# Recommend some nonfiction dealing with psychology **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 26, 2007, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-nonfiction-dealing-with-psychology/427835 "2007-11-26T20:40:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ThirdCultureKid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbce88/32.png) [@ThirdCultureKid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThirdCultureKid)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2007, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-nonfiction-dealing-with-psychology/427835/21 "2007-11-28T06:01:28Z")
So I misread the title to be “fiction”. Disregard the post above. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2007, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-nonfiction-dealing-with-psychology/427835/22 "2007-11-28T09:45:54Z")
Like **olivesmarch4th** , most of the psych reading I’ve done has been social psychology/social history. With that in mind, I recommend [Reviving Ophelia](http://www.amazon.com/Reviving-Ophelia-Adolescent-Ballantine-Readers/dp/0345392825) by Mary Pipher and [The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls](http://www.amazon.com/Body-Project-Intimate-History-American/dp/0679735291/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196241439&sr=1-1) by Joan Jacobs Brumberg to be read together. “Reviving Ophelia” is about modern (sort of; it was written 13 years ago) girls, and offers a lot of case studies. “The Body Project” is about how the relationships between young women and their bodies/identities has changed since the 19th century. They offer similar viewpoints, and Brumberg’s book helps understand how things have come to be the way they were in the '90s. Brumberg also has another book about [the history of anorexia nervosa](http://www.amazon.com/Fasting-Girls-History-Anorexia-Nervosa/dp/0375724486/ref=pd_sim_b_title_3) that I haven’t read, but it looks good. Maybe I’ll add it to my Christmas list. You might want to look at [Wisconsin Death Trip](http://www.amazon.com/Wisconsin-Death-Trip-Michael-Lesy/dp/0826321933/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196242346&sr=1-1). It’s not at all like the other books mentioned, but it has lots of excerpts from newspaper articles published in the 1890s about “lunatics” and from the log books of the state asylum. Really very strange realizing how prevalent suicide was in rural Wisconsin. I second the recommendation of “The Professor and the Madman.” ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2007, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-nonfiction-dealing-with-psychology/427835/23 "2007-11-28T09:51:38Z")
I think [Touched With Fire](http://www.amazon.com/Touched-Fire-Manic-Depressive-Artistic-Temperament/dp/068483183X) is a decent book about Manic Depression. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2007, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-nonfiction-dealing-with-psychology/427835/24 "2007-11-28T12:56:47Z")
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