A small library of psychology (and a bit of fiction) for friends. Best read on a phone as EPUB. Take what helps, ignore what doesn’t.
Non-fiction
The Colander Principle
This is the opening chapter of a book currently being written. It introduces the central idea: new technology has eroded privacy whether you consent or not, and being a boomer accelerates that in ways most people only notice after something important has slipped through.
Best read if… you’ve sensed that privacy ain’t what it used to be, but you haven’t yet found language for it.
The collapse of knowledge
We have more information than ever and less confidence in what to trust. A book for people who feel intelligent but increasingly unsure, and want a way to think clearly without borrowing certainty from louder voices.
Best read if… you’re tired of hot takes, want your mind back, and would like a calmer relationship with what counts as “true”.
It’s the circumstances
Sometimes the problem isn’t resilience, insight, or childhood, it’s the situation you’re trying to survive. A grounded, slightly heretical take on depression that treats context as real and causal, not a footnote.
Best read if… you suspect you’re reacting normally to an abnormal set of demands, and you’re done being blamed for it.
Misdiagnosed: When psychiatry mistakes neurodivergence for mental illness
Definitely not a putdown of the vast majority of psychiatrists, who are doing the best they can, but they are using candlelight tools in a neon world.
Best read if… your psychiatrist is frustrated that you are not responding to treatment in the way the DSM expects you to.
The Augmented Psychologist
Technology doesn’t replace the human parts of psychology, it pressurises them. For clinicians and thoughtful clients who want to work with AI without outsourcing judgment, ethics, or responsibility.
Best read if… you’re curious about AI, but you’d like to stay human on purpose.
You’re not imagining it, it IS this weird
If modern life feels subtly hostile to your nervous system, you’re not alone, and you’re not weak. A grounded companion for people tired of being told to optimise themselves out of exhaustion.
Best read if… you feel like a “functional adult” on paper but privately exhausted by the whole arrangement.
Embracing neurodiversity
For people who have spent years adapting, masking, and self-correcting without knowing why it costs so much. Relief from deficit thinking, without turning your personality into pathology.
Best read if… you’re tired of being treated like a problem to be fixed, and want a kinder, sharper framework.
Understanding AuDHD
Autism and ADHD together can look like contradiction: too much and not enough, all at once. A clear map for adults who were missed, misread, or told for decades to try harder.
Best read if… you relate to both autism and ADHD explanations, but neither has ever felt like the whole story.
Living with Bipolar II
Bipolar II is often mistaken for temperament, personality, or poor self-control. Clear, steady guidance for recognising patterns early and building stability without flattening your inner life.
Best read if… your mood shifts are disruptive, but subtle enough that people dismiss them, including you.
How to build successful relationships
Relationships don’t collapse because people don’t care, they collapse under unspoken pressure. Practical psychology for real relationships, especially when stress, culture, and fatigue are already in the room.
Best read if… you want closeness that survives real life, not just holidays and good intentions.
The Expat Psychologist novels
These novels follow the mental unravelling of a sixty-something Australian expat psychologist living in Đà Lạt. They trace what happens when professional insight meets nervous system collapse, memory fracture, and the slow erosion of certainty. Any resemblance to lived experience is, of course, entirely coincidental. A third book, Return, is planned for the very near future.
Memory
After collapse, memory stops behaving politely. It loops, intrudes, vanishes at the wrong time, and returns without permission. A psychological novel about what survives after rupture, and how the past keeps rewriting the present.
Best read if… you’re drawn to stories where the real antagonist is the mind trying to protect itself.
Fracture
Fracture is what happens before anyone admits something is broken. A psychological novel about slow collapse, professional identity, and the moment insight proves powerless against a body that has reached its limit.
Best read if… you prefer your breakdowns gradual, believable, and quietly terrifying.
Paperbacks
If you want paperback copies of any of these books, you can find me on Amazon.
I am tracking down a POD (Print On Demand) supplier here in VN so you don’t have hassles with VN Customs.
Translation apps have reportedly dramatically improved recently, but judging by Google Translate on my phone, Vietnamese is still a big stretch. I’m going to ask Claude, Davo, and Gemini to have a crack at a chapter from one of the books and Huong will see how they deal with long-form writing.