, it’s a book that helps us recognize our personal style in different situations, offering the opportunity to discover how we create an unfortunate and unhappy reality with our mental mechanisms. It’s a great opportunity to start getting to know yourself.
2. The Art of Not Making Yourself Miserable by Rafael Santandreu
This is the book we took the citation from at the beginning. We do not know if the author wrote the book after having read the one we just mentioned, but in reality they deal with the same subject, although in a very different way.
In this psychology book, Santandreu, one of the most important psychologists in Spain, speaks based on his experience of what behaviors and attitudes are more dangerous for mental health and how they can damage our quality of life.
3. Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
It’s a book that was written long ago and still has a high educational value. It is highly recommended and is a reference for many psychologists today. In this book the author brilliantly analyzes the relationship between thought and emotion.
In addition, Daniel Goleman explains what emotional intelligence is, how we can promote it and why it is formed. It is a well-known psychology book and helps us better understand ourselves and those around us.
4. Your Erroneous Zones by Wayne Dyer
As with the previous book, despite having been written many years ago, it is still a reference for many psychologists. The book makes us aware of the behaviors that prevent us from being happy and gives us practical tools for positive change.
Actually, it is a handy psychology book because it offers exercises in each chapter to help you identify what your irrational beliefs are and how we sometimes complicate life through worries, guilt or the need of approval from others.
Improving your attitude, learning to establish healthy relationships and learning the basics of mental health are some of the themes.
5. Love or Dependency? by Walter Riso
This is one of the most recommended psychology books for people who want to understand the fundamentals for establishing positive interpersonal relationships based on healthy love and not on emotional dependency.
Love or Dependency shows us how to have full and satisfying romantic relationships, overcome emotional dependency and give ourselves an adequate understanding about love.
6. The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat by Oliver Sacks
It’s a rather atypical psychology book about the pathologies that can be found during a session with a psychologist and how they affect patients. This narrates 20 clinical stories in a very human way.
7. Powerful Mind by Bernabé Tierno
Currently, there is a belief that we are slaves to what we think. We believe that change is not possible. In this book, Bernabé Tierno teaches us that the mind is our best weapon and how we can use it to create positive change.
8. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
This book was an unexpected international success. In it, we face learn to understand the two systems that control how we think in order to improve our quality of life through the quality of our thoughts.
Daniel Kahneman surprises us by showing how our brain can become less reliable, as it is full of bias, as well as false and often unfinished rationing. It is one of those psychology books that we cannot forget to read if we want to know more about how we think.
9. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
Habits are part of our life and also determine our well-being. It is important to make ourselves aware of them and change those that are not contributing something positive to our lives. This book is an excellent tool to achieve that.
These are the nine psychology books you should read, whether you’ve set a goal to learn more about this field or to pursue better well-being and satisfaction with your life overall. We hope that these recommendations have been useful.
