100 books like Bad Therapy

To understand why mental illness has such a strong pull in American culture, it is important to understand how mental illness is created in the first place. Yes, created.

When I was depressed and taking antidepressants, I thought my depression was caused by a chemical imbalance and that it was just who I was. After all, that’s what the doctors told me. We now know the chemical imbalance theory is unsubstantiated, and yet the narrative remains.

Watters’ book blew my mind by showing exactly how the false chemical imbalance theory was exported all over the world and why this has fundamentally affected recovery rates—for the worse—all over the globe. 

There is an uncomfortable question in the world of mental health and treatment that everyone thinks about, but no one says out loud: If medicating mental illness with psychiatric drugs was really working, why are people getting worse?

This book examines over fifty years of research to find the answer and comes to a startling conclusion. I think it is the single most comprehensive and explanatory book on the market about the true nature and outcomes of psychiatric drugs and that it should be required reading in all medical schools.

It is also divided into multiple diagnoses (schizophrenia, bipolar, depression, and ADHD), which I found particularly useful as someone who focuses mostly on the history and treatment of depression.

A book about pharmaceutical corruption and manipulative science can rarely make me laugh out loud, but Bad Science does just that.

Not only did the book make me a better advocate for my health by teaching me what red flags to look out for in research and shady science journalism, but it kept me consistently entertained to the point where I was disappointed when the book ended. It should be required reading in all high school science classes. 

Though this is technically an academic book, it is extremely readable and the best account of the manipulative marketing, hidden court cases, and corruption that occurred during the development of Prozac and Zoloft.

It’s one of those books where, if my mother or I had read it before I was medicated at 15, I’m quite sure we would not have made the same choices. 

We love the side-by-side pairing of two separate (but inseparable) concepts: a child’s inner needs and a child’s outer life.

Author Stephanie Malia Krauss carefully considers the social, emotional, and environmental factors that can help every child thrive. And because it’s written as a guidebook, Whole Child, Whole Life helps busy parents and teachers get straight to the things that matter most.

Plus, it’s beautifully illustrated by Manuel S. Herrera!

I have long been interested in Seigman's work on positive psychology. Increasingly, we are living in a world where hope is a diminishing commodity. Wars, economic downturns, and the climate crisis are all making life feel more uncertain, and 24-hour news culture and an omnipresent internet make it difficult for young people to escape the negative images that bombard them.

Statistics on children and young people’s mental health are frightening, with NHS England estimating that in 2023, 1 in 5 children and young people aged between 8 and 25 had a probable mental health disorder. Parents and practitioners alike are looking at these statistics in dismay and wondering how we can best equip and safeguard our children. Seligman’s book confronts these issues head-on in a thought-provoking and evidenced-based way.

This highly practical book considers how optimism can be learned and that by viewing setbacks as temporary, children and young people… show more.

Dr. Naumburg’s books, including this one, offer a fresh perspective on parenting.

In this book, she compels parents to practice radical self-compassion. I find her message comforting and welcome, especially in an era when parents get messages from literally everywhere about all of the things they need to do better. Ironically, our feelings of guilt and anxiety about parenting can actually get in the way of good parenting, so finding a way to tune out these voices is important.

Dr. Naumburg is here to tell parents to accept that we are human, that parenting standards are impossibly hard, and that we should be more understanding of ourselves. This just feels really good to hear, especially on the heels of the pandemic, and I think we all need this message.

This is the kind of book I frequently recommend to friends and clients. 

Anxious Parents: A History of Modern Childrearing in America probes what I consider to be the basic dilemma of modern American parenting – how the love for children and concern for their welfare has led to growing anxiety among parents eager to do it right. 

In imaginative research into different dimensions of culture, Stearns shows that middle-class parents became increasingly self-conscious and self-questioning about meeting the needs of their children starting in the early twentieth century. The book probes the emotional consequences of modern parenting’s commitment to encouraging child expression and individual happiness.

Stearns’s exploration demonstrates one of the consequences of the revolution—from viewing children as having utility to having only emotional value—first defined by Zelizer. It suggests how even the best-intended changes can have unexpected consequences.

This book is a bit of a gut punch, as it’s asking one of the hardest questions for those of us who are parents: how do we raise our kids in this scary, modern world? The heart of the dilemma buried in this question is that we want to do everything we can for our kids, but in a world of dwindling resources, spending so many of them and passing on as much privilege as we can feels like trying to best position our children on a sinking ship.

While I have come to terms with the idea that I ought to sacrifice my own interests in the name of calming a world on fire, it’s quite something else to realize that perhaps I ought to sacrifice some interests of the person whom I love most in the world—that perhaps they’re not entitled to everything I want to give them.… show more.

Parents are the foundation of our society. However, too many parents do not receive the support they need to meet the needs of their children.

Dr. Dana Suskind, my incredible wife, combines the latest science on the key role of parents in the development of children’s brains with stories of the experience of parents left shouldering this vital responsibility. Leaving parents unsupported is detrimental not only to children and families, but also society.

This book is essential for all members of society to read in order to understand why and, importantly, how we must support parents. Parent Nation provides a blueprint for a more sustainable future.