Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy
by Dr. David D. Burns
Summary
Millions of copies sold and still recommended by therapists today, Feeling Good is the original, foundational book that brought cognitive therapy for depression to a general audience. If you want to understand exactly how your thoughts generate your mood — and get a genuinely practical toolkit for changing that — this is the classic starting point.
Who it's for
Anyone experiencing depression or persistent low mood who wants a clear, structured, and thoroughly evidence-based introduction to cognitive therapy.
Key takeaways
- A full breakdown of the ten cognitive distortions that most commonly drive depressed mood
- Written cognitive-restructuring exercises that have been validated in clinical studies
- Why self-esteem built on achievement is fragile, and how to build a more stable sense of self-worth
David Burns’s Feeling Good is widely credited with bringing cognitive behavioral therapy out of clinical offices and into ordinary readers’ hands, and decades later it remains one of the most recommended self-help books for depression in existence — including in randomized controlled trials that used it as a standalone intervention.
Its enduring appeal comes from how concrete it is: rather than general encouragement, it teaches you to identify specific distorted thoughts in your own words and walks you through exactly how to examine and reframe them.
Available on Amazon
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