Mind matters: A mental health reading list
Editor’s note: Journalist and author Chintan Girish Modi offers an excellent list of books on mental health. We have everything from memoirs to emotional toolkits and cultural history. And we’ve topped it up with some personal picks from the splainer team.
Written by: Chintan Girish Modi is a writer, journalist, educator, book reviewer and cultural commentator. He writes for Hindustan Times, Business Standard, Art India, The Hindu, Frontline, Queerbeat, Himal, and Teacher Plus, among other publications. His prose and poetry have appeared in books like ‘101 Indian Children's Books We Love’, ‘Bent Book: A Queerish Anthology’, ‘Fearless Love’, ‘Clear Hold Build, and Borderlines’. You can follow him on Instagram and X.
Anxiety: Overcome It and Live Without Fear by Sonali Gupta: Did you know that anxiety is a mental health crisis that has gripped millions of Indians? The author–who is a psychotherapist—offers an emotional toolkit that helps readers identify anxiety, investigate irrational beliefs, tackle the fear of missing out, befriend the inner critic, and access support. While this book is not a substitute for therapy, the author’s friendly tone and practical suggestions make it a must-read. It will bring hope to people who feel helpless—and show them how to take charge of their lives.
Asylum: The Battle for Mental Healthcare in India by Daman Singh: This book tells the intriguing story of how the lunatic asylum as an institution was established in 18th century India. Until then, people who were considered mentally ill were treated by tantriks, pirs, fakirs, hakims, and vaids. In their earliest iteration, asylums were designed as places of captivity rather than recovery. Singh looks at the changing ideas of mental illness that led to reforms over the span of a century.
Life Interrupted: Understanding India's Suicide Crisis by Amrita Tripathi, Abhijit Nadkarni and Soumitra Pathare: India accounts for nearly a third of the world suicides but does not have a national suicide prevention policy. This volume is co-authored by a former news anchor—Amrita Tripathi—who runs a mental health awareness website, and two psychiatrists—Abhijit Nadkarni and Soumitra Pathare. They examine death by suicide through interviews and case studies.
The book draws its power from their personal connection to the subject, whether it is through suicide attempts in their family, one of their colleagues dying by suicide, or their own experience with suicidal ideation during a particularly bleak phase in their own life. However, the overall tone of the book is not mournful. It is a plea for change. It also includes contact information of helplines.
That Beautiful Elsewhere: Journeys in Mental Health by Scherezade Siobhan: This is a poignant memoir by a psychologist who writes about her own experience with clinical depression and post traumatic stress disorder–alongside insights from her work. Blending stories with scientific references, she demystifies therapy and talks openly about power differentials between the therapist and client. Siobhan also writes thoughtfully about issues like intimate-partner violence, colonisation, intergenerational trauma, and confidentiality. Her analysis of how mental health is influenced by class, caste, gender, religion, ethnicity, and other identities, is particularly worth reading.
No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering by Thich Nhat Hanh: With remarkable compassion, this book deconstructs how we long to be free of suffering but act in ways that keep us unhappy. The title points to the idea that, just as the lotus cannot grow without mud, human beings cannot grow without experiencing sorrow.
According to the author–who is a poet, peace activist and Zen practitioner—-happiness requires dedicated practice involving body and mind. He offers breathing exercises, meditations, relaxation techniques, and mindfulness training geared towards building inner resources in individuals.
Feasting, Healing: Reclaiming Your Life through Cooking edited by Jhilmil Breckenridge: Mental health discourse is often dominated by experts. It can be couched in language that intimidates people who want to talk about their lived experiences and what healing means to them—outside of biomedical models and diagnostic labels. This book offers personal essays by people who find joy, nourishment and strength in cooking. The process of creating with their own hands, feeding themselves and their loved ones has helped them navigate anxiety, grief, trauma and more. The contributors include artists, bakers, homemakers, journalists, and researchers.
Splainer team recommends…
I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Sehee: The book has built a cult following in South Korea since it was first published in 2019. Sehee’s treatment creates an insightful and funny self-help manual made up of select transcripts from her therapy sessions. Prachi says Sehee helps demystify cognitive therapy for readers—and even offers catharsis to her readers.
The Tools by Phil Stutz and Barry Michels: Originally published in 2012, Aakriti recommends this book co-written by the legendary therapist— because it is simple and powerfully effective. The reader may not always be able to use the five Tools described in the book, but they offer a healthy reminder to look within for an often overlooked trove of inner resources. Bonus recommendation to supplement the read: the Jonah Hill documentary ‘Stutz’ on Netflix, which looks at the inner life of Stutz,--through the lens of one of his clients–even as he takes viewers through visual representations of the Tools.
Love And Rage: The Inner Worlds Of Children by Nupur Paiva Dhingra: There are very few mental health books on Indian children—for Indian parents. They struggle to extrapolate insights from works embedded in very different cultures. Lakshmi found Paiva’s book hugely useful when she was struggling to understand her teenager. It offers compassion, insight—and above all empathy… for the child not the parent. She helps you understand your child just a little bit better—which is priceless for any parent.
