The best Medical Psychotherapy TA & NLP books: Reddit reviews

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There's a great book called "Achilles in Vietnam" by psychiatrist Jonathan Shay, who compares PTSD symptoms seen in his patients (Vietnam vets) to the descriptions of Greek soldiers experiencing psychological trauma in Homer's Iliad. It's a really interesting book -- the two main points are that PTSD is not a modern ailment but has been affecting soldiers since the beginning of history, and that honoring soldiers' experiences in a heroic narrative promotes psychological healing in numerous ways.

I watched a one man play last year that, more or less, talked about this. It was just him talking about his experiences in war and how it effected him. But also how he sought comfort in reading and then performing Shakespeare. The most interesting part is the concept of the "berserker" as a form of PTSD. A seeking requirement towards death that leads one down a destructive path. Hence the concept of removing armor and rushing into the melee.

His concept was that Margaret of Anjou was, effectively, a P.O.W and...goes berserk later. I'm not 100% sold on it, but researching it did lead me to read Jonathan Shay's novel "Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character". Which was pretty amazing to read. Comparing Achilles fall into madness to PTSD and veterans was quite interesting and helpful to me.

Here's a link to an article written by the playwright mentioned and link to the book in question

Weirdly enough, all emotional states are survival techniques that can become learned, unconscious, repetitive algorithms just like brushing our teeth . Depression can be viewed as the wonderful "hero" that can put us in a hopeless/helpless mode of submission when we are in danger and fighting or fleeing are not viable. Recurring depression usually comes from early life experiences where the 4 things you just listed were actually helpful belief systems to hinder activity that could bring immense shame/harm to you.

For example, if trying to connect with my parent always leaves me feeling like I am annoying them, concluding that "no one cares" will help me from approaching others and potentially facing this feeling of being let down and being an annoyance. When we learn early on that approaching connection makes things worse, and one cannot control or escape their experience, submission is your best choice.

"You are a burden" is nothing more than a survival mechanism that helped you survive extremely difficult, perhaps traumatic experiences. Weird, huh?

If you'd like to read more, I recommend Janina Fischer's book https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Fragmented-Selves-Trauma-Survivors/dp/0415708230

Hi! I'm sorry to hear about your struggle, it sounds like you're going through a lot of emotions related to her.

The go to treatment for people with bpd is dialectical behavioral therapy, or otherwise known as DBT. I very much recommend that you try to get your daughter into a DBT program. As for how to deal with her, I think the validation section of the dbt workbook would be incredibly helpful for you, and also interpersonal skills such as SET and DEAR MAN.

Best of luck to you and your daughter!

It's gotta be really hard to be a teen in this climate. We can't go back to normal, because people will die. I know you already know that though, and it's just so shitty. I hear what you're saying about the frustration and stress. It's hard enough to be in middle school (if you ask any adult, I think they would agree that middle school is a tough time), let alone have to do this stuff with a global pandemic. It's 100% shit and nobody should disagree with that.

As an adult, I can tell you one thing (and btw - I'm giving myself advice here as I'm typing this because I need it too). This is a real-world version of the "marshmallow test". Step back one bit and take a look at yourself and how you want to manage the situation. You can either be a beacon for yourself or others, or you can go down the crapped-out road of depression. If you use this experience to check your own character, strength and resilience, you might be find that you have deep qualities that you didn't know existed. If you allow yourself just to pool in the "this sucks" mode, your brain will learn that when times get tough, the "this sucks" mode is the default. That's the equivalent of your brain sucking money out of your emotional bank account every time shit comes up in the future. Challenge that, and look back on this Covid crap as a time of immense growth and opportunity that will pay you over and over many years to come.

Also, check out Man's Search for Meaning. It's a book that explains exactly how to function in difficult times. If you ping me your info, I'll send you a copy.

Yup, it's just a form of therapy that helps think us dialectically and improves social relationships. Not adhd specific, but it definitely helped me with the stuff that I developed over the years that my adhd didn't help. I didn't do it with a therapist, because of coronavirus but a therapist probs could teach you all of it in a few sessions. This was the book I bought:

DBT® Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets, Second Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1572307811/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_a40eFbMF03PEF

Due to personal interest, I've read some of Peterson's work. I've not sure he represents the faction of psychologists concerned with the discipline's notorious and existential replicability crisis.

He seems rather content to discuss the Christian Logos and attempt to understand how religion shapes culture. A peculiar topic for a psychologist and is no doubt rife with methodological complexity requiring exceptional detail to procedure. Well, one hopes.

A description courtesy of Amazon:

> Why have people from different cultures and eras formulated myths and stories with similar structures? What does this similarity tell us about the mind, morality, and structure of the world itself? Jordan Peterson offers a provocative new hypothesis that explores the connection between what modern neuropsychology tells us about the brain and what rituals, myths, and religious stories have long narrated. A cutting-edge work that brings together neuropsychology, cognitive science, and Freudian and Jungian approaches to mythology and narrative, Maps of Meaning presents a rich theory that makes the wisdom and meaning of myth accessible to the critical modern mind.

>shoulder

I had to go through this too. It's easy for me to get bored. I would suggest reading A Man's Search for Meaning. It helped change my perspective. https://www.amazon.com/-/es/Viktor-Frankl/dp/0807014273/ref=sr_1_2?__mk_es_US=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&dchild=1&keywords=victor+frankel&qid=1620306098&sr=8-2

Have a look at Janina Fisher's book Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors. It's about structual dissociation and also talks about therapeutic methods useful to help address it, including IFS. https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Fragmented-Selves-Trauma-Survivors/dp/0415708230

It's part memoir, part self-help, but Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. It's written by a Jewish psychologist who was sent to a concentration camp during WWII, and used his experience to write a guide on coping with suffering. Despite the intimidating title, it's a short book and a quick read, and has definitely jolted me from a few ruts in my life.

THIS book has everything you need. I would recommend starting with mindfulness (the book has all of the skills and handouts as well as the worksheets/homework associated with them). Then work through the other modules (Emotion Regulation, Interpersonal Effectiveness, and Distress Tolerance) in any order. If you're in a bad place now I recommend starting with Distress Tolerance because that is the most immediately useful.

Most DBT classes introduce one skill per week and assign the associated worksheet(s) as homework. You can work through the skills at any pace you'd like but I like having a whole week to focus on practicing and using a single skill.

There’s a book that may help called Dbt skills training by Marsha Linehan that has a lot of material that’s been useful to me. Also if you can afford therapy , it helps...a lot. Also there may be a Dbt group therapy available via zoom . It definitely helps with emotional regulation, I understand what you’re goin through and it’s brutal. Here’s the book on Amazon DBT® Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets, Second Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1572307811/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_GXZGW97XXKC7JK79A5DT

There is a book called Many Life Many Masters by Brian L. Weiss, where he speaks about his time as a clinical psychologist where he had a young troubled patient, he uses regression therapy to make her experience her past lives and that way overcome her issues.

It is pretty interesting even if you don't believe in reincarnation. There are also several youtube videos that teach you how to go step by step through the regression process. There are other books, you would have to find them on Amazon so you can buy them.

Not referral link btw.

> I would rather not talk softly about what IS harmful.

Amen.

A friend of mine w/some borderline traits (her words) who also happens to be a psychiatrist put it this way:

Borderlines have a painfully unique capacity to destroy other people's lives.

Not sure what advice to give on how to spot a dangerous one from afar. My sister is probably undiagnosed BPD so I'll sometimes pick up a familiar vibe. More often, I'll inadvertently do something completely benign that triggers that kind of behavior and that'll be my clue to erect some hardcore, very black and white boundaries.

This book had some good insights on dealing with borderlines, even though the section on SPD kind of sucked:

Borderline, Narcissistic, and Schizoid Adaptations: The Pursuit of Love, Admiration, and Safety

good luck

I highly recommend DBT (dialectical behavior therapy) skills, and you can find a lot of information on them if you google it. There’s an official workbook you can get on Amazon here. It’s worth it if you have the money, but there are also lots of good free resources out there.

Before you pay $1000s buy this book and look through it. See if anything helps you. It’s what I used for therapy.

DBT® Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets, Second Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1572307811/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_5FR80DWC3T118G2D6VVM

Community mental health centers offer a sliding scale based on your income, all you have to do is ask. I use Dialectical Behavior Therapy, there is a big book by Dr. Marsha M. Linehan that includes handouts and worksheets, you might consider the book. If you are in the US, use the suicide hotline 1-800-273-8255 when you're feeling low and consider reaching out to a chaplain, or pastor at your church, if you attend, or have in the past. You are not alone, I care about you and hope you'll reach out for your resources.

Cool, yeah the article is really helpful.

I mentioned a book in that post too: https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Fragmented-Selves-Trauma-Survivors/dp/0415708230/

That goes into much more detail about structural dissociation, how we are these fragmented selves and not a whole individual. If you're looking to understand the where these things come from and techniques for how to deal with it, it's a great read and pretty accessible.

Many Lives, Many Masters by Dr. Brian Weiss has had a big influence on my personal outlook and the way I treat others.

>As a traditional psychotherapist, Dr. Brian Weiss was astonished and skeptical when one of his patients began recalling past-life traumas that seemed to hold the key to her recurring nightmares and anxiety attacks. His skepticism was eroded, however, when she began to channel messages from the “space between lives,” which contained remarkable revelations about Dr. Weiss’ family and his dead son. Using past-life therapy, he was able to cure the patient and embark on a new, more meaningful phase of his own career. With more than one million copies in print, Many Lives, Many Masters is one of the breakthrough texts in alternative psychotherapy and remains as provocative and timeless as it was when first published.

Awesome question OP you might find this book interesting :)

“Many Lives, Many Masters” by Brian Weiss

It’s written by a respected Harvard trained psychiatrist and is quite fascinating.

https://www.amazon.com/Many-Lives-Masters-Prominent-Psychiatrist/dp/0671657860

And this one is truly amazing:

“The Process” by Isa Moore https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-process-from-the-life-of-isa-moore/id536787587

It sounds like you are suffering from anxiety or maybe a general anxiety disorder. In lieu of watching YT, you might consider picking up this DBT workbook. DBT was critical for my daughter who is suffering with PTSD and Anxiety Disorder.

It teaches you how to understand the dialectic of the emotional mind and the logical mind. More importantly, it helps you find a balance in your way of thinking.

Honestly, you are just young and under a lot of pressure. It's not uncommon to have severe anxiety in your position.

Give this book a try:

Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors: Overcoming Internal Self-Alienation by Janina Fisher

Specifically chapter 7: Working with Suicidal, Self-Destructive, Eating Disordered, and Addicted Parts

(The anger can be thought of as a self-destructive part).

That book gave me a paradigm shift several months ago. I would have described myself similarly to what you write in this OP, at least back then.

Its main audience is therapists, but if you can get past that it's well worth the time and price.

Terrible generalizations about Millennials aside, "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl should be required reading in highschool. Not sure what subject -- Science? History? Something. It's a first-hand account of a concentration camp written from a psychiatrist's perspective, so it explains what happens to a person's psyche when forced to undergo such horrors. It's hard to get through, and you will never question how bad the Holocaust was after that.

I got my physical (soft-cover, though) copy of MoM just 2 weeks ago from Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415922224/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1).

I agree though, it is pricey.

I have that workbook. It’s super helpful. My therapist also recommended the one by Linehan , who created DBT, I believe. It’s the one my therapist uses. It’s in my Amazon shopping cart right now so if you buy it first, let me know if it’s worth while! I’ve done several pages out of it but I haven’t flipped thru the whole thing yet (obviously, since I haven’t bought it yet lol)

Hi OP, DBT is super relaxing! The whole idea is to settle your mind and stabilize you. What can put you in a good state of mind is trying to orient yourself to peace. In other words, focus on maintaining peace and calm emotions. Do anything to preserve that since the whole point is that you're struggling with emotional control.

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In saying this, I don't want you to stress if you feel like you're struggling to find peace. That will only increase anxiety. Instead, just "let go". Blank your mind and relax your muscles.

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Did you have to buy a book for your class? If not, this is a good exercise book that you can browse. Very light, simple exercises, and intuitive. It can be fun for you to explore. Here is the link to Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1572307811/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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Good luck! Have fun in class.

> what distinguishes a narcissist from a schizoid

NPD: Feelings of entitlement. Inflated sense of self-importance/superiority. Excessive need for admiration. Manipulative, controlling. Places high value on things like success, power, image.

SPD: none of the above (though superiority can serve a defensive way to maintain distance from others, it's internalized and not aggressive like in narcs)

This book sums it up as Schizoid: safety / Narc: admiration. It's not a very good resource on SPD, but might be for NPD.

I'm honestly not as well versed on narcs + NPD because I've managed to avoid them for the most part. My ex was NPD, which I didn't even know was a thing until his ex-wife (#4) explained it to me after I left. Turns out SPD can reeeeally mess with a narcissist so I seem to have gotten the best-behaved version of him.

DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets, Second Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1572307811/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_cE1KBb34H8RG9

It’s not a “game” book and it’s not a “help” book it’s a fact driven very helpful book. Different skills apply to different people but it’s for sure worth a look. Maybe even take a class for real and get all that nasty shit out of your system. For real, you deserve someone in your life dude.

This one.

Not exactly reading material but the DBT Skills Handbook is superbly helpful. It teaches you a lot of skills that once you learn are easily integrated into your life naturally. It's only $36 and easy to work through on your own without a therapist.

I also like Gary John Bishop's books.