Drawing on experience

Mark Drinkwater on Living with a Black Dog, a picture book which offers practical and humorous tips on living with depression

Mad, Bad and Sad

Review: A History of Women and The Mind Doctors from 1800 to the Present by Lisa Appignanesi

On a mission to see the bright side

Review: The Optimist by Laurence ShorterA one-gag stand-up routine that places the rewards of a quick fix above the pleasures of deeper self-discovery, says Simon Garfield

Mad, Bad and Sad

Review: Mad, Bad and Sad by Lisa AppignanesiThis ambitious study exhilaratingly covers two centuries of developments, finds John Dugdale

Bigfoot was here

Jad Adams enjoys three studies of the persistence of belief in the paranormal

Fear of the unknown

Review: Paranoia: The 21st-Century Fear by Daniel Freeman & Jason FreemanParanoia, the authors intone, 'permeates our society, more than we've ever suspected,' writes Steven Poole

Try to Remember

Review: Try to Remember by Paul R McHugh A riveting analysis of the American 'recovered memory' wars of the 1980s and 1990s