Psychology Books

[DannyT]

Hey guys,

I'm looking for some great books on psychology.
I went to Borders today to check out some books and found some books by Sigmund Freud to be interesting.

The reason I want to learn more about psychology is that I want to get better at mentalism.
What books would you suggest other than 10 steps to mentalism?, because I want to learn a lot more than a few tricks in a book and call myself a mentalist.

Any help will be appreciated, thanks.

 

[jhr]

jhr

i always heard that 'phycological subtleties' series by banacheck was good.i wouldnt know myself because i dont have any of them(but i will sooner or later).

 

[D ICE R]

Defiantly look into Banachek's work. As far as text books go I cannot really recommend them for the mentalist directly. They are good for an understanding of how the brain works but they were not written for people who want to use it to deceive people. You will find a few gems in them but not a huge percentage of it will be what you are looking for. But you said you found them interesting and the more you read of them the more that you can either use those gems that are found in them or give a very good false explanation too your audience.

 

[winterline]

I'm no expert in mentalism but my favorites so far are Kenton Knepper and Luke Jermay. I would highly recommend both of them but I think Kenton Knepper has more available material then Luke Jermay.

 

[Wallmott]

If you want to become a great mentalist you should get ALL of Banacheks work, All his books aswell as his dvds. Get them and then study them it takes allot of studying, because this stuff does not work all the time.

 

[Chr!s]

In terms of psychology, books on cognitive psych, interpersonal and behavioural psychology will improve your understanding of mentalism and your ability to connect through your magic in general. I don't do LOADS of mentalism, but I studied these areas of psychology to better enable my magic performance as a whole. As an aside, I also studied performance and theatrical breathing techniques, but thats another story for another thread.


In terms of what will round out your ability specifically as a mentalist, all of Banacheks work is great, Alain Nu has some wonderful stuff, Kenton Knepper and Luke Jermay, but also look at David Hoy, Rick Maue, And Sean Fields has some wonderfully visual mentalism. Benjamin Earl deals in very commercial card based mentalism.
Looch has a great looking book out at the minute, 'Simple and Direct mentalism', and the Phantini stuff is AMAZING.


CL