Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert review – lessons in life from the Eat, Pray, Love author

With sufficient Courage and Enchantment, everyone can unleash their inner ice skater

The Book of Human Emotions by Tiffany Watt Smith review – a thought-provoking tour around our feelings

This compendium of emotions from around the world makes you feel we need more words for our feelings, not fewer

Profit, not patients: the risks of private medicine

Ultimately, private providers have their shareholders’ interests at heart, not their patients’. A GP and celebrated writer shares his experiences of how the healthcare system works

Oliver Sacks obituary

Neurologist and writer best known for his books The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Awakenings

My first labour was harrowing. Hypnobirthing made my second like a dream

First-time mothers can be terrified because they’re rushed through labour, but I overcame my fears with the help of this meditative practice

Neurotribes review – the evolution of our understanding of autism

A life-affirming study shows how much attitudes have changed to the condition once known as ‘childhood psychosis’

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

Naked at Lunch review – the funny thing about nudism

Mark Haskell Smith’s undercover view of nudism is both thoughtful and hilarious

Worrying: A Literary and Cultural History review – ennui and its origins

Francis O’Gorman’s study of why we worry covers everything from medieval monastic life to modern cultural theory without really providing any answers

Belle Gibson: wellness blogger’s mum says cancer story was just a ‘white lie’

Natalie Dal-Bello says people are allowed to ‘tell little porky pies’ as she attempts a reconciliation with her daughter and grandson