Matt Haig: ‘As therapy shows, words can be medicine’
Reasons to Stay Alive, the novelist’s book about his own depression, was much easier to write than to live through, he explains
The Man Who Closed the Asylums: Franco Basaglia and the Revolution in Mental Health Care by John Foot – review
Dangerous idealist or revolutionary hero? A nuanced look at a reforming psychiatrist
A Place of Refuge by Tobias Jones review – an experiment in communal living
A refreshingly honest account of one couple’s remarkable project: to open their family home to some of society’s most vulnerable people
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty review – startling stories from the crematorium
‘Death-positive’ mortician Doughty explores attitudes to mortality in her enthralling memoir. Also reviewed: Brandy Schillace’s Death’s Summer Coat and GP Margaret McCartney’s Living With Dying
Girl in the Dark review – a powerful chronicle of a life without light
Anna Lyndsey’s sparkling biographical account of her strange and sudden illness steers clear of being a misery memoir
The best psychology books of 2014
From moving accounts of how we deal with dying and suffering to two brilliant takes on Freud. By Lisa Appignanesi
Guardian first book award 2014 shortlist covers neurosurgery, China, rural Ireland and more
Judge Mary Beard acclaims ‘accomplished, clever, assured – and, of course, enjoyable’ cross-genre selection contending for £10,000 award
In Your Prime: Older, Wiser, Happier by India Knight review – sharp, slanted and bracingly unbothered
All about me – yes, but these tips on ageing are also full of wit and style, writes Kathryn Hughes
Locked In review – one man’s punchily written recovery story
Style matches subject matter in Richard Marsh's account of how he conquered locked-in syndrome, writes Helen Zaltzman
The Trip to Echo Spring by Olivia Laing review – a study of six alcoholic US writers
Affected by her own family's experience with drink, Laing's book is full of insight, compassion and unexpected beauty, writes Victoria Segal