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John Thacker's top 10 psychology books

Thu 01 / 10 / 15

John Thacker's top 10 psychology books

 

John Thacker, Director of Clark Brownscombe, tells us about his favourite psychology books. 

I’m now giving you my 3rd top 10 books list, this time on psychology.  I hasten to add that I’m using the word “psychology” in a broad sense of understanding our own and other people’s behaviour and how we can improve at least the former of these.
  1. Man’s Search for Meaning (Viktor Frankl) – if you asked me to vote for the greatest book of the 20th century, it would be this one.  This is an account of the author’s experiences in a concentration camp and how it lead to his development of the psychology of logotherapy.
  2. No-one Understands You and What To Do About It – (Heidi  Halvorson) – well that is how I feel anyway.  This is an excellent exploration about how perceiving people – including yourself – accurately is perhaps the most difficult thing we humans do.
  3. The Willpower Instinct (Kelly McGonigal) – how self-control works, why it matters and what you can do to get more of it.
  4. The Master and His Emissary (Iain McGilchrist) – this book radically changed my thinking about how our brains work and the impact that left-brain dominance has had on our current society.  It is a long book but I strongly recommend you read it.
  5. The Happiness Advantage (Shawn Achor) – happiness fuels success and not the other way round.  Learn how you can raise your happiness (and therefore success) level.
  6. Learned Optimism (Martin Seligman) – Martin Seligman is the father of positive psychology and this book shows the importance of optimism and how you can change the way you think.
  7. Flow (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi) – yet another classic on effectiveness and happiness which is achieved by operating in the “Goldilocks” zone.
  8. Drive (Daniel Pink) – Daniel Pink is a great writer and in this book you will learn that the three essential elements to our motivation are autonomy, mastery and purpose.
  9. Predictably Irrational (Dan Ariely) – Dan Ariely writes insightfully and amusingly, demonstrating how none of us are as rational (or as honest) as we think.  Do look out for his other books on this subject (as all great series it is a trilogy).
  10. Thanks! (Robert Emmons) – this professor of psychology is an expert on gratitude, and his studies have shown that practising gratitude really will improve your life and happiness.
Thank you for reading this list – I am very grateful (and now happier).
 
If you have any questions for John, or if you would like to share your favourites, send him an email at johnt@cbhove.co.uk.
 
 
 

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