Twelve years after the first edition, Gillian Butler and Tony Hope have published the second edition of their book Manage Your Mind, aimed at allowing the reader to discover practical ways to “improve many aspects of (one's) life” (p. 3). The authors' intention is to provide lay people with a step-by-step guide to enhance their psychological fitness and, in the introduction, Butler and Hope actually compare their book to a cookbook giving precise recipes to show the reader what do at each stage on their journey towards increased psychological well-being.

The authors set themselves the big challenge to familiarize their audience not only with skills to start tackling psychological difficulties such as panic attacks, phobias, depression and anger, but also to be more effective in their working life e.g. by learning how to improve memory and enhance problem-solving skills and time-management.

The book is divided into seven parts. Following two very short introductory chapters on how to use the book and some comments on the background of behavioural and cognitive therapies, from which many of the techniques are derived, Part 1 focuses on “Valuing Yourself” and “Recognizing That You Can Change”, which the authors see as the core principles for mental fitness. Part 2 tries to teach “Seven Basic Skills”, ranging from problem-solving, relaxation training, to keeping things in perspective and building self-confidence. Part 3 addresses relationships in the wider sense, including anger in relationships and sexuality. Part 4 is titled “The Twin Enemies of Good Mood” and features chapters on anxiety, panic, phobias, stress and low mood. Traumatic events such as loss and bereavement as well as past and recent traumatic events are covered in Part 5. Part 6 is called “Mind and Body” but does not – as the name might suggest – address issues around health anxiety and “non-organic physical symptoms” but focuses on addictions, including problematic drinking, sleep problems, as well as habits in general and eating habits in particular. “The Working Mind” constitutes the last part and gives guidance on how to study more effectively, improve memory, make decisions and to avoid thinking errors. The remaining pages list about 70 suggestions for further reading and 12 websites related to the topics featured in the book.

The layout of the book is similar to a modern school book with a reader-friendly font, bullet points and summaries at the end of each chapter. The authors have also included quite a few examples from “real life” that are helpful in normalizing experiences the reader may struggle with and clarifying explanations in the book.

By the very nature of the book – trying to cover a wide range of topics – it is different from most self-help books on the market that offer ways to cope with and overcome one particular psychological symptom or disorder such as depression or panic attacks. Moreover, in covering so many topics it is only natural that one of the main difficulties for any author is to decide how much space to allocate to each topic. Butler and Hope mostly get it about right, although anxiety problems appear a bit short-changed compared with, for example, “Improving Your Memory”. Half a page is dedicated to a very basic list of a variety of sexual activities such as flirting, kissing, hugging etc. and the same list also reveals to the reader that “sexual attraction and interest can be shown walking, sitting, dancing, or eating”. Obsessive-compulsive behaviour, however, only gets a few lines within the chapter on habits.

Overall, the book provides some helpful guidance on increasing psychological fitness and on which initial steps to take to address common psychological difficulties. In some ways it feels as if the group potentially benefiting most from the book may be adolescents interested in gaining insight in how they can cope with everyday mental demands. Staying with the authors' analogy of a cookbook providing step-by-step recipes, this book is more for people who have little experience in cooking and want to have some basic introduction on how to prepare food. It is not a book for someone who wants or has to prepare a complicated meal for special occasions.