Book Recommendation for Writers

I want to give a shoutout to a great book called The Writer's Guide to Psychology: How to Write Accurately about Psychological Disorders, Clinical Treatment and Human Behavior by Carolyn Kaufman. I don’t have any characters in mind who suffer from mental illness, at least at the moment. I just picked this one up just for general breadth and I’m glad I did.

This book is a tool to help fiction writers accurately depict all things from the world of mental disorder. It’s a high-level overview, so it’s easy to read even if you have no medical background. Here is just some of the ground it covers:

• The difference between psychiatrist and psychotherapist.

• Various mental disorders and which ones can occur at the same time (and which ones can never occur at the same time).

• There’s a chapter on prescription drugs, when they’re used, and how they interact.

• Where does mental illness come into play when writing a good villain?

More than just helping me as a writer, this book gave me some unexpected insights into issues in my personal life. It also gave me added sympathy for people who struggle with mental illness in the real world. Whenever I do happen to write a character struggling with some mental disorder, I now have a fantastic resource. Read this book before you need it.