The best Popular Psychology Psychoanalysis books: Reddit reviews

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You've got some heavy shit to deal with. Lots of serious situations, all going down at the same time. I can offer some perspectives & procedures that have helped me, and maybe help you.

1- You are NOT your thoughts. Your thoughts are instantaneous electro-chemical impulses that are so transitory, they can barely be said to exist. They will rise. They will fall away.

They're like a massive cascading waterfall- the trick is to position yourself behind the waterfall

2- Acknowledge your feelings. Allow them to pass. The physiological effects of emotions on your body can be profound- but even the strongest ones pass in moments. Unless you continue to regenerate them. "Noting"... the act of recognizing a thought or emotion... is often enough to dispel it. Note what you're feeling in a depersonalized way ("That's anger", "That's anxiety"... NOT "I'm angry" or "I'm anxious").

3- Focus on what you CAN control, Accept what you can't. This is one of the pillars of Stoicism. There's no profit in getting twisted up about things you can't change. Viktor Frankl said that even in the worst situation, each individual has the ultimate power, "The last of the human freedoms: to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way"

4- The Obstacle is the Way Understand that every crisis, every hardship, is an opportunity to develop some other virtue. Patience, Endurance, Compassion, Courage, Resourcefulness... skills that would lie dormant unless you were challenged.

5- See things as they are, not as you wish, not as you fear. Optimism and Pessimism are for suckers. Realism is the way to go. Your fortunes will rise and fall. Determine that no matter what happens, you'll be able to handle it, with competence and dignity.

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I wish you well.

Finding purpose and direction.

Check out this book. It's by a psychologist who was imprisoned in Auschwitz who made it his purpose while there to understand (and teach) what helps people through hopeless adversity.

https://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor-Frankl/dp/080701429X

Thats exactly where this quote is from. What makes it even more powerful is that this thought is in response to being sent to a concentration camp to die.

If Frankl could maintain this mentality while being worked to near death and having to constantly outsmart gestapo, no one here has any valid excuse as to why they can't cultivate that same mindset.

Seriously, everyone get this book. Its like 200 pages (if that) of some of the most compelling writing you'll ever read.

I was you, about two years ago. I had fully committed to being a great dad and a great husband, but had stopped developing as an individual. Figuring that out is an excellent first step to, as you said, getting your life back in balance.

Here are two books that helped me:

Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl: It's a short book by a Holocaust survivor that deals with controlling your attitude at all times, and having perspective on where you are compared to where you want to be.

A Guide to the Good Life, by William Irvine: A good modern take on Stoicism, or the philosophy of taking life in stride. Contrary to common belief, it's not about eschewing all emotions and being joyless; it's about embracing joy in all things, acknowledging and preparing for grief but not letting them overwhelm you, and being mentally present in day-to-day life. Plan for the future, but don't forget to take joy in the small moments of the present.

Edited in links.

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.

Seems like some transhumanists would do well to read:

Seeing Like A State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C. Scott

Best book I ever read at university, hands down.

Amazon Link Wikipedia Link

Compulsory ujamaa villages in Tanzania, collectivization in Russia, Le Corbusier’s urban planning theory realized in Brasilia, the Great Leap Forward in China, agricultural "modernization" in the Tropics—the twentieth century has been racked by grand utopian schemes that have inadvertently brought death and disruption to millions. Why do well-intentioned plans for improving the human condition go tragically awry?

In this wide-ranging and original book, James C. Scott analyzes failed cases of large-scale authoritarian plans in a variety of fields. Centrally managed social plans misfire, Scott argues, when they impose schematic visions that do violence to complex interdependencies that are not—and cannot—be fully understood. Further, the success of designs for social organization depends upon the recognition that local, practical knowledge is as important as formal, epistemic knowledge. The author builds a persuasive case against "development theory" and imperialistic state planning that disregards the values, desires, and objections of its subjects. He identifies and discusses four conditions common to all planning disasters: administrative ordering of nature and society by the state; a "high-modernist ideology" that places confidence in the ability of science to improve every aspect of human life; a willingness to use authoritarian state power to effect large- scale interventions; and a prostrate civil society that cannot effectively resist such plans.

>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

So escapism isn’t going to help you with your reality whatsoever. You have the freedom to do what you want, so no one is going to be able to stop you from going ahead with this, but at the least you can be warned. Your problems with stay the same or worsen if you try and stick your head in the sand and live in fantasy world. Escaping reality was (and if I’m being honest still is) a huge motivation for me to learn how to lucid dream. But sooner or later you will have to face reality and fix or deal with your burdens as best as you can.

Anyway, with that said, you can check the pinned post at the top that says START HERE. There’s many techniques which fall under one of two methods, WILD (Wake Induced Lucid Dream) or DILD (Dream Induced Lucid Dream). Start a dream journal, and when you begin to remember dreams, you’re ready to incorporate reality checks into your every day life. Daily meditation is also very helpful, as well as keeping to a healthy sleep schedule.

Of course there’s tons of information I left out, and a lot of stuff you need to learn. Which is why I suggest you begin your journey of researching as much as you can about inducing lucid dreams. Start with the pinned post, then maybe do some google searches. A lot of people recommend Stephen LaBerge’s book , and I do as well. There’s a lot of good information in it. Hopefully this comment serves you well, good luck if you choose to learn how to lucid dream.

Keep a notebook (or phone, if you swipe faster) next to your bed. Write down everything you do remember the moment you wake up, including vague impressions. The longer you do this, the more you'll remember. Your awareness while dreaming will also go up.

You may lucid dream using only this method, but there are others to help increase control. Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming is the best resource I've found. It's approached scientifically, with heavy usage of case studies. Once you can regularly reach full lucidity (where your dreams feel completely real and you have total control in them), you may choose to take on one of the metabelief systems to attain greater control in the waking world. Thank you for coming to my TED talk. Refreshments will be served in the hall for a further half hour.

Jung wrote a fantastic book on just this thing he goes through a number of ufo dreams etc

Probably this one. The Routledge/Princeton University Collected Works volumes are legit.

Amazon link

I’m sorry to hear you’re going through a tough time and wish you all the best.

1. Man’s Search For Meaning https://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor-Frankl/dp/080701429X

2. The Stoic Challenge https://www.amazon.com/Stoic-Challenge-Philosophers-Becoming-Resilient/dp/0393652491

I’ve read many books that I think could help but I’ll start by recommending these based off what you have said.

It might take awhile but you could learn how to be lucid in your dreamstate. One of my favorite books is, "Lucid Dreaming" by Stephen LaBerge. I remember being about halfway through the book when I had my own first lucid dream. Already, your dreams are super detailed and clear so I'm thinking you might already be partially lucid.

Anyway, get lucid and start asking the guy questions while you are dreaming. Think about asking him during the course of the day. Think about being lucid. Think about clapping your hands in the dream state to trigger the lucid part of a dream. I'd be interested in who he is too. Good luck.

Hey, Seeing Like a State has been on my TBR list for a while now, but the amount of jargon in the jacket description makes it seem like the read could end up being pretty inaccessible to me.

Would you say this book is appropriate for the layperson? Also, what did you get out of it?

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.

This one. Also, not that all the entries will be in Swizz.

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English translations for each essay/entry is all in the back of the book

Your subconscious mind is the part of you that's beneath what you're aware of. It's the bit that sees the snake at your peripheral vision before you're aware of it and makes you jump. It's the bit that makes you dream at night. It's the bit from where random thoughts pop into your awareness and you don't know why. Why am I thinking of that memory of grandmother from 20 years ago baking pies? I'm in the middle of traffic, why is it relevant? I'll bet you there is, but it's layered like an onion underneath so much meaning. Your subconscious might be forcing you to think about you being transgender in order to solve a different problem that's eating away at you. Something else related to transformation. Could be a friend going through a tough time. Could be yourself going through adolescence. If you're an adult, it could still want to patch up some remains that were left without closure from back when your body was transforming and you had issues with it. It's a sort of a secondary inner problem solver. It wants to make sense of thing your narrow field of vision and awareness doesn't have the computing power to put together.

These are all the ramblings of an idiot off the internet so take it all with a grain of salt. I might be full of shit and I don't even know it. If you're interested in learning about this stuff, Jung's a nice read

Takes a little bit of effort but it is so worth it. I learned from this book & recommend it but there are other resources.

Start with the basics. The essentials are no different for someone with ADHD. You have to put in a lot of directed effort at first to get the hang of it. For example, I can recommend Stephen LaBerge's book Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming: https://www.amazon.com/Exploring-World-Dreaming-Stephen-LaBerge/dp/034537410X

Some find it easier than others, but I believe anyone should be able to do it.

Anything by Stephen Laberge, such as Exploring The World of Lucid Dreaming

Or Lucid Dreaming

Time in recalling dreams is not always linear and doesn’t correlate to time spent sleeping.

Read this book, I think you’ll find what you’re looking for.

This book is what I recommend to everyone. It’s not about the meaning of dreams, just lucid dreaming as a practice.

Judging from what you’ve written, I’d say you’re not really lucid in your dreams. I had my first lucid dream when I was young because I was having a recurring nightmare. What made it stop was becoming lucid. Once I knew it was a dream, it all faded. Being lucid means you’re aware of the dream, you know it’s not real and nothing can hurt you.

The reason you stopped believing in Santa Claus was because you learned the truth.

Same thing with Christianity and all the other religions. Once you know the reality of them past the blind belief, like where they started, why, by whom and why they persist it helps to go "Oh I see now."

The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell is a fascinating exploration of the many mythologies of the world and shows their remarkable similarities, including Christianity.

> I was really into it in high school when I wanted to understand how I fit in.

Right there with ya. Still have this sucker on my bookshelf all of these years later ;p.

Viktor Frankl - "Man's Search for Meaning"

He was a Jewish psychiatrist who survived multiple of the worst concentration camps of WWII. It's an incredibly powerful book. It's sometimes published under the title: "From Death Camp to Existentialism: Man's Search for Meaning". The dude actually figured out how to find meaning and purpose in his life from surviving the worst horrors of the Holocaust.

https://www.amazon.ca/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor-Frankl/dp/080701429X

This situation is not like yours, but it may bring you insight: Man's search for meaning. It's a book of a holocaust survivor and his story on how he managed to stay optimistic despite his torture. "...Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose"

Keeping a dream journal helps improve retention of dream state memories. This can also be used as a gateway to the practice of lucid dreaming. In Jungian psychology, dreams are a subconscious construct that reflect our inner being and can convey deeper truths about ourselves and the universe.

You can read more about what Jung has to say on the subject of dreams in a collection of essays.

As some one in occupation for 2 month and almost no hope to escape, I fear of death I see the bearers of death every day it may happen. I 'm your age lived very same life and have same thoughts before war. Now I'm despaired because I don't have anything to even feed my cats. But I know life worth live I have so much to do and I have mom to help, I simply must. Try this book!

It has nothing to do with because I had it hard you should have it hard.

It has everything to do with the satisfaction of accomplishment, proving to yourself that you can.

There are good stresses (stress to take an exam to advance your career, pressure to try a 5k for the first time, etc) and bad stress (I can’t afford food, seeing people scares me so I’ll stay home) If you are interested in a different perspective take a look at these links:

https://www.litcharts.com/lit/man-s-search-for-meaning/summary

Man's Search for Meaning https://www.amazon.com/dp/0807014273/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_T3P0JS613K06NC39NXBJ

(43k reviews, 80% 5 stars)

Absolutely. Find the book in the link and read it. After that, find the multitude of on,one discussion forums which help to dig through the text.

In a nutshell, after tremendously awful experiences during WWII, he needed to find meaning and peace in his existence. To be sure, it is never to late to find your way.

Frankl