The following recommendations are written for the general/public audience interested in learning more about the science of existential psychology in everyday life. These books are informative, easy to understand, and entertaining!
The ISSEP Task Force for Pedagogical Advancement solicited the popular science book recommendations, below, which communicate or incorporate at least some aspect of the science of existential psychology.
To recommend a book, or to send in comments about one, please send an email to info@issep.org with the subject line “Popular book recommendation.”
Topics
Life & Death
The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life
Solomon, Greenberg, Pyszczynski
2016
Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death
Yalom
2008
In the Wake of 9/11: The Psychology of Terror
Pyszczynski, Solomon, Greenberg
2003
Freedom, Authenticity, & Responsibility
The Illusion of Conscious Will
Wegner
2018
Mind Club: Who Thinks, What Feels, and Why it Matters
Wegner, Gray
2017
DNA is Not Destiny
Heine
2017
Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength
Baumeister, Tierney
2012
The Art of Choosing
Iyengar
2011
The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less
Schwartz
2009
Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me)
Tavris, Aronson
2007
Why We Do What We Do: Understanding Self-Motivation
Deci
1996
Culture & Identity
The WEIRDest People in the World
Henrich
2020
Clash! 8 Cultural Conflicts That Make Us Who We Are
Markus, Conner
2013
Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche
Watters
2010
The Cultural Animal: Human Nature, Meaning, and Social Life
Baumeister
2005
The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently… and Why
Nisbett
2003
The High Price of Materialism
Kasser
2003
Isolation, Uncertainty, Shared Reality
Shared Reality: What Makes Us Strong and Tears Us Apart
Higgins
2019
The Three Pillars of Radicalization: Needs, Narratives, and Networks
Kruglanski, Belanger, Gunaratna
2019
Why People Radicalize
Bos
2018
The Psychology of Closed Mindedness
Mikulincer, Kruglanski
2004
Ostracism: The Power of Silence
Williams
2001
Lay Epistemics and Human Knowledge: Cognitive and Motivational Bases
Kruglanski
1989
Meaning Systems, Purpose, Awe
A Theory of System Justification
Jost
2020
Minds Make Societies
Boyer
2018
Nonsense: The Power of Not Knowing
Holmes
2015
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion
Haidt
2012
Shattered Assumptions: Toward a New Psychology of Trauma
Janoff-Bulman
1992
Meanings of Life
Baumeister
1991
Personal Growth & Well-being
The Transformative Self: Personal Growth, Narrative Identity, and the Good Life
Bauer
2021
A Wonderful Life: Insights on Finding a Meaningful Existence
Martela
2020
The Upside of Your Dark Side: Why Being Your Whole Self (Not Just Your “Good” Self) Drives Success and Fulfillment
Kashdan
2015
The Myths of Happiness: What Should Make You Happy But Doesn’t, What Shouldn’t Make You Happy But Does
Lyubomirsky
2014
Creativity: The psychology of discovery and invention
Csikszentmihalyi
2013
Curious: Discovering the Missing Ingredient to a Fulfilling Life
Kashdan
2010
The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want
Lyubomirsky
2008
The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom
Haidt
2006
Flow: The psychology of the optimal experience
Csikszentmihalyi
2004
Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life
Csikszentmihalyi
1998
Religion & Spirituality
Attachment in Religion and Spirituality
Granqvist
2020
Supernatural: Death, Meaning, and the Power of the Invisible World
Routledge
2018
Death Anxiety and Religious Belief: An Existential Psychology of Religion
Jong, Halberstadt
2016
The Bonobo and the Atheist
Waal
2014
Big Gods
Norenzayan
2013
Why Religion is Natural and Science is Not
McCauley
2013
Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought
Boyer
2002
In Gods We Trust: The Evolutionary Landscape of Religion
Atran
2002
The Naturalness of Religious Ideas: A Cognitive Theory of Religion
Boyer
1994
Faces in the Clouds: A New Theory of Religion
Guthrie
1993
Other Topics
Existential Health Psychology: The Blind-spot in Healthcare
Whitehead
2019
Conceptual Metaphor in Social Psychology
Landau
2016
Nostalgia: A Psychological Resource
Routledge
2015
Therapy & Counseling
The Courage to Suffer: A New Clinical Framework for Life’s Greatest Crises
Tongeren, Tongeren
2019
Tales from the Valley of Death: Reflections from Psychotherapy on the Fear of Death
Menzies, Menzies
2019
Becoming Myself: A Psychiatrists Memoir
Yalom
2017
The Gift of Therapy
Yalom
2005
Existential Psychotherapy
Yalom
1980