Psychology novel study; sometimes fiction rings "truer" than a texbook.

Teacher: Judy Gillen

Introduction: Occasionally, students tell us that they take our psychology courses out of curiosity about human behaviour after reading a novel with a character they  identify with, (or have been repulsed by).

Here's the reverse. In this assignment you will:

1. Carefully choose a book & read it
2. Research the featured psychological problem (& fill in this form)
3. Give the book this reality check.

It is important to choose a book that grabs you, and so we have a whole cart of books for you to browse  through at school.  Scroll down to see suggested titles. At home, you can check this terrific database:  Novelist and read the first chapter, or search by subject.

Download psychology background research form

Download reality/book evaluation form

 

Suggested Titles	Psychological problem
Adrift	Depression
America	Suicide
Ash: a novel	Schizophrenia
Awakenings	Sleeping sickness
The bear’s embrace	Post traumatic
The bell jar	Breakdown
The best little girl in the world	Anorexia
Blink:  the power of thinking without thinking	Non-problem: intuition, decisions
A boy called “It”	Abuse
A bright red scream	Cutting
The burn journals	Suicide
By the time you read this, I’ll be dead	Suicide
Checkers	Breakdown
The collector	Psychopath
Crank	Addiction
The curious incident of the dog in the night-time	Autism
Cut	Cutting
Damage	Depression
A dance for three	Family impact
Dancing on the edge	Breakdown
Devil in the details: scenes from an obsessive girlhood	Obsessive compulsive
Dibs in search of self	Post traumatic
An egg on three sticks	Breakdown
Fat chance	Anorexia
Flowers for Algernon	Psychological experiment
The flying Troutmans	Family problems, mental illness
Girl interrupted	Suicide, mental illness
The glass castle	Dysfunctional family
Go ask Alice	Suicide
I don’t want to be crazy	Anxiety disorder
I know this much is true	Schizophrenia
The illustrated Mum	Manic depression
Inside out	Schizophrenia
Life in the fat lane	Eating disorder
Lisa bright and dark	Breakdown
Lush	Family addiction
The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a hat	Neurological disorders
A mango-shaped space	Synesthesia
Many masters, many lives	Psychotherapy
A million Little Pieces	Addiction
More than you can chew	Anorexia
My sister from the black lagoon	Schizophrenia
Not as crazy as I seem	Obsessive comp.
The night I disappeared	Mental breakdown
One child	Post traumatic
One flew over the cuckoo’s nest	Mental illness
The outliers: the story of success	Non-fiction
Playing With Fire	Abuse autobiography
Push	Post traumatic; dysfunctional family
Right behind you	Family problems, mental illness
Rules of survival	Mentally ill mom
Saving Lenny	Depression
Shadow boxing	Cutting
She’s come undone	Family impact
Sickened: the true story of a lost childhood	Munchhausen by proxy
Silence of the lambs	Psychopath
Speak	Post traumatic
Sybil	Multiple personality
Thinner than thou	Anorexia satire
The tipping point: how little things can make a difference	Non-fiction
Trigger	Brain damage
Under the wolf, under the dog	Suicide
Walking a thin line	Anorexia
When Jeff comes home	Post traumatic
Why I Didn’t Say Anything	Abuse/addiction
Wintergirls	Anorexia
Wonder when you’ll miss me	Post traumatic

 

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