Happiness is… being sad
From Adam Ant to Nick Hornby, everyone seems to be opening up about depression. But is the therapy culture actually making us ill?
Twist in the Tao
It starts with an attempted suicide on the road to Aberdeen and reaches its grand climax on the island of Gomera... Barefoot Doctor's latest book is less a self-help tome than a journey of self-discovery. Here, he reveals how he came to write Twisted Fables for Twisted Minds and why it will either 'heal you or make you go insane'.
Ten years of therapy in one night
Could a single trip on a piece of African rootbark help a junkie kick the habit? That was the claim in the 1960s, and now iboga is back in the spotlight. But is it a miracle cure? Daniel Pinchbeck decided to give it a go. And life, he says, will never be the same again...
Snatch squad
Joanna Briscoe on The Story of V, a comprehensive investigation into the history, culture and power of female genitalia by Catherine Blackledge
Can a guru heal himself?
When M Scott Peck wrote The Road Less Travelled 25 years ago, he brought the self-help book into our lives and taught us that all our problems were solvable. The book has been a bestseller ever since - but how has Peck's own life matched up? Edward Marriott finds him on a winding road.
How I tamed the Toxic Bachelor
Dee O'Connell finds out how New York's biggest cad met his match - and his mate
His ‘n’ hers
David Adam on men, women and the 'extreme male brain' in Simon Baron-Cohen's The Essential Difference
When your child won’t stop screaming …
Do you: a) smack him; b) ignore him; c) seek government advice; d) consult a parenting book: More and more parents are trusting parenting gurus? Amelia Hill reports.
A history of unsatisfactory diagnoses
Nicholas Lezard finds Roy Porter's Madness a fascinating and useful assessment of the causes and treatment of mental illness
What the doctor ordered
Is it really possible to pig out on bacon and fried eggs and still look like Catherine Zeta-Jones? William Leith meets Robert Atkins, the world's most successful diet doctor.