The Power-Up is the best way stay up to date on the gaming industry news. Click here to find out why!

Best Psychology Books

The Power-Up is the best way stay up to date on the gaming industry news. Click here to find out why!

There’s nothing quite like delving into the best psychology books to gain a deeper understanding of yourself and others around you. As 450 million people suffer from mental disorders, if not more, due to a stigma of seeking help, this is by far one of the essential subjects to consider.

Although self-diagnosis isn’t recommended, the best books on psychology can help you to better understand the afflictions you encounter daily. Even for students who are searching for curriculum materials or books that can help you to understand a topic in your classes better, these titles will prove to be invaluable.

You can guarantee there won’t be a shortage of materials, as you can browse through titles written by authors who have dealt with anxiety, depression, substance abuse, bipolar disorder, and more. Having a deeper understanding of the human psyche and how it can be affected over the years is an asset that plenty of people do not have.

The best books on psychology are incredibly notable, as trained professionals in the field wrote them. Not only will you have statistically valid information at your fingertips, but you will also be able to gain experience from individuals who have been face to face with patients suffering from an assortment of disorders.

Being able to understand how to assess, diagnose, and treat these disorders can provide you with the stepping stones you need to establish yourself as a trained psychologist or psychiatrist.

If you’re not searching for classroom texts, psychology books can also assist you in dealing with a loved one’s diagnosis. Plenty of the titles that we recommend are fantastic resources for families struggling through mental disorders, especially if you have a fundamental understanding of the ones you’re faced with.

Using these books can assist you with making a choice to get help, or helping a family member in getting help for themselves. With the help of the best psychology books on this list, you will have the opportunity to see yourself in a different, healthier way, which is better not only for you but for everyone around you, as well.

Best Psychology Books, Best Books on Psychology

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

It taught me so much about marketing and human psychology. I keep referring back to that book all the time. It has been instrumental in inspiring the marketing strategies I used to propel Rails and Basecamp.
David Heinemeier Hansson
Co-Founder/Basecamp
The Road Less Travelled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth

The Road Less Travelled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth

It helps you take a deeper look and understand why certain things happen in your life. It's an introduction to psychology. It helps you divide a person, just like you would do with a mathematical equation.
Iulian Stanciu
Founder/eMag
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

My children’s school recommended that we read Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. The book has a lot of great information that is as applicable to managers at high growth companies as it is to parents. The key takeaway for me is that highly capable people tend to be risk-avoiders because they are afraid of failure. They get so used to being praised for their achievements that they end up not pushing themselves to their full potential for fear of looking dumb. As a parent (or a manager), the book recommends praising effort, not accomplishment, and creating an environment that encourages risk-taking and celebrates failure. This is a concept that really resonates with me, not only as a part of my parenting style, but in the way I lead at Zillow Group. Our core values as a company encourage employees to take big swings, with the understanding that they won’t all work out. It’s how we’ve achieved our current success, and it’s what motivates our employees.
Spencer Rascoff
CEO/Zillow Group
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

While re-reading Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s wonderful book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, I came across this passage on working crossword puzzles. I think he could just as well be talking about making blackout poems:

"There is much to be said in favor of this popular pastime, which in its best form resembles the ancient riddle contests. It is inexpensive and portable, its challenges can be finely graduated so that both novices and experts can enjoy it, and its solution produces a sense of pleasing order that gives one a satisfying feeling of accomplishment. It provides opportunities to experience a mild state of flow to many people who are stranded in airport lounges, who travel on commuter trains, or who are simply whiling away Sunday mornings."

Austin Kleon
Author/Steal Like an Artist
Coach and Couch: The Psychology of Making Better Leaders

Coach and Couch: The Psychology of Making Better Leaders

At a young age it wasn’t the academical books as the material presented at school wasn’t that interesting but I was lucky that both my parents loved reading and I was brought up to read and it became a habit. Later at life the first book that had an impact on me was “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” that made me question certain things about my life and my perspective towards it. As for my career I would say it’s “Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader” “Working Identity” & “Coach & Couch”.
Nadia Al Sheikh
Founder/Deal’n
Psychology of the Stock Market

Psychology of the Stock Market

For those interested in the stock markets ~G.C Selden's 1912 (yes 1912!!) The Psychology of the Stock Market. Human emotions and thought processes remain the same. Greed and fear. Even though my business is in fitness and wellness most of the books are pretty awful and I haven't been influenced by individuals in this sphere. i keep hearing younger trainers talking about bodybuilders and their online presence, videos, etc but that doesn't interest me. No I haven't watched Pumping Iron. There are some very good marketers to be sure such as Pat Rigsby and Ryan Lee who I have bought material from but no book per se has influenced this career.
David Sisk
Founder/David Sisk Fitness
CA$HVERTISING: How to Use More than 100 Secrets of Ad-Agency Psychology to Make Big Money Selling Anything to Anyone

CA$HVERTISING: How to Use More than 100 Secrets of Ad-Agency Psychology to Make Big Money Selling Anything to Anyone

Cashvertising is a virtual blueprint for persuading the consumer mind. It's fast, fun, and a must-read for businesses in all industries.
Roger Dawson
Author/Secrets of Power Negotiating
Positive Psychology in a Nutshell: The Science of Happiness

Positive Psychology in a Nutshell: The Science of Happiness

When asked what books he would recommend to youngsters interested in his professional path, Stephen mentioned Positive Psychology in a Nutshell.
Stephen Lew
Director/The School of Positive Psychology
The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work

The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work

This book opened an ongoing conversation on our team around the relationship between employee happiness and productivity. Achor overturns the conventional belief that happiness is a natural outcome of success. Through practical research, experiences and anecdotes, he illustrates that happiness that will actually lead you to success. Happy people tend to work harder, collaborate better and be more productive. This in turn leads to better results. SoulCycle is and always has been an inherently positive experience and one of the things Achor's book validated for us is that a meaningful commitment to employee well-being is a huge part of why we're successful. We've integrated the book as a resource for our entire organization.
Melanie Whelan
CEO/SoulCycle
Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ

Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ

One of the most eye opening for me was “Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ” as it offered a different perspective on leadership, and how empathy can make you a more successful leader. Every person has some degree of empathy and through this book you understand how to apply it more intently.

Magda Marcu
Co-Founder/Sailo
Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect

Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect

When asked what books he would recommend to youngsters interested in his professional path, Stephen mentioned Social: why our brains are wired to connect.
Stephen Lew
Director/The School of Positive Psychology
Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realise your Potential for Lasting Fulfilment

Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realise your Potential for Lasting Fulfilment

When asked what books he would recommend to youngsters interested in his professional path, Stephen mentioned Authentic Happiness.
Stephen Lew
Director/The School of Positive Psychology
When Panic Attacks

When Panic Attacks

I had been suffering from acute anxiety and panic attacks for 5 years without knowing what the hell was wrong with me while assuming I had every life-threatening disease under the sun. Then one day I picked up a book, "When Panic Attacks" by Áine Tubridy, and read the back. I immediately said to myself, "holy shit, that's me!" Needless to say, I went straight to the counter and made the purchase.
Nicky Cullen
Writer, Anxiety Coach
Consciousness

Consciousness

I am glad to find a complete book dealing with all aspects of consciousness in CLEARLY written format, with graphs and tables to facilitate comprehension. The book covers everything I had seen before from Artificial Intelligence to Philosophy to Neurology to Evolutionary Biology.

Say one wants to get an idea of Dan Dennett's theory of consciousness (without having to get through Dennett's circuitous, unfocused and evasive prose) or Searle's Chinese room argument or Turing's test or Chalmer's position or Churchland's neurophilosophy or a presentation of research on the neural correlates of consciousness...Everything I could think about is there.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Flaneur
The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Affects the Way We Think, Live, and Die

The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Affects the Way We Think, Live, and Die

As 2018 draws to a close, I’m continuing a favorite tradition of mine and sharing my year-end lists. It gives me a moment to pause and reflect on the year through the books I found most thought-provoking, inspiring, or just plain loved. It also gives me a chance to highlight talented authors – some who are household names and others who you may not have heard of before. Here’s my best of 2018 list.
Barack Obama
Former USA President
Stumbling on Happiness

Stumbling on Happiness

My recommendation is to do little tests. Try a few months of living the life you think you want, but leave yourself an exit plan, being open to the big chance that you might not like it after actually trying it... The best book about this subject is Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert. His recommendation is to talk to a few people wo are currently where you think you want to be and ask them for the pros and cons. Then trust their opinion since they're right in it, not just remembering or imagining.
Derek Sivers
Founder/CDBaby
The Courage To Be Disliked: How to free yourself, change your life and achieve real happiness

The Courage To Be Disliked: How to free yourself, change your life and achieve real happiness

Smash hit in Japan, and easy to see why. Adlerian psychology meets Stoic philosophy in Socratic dialogue. Compelling from front to back. Highly recommend.

Marc Andreessen
Co-Founder/Andreessen Horowitz

How Change Happens

It's often said that the only constancy in life is change. Cass Sunstein weaves threads from diverse traditions in behavioral science to explain how big shifts get started.
Angela Duckworth
Author
Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain

Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain

At a conference I recently attended, David talked about his work. It's all anyone discussed for the next two days. This book will help you understand the meat/electricity/chemicals you're carrying around inside your head better than you ever have before.
Seth Godin
Author & Entrepreneur
Thinking and Deciding

Thinking and Deciding

People vote with their wallet --particularly when they do it a second time, when they REpurchase. Those who believe in the "revelation of preferences" should note that there are books one buys again when a copy is lost --particularly when they are read cover to cover.

I am buying another copy of this book as mine was lost or misplaced. That should speak volumes.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Flaneur

We'd love to hear your thoughts, so leave a comment:

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.