AP Psychology Reading List
Mrs. Janelle Farris
(Information from Amador Valley High School/Emerson and Charles G. Morris,
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI)
Balter, M., & Katz, R. Nobody's child. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1987.
Marie Balter spent 25 years of her life in mental hospitals, then went on to attend Harvard University and to assume a role as
spokesperson for the mentally ill. Dramatic and moving story in the tradition of I Never Promised You a Rose Garden.
Barron, J., & Barron, S. There's a boy in here. New York: Avon Books, 1992.
Fascinating autobiographical account of a mother and her autistic son written alternately from the viewpoint of the mother and
then the son.
Bloom, F. E., Lazerson, A., & Hofstadter, L. Brain, mind, and behavior (2nd ed.). New York: Freeman, 1988.
Beautifully illustrated and highly readable account of advances in understanding the relationship between the
brain and behavior.
Calvin, W. H., & Ojemann, G. A. Conversations with Neil's brain. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1994.
Intriguing story of a person with epilepsy who undergoes temporal lobe surgery. Describes the pre-surgery
exploration and mapping of his brain.
Colapinto, John. As nature made him. Harper Perennial, 2001.
A mesmerizing story of a medical tragedy and its traumatic results. Following a botched circumcision, a family is
convinced to raise their infant son, Bruce, as a girl. They rename the child Brenda and spend the next 14 years
trying to transform him into a her. Brenda's childhood reads as one filled with anxiety and loneliness, and her fear
and confusion is present on nearly every page concerning her early childhood. Provides a comprehensive look
at the nature/nurture debate.
Frankl, Victor E. Man's search for meaning. New York: Pocket Books, 1959, 1962, 1984.
Classic existential book that examines the role of meaning in human lives as well as the philosophy behind
logotherapy. Written by a psychiatrist, creator of logotherapy and survivor of Auschwitz.
Gardner, H. Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books, 1983, 1993.
Seminal book arguing against the notion that intelligence is one general capacity and for the notion that
intelligence is in fact a range of relatively independent competences. Discusses those various competences and
draws implications in particular for education.
Greenberg, J. I never promised you a rose garden. New York: Penguin Books, 1964.
Classic autobiographical book by Hannah Green about her descent into psychosis when she was 16 years old,
her three years in mental institutions, and her subsequent recovery.
Handler, L. Twitch and shout: A Touretter’s tale. New York: Dutton, 1998.
The author has suffered from Tourette’s his entire life. In this moving tale, he describes how it has affected him
and how almost all Touretters isolate themselves from the mainstream of society in order to avoid embarrassment
or rejection.
Haddon, Mark. The curious incident of the dog in the night-time. New York: Vintage Books, 2003.
“Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number
up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be
touched. And he detests the color yellow. This improbable story of Christopher’s quest to investigate the
suspicious death of a neighborhood dog makes for one of the most captivating, unusual, and widely heralded
novels in recent years.”
Hornbacker, Marya. Wasted: A memoir of anorexia and bulimia. New York: Harper Perennial, 1999.
“Marya Hornbacher sustains both anorexia and bulimia through five lengthy hospitalizations, endless therapy, and
the loss of family, friends, jobs, and ultimately, any sense of what it means to be "normal." By the time she is in
college, Hornbacher is in the grip of a bout with anorexia so horrifying that it will forever put to rest the romance of
wasting away. In this vivid, emotionally wrenching memoir, she re-created the experience and illuminated that
tangle of personal, family, and cultural causes underlying eating disorders. Wasted is the story of one woman's
travels to the darker side of reality, and her decision to find her way back--on her own terms.”
Vizzini, Ned It’s Kind of a Funny Story. When 15-year-old Craig Gilner is accepted by a prestigious Manhattan high school,
the pressure becomes taxing, and he finds himself battling depression. The book details Craig’s confusing slide into
depression and his desperate efforts to get well, plus is filled with humor and pathos.
Greenfield, J. A child called Noah: A family journey. San Diego: Harvest Books, 1972, 1970.
Award-winning, moving story of a family's day-to-day life living with and loving a brain-damaged child.
Jamison, Kay Redfield. An unquiet mind. New York: Knopf, 1995.
A beautifully written account of manic depression written by a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins who is not
only a victim of the disorder but a world-renowned expert on it. A central theme is her reluctance to take the drug
lithium even though she realizes that it will be beneficial to her because, like many New York creative people, she
is afraid to lose the energy that comes with the manic phase of the disorder.
Kaufman, B. N. Son-rise: The miracle continues. Tiburon, CA: H. J. Kramer, 1994.
A compendium of cases starting with a recap of their own son's recovery from autism along with accounts of five
other cases treated at The Option Instate in which the children responded similarly.
Pinskey, Drew, MD, Cracked: Putting broken lives together again. New York: Harper Collins Publishers,
2003.
“Dr. Drew Pinsky is best known as co-host of the long-running advice program Loveline. But he is also the medical
director of an addiction rehab clinic in Southern California, treating the severest cases of drug dependency and
psychiatric breakdown. Now, in this emotionally arresting narrative, Pinsky takes readers into the hospital with
him, sharing the stories behind his struggle to help the patients he calls "the disconnected" regain control of their
lives.”
Pipher, M. Reviving Ophelia: Saving the selves of adolescent girls. New York: Ballantine, 1996.
A deeply troubling account of the extent to which depression, eating disorders, self-mutilation, addictions, and
suicide attempts among young women may be the consequences of being brought up in a "girl-poisoning culture"
that differs greatly from the culture in which previous generations were raised.
Ramachandran, V.S., MD, PhD, and Blakeslee, Sandra. Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of
the Human Mind. New York: William Morrow, 1998.
“A brilliant ‘Sherlock Holmes’ of neuroscience reveals the strangest cases he has solved—and the insights they
yield about human nature and the mind. Using such low-tech tools as cotton swabs and mirrors, and working with
patients whose neurological symptoms range from hallucinating cartoon characters to thinking their parents are
imposters, Dr. V.S. Ramachandran uncovers answers to deep and quirky questions of human nature that few
scientists have dared to address, including why we laugh or become depressed; how we make decisions, deceive
ourselves, and dream; and more.”
Rapoport, J. L. The boy who couldn't stop washing. New York: Penguin Books, 1989.
Fascinating and useful case studies of obsessive compulsive disorder including diagnosis and treatment.
Sacks, Oliver. An anthropologist on Mars: Seven paradoxical tales. New York: Knopf, 1995.
Sacks' sixth book on the theme of adaptation in the face of challenge or what he calls "the paradox of disease" in
which neurological disorders call forth latent adaptive powers in human beings. In this book, Sacks describes the
lives of seven people who appear paradoxical -- for example, Jonathan I. (a color blind painter), Carl Bennett (a
surgeon wracked by uncontrollable tics except when he is operating), and Stephen Wiltshire (an autistic artist).
Sacks, Oliver. The man who mistook his wife for a hat and other clinical tales. New York: Touchstone
Books, 1985.
“Sacks recounts the case histories of patients lost in the bizarre, apparently inescapable world of neurological
disorders. He tells the stories of individuals afflicted with fantastic perceptual and intellectual aberrations:
patients who have lost their memories and with them the greater part of their pasts; who are no longer able to
recognize people and common objects; who are stricken with violent tics and grimaces or who shout involuntary
obscenities; whose limbs have become alien; who have been dismissed as retarded yet are gifted with uncanny
artistic or mathematical talents.”
Schaller, S. A man without words. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1991.
Moving account of a 27-year-old man who is otherwise normal except that he has no idea of language much less
the ability to speak or write. Sheds light on the role of language in thinking.
West, Cameron. First person plural: My life as a multiple. New York: Hyperion Press, 1999.
“West tells of ‘my guys,’ and his struggle facing Dissociative Identity Disorder, formerly known as Multiple
Personality Disorder. As the people who haunt his mind insist on telling their story, West desperately hangs on to
the slender thread that connects him to his wife and son and some semblance of normal life.”
Reiland, Rachel, Get Me Out of Here: My Recovery from Borderline Personality Disorder. This book describes Rachel’s
psychotherapeutic journey from borderline personality disorder and anorexia to wholeness.
Forty Studies That Changed Psychology: Explorations into the History of Psychological Research (4th or 5th edition)
by Roger Hock