The 33 Greatest Works of Psychology
▽ Introduction
△ Introduction
Psychology is a relatively young field of study, the great publications in the field having appeared only in the past century and a half.
It is also a quickly changing and, advocates would say, quickly advancing field of study. Many of psychology's landmark studies, hailed in their time, have since been downgraded and superseded by more recent works.
This list strives to cover major works of psychology—both popular and professional—covering all times, places and cultures.
The selection is based on the continuing research carried out for The Greatest Literature of All Time and The Greatest Works of Nonfiction, with further research into works of psychology acclaimed by the world's readers, writers, critics and scholars.
Latest update: September 27, 2026
1886
Sexual Psychopathy
by Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Germany
Nonfiction, subtitled A Clinical-Forensic Study, originally Psychopathia Sexualis: eine Klinisch-Forensische Studie
1890
The Principles of Psychology
by William James, England
Nonfiction
1899
The Interpretation of Dreams
by Sigmund Freud, Austria
Nonfiction
1901
The Psychopathology of Everyday Life
by Sigmund Freud, Austria
Nonfiction
1919
Psychology from the Standpoint of a Behaviorist
by John B. Watson, United States
Nonfiction
1927
Understanding Human Nature
by Alfred Adler, Austria
Nonfiction
The Psychology of Intelligence
by Jean Piaget, Switzerland
Nonfiction, originally La psychologie de l'intelligence
1928
Judgment and Reasoning in the Child
by Jean Piaget, Switzerland
Nonfiction
1930
Civilization and Its Discontents
by Sigmund Freud, Austria
Nonfiction, originally Das Unbehagen in der Kultur
1933
Character Analysis
by Wilhelm Reich, Austria
Nonfiction
1937
The Neurotic Personality of Our Time
by Karen Hornsey, Germany
Nonfiction
1946
Man's Search for Meaning
by Victor Frankl, Austria
Nonfiction, originally Ein Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager
1954
Motivation and Personality
by Abraham Maslow, United States
Nonfiction
1964
Man and His Symbols
by Carl Jung, Switzerland
Nonfiction
When Prophecy Fails
by Leon Festinger, United States
Nonfiction, subtitled A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group That Predicted the Destruction of the World
1967
Cognitive Psychology
by Ulric Neisser, United States
Nonfiction
1969
On Death and Dying
by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Switzerland
Nonfiction
1971
Beyond Freedom and dignity
by B.F. Skinner, United States
Nonfiction
1976
Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders
by Aaron Beck, United States
Nonfiction
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind
by Julian Jaynes, United States
Nonfiction
1983
Mental Models
by Philip Johnson-Laird, England
Nonfiction, subtitled Toward a Cognitive Science of Language, Inference and Consciousness
1985
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales
by Oliver Sacks, England
Nonfiction
1986
Social Foundations of Thought and Action
by Albert Bandura, United States
Nonfiction, subtitled A Social Cognitive Theory
1994
The Myth of Repressed Memory
by Elizabeth Loftus and Katherine Ketcham, United States
Nonfiction
The Language Instinct
by Steven Pinker, United States
Nonfiction
1996
Thinking in Pictures
by Temple Grandin, United States
Nonfiction, subtitled Other Reports from My Life with Autism
2000
The Tipping Point
by Malcolm Gladwell, Canada
Nonfiction, subtitled How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
2004
Strangers to Ourselves
by Timothy Wilson, United States
Nonfiction
2007
Making Up the Mind
by Chris Frith, England
Nonfiction, subtitled How the Brain Creates Our Mental World
2008
Outliers
by Malcolm Gladwell, Canada
Nonfiction, subtitled The Story of Success
2010
Self Comes to Mind
by Antonio Damasio, Portugal
Nonfiction, subtitled Constructing the Conscious Brain
2011
Thinking, Fast and Slow
by Daniel Kahneman, Israel
Nonfiction
2012
The Power of Habit
by Charles M. Duhigg, United States
Nonfiction
