Your Normal Mind: Evolution’s Hidden Logic of Suffering … And What to Do About It

What if your mind isn’t broken - just misunderstood?In Your Normal Mind, psychologist John Hannan flips the script on mental health.Instead of treating anxiety, low mood, and overthinking as “disorders,” he shows how they’re normal functions of an ancient survival system still running on Stone Age code.The result is a mind that overreacts, panics in safe situations, obsesses over status, and feels lonely even when connected - all perfectly logical once you understand evolution’s hidden rules. Drawing on decades of clinical work in Defence, remote communities, and trauma recovery, Hannan translates complex science into straightforward, actionable strategies.Using clear models -from the “smoke alarm brain” to the “elephant and rider” - he teaches how to:Decode why fear, anger, and shame overpower logicRetrain oversensitive systems through controlled exposure and feedbackUse evolutionary insights to manage emotions and rebuild belonging and purposeEach chapter moves from theory to field-t