Asking all therapists, counselors, social workers, and psychoanalysts etc.: what books are on your must read list?

November 13, 2009 11:22 AM

Asking all therapists, counselors, social workers, and psychoanalysts etc.: what books are on your must read list? Do you have a core set of books that have shaped both your professional and personal development? What are they? Why did you choose them?

Feel free to be as wide ranging in your list as you would like - novels, philosophy, neuroscience, religion, psychology, language/linguistics, history, cultural criticism, popular self-help etc. etc.

Thanks So Much!

posted by space_cookie to work & money (13 comments total)

This probably only counts as "etc.", but as a reader of Tarot cards I frequently find myself in an informal counseling role, so I'll take a stab at answering this.

I often re-read William Blake's Book of Urizen. Depending on your perspective, it is a post-modern creation myth, a pointed religious satire, or a prophecy in its own right. Blake every single book is, by definition, a book of error, that no idea survives the painful process of materialization purely intact. This is the platform from which he assaults both religious fundamentalism and our relationship with the material world. The commentary by Kay and Robert Easson in my edition is just as valuable to me as the poem and illustrations themselves.

(That such a reminder of our delusional relationship with books and knowledge was coming from someone who dedicated his life to writing and making books is an irony that did not seem to escape Blake's attention.)

Also, the novel Dr. Neruda's Cure For Evil is an excellent and dark tale about the ways in which analysis can shape people's lives but also destroy them. It's a truly fascinating glimpse into the mind of a practicing psychoanalyst who decides to personally combat (and diagnose and treat) evil behavior that science has no rational explanation for.

This one is a bit dated, but I have found that Jerry Mander's Four Arguments For the Elimination of Television really touches on many of the under-examined shifts our society has undergone as we move toward a completely technological age. It's a fascinating book with some really interesting scientific arguments, but also many emotional arguments that raise interesting questions even 30 years later.
posted by hermitosis at 12:04 PM on November 13, 2009

Blake every single book is, by definition...

Should be: "Blake theorizes that every single book is, by definition, a book of error..."
posted by hermitosis at 12:05 PM on November 13, 2009

A similar question.
posted by jaimev at 12:18 PM on November 13, 2009

[Cleaned up the question's formatting to make its scope clearer.]
posted by cortex at 12:20 PM on November 13, 2009

This book by Mary Pipher is really good. It really humanizes the whole therapeutic process. When I was attempting to get my MSW (I stopped half way through) it was the only book that really inspired me.
posted by Rocket26 at 1:03 PM on November 13, 2009

For some reason my link did not connect. It's "Letters To A Young Therapist" by Mary Pipher.
posted by Rocket26 at 1:05 PM on November 13, 2009

Here are books I have often recommended to clients. I have been out of the field about 10 years, so I'm sure that there are newer books out there, but these were my go-tos:

Communication between the genders: You Just Don't Understand by Deborah Tannen
OCD treament: Brain Lock
Anxiety/Phobia: The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook
Borderline Personality Disorder: I Hate You, Don't Leave Me
ADHD: Driven to Distraction

(I worked primarily with children, but in a community mental health setting where the caseload was unbelievable, so I ended up working with just about every population you can imagine.)

Here are a few that I enjoyed from the therapist's perspective, as well:
Books by Oliver Sacks
Listening to Prozac, Peter Kramer
posted by thebrokedown at 1:21 PM on November 13, 2009

therapists, counselors, social workers, and psychoanalysts

Just a clarification here - a psychoanalyst is someone who practices Freudian psychology, which is a very, very specific viewpoint. It is not a generic term for a therapist.
posted by MesoFilter at 1:21 PM on November 13, 2009

MesoFilter: I'm aware of that and included psychoanalysts specifically because I am interested in Freudian analysis - among other things.
posted by space_cookie at 1:38 PM on November 13, 2009

I'm something of a geek for Freudian psychoanalysis, though I am by no stretch of the imagination a therapist of any kind. I come to it from the perspective of literary criticism. but a friend who is a psychoanalyst recommended Thomas Ogden to me -- he has a really beautiful writing voice that comes across with this perfect, fragile humanity.

and Adam Philips. he's far too clever, and playfully light-hearted in a way that's really fun.
posted by spindle at 6:37 PM on November 13, 2009

This and/or various others by Stephen Mitchell,
Ritual and Spontaneity,
Unformulated Experience,
Anything by Christopher Bollas,
Adam Philips (recommended above),
Michael Eigen,
And even Politics of Experience.
posted by Obscure Reference at 1:05 AM on November 14, 2009

I'm a second year MSW (social work) student, and I've found Skills for Direct Practice in Social Work to be practical and concrete in terms of actually doing social work. I'm studying group work, which is often misunderstood, and there's a chapter in there that does a good job of explaining social work with groups quite concisely.
posted by iliketolaughalot at 9:42 PM on November 15, 2009

Practicing Harm Reduction Psychotherapy: An Alternative Approach to Addictions with the caveat that I am not a therapist, and know the people who wrote it. Nonetheless, I found it to be a transformative and educational book, and recommend it to anyone.
posted by gingerbeer at 9:08 AM on November 16, 2009