Books to read to sharpen knowledge?

[PsyDocNess]

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Hi there,

I am currently a first-year PsyD student preparing for practicum and was given a form where I had to choose preferred psychological models that I was interested in. I am hoping to get some insight from others in regards to any books I could read or supplements that will really deepen my knowledge about these models outside of my courses currently.

I have chosen Cognitive Behavioral, Psychodynamic and Acceptance-Based Approaches as the three I was most interested in. Not going to lie, I've been overwhelmed with even trying to remember all of the psychological models, so any and all help will be largely appreciated.

Thank you!

 

[oliversacks4thewin]

Firstly, as a first year, you have plenty of time to explore options, identify what fits your own personal values, experiences, and perceived efficacy, and identify what works best for you and your patient populations. Don't get too bogged down with the idea that you have to have a fully shaped clinical identity. Training experience will likely continue to form this over time.

I always encourage a quick check through the division 12 website as well, as it lists the most up to date evidence supported treatments in the literature for specific concerns:

Society of Clinical Psychology

div12.org

As far as book recommendations go, I will just speak to the one I can confidently endorse, which is Judith Beck's Cognitive Behavior Therapy: Basics and Beyond. Last I had heard, it is still considered somewhat of a seminal work in the field.

 

[R. Matey]

Clinical Handbook of Psychological Disorders: Sixth Edition: A Step-by-Step Treatment Manual

Now in a revised and expanded sixth edition, this is the leading text on evidence-based treatments for frequently encountered mental health problems. David H. Barlow has assembled preeminent experts to present their respective approaches in step-by-step detail, including extended case examples.

www.guilford.com

 

[PsyDr]

Based upon your interests:

Psychoanalysis:
1) Freud and Beyond- Mitchell (this is an easy read that gives some history to psychoanalysis)
2) Psychoanalytic Diagnosis- McWilliams (this is an easy read that will give you some idea about how psychoanalysts think in modern life)

CBT
1) Cognitive Therapy of Depression- Beck (Beck's first real book on CBT)
2) The Practice of Rational Emotive Therapy- Ellis (arguably the same thing as CBT, and Ellis is easier to read).
3) Pick one of the CBT workbooks that have a phrase like "vertical descent" or "vertical decollage". Usually people will recommend Cognitive Behavior Therapy Basic by Judith Beck. Just read the techniques. Fundamentally someone has some deep seated negative thoughts.

Third wave behaviorism
1) Since you are interested in psychoanalysis and CBT, you might want to look at Function Analytic Psychotherapy- Tsai. This is basically a revamp of Dollard & Milner's work some 50 years earlier, which was explaining psychoanalysis in terms of behaviorism. No one does this, so it doesn't matter.

 

[jdawg2017]

When I was in your shoes I was grateful that my first dive into CBT was the Unified Protocol (Barlow and colleagues). The UP isn’t really revolutionary in its take on CBT, but the transdiagnostic approach is helpful when first starting out since learning a zillion different CBT protocols isn’t really that practical for your run of the mill patient population.

I’d recommend getting a patient guide and therapist guide.

 

[WisNeuro]

Third wave behaviorism
1) Since you are interested in psychoanalysis and CBT, you might want to look at Function Analytic Psychotherapy- Tsai. This is basically a revamp of Dollard & Milner's work some 50 years earlier, which was explaining psychoanalysis in terms of behaviorism. No one does this, so it doesn't matter.

Ha, I was trained in this in grad school. One of Tsai's colleagues/co-authors.

 

[psy.d. 2021]

Based upon your interests:

Psychoanalysis:
1) Freud and Beyond- Mitchell (this is an easy read that gives some history to psychoanalysis)
2) Psychoanalytic Diagnosis- McWilliams (this is an easy read that will give you some idea about how psychoanalysts think in modern life)

CBT
1) Cognitive Therapy of Depression- Beck (Beck's first real book on CBT)
2) The Practice of Rational Emotive Therapy- Ellis (arguably the same thing as CBT, and Ellis is easier to read).
3) Pick one of the CBT workbooks that have a phrase like "vertical descent" or "vertical decollage". Usually people will recommend Cognitive Behavior Therapy Basic by Judith Beck. Just read the techniques. Fundamentally someone has some deep seated negative thoughts.

Third wave behaviorism
1) Since you are interested in psychoanalysis and CBT, you might want to look at Function Analytic Psychotherapy- Tsai. This is basically a revamp of Dollard & Milner's work some 50 years earlier, which was explaining psychoanalysis in terms of behaviorism. No one does this, so it doesn't matter.

Downward arrow technique is another snyonym for those concepts in CBT point #3

 

[R. Matey]

3) Pick one of the CBT workbooks that have a phrase like "vertical descent" or "vertical decollage". Usually people will recommend Cognitive Behavior Therapy Basic by Judith Beck. Just read the techniques. Fundamentally someone has some deep seated negative thoughts.

Robert Leahy is really good for this. His book cognitive therapy techniques hammers this point very clearly, with many specific examples.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

The “Treatments That Work” series is probably worth a read; they have a range of topics that utilize CBT approaches. I’ve read through the chronic pain one by Otis and thought it was useful.

 

[oliversacks4thewin]

Based upon your interests:

Psychoanalysis:
1) Freud and Beyond- Mitchell (this is an easy read that gives some history to psychoanalysis)
2) Psychoanalytic Diagnosis- McWilliams (this is an easy read that will give you some idea about how psychoanalysts think in modern life)

CBT
1) Cognitive Therapy of Depression- Beck (Beck's first real book on CBT)
2) The Practice of Rational Emotive Therapy- Ellis (arguably the same thing as CBT, and Ellis is easier to read).
3) Pick one of the CBT workbooks that have a phrase like "vertical descent" or "vertical decollage". Usually people will recommend Cognitive Behavior Therapy Basic by Judith Beck. Just read the techniques. Fundamentally someone has some deep seated negative thoughts.

Third wave behaviorism
1) Since you are interested in psychoanalysis and CBT, you might want to look at Function Analytic Psychotherapy- Tsai. This is basically a revamp of Dollard & Milner's work some 50 years earlier, which was explaining psychoanalysis in terms of behaviorism. No one does this, so it doesn't matter.

Similar to the OP, I am quickly learning to jot down book recommendations from you and other frequent posters lol. Given your interest in exploring the history of Freud from this and previous exchanges we have had, what are your thoughts on Freud and Man's Soul?

 

[PsyDr]

@PsyDocNess

A. You might also enjoy listening to the audiobook version of

1) Shrinks: The Untold History of Psychiatry- Lieberman

B. Some non-standard reference materials, which I would get by sailing the 7 seas 🏴‍☠️.

1) Dorland's Medical Dictionary
2) Blacks Legal Dictionary
3) Corsini's Concise

....Given your interest in exploring the history of Freud from this and previous exchanges we have had, what are your thoughts on Freud and Man's Soul?

Whenever psychiatry and Chicago come together, there's gonna be problems. Like Harry Stack Sullivan ( the inventor of the terms "self esteem" and "problems in living), it is unclear if Bettelheim had any actual qualifications. Bettelheim claimed that he: totally earned a PhD in Vienna, but the records were lost in the war, Then he claimed that he picked up another 1-2 additional PhDs in subjects he could not recall. So maybe I wouldn't trust him.

He just uses a poor man's version of Freud, which is a poor man's version of (insert some German author, probably Goethe). Pick a fairy tale. Claim that the narrative has some deeper meaning. Use some foreign language translation to say that the story means something not obvious. It's pretty much the same move that religious movements have done for......(gestures around).....

Maybe that matters, maybe it doesn't. Someone had to come up with things first. Adler was an opthamologist, and people accepted him. Freud and Fleiss thought that the nose was important because it was closer to the ground when we were quadropedal, and then almost killed a patient named Emma, but modern surgeons show some relationship between rhinitis and mood. Murray had a PhD in chemistry of all things, banged his secretary, maybe made the unibomber, copied a test from from a Mellville story using illustrations from Colliers magazine, and people accepted him. The second president of the APA wanted the USA to colonize Japan and Korea because they were "primitives", and everyone is still cool with that. Goddard was an advocate for eugenics, and faked a bunch of data but we are all cool with Vineland instruments still. Come to think of it, there is a weird number of Quakers that were historically pretty aggressive, which is weird. And I desperately need to shut up.

 

[cara susanna]

Ha, I was trained in this in grad school. One of Tsai's colleagues/co-authors.

To this day I don't understand FAP. It sounds more like a framework than an actual protocol or modality.

 

[WisNeuro]

To this day I don't understand FAP. It sounds more like a framework than an actual protocol or modality.

I am by no means an expert on this, even when I was being trained, less so now that I'm out of the therapy game for a while. But yes, it was more of a framework when I was using it, as we were also generally using other CBT and dynamic techniques as well.

 

[PsyDocNess]

Firstly, as a first year, you have plenty of time to explore options, identify what fits your own personal values, experiences, and perceived efficacy, and identify what works best for you and your patient populations. Don't get too bogged down with the idea that you have to have a fully shaped clinical identity. Training experience will likely continue to form this over time.

I always encourage a quick check through the division 12 website as well, as it lists the most up to date evidence supported treatments in the literature for specific concerns:

Society of Clinical Psychology

div12.org

As far as book recommendations go, I will just speak to the one I can confidently endorse, which is Judith Beck's Cognitive Behavior Therapy: Basics and Beyond. Last I had heard, it is still considered somewhat of a seminal work in the field.

Thank you so much, I will check this one out!

 

[PsyDocNess]

Clinical Handbook of Psychological Disorders: Sixth Edition: A Step-by-Step Treatment Manual

Now in a revised and expanded sixth edition, this is the leading text on evidence-based treatments for frequently encountered mental health problems. David H. Barlow has assembled preeminent experts to present their respective approaches in step-by-step detail, including extended case examples.

www.guilford.com

Thank you!

 

[PsyDocNess]

Based upon your interests:

Psychoanalysis:
1) Freud and Beyond- Mitchell (this is an easy read that gives some history to psychoanalysis)
2) Psychoanalytic Diagnosis- McWilliams (this is an easy read that will give you some idea about how psychoanalysts think in modern life)

CBT
1) Cognitive Therapy of Depression- Beck (Beck's first real book on CBT)
2) The Practice of Rational Emotive Therapy- Ellis (arguably the same thing as CBT, and Ellis is easier to read).
3) Pick one of the CBT workbooks that have a phrase like "vertical descent" or "vertical decollage". Usually people will recommend Cognitive Behavior Therapy Basic by Judith Beck. Just read the techniques. Fundamentally someone has some deep seated negative thoughts.

Third wave behaviorism
1) Since you are interested in psychoanalysis and CBT, you might want to look at Function Analytic Psychotherapy- Tsai. This is basically a revamp of Dollard & Milner's work some 50 years earlier, which was explaining psychoanalysis in terms of behaviorism. No one does this, so it doesn't matter.

Thank you so much for the list, I will check all of those out!

 

[PsyDocNess]

When I was in your shoes I was grateful that my first dive into CBT was the Unified Protocol (Barlow and colleagues). The UP isn’t really revolutionary in its take on CBT, but the transdiagnostic approach is helpful when first starting out since learning a zillion different CBT protocols isn’t really that practical for your run of the mill patient population.

I’d recommend getting a patient guide and therapist guide.

I will look into this, thanks!

 

[PsyDocNess]

The “Treatments That Work” series is probably worth a read; they have a range of topics that utilize CBT approaches. I’ve read through the chronic pain one by Otis and thought it was useful.

Perfect, thank you! I will look into it.

 

[borne_before]

That’s a great question. Here’s a reading sequence I’d recommend if you’re curious about how we think and feel.


1. Feeling Great by David Burns. Start here. It’s a more recent and refined take on his earlier classic, Feeling Good, which helped popularize Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). It’s an incredibly readable intro to how thoughts influence emotions and behavior, basically the backbone of modern psychotherapy. Even if you don’t struggle with depression or anxiety, it’s powerful for understanding how our interpretations shape our inner world.


But that naturally leads to a deeper question: why are thoughts so powerful? What is it about language, this internalized speech, that can make us feel so terrible or uplifted, distort our perceptions, or even shape our sense of self?


2. The Birth and Death of Meaning by Ernest Becker. This one’s older and leans psychoanalytic, but I see that more as a product of its era. The early chapters are especially worthwhile. Becker had the task of teaching behavioral science to medical students, and his insights on language’s role in human development and suffering have stuck with me. He argues that language is basically the candle that lights consciousness. Without it, we’re stuck in the present moment, like permanent mindfulness. But with it comes abstraction, memory, existential dread, and identity. For instance, kids start retaining autobiographical memory and using abstract reasoning around age 4–5 -roughly when language takes off. That’s also when you first start hearing things like suicidal threats in young kids. Language doesn’t just help us think- it helps us suffer.


3. ACT Made Simple by Russ Harris. If Becker provides the “why,” ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) provides another set of practical “what now?”tools. ACT therapists are the best modern thinkers on language-based psychopathology. They frame the mind as a problem-solving machine built by evolution. Rather than trying to change thoughts (like in CBT), ACT helps us change our relationship with them. We learn to treat internal speech as a tool, not a truth. To observe it, not get hooked by it. A different way to skin a cat than CBT and something that might be useful in the old tool box.


4. Then for broader context and contrast:

• Bad Therapy – A critique of how therapy can go wrong, especially when overfocused on feelings without grounding in evidence.
• The Coddling of the American Mind – Explores how well-intentioned shifts in culture and education may be contributing to mental fragility.
• A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson – Not psychology per se, but a joyful model of curiosity and perspective that reminds us how strange and wonderful the universe (and the human mind) really is.