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Nonfiction Books » Psychology » New Psychology Books

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New Psychology Books

Last updated: January 05, 2025

There are lots of interesting new psychology books coming out, as psychologists try and inform the public about the latest findings, whether the topic is happiness and mental health or depression, conflicts with other people or bad habits and time management. They're written in a way that draws on research but is accessible to the general reader. We've selected those that have come to our attention below.

We are lucky to live in an age when talking about mental health struggles is no longer taboo, and we've also included books that chronicle personal experiences, such as the book by Horatio Clare, a British travel writer, about his struggle with manic depression: Heavy Light: A Journey Through Madness, Mania and Healing.

Profiles in Mental Health Courage by Patrick J. Kennedy & Stephen Fried
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Profiles in Mental Health Courage

by Patrick J. Kennedy & Stephen Fried

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“Johnny Heller’s moving performance of this excellent audiobook is never out of sync with the shifting moods and overall poignant content offered by the articulate congressman and his cowriter. The authors recount the stories of 12 prominent people with psychiatric disorders as they struggled to manage their symptoms, seek help, and integrate their conditions with their work and personal relationships.” Read more...

The Best Biography & Memoir Audiobooks of 2024

AudioFile Editors,

Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection by Charles Duhigg
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Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection

by Charles Duhigg

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“Duhigg dissects the skills of what he calls ‘super-communicators’—that is, those socially-gifted conversationalists who can guide an interaction successfully and seamlessly, avoid offence while approaching prickly subject matter, and generally convince others to share your point of view.” Read more...

Notable Self-Help & Psychology Books of 2024

Cal Flyn, Five Books Editor

Good Reasonable People: The Psychology Behind America's Dangerous Divide by Keith Payne
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Good Reasonable People: The Psychology Behind America's Dangerous Divide

by Keith Payne

Read expert recommendations

“Keith Payne’s Good Reasonable People feels very timely: it’s a study of partisanship in contemporary America, from the perspective of a social psychologist from rural, Christian Kentucky whose own family splits along political lines. We have, he argues, ‘psychological immune systems’ that swing into action to neutralise information that threatens our self-identity and beliefs. In this way, we may all believe our tribe to be the good, reasonable people of the title—and those who disagree with us to be reckless fools.” Read more...

Notable Self-Help & Psychology Books of 2024

Cal Flyn, Five Books Editor

Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts by Oliver Burkeman
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Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts

by Oliver Burkeman

Read expert recommendations

“Meditation for Mortals, again asks us to—respectfully—get a grip, to accept where we are in our lives rather than living in a fantasy land, and to understand that there will never be a golden day when we finally ‘get on top of things’ and live correctly. He calls on us to reflect on ‘the liberation of defeat’ and ‘the futility of becoming a better person.’ If that sounds gloomy, maybe it’s not the right book for you, but if you are anything like me—that is, an all-or-nothing kind of person who strives for perfection and then jacks it all in when they inevitably fall short—then it might just be the book that will change your life.” Read more...

Notable Self-Help & Psychology Books of 2024

Cal Flyn, Five Books Editor

A Little History of Psychology by Nicky Hayes
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A Little History of Psychology

by Nicky Hayes

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“A Little History of Psychology by British psychologist Nicky Hayes takes psychology from its study under the Greeks to the present.” Read more...

Notable Nonfiction Books of Mid-2024

Sophie Roell, Journalist

The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt
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The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness

by Jonathan Haidt

Read expert recommendations

“Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt (The Coddling of the American Mind, The Happiness Hypothesis) has a new book out, The Anxious Generation, which has been a huge hit in the United States, sitting on the bestseller lists for weeks. In it, he argues that the age of the smartphone has royally messed up our adolescents. ‘Continuous access to social media, online video games, and other internet-based activities’ disturbs their sleep, fragments their attention, and acts, effectively, as an addictive substance. He links the rise of social media to a spike in mental illness and anxiety.” Read more...

Notable Self-Help & Psychology Books of 2024

Cal Flyn, Five Books Editor

Misbelief: What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things by Dan Ariely
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Misbelief: What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things

by Dan Ariely

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Psych: The Story of the Human Mind by Paul Bloom
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Psych: The Story of the Human Mind

by Paul Bloom

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“Serves as an accessible and highly readable overview of the field of psychology. It draws from his immensely popular introductory psychology class at Yale, reportedly one of the university’s most popular courses of all time. In it, he leads the reader through the work of early researchers (including Pavlov’s dogs and Skinner’s pigeons), into a discussion of the malleability of memory and emotion, and the complex questions surrounding consciousness. It would be perfect for the curious layman or a switched-on school leaver considering a degree in psychology.” Read more...

Notable Psychology and Self-Help Books of 2023

Cal Flyn, Five Books Editor

Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life by Dacher Keltner
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Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life

by Dacher Keltner

Awe is by Dacher Keltner, a professor of psychology at UC Berkeley. It's not the first book suggesting 'awe' as a possible solution to all our problems (see, for example, Awe by Paul Pearsall), but it's trying to put it on a scientific footing. Early on, Keltner provides a good definition of what awe is: "Awe is the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your current understanding of the world." This is a highly readable, accessible book and even if awe turns out not to be your cup of tea, it's a really interesting study of/reflection on a seemingly ineffable emotion.

Read expert recommendations

You Are Not Alone: Navigating Mental Illness and the Journey to Recovery by Ken Duckworth
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You Are Not Alone: Navigating Mental Illness and the Journey to Recovery

by Ken Duckworth

You Are Not Alone is a good book to look at if you or someone you love is struggling with their mental health. It's by American psychiatrist Ken Duckworth, Chief Medical Officer of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). The book aims to be a practical guide, combining the latest evidence or advice from scientific research with examples of what some people are actually going through (starting with Duckworth's own family experience). Mental illness is a big challenge and Duckworth is candid about the limitations of current knowledge. He writes, "We know that mental illnesses are real, and common, but they emerge from a brain with about 100 billion neurons (give or take a few billion) that we do not yet fully understand." Chapters include "Do I Need Help?" or "Helping Your Child, Teen or Young Adult." There's also a section "Experts Answer the Most Frequently Asked Questions."

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What Mental Illness Really Is… (and what it isn’t) by Lucy Foulkes
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What Mental Illness Really Is… (and what it isn’t)

by Lucy Foulkes

Out in paperback and with a new title, What Mental Illness Really Is (and what it isn't), is by academic psychologist Lucy Foulkes. It's an important look at what we know about mental illness and what we don't, and a call to increase public understanding of mental health so that we're all better equipped to help people.

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The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Transform Your Life by David Robson
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The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Transform Your Life

by David Robson

Mind really does have power over matter, and if you didn't believe that before, this book sets out to prove it, reporting on the latest research and experiments.

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A Love That Kills: Stories of Forensic Psychology and Female Violence by Anna Motz
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A Love That Kills: Stories of Forensic Psychology and Female Violence

by Anna Motz

A Love That Kills is by Anna Motz, a forensic psychotherapist who has spent the last three decades working in prisons. This book tells the story of 11 women, and how they came to commit violent crimes.

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Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
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Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

by Oliver Burkeman

***🏆  A Five Books Book of the Year ***

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“It’s a book about what we do with our limited time on Earth, how we decide to prioritise and proportion our time. To that extent it’s a book of ethics in the face of inevitable death. It’s a combination of sometimes witty, sometimes terrifying exploration of the human condition, and at the same time an antidote to those time management books that tell you how you can maximise your productivity, taking on more and more tasks and completing them efficiently.” Read more...

The Best Philosophy Books of 2021

Nigel Warburton, Philosopher

7½ Lessons About the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett
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7½ Lessons About the Brain

by Lisa Feldman Barrett

7½ Lessons About the Brain falls into that most wonderful of modern book genres, the 'neuroscience beach read.' Published in the US in 2020, the beautiful UK edition came out in March, 2021. Lisa Feldman Barrett, a leading psychologist and neuroscientist, spoke to us about books about emotions. If you'd like to hear her voice, she narrates the audiobook of 7½ Lessons About the Brain herself.

Read expert recommendations

Being You: A New Science of Consciousness by Anil Seth
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Being You: A New Science of Consciousness

by Anil Seth

***🏆 A Five Books Book of the Year ***

Read expert recommendations

“It’s a book about the nature of consciousness, one of the most intractable problems that human beings have come across. How do we understand how we, as apparently material beings made of flesh and bone—and, in particular, millions of neurones—get to the position of having qualitative experience, through the experience of the world through our senses, reflection and experience? Beautifully written, easy to read, hard to put down. It’s passionate, and it’s not patronising.” Read more...

The Best Philosophy Books of 2021

Nigel Warburton, Philosopher

When Brains Dream: Exploring the Science and Mystery of Sleep by Antonio Zadra & Robert Stickgold
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When Brains Dream: Exploring the Science and Mystery of Sleep

by Antonio Zadra & Robert Stickgold

In When Brains Dream Tony Zadra, a professor at the University of Montreal, and Bob Stickgold, a professor at Harvard Medical School, bring us up to date on what the latest scientific research says about dream and dreaming, ending our reliance on popular wisdom based on what Freud wrote more than a century ago. It's written in an (overly?) friendly style—almost as if you had met them at a drinks party and they were telling you all about their research—but it's really informative. If you're interested in sleep in general, the authors also recommend Why We Sleep, the bestselling 2017 book by Professor Matthew Walker, a neuroscientist and psychologist at UC Berkeley.

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The Sweet Spot by Paul Bloom
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The Sweet Spot

by Paul Bloom

The Sweet Spot is by Yale psychologist Paul Bloom, author of How Pleasure Works. It's about happiness in the broadest sense (what might be called 'eudaimonia') and the part pain and suffering play in it. Bloom is constantly doing experiments and reading about experiments that others are doing on issues of happiness, morality, pleasure, pain etc. and the book is full of these. He then throws in quotes and views from literature—Shakespeare, the Epic of Gilgamesh, Brave New World), songs, Twitter. Even the acknowledgements are funny: "Daniel Gilbert deserves special mention for nearly persuading me that the whole idea of this book is deeply confused. (He did this once I had finished writing it—thanks, Dan!)"

Read expert recommendations

Conflicted: How Productive Disagreements Lead to Better Outcomes by Ian Leslie
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Conflicted: How Productive Disagreements Lead to Better Outcomes

by Ian Leslie

Conflicted by British journalist Ian Leslie is a thought-provoking look at what recent research says about arguments, mostly at a personal level, though public personalities and events are brought in to illustrate some of the main points. Disagreements, it turns out, make for better relationships, more accurate Wikipedia pages, and even helped in the discovery of DNA. The key, then, is to get better at having them. Leslie lays out some practical tips of how to achieve that, including the example of Nelson Mandela, who won over a sworn enemy by inviting him to tea.

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Hard to Break: Why Our Brains Make Habits Stick by Russell Poldrack
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Hard to Break: Why Our Brains Make Habits Stick

by Russell Poldrack

In Hard to Break: Why Our Brains Make Habits Stick, Stanford psychologist Russell Poldrack explains the science that makes us unable to give up bad habits even when we really want to. He also offers some possible solutions.

Read expert recommendations

Heavy Light: A Journey Through Madness, Mania and Healing by Horatio Clare
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Heavy Light: A Journey Through Madness, Mania and Healing

by Horatio Clare

Memoirist and bestselling travel writer Horatio Clare tells his story of what it was like to go mad, in what looks to be a heartbreaking, funny and invaluable look at what it's like to live with manic depression.

Read expert recommendations

Sick Souls, Healthy Minds: How William James Can Save Your Life by John Kaag
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Sick Souls, Healthy Minds: How William James Can Save Your Life

by John Kaag

William James, one of the founders of pragmatism and empirical psychology, struggled with the question of what made life worth living. In this book, philosopher John Kaag—who spoke to us about the best books of American philosophy—explains how James's ideas can help those of us who struggle with the same question.

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Know Thyself: The Science of Self-Awareness by Stephen Fleming
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Know Thyself: The Science of Self-Awareness

by Stephen Fleming

Know Thyself: The Science of Self-Awareness by cognitive neuroscientist Stephen Fleming is a  scientific, philosophical, and practical book that sheds lights on 'metacognition'—our thoughts about thoughts and the importance of self-awareness to almost anything we embark on.

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    Notable Self-Help & Psychology Books of 2024, recommended by Cal Flyn

  • Read
    Notable Self-Help & Psychology Books of 2024 - The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt

    1

    The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness
    by Jonathan Haidt

  • Read
    Notable Self-Help & Psychology Books of 2024 - Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts by Oliver Burkeman

    2

    Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts
    by Oliver Burkeman

  • Read
    Notable Self-Help & Psychology Books of 2024 - Good Reasonable People: The Psychology Behind America's Dangerous Divide by Keith Payne

    3

    Good Reasonable People: The Psychology Behind America's Dangerous Divide
    by Keith Payne

  • Read
    Notable Self-Help & Psychology Books of 2024 - A Little History of Psychology by Nicky Hayes

    4

    A Little History of Psychology
    by Nicky Hayes

  • Read
    Notable Self-Help & Psychology Books of 2024 - Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection by Charles Duhigg

    5

    Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection
    by Charles Duhigg

  • Five Books deputy editor Cal Flyn offers a concise round-up of the most notable newly released psychology and self-help books of 2024, taking in a study of partisanship in Trump's America, a strongly-argued case against 'the phone-based childhood,' and a manual for improving your own communication skills.

  • Notable Self-Help & Psychology Books of 2024 - The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt
  • Notable Self-Help & Psychology Books of 2024 - Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts by Oliver Burkeman
  • Notable Self-Help & Psychology Books of 2024 - Good Reasonable People: The Psychology Behind America's Dangerous Divide by Keith Payne
  • Notable Self-Help & Psychology Books of 2024 - A Little History of Psychology by Nicky Hayes
  • Notable Self-Help & Psychology Books of 2024 - Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection by Charles Duhigg

Notable Self-Help & Psychology Books of 2024, recommended by Cal Flyn

Five Books deputy editor Cal Flyn offers a concise round-up of the most notable newly released psychology and self-help books of 2024, taking in a study of partisanship in Trump's America, a strongly-argued case against 'the phone-based childhood,' and a manual for improving your own communication skills.

Notable Self-Help & Psychology Books of 2024, recommended by Cal Flyn

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