This is an unofficial reading list for listeners, intended to provide background information about the work listeners do at 7 Cups.
The list is curated by @RarelyCharlie and presented in order of publication date within each section. For more information, see A reading list for listeners.
Listening and related techniques
Listening in the wider context of techniques that help people.
Dale Carnegie (1936) How to Win Friends and Influence People
Classic advice on getting along with people, valuable for listening to members and also for participating in the 7 Cups community. Based on a large collection of illustrative stories. Some of the language and culture is of its time, but human nature hasn’t changed. Many later editions, including one “for the digital age”.
Carl R. Rogers (1942) Counseling and Psychotherapy: Newer Concepts in Practice
A very early book about what we now call active listening, explaining where the idea of active listening originally came from, how it helps people, and how to do it. Full of real examples transcribed from recorded sessions. Part IV is a complete transcript of eight hour-long conselling sessions, with comments by the author.
If you’re a listener, or thinking of becoming a listener, and if you only read one book from this list, I recommend that this should be the one (Parts I to III, anyway).
Michael P. Nichols (2009) The Lost Art of Listening: How Learning to Listen Can Improve Relationships
A detailed guide to listening, with many examples. The focus is on real life relationships and family therapy, but many of the listening techniques can be used by listeners at 7 Cups. The focus on relationships is also useful for listeners, because so many members come to 7 Cups with relationship issues.
Susan Cain (2012) Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking
An antidote to How to Win Friends and Influence People that explores the many ways in which people can be happy and successful without buying in to groupthink and the currently fashionable extrovert ideal.
Mental illness and society
Mental illness in relation to culture and society.
Robert Whitaker (2010) Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America
A journalist investigates the reasons for the recent huge increase in mental illness in America.
Allen Frances (2014) Saving Normal: An Insider’s Revolt against Out-of-Control Psychiatric Diagnosis, DSM-5, Big Pharma, and the Medicalization of Ordinary Life
An influential psychiatrist warns us how diagnostic inflation is leading society towards thinking that everyone is mentally ill and no one is normal.
Johann Hari (2018) Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression and the Unexpected Solutions
A journalist and storyteller explores some of the causes of depression, anxiety and addiction. The unexpected solutions include what 7 Cups was created to do.
7 Cups and related ideas
7 Cups’ background story and other related ideas.
Chad Varah (1987) The Samaritans: Befriending the suicidal
The story of the anonymous volunteer listening service in the UK (now with spinoffs worldwide) that has been preventing suicides since it began in London in 1953.
Paul Graham (2004) Hackers and Painters
An insider view of the Silicon Valley culture where 7 Cups grew up. A collection of loosely related essays. Some tech jargon (which you can mostly skim over). Some very techie chapters that you could skim over, but it’s worthwhile reading enough to get a flavour of the culture, which explains a lot about 7 Cups.
Martin E.P. Seligman (2012) Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being
A theoretical exploration and a practical guide to how happiness, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment combine to make life fulfilling.
Simon & Schuster • Google Books
Glen Moriarty (2016) 7 Cups for the Searching Soul
A somewhat confused explanation of the reasons for 7 Cups’ existence, by its founder. Examines the role of denial and distraction in preventing people from realising their true potential, and how love and care are the antidote.
Charles Duhigg (2016) Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business
A collection of well-researched and revealing personal stories about what works in life and in organizations. Of interest to those listeners who like to give advice, and who want to ensure that their advice is actually good advice. Also of interest to listeners who take leadership roles at 7 Cups, and who want know how to to be effective.
Yuval Levin (2016) The Fractured Republic: Renewing America’s Social Contract in the Age of Individualism
A scholarly attempt to understand politics, economics and culture in America in their historical context, and to construct a realistic vision for the future (as envisaged in 2016). Strongly critical of current thinking both on the political left (socialist, Democrat) and on the political right (conservative, Republican), although written from a conservative viewpoint overall.
Relevant because the model of society that 7 Cups has tried to implement, with somewhat mixed results, can be seen as reflecting current American socialist thinking about society as a whole. This book goes some way towards explaining how that model arose, why it fails, and how it might be fixed.
Antonio García Martínez (2018) Chaos Monkeys
Another insider view of the Silicon Valley culture where 7 Cups grew up, this time by an ex-Wall Street startup founder who became a Facebook product manager when his tiny startup was bought by Twitter. Told as a fast-paced and unpredictable adventure story, but if you pause occasionally to reflect, you can find telling parallels with 7 Cups throughout.
Antonio García Martínez • Google Books
Individual stories
Biography and fiction describing mental illness.
Fyodor Dostoevsky (1866) Crime and Punishment
Classic tale of madness with terrible consequences, and of recovery through love.
Virginia Axline (1964) Dibs in Search of Self
Heartwarming account of real life play therapy with a gifted but emotionally damaged five-year-old, which actually illustrates almost perfect active listening by the therapist. Accurate dialog from tape recordings of the therapy sessions.
Random House • Open Library • Google Books
Robert M. Pirsig (1974) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values
Weird but very engaging exploration of, amongst other things, the relationship between humanity and technology (which, in a way, is what 7 Cups is about) and the relationship between sanity and madness.
Kay Redfield Jamison (1997) An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness
First-hand account of living with bipolar disorder, by a renowned clinical psychologist, now a professor of psychiatry.
Penguin Random House • Google Books
Psychotherapy
The techniques of psychotherapy, which are mostly based on active listening but go much further. For interest only, especially for listeners considering future training to become therapists. Not intended to encourage listeners to play at being amateur therapists while they are volunteers at 7 Cups!
Josef Breuer and Sigmund Freud (1895) Studies on Hysteria
Only for historical interest. This book is thought to be the first to describe listening as a treatment for mental illness. In the first of the cases studies in this book, Fräulein Anna O., the patient demanded to talk while Herr Dr. Breuer only listened to her. Thus, “the talking cure” is said to have been invented by this patient, whose real name was Bertha Pappenheim. According to some reports she recovered and became well known as a social pioneer, but aspects of the story have been disputed.
SigmundFreud.net (free PDF) • Google Books
Carl R. Rogers (1961) On Becoming a Person: A Therapist’s View of Psychotherapy
Sets out the basis of client-centered therapy, which builds on active listening and extends it. Some of the philosophy and techniques described could optionally be used by any listeners at 7 Cups who want to go beyind the basics, especially in long term relationships with members, but without attempting amateur therapy.
Irvin D. Yalom (2009) The Gift of Therapy: An Open Letter to a New Generation of Therapists and their Patients
A fascinating insight into the mind of a very experienced therapist. It shows how psychotherapy (mostly long-term existential therapy and group therapy) builds on the very basic techniques of active listening. 85 short chapters, with little jargon and many anecdotes and quotes.
Paul Moloney (2013) The Therapy Industry: The Irresistible Rise of the Talking Cure and Why It Doesn’t Work
Well researched and detailed critique of all forms of psychotherapy by an experienced practising psychologist.
Danny Wedding and Raymond J. Corsini (2014) Case Studies in Psychotherapy
A collection of case studies illustrating different approaches to psychotherapy, with transcripts of actual therapy sessions. The therapists are all experts in their respective approaches, and they explain their thinking as they work with each client.
Unfortunately the CBT case study is not at all like typical CBT (as its author acknowledges).