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10 Fiction Books to Learn Psychology

The interface between psychology and literature is well known, both because several psychology authors have studied and cited important works by classic and modern authors, and literature, in the last century, has incorporated psychology knowledge, both in literary theory and the authors themselves end up studying and being influenced by theories of psychology and psychoanalysis.

To give an example of the latter: Freud based one of his most fundamental concepts, the Oedipus complex, on the Oedipus myth, presented by Sophocles in the work Oedipus RexπŸ‡§πŸ‡· And, in turn, the surrealist movement, in painting and literature, used ideas and techniques from psychoanalysis, such as free association and the unconscious, as a source of inspiration.

It is evident that it is an endless debate to try to separate (or unite) psychoanalysis from psychology. Our objective in this text here is not that. We will bring reading indications that present this meeting, especially clinical cases that are half literature and half psychology, if we can say so. Another problem that can arise is the question β€œwhat is literature and what is fiction and what is reality?” Again, it is not our purpose to address this here.

But in principle, we can say that there is a shared reality (Reality) and the inner, psychic reality (WirklichkeitπŸ‡§πŸ‡· So, at a certain level, it doesn’t matter if something really happened in the reality shared by everyone or if it’s just an author’s imagination. In both cases, we can learn from the narratives.

Therefore, the idea is that the literature can be useful for those who are studying psychology. Doubts, suggestions and additions, please write below.

Clinical Psychology Books and Fiction to learn more

1) The hour of fifty minutes

This book is part of the Imago collection Romance and Psychoanalysis.

The author, Dr Robert Lindner, is a psychoanalyst with great experience, and brings in this book five stories of treatments: the young criminal, the neurotic girl worried about her weight, the communist organizer, the fascist adventurer and the brilliant young physicist live in a science fiction world of imagination

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2) Sybil

Sybil is the name of the main character in Flora Rheta Schreiber’s book and deals with a case of multiple personalities and psychic fragmentation. Very well written, the work narrates the 16 personalities that coexist with the central personality. Although it has been criticized, both in the diagnosis and in the clinical presentation, the book brings us what is the most blunt and famous account on the subject of multiple personalities. It is also possible to find the film about the work.

3) A season with Lacan

In my opinion, Lacan was the most important psychoanalyst after Freud. As Freud published his work at the beginning of the century, many of his concepts are based on or refer to his lifetime. As Lacan already belongs to a later generation (he was born in 1900), he brought psychoanalysis closer to us by using more modern concepts of linguistics, art and topology.

In this book by Pierre Rey, we can enter Lacan’s office a little and see how he treated his patients.

4) Red Book by CG Jung

He who would be the crown prince of Freud’s psychoanalysis – CG Jung abandoned the heritage and founded his own line of psychology, Analytical Psychology – wrote this text that is difficult to define in a few words, just when he was breaking with Freud.

O red book, in short, can be described as your self-analysis, with dreams, fantasies and interpretations (in addition to images) of your path of individuation, the path of becoming a unique and individual being. The book represents the process of immersion in one of the most influential minds in 20th century psychology (and also in psychoanalysis).

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5) When Nietzsche wept

When I was doing my post in Analytical Psychology, we saw the film based on the book by Irvin Yalom. This book is a fiction book and portrays the possible assistance of the philosopher Nietzsche by Breuer, who is a little remembered figure in the history of psychoanalysis, but who was fundamental for its emergence.

The interest in reading the book lies in the fact that it also incorporates elements of reality, the history of the psychoanalytic movement and the philosophy of the time.

6) He, She, We

This trilogy allows us to understand three fundamental concepts of CG Jung’s work, which are: anima, animus and Self. Through tales and classic stories like Tristan and Isolde, the author Robert A. Johnson – graduated in Analytical Psychology – manages to describe the reality of the archetypes in a clear, simple and precise way.

7) Girl Interrupted

This book became well known from the film that features Angelina Jolie and Wynona Ryder. The book deals with the difficult passage from adolescence to adulthood and the mishaps that appear along the way. The central character, Susanna, after having a troubled relationship with a teacher, tries to kill herself. Therefore, she is admitted to a psychiatric hospital and approaches one of the inmates, who is borderline.

8) Prozac Nation

πŸ‡§πŸ‡·

This book was also made into a movie. The central character was brilliantly played by Christina RicciπŸ‡§πŸ‡· The book, which is subtitled Young and Depressed in America; memoirs tells the story of a writer who has depression. In fact, the book is an autobiography and depicts the ups and downs of a major depressive disorder.

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What struck me about the film is how the process of beginning and ending can be described by Hemingway’s phrase, β€œgradually, then suddenly.’

9) In search of meaning, Viktor Frankl

Viktor Frankl’s most famous book, Man’s Search for Meaning, is subtitled: A Psychologist in a Concentration Camp. Thus, we cannot say that it is a fiction book. But taking into account that it is a narrative about what happened to him in World War II, we must include it in our list as being perhaps the most important book in existential-humanist psychology (or logotherapy).

10) Walden II, by Skinner

Certainly many will question the predominance of books on psychoanalysis and analytical psychology, but this is due to the interest of these approaches in literature, mythology, fairy tales, etc. Authors like BF Skinner, more focused on experimental research, give little space to literature in their works – for obvious epistemological reasons.

An exception is your book Walden II, which makes reference to the famous book by Thoreau, Walden, Life in the Woods. Skinner’s book is also in narrative format and brings us what would be “a society of the future”, that is, an ideal, utopian, idyllic society in which everyone could live well and develop their potential.

See too –

Top 10 Books on Mental Disorders and Clinical Cases

9 Psychology Books You Must Have

5 Books to make more money

Psychology Books by Practice Areas

Books and Psychology: 100 Books for those who love Psychology

If you remember any books that you didn’t see on the list, please write in the comments below and help us!

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