Daniel Smith (born October 7, 1977) is an American psychotherapist, author, and journalist. He has written articles, essays, and stories for The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, n+1, the London Review of Books, Harper's Magazine, New York, and others.

Early years Smith was born and raised in Plainview, New York.Marion Winik, "'Monkey Mind' is a perfect 10," Newsday, July 6, 2012. He attended Brandeis University, where he studied English and Russian literature.Theresa Gaffney, "Anxiety expert Daniel Smith '99 lectures on 'Monkey Mind'," The Brandeis Hoot, March 21, 2013."Profiles: Daniel B. Smith," College of New Rochelle. Accessed June 24, 2014. He wrote a humor column for the school's paper, The Justice, and was a member of its improv comedy troupe. He graduated in 1999.Margarita Tartakovsky, "Monkey Mind: A Memoir of Anxiety," Psych Central, July 2012.

Career Smith worked as a staff editor for The Atlantic, and published his first major article there in 2001. The article, "Shock and Disbelief," was about electroshock therapy, and would become the center of a libel suit against Smith and the magazine.Ben Greenman, "Panic Buttons," The New York Times, September 7, 2012. It later appeared in the 2002 collection The Best American Science and Nature Writing.Natalie Angier, editor, The Best American Science and Nature Writing, New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2002, pp. 234-54 Smith helped to edit the 2007 anthology The American Idea: The Best of The Atlantic Monthly.Robert Vare, editor, The American Idea: The Best of The Atlantic Monthly, New York: Doubleday, 2007, p. 645.

His first book, 2007's Muses, Madmen and Prophets: Hearing Voices and the Borders of Sanity, explores the history and science of hearing voices.Rachel Signer, "'You're Writing a Fucking Memoir': Daniel Smith on his New Book 'Monkey Mind: A Memoir of Anxiety'," Construction, September 19, 2012. His 2012 memoir Monkey Mind recounts the circumstances that led to his lifelong, occasionally crippling struggles with anxiety and its related symptoms. While primarily experiential, it also touches on the history of anxiety in literature, science and philosophy. Smith was praised for the book's sympathetic, humorous and entertaining tone.Alec Solomita, "The Wound-Up Nerd Chronicle," The Wall Street Journal, July 13, 2012. Monkey Mind was a New York Times bestseller,Best Sellers: Hardcover Nonfiction, The New York Times, August 12, 2012. and was included on Oprah Winfrey's 2013 list of 40 Books to Read Before Turning 40.Sara Nelson, "40 Books to Read Before Turning 40: Monkey Mind," Oprah.com, July 30, 2013.

Smith's third book, Hard Feelings: Finding the Wisdom in Our Darkest Emotions, is scheduled to be published in March 2026. It explores the so-called negative emotions as "not enemies to be vanquished but essential guides to self-knowledge."https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Hard-Feelings/Daniel-Smith/9781982103903

Until 2019, Smith held the Mary Ellen Donnelly Critchlow Endowed Chair in English at the College of New Rochelle, and he has also taught at Bryn Mawr College and in the graduate journalism program at New York University. From 2011 to 2012, he co-hosted the first six episodes of n+1 magazine's The n+1 Podcast.Archive: Daniel Smith, n+1. Accessed June 24, 2014. He was a guest on The Colbert Report in 2007;The Colbert Report, Comedy Central, season 3, episode 80, June 14, 2007. on NPR's Talk of the Nation in 2012;John Donvan, host, "'Monkey Mind': When Debilitating Anxiety Takes Over," Talk of the Nation, NPR, July 5, 2012. and on WTF with Marc Maron in 2012."Episode 333 – Daniel Smith," WTF with Marc Maron, November 8, 2012.

Personal life Smith lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and children.

Books

Hard Feelings: Finding the Wisdom in Our Darkest Emotions (2026, Simon & Schuster) Monkey Mind: A Memoir of Anxiety (2012, Simon & Schuster)

Associate editor, The American Idea: The Best of The Atlantic Monthly (2007, Doubleday)

References