Here are my reviews of good and bad psychology books, ripped from the pages of Amazon.com. A lot of psychology books are pretty good, but because they require the reader to think, don’t have pat answers, and have principles grounded in actual science rather than mere word play, they tend to make it to unvisited corners of college libraries rather than become hot topics of conversation for Oprah. For superb reviews of good psychology books, go to Piero Scaruffi’s web site, but for the really bad stuff, this is the place to be.

Books on the popular psychology book shelf, including many from some pretty intelligent psychologists who should know better, represent a veritable cornucopia of awfulness, with ironically the worst of the lot getting the best press, which proves that you can fool most of the people pretty much all the time. The bad books that I review are bad precisely because they seem so superficially good, sort of like that Internet stock investment that your wise broker touted a few years back. Of course, you won’t go broke by reading them, but you won’t really understand psychology either. I have included a few books that I think are pretty good, just to show that there are some good books out there that provide a needed antidote to the wrong headed thinking that pervades psychology. Its up to you dear reader to agree or disagree with me, and I hope that you vote accordingly on Amazon as to whether my opinion’s are masterpieces of critical thinking or crappy thinking.

Learning and Complex Behavior, by John W. Donahoe and David Palmer

House of Cards: Psychology and Psychotherapy Built on Myth, by Robyn M. Dawes

Beyond Boredom and Anxiety, by M. Csikszentmihalyi

Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement in Everyday Life, by M. Csikszentmihalyi

Writing in Flow: Keys to Enhanced Creativity, by Susan K. Perry

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, by M. Csikszentmihalyi

How the Mind Works, by Steven Pinker

The Blank Slate, by Steven Pinker

Authentic Happiness, by Martin E. P. Seligman

Emotional Intelligence, by Daniel Goleman

Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, by Howard Gardner

Why we do what we do: Understanding Self Motivation, by Edward L. Deci