Even as the pop­u­lar­i­ty of videogames has sky­rock­et­ed, a dark cloud con­tin­ues to hang over them. Many peo­ple who play games feel embar­rassed to admit as much, and many who don’t wor­ry about the long-term effects of a medi­um often por­trayed as dan­ger­ous and cor­rup­tive. Draw­ing on years of expe­ri­ence work­ing direct­ly with peo­ple who play games, clin­i­cal psy­chol­o­gist Alexan­der Kriss steers the dis­course away from extreme and fac­tu­al­ly inac­cu­rate claims around the role of games in addic­tion, vio­lence, and men­tal ill­ness, instead focus­ing on the impor­tance of under­stand­ing the unique rela­tion­ship that forms between a game and its play­er. Through vivid psy­chother­a­py case illus­tra­tions, auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal mem­oir, and a wide range of psy­cho­log­i­cal the­o­ry and research, The Gam­ing Mind lays out an hon­est and human­is­tic vision of games, their poten­tials and risks, and how they can teach us more about who we are and who we could be.