The best books that explore the human mind

Oliver Sacks was a pioneer in writing about the varieties of the mind, particularly describing his patients with neurological conditions and differences. In many ways, he was talking about neurodiversity even before we had a name for it. This book was written as he was dying of cancer, as he reflected on an important emotion – gratitude. He makes an eloquent case for being grateful for all the simple, beautiful things that life offers and that we often take for granted, and how the emotion of gratitude changes your relationship to the world, to others, and to yourself. This is relevant to anyone wanting to live a moral and happy life. 

This book deservedly won the Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. It is simultaneously a history of autism, and a history of the concept of neurodiversity. It reaches back to the origins of the internet and the dark history of eugenics in the Holocaust. And it reaches forward into contemporary ideas about respecting, accepting, and celebrating differences in the mind, particularly of autistic people.

When a young person thinking about studying psychology asks me to recommend a single book to illustrate why I love the field of psychology, I always recommend this book. Steve helped to popularise scientific books about the mind at a time when fellow academics often looked down on popular science. Thankfully such books are now seen as vital outreach, ensuring research gets out of academia and into the wider public. This book takes one aspect of the mind – the uniquely human capacity for language – and looks at it from every angle, from neuroscience to evolution, and from clinical and cultural perspectives. His writing style is wonderfully clear, often entertaining, and educational. 

This novel has been turned into a stage play, and both formats have helped the general public to understand the experience of what it is like to grow up as autistic. Although it is fiction, it conveys how an autistic teenager can feel on the margins, experience a sense of detachment, and see the world differently from other people. It brings out the disabilities that are part of autism, such as difficulties in social relationships and sensory overload. And it brings out the strengths that are part of autism, such as remarkable attention to and memory for detail, a narrow, deep focus on topics, and a logical search for patterns and truth. The main character is not only autistic but was also the victim of child physical abuse, and the reader should be careful not to confuse the effects of these, as they are distinct.

Maria Cantacuzino’s favourite emotion is forgiveness. I agree with her it is a powerful emotion and a good way to live. Maria founded a unique and important charity, The Forgiveness Project, which helps victims forgive the perpetrators of their crimes by understanding their back story, and gives perpetrators a chance to understand the feelings of their victim and apologise. There is a very close link between forgiveness and empathy, because when a victim forgives a perpetrator they are setting aside the immediate desire for revenge and hate, to understand the reasons why a person might have done bad things. And when a perpetrator apologises to a victim, they are no longer seeing the person as an object but can now see the person as a subject, with feelings such as pain and loss. Maria explores the limits of forgiveness and argues there are no limits, however awful the crime. Her book changes how we think about criminals and what prisons should do, and is a recipe for how to make the world a more compassionate place.