Self-help was meant to make me feel better. Instead it turned toxic – and borderline dangerous

For 15 years I read the books, took the courses and downloaded the apps to try to become a better person. None of it helped, says writer Emily Goddard

On the Couch: Writers Analyze Sigmund Freud review – the shrink’s shrink engagingly examined by Siri Hustvedt, Susie Boyt and others

Authors reassess the legacy of the father of psychotherapy in a lovely grab bag of essays

Coming of Age: How Adolescence Shapes Us by Lucy Foulkes review – deep dive into the teenage mind

An academic psychologist’s insightful and compassionate study of adolescence is expertly presented, plotting out harmful as well as helpful transitions into adulthood

Coming of Age by Lucy Foulkes review – the truth about teenagers

From being popular to taking risks, this wise and revelatory study overturns received wisdom about adolescence

Rumbles by Elsa Richardson review – gut reaction

A vivid cultural history of digestion, from ancient Greece to All-Bran

You Don’t Have to Be Mad to Work Here by Benji Waterhouse review – the doctor won’t see you now

A brilliantly funny but deadly serious account of NHS psychiatry in crisis

Magic Pill by Johann Hari review – weighing in

There is a useful book to be written about the rise of anti-obesity drugs such as Ozempic, but this flawed account is not it

Bald by Stuart Heritage review – hair today, gone tomorrow

An unexpected twist on the grief memoir sees the Guardian writer chart the five stages of male-pattern baldness

Everything Must Go by Dorian Lynskey review – apocalypse now

A history of our obsession with the end of days – and the culture it has inspired

I was the poster girl for OCD. Then I began to question everything I’d been told about mental illness

When I sought help for crippling invasive thoughts, I was told I had a disease like any other. But I wasn’t able to recover until I understood the fallacy at the heart of mental healthcare